Fall is here, and so it Halloween. Halloween is such a fun time of the year. Kids are excited and when kids are excited, they are more open to exploring and trying out different activities. Below are some great ways to channel their excitement and energy into improving their motor skills with our Halloween activities.
9 Halloween Activities To Improve Motor Skills
Any activity that you do with your child will help them develop some form of skill. If your child’s motor skills need some work, you can use this time of the year to work on motor skills without them even knowing you are doing it.
Here are 9 Halloween Activities to Improve Motor Skills:
Rubber Bands on Pumpkin
This fun Halloween activity requires literally just two materials: rubber bands and small-sized pumpkins. Ask your child to wrap the rubber bands around the pumpkins. You might have to do a few of them with your child, but once they understand the concept of stretching and placing the bands on the pumpkin, it becomes easier on them. This activity specifically works on the finger muscles when they have to put effort into stretching the band before they put it on the pumpkin.
Wash The Pumpkin
Place a few dirty pumpkins in a tub of water and add in some bubble bath. Hand your child a brush and a soap. Ask him to clean up Mr. Pumpkin and get him ready for craving.
Toddler Warning: Expect loads of spills around the bath area!
For safety, please don’t leave your children unsupervised around water.
Hammer the Pumpkin
If you have a child safe hammer at home with its accompanying nails, this could be fun for your child. Let him pound his hammer and nails into the pumpkin. Later you can encourage him to make eyes and mouth on his pumpkin.
Sort The Colored Pumpkin Seeds
Take a bunch of pumpkin seeds and dye them into four different colors. You can easily dye them using food coloring or even watercolor paints. Mix all the colors together. Put the pumpkin seeds in a ball. Hand your child a tweezer and a sorting tray. You can also use cupcake baking cups. Ask your child to sort the seeds according to color using the tweezer.
You can extend the activity by doing counting with the seeds or help him spell his/her name with the pumpkin seeds.
Monster Print Trail
Make cutouts of Monster paw prints. Stick them on your sidewalk or your backyard to create a guided path. Ask your child to hop, walk, run or skip through the path.
Playdough Fun
Playdough is one of the best motor skill development tools. Kids are having so much fun rolling, shaping and pinching the dough.
Cut 2 pieces of construction paper in half. On them, write things like bat, spider, pumpkin or monster. Now ask your child to create them using colored playdough.
Monster Walk
This activity literally requires no materials. Just your kids and a little bit of imagination. Ask your child to imitate the actions of their favorite Halloween characters. Ask them to bat their hands like a bat. Or sneak around like a scary witch. Have fun with this! Let them put on their costume and walk around the block!
Unwrap the mummy
Cut out a mummy shape from an old cereal box. take some toilet paper or yarn and ask your child to wrap the mummy.
Spider Web Lacing Game
Using a paper plate, write the numbers 1-8 around the outer edge of the plate in a random order creating the web pattern. Use a hole punch to punch a hole in the plate next to each number. Find a picture of a spider or cut one out and glue it to the center of the plate. Using a piece of string or yarn, have your child thread the string or yarn through the holes to create the web. Follow this link for additional instructions on how to create your spider web and for other fun ideas!! !http://mamaot.com/4-halloween-fine-motor-activities/
If you try any of these 9 Halloween activities to improve motor skills, send us your pictures on our Instagram or Facebook page. We’d love to share them with our other JLD families!
If you feel your child is not achieving his motor skill milestones on time, book your 15-minute FREE Consultation to evaluate your child and start with the best plan under our team of experts.