Kids Nature Fine Motor Fun

My kids just love nature and chasing birds. We put together a great fine motor nature activity that not only satisfied their love of their feathered friends-but strengthened those little fingers! Hope you love it as much as our kids do!

Materials for Kids Nature Fine Motor Fun

1. Small plastic tubs or use a Large Sensory Table
2. Bag of white rice-enough to fill tub at least 1/3 of the way.
3. Brown food coloring or Bio color
4. One large Ziploc bag
5. Newsprint paper
6. Clothes pins
7. Pipe Cleaners (green, yellow, brown) or any color that could represent a nice juicy worm.
8. Optional: Rubbing Alcohol
9. Scissors
10. Small Paper Cups
11. Scotch Tape

The Process: (The kids love to help with the set up)

1. Place rice in Ziploc and add small amounts of food color or Bio color. Zip the bag shut and knead in the color until it's a nice brown color. Lay it out on newsprint to dry-it usually takes about 30 minutes. I you want faster drying time add a bit of rubbing alcohol as you knead in the color-we found it also makes the color a bit more vibrant, too.
2. Cut small 2 or 3 inch lengths of pipe cleaner (the more the better)-these will represent the worms. We found an adorable way to make worms with the kids, too (check out Alexandra Wishes for her great idea)
3. Each child will have a clothes pin-this is the birds beak. Some of the children really wanted to decorate their 'birdies' and that turned into another activity all together-of course, we were happy to oblige and they trotted off the the art center and used magic markers and wiggle eyes.

The Procedure: Place the dry rice in the sensory table and hide the "worms" inside. Our sensory table comfortably accommodates six children so we taped six cups along the inside wall of the tub with a plain clothes pin inside.
 Let the children know they are the hungry birds that need to find the worms in the "brown dirt". They can put their 'worms' in the cups and we count how many they found.

OMG! We love this chubby worms from Alexandra Wishes

Note: You may want to purchase extra clothes pins because many of the children insisted it would be better if they decorated their own bird beaks to use outside and take home. Don't you just love it when kids are so involved in the curriculum.

This activity also works great in small individual tubs-but for great socialization opportunities, use the a giant sensory table.
We just love kids spring crafts, how about you?