First off, why bother using tongs for fine motor skill development? I've done tons of research on this, but here's the short answer: The playful use of tongs strengthens small hand muscles, builds coordination, and teaches students to separate their thumb & index/middle/ring/pinky fingers, which is required later on to operate scissors & write! Setting up simple games and tasks that invite little ones to use kitchen tongs is easy and fun. I've found tongs with silicone heads are best for setting kiddos up for success, since they have much stickier grip than say metal tongs. My favorite tongs are these Christmas Tree tongs, which I use with my free Christmas themed small motor skills centers that I'll describe below.
All of these fine motor tasks provide you with student work mats and festive printable images. The student or teacher places the images on the edge of a table, and young learners grasp and move them using the holiday tongs to develop their fine motor muscles -- while having fun, obviously! :)
1. Sort the Christmas Ornaments - Children pick up and place various sizes of ornaments in a line or stack. This activity builds small muscle coordination while helping students develop an understanding of sorting by size.
2. Find the Missing Mittens - Find the "missing mittens" is the kids' mission with this festive fine motor task. Kiddos use their holiday tongs to pick up and place the found mittens next to their matches on the work mat. This task requires students to look closely at patterns and colors while they also develop their small hand muscles.
3. Match the Christmas Trees by Color - Using their fun kitchen utensil, Students are challenged to match different colors of holiday trees to the color words on their work mat. (The color words are color coded to match the trees to support pre-readers.) This fine motor skills center is great for developing an understanding of print and recognition of color words.
Find these freebies at my Teachers Pay Teachers shop, Teachering.
If you're looking for the super cute Christmas kitchen tongs, they're on Amazon!
If you're looking for the super cute Christmas kitchen tongs, they're on Amazon!
See who else is talking about Christmas Kitchen Tongs:
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Holiday Tongs
Winter Kitchen Utensils for Holiday Cooking and Serving: Great Gift!
Christmas Kitchen Tongs for Gifts, Cooking, & Serving
Christmas Tongs for Fine Motor Skills Development