The links you will find below are Affiliate and Referral links to some of the products that I love and recommend. When you purchase something after clicking on these links I get a commission. Due to this, please refer to my disclosure policy to find out more. I am an Amazon Services LLC Associate and as such I make commissions through advertising links on Amazon.
This is a fun activity to look at colour recognition, exploration of nature and fine motor skills. Children will explore sensory tweezers to pick up nature items and place them into an egg carton that has been painted to classify pieces using the colour attribute.
Supplies:
Carton egg empty
paint (various colours)
Paintbrush
Sense tweezers or tongs
Natural subject matter (flowers, leaves, grass, pinecones, etc)
Playing:
Paint the Egg Carton: The centre of each piece of the egg carton should be painted using a different colour of choice and then it is left to dry.
Nature Hunt: Ask children to go out into the backyard, on a hike, to the park or garden to find mini-sized nature items to match the colour on the inside of the egg carton.
Sensory Tweezers: Tweezers help the kids to pick up each nature item and place it into the right compartment that are of different colours.
After cracking the eggs into the egg carton, discuss the different textures, shapes and colors they discovered.
Benefits:
Fine Motor Skills – The pinching by using the tweezers trains the hand muscles and makes the patient have fine motor skills.
Colour Recognition- Colorado each colour identification and matching in an interactive method.
Sensory Exploration-it allows kids to touch, feel and explore the items of nature.
Outdoor Engagement- Furthers time outdoors and observation skills
Sorting and Categorisation, Classification – Develop classification and early math skills.
Adaptations to Parents, Therapists and Educators
For Parents:
Indoors Alternative: Just in case the weather is not too good, bring the nature indoors. Put dried leaves, petals of flowers or even colorued items of the household.
Extension Challenge Challenge Extension Tell your child to name two shades of the same color or tell them what the texture and scent of each item are.
Fine Motor Boost: Replacing tweezers with clothespins or chopsticks work the other motor muscles in the hands.
For Therapists:
Graded Assistance: This is when kids with weaker hands should first give bigger objects and slowly introduce a smaller ones in order to gain strength in their hands.
Bilateral Coordination: promote the use of one hand to steady the carton and use the other hand to take items.
Sensory Changes: When a child is fibrous towards the textures, then provide them with gloves or use a small scoop besides tweezers.
For Educators:
Group Play: Turn it into a team building exercise in which small groups collaborate to find and sort items.
English Language Development: Use open-ended questions, such as, how does this leaf feel? or what other thing do you know of in nature this color?
Connection: Explain why leaves turn color, why flowers bloom only during particular seasons or why colors can be perceived differently with light.
The slight details will facilitate the activity to suit different leaning styles and levels of development.u
Nature Colour Hunt Fine Motor Action:
Lost egg carton
paint in varicoloured paints
Paintbrush
Tweezers or Rebecca tongs
Things of nature flowers, leaves, grass, pinecones, etc.
Cut and Paint the Egg Carton: Marks cut on the inside of the carton sections at the top of the carton (by your chosen design), this will allow the paint to be painted into the sections (the form should be sharp enough to go through the carton). With all five parts cut mark, paint the inside (with the different used colours) and dry.
Go on a Nature Hunt: Ask children to search outdoors (back yard/ park/ garden) to locate small objects of nature that they can match up to the eggs inside the egg carton by colors.
Sensory Tweezers: Place the children in sensory boats and have them place each object related to a nature object into one of the coloured boats.
Fill the egg carton, and discuss the differences in textures, shapes and colours that the children found.
Heather Great man, COTA
Heather Great man has a Postgraduate degree and is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant that worked in OT school referred preschool through high school. She employs her experience as a parent to provide tips, tools, and strategies to parents, teachers, and therapists about child development. She is the author of countless ebooks such as The Basics of Fine Motor Skills and Basics of Pre-Writing Skills as well as a co-author of Sensory Processing Explained: A Handbook for Parents and Educators.
Post navigation
Disclaimer: Heather Greuat man is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant.
All content on the Website is provided as general information only and should not be construed as medical advice from a doctor or your pediatrician. It is always advisable to seek strong medical help in case you have medical or developmental concerns with your child. The information on the Websites is not meant to render the relationship between therapist and client in a one on one treatment session with individualized treatment plan based on their professional evaluation. All the information on the Web- site is being provided on an as-is basis without any warranties, express or implied.
The information on the Website is not intended as a substitute to that issued by your medical professional or healthcare provider. You should never postpone seeking medical advice, ignore medical advice or abandon medical treatment because of something you have seen on the Website. All the medical data on the Website is informative.
Anything performed as indicated on the Website should be done under the guidance of adults. Make your judgment with your child and avoid set out objects that may cause choking among young children. In no case should a child should be left alone when doing these activities Please note and, where applicable, follow all age recommendations on the use of products in these activities. It is the responsibility of the individual recreating the activities on this blog to have the proper supervision required to ensure his or her safety and the safety of others.
Your Responsibility The Website is not meant as an information gathering and analysis tool. You realise and accept that you are in full charge of how you use the information available on the Website. Growing Hands-On Kids does not make any representations, warranties or guarantees. You understand that outcomes can be different in different individuals. Growing Hands-On Kids does not take any responsibility or duty over the errors or omissions displayed on the Website.