Snowman activities are always fun for preschoolers. With these winter fine motor activities, not only do preschoolers get to…you guessed it…work on their fine motor skills within a winter theme, but they also get to practice color sorting skills. And, these cute rainbow snowmen are a free printable, too!
Be sure to read to the end of the post to get your FREE snowman printable.
Winter Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers and Toddlers, Too!
Last weekend we got our first snow of the season. It was just a dusting of less than an inch, which is not atypical for our area, but my kids went berserk!
I come downstairs to find three out of five kids running around the family room in the midst of a snowball fight.
That’s right.
In my house! A snowball fight in my house!
Now, this was not someone having the bright idea to put a little snow down someone’s shirt. No, this was a full-on war with the ottoman opened as a barricade.
I was livid!
So, I did as all mothers do in situations like this. I unpacked their winter clothing and threw them outside where I may or may not have locked the door behind them. The snowball fight followed them outside, and soon they moved on to making snowmen.
Plural.
According to my daughter, an entire family of snowmen including a dog.
Within twenty-four hours, the snowmen were lopsided with their heads sliding off and their twiggy arms drooping to the ground. Kinda’ like these melted snowmen scissor cutting craft.
But the snowman talk didn’t end! It’s been a week and there is little evidence the snowman family ever existed, but we are still talking about snowmen. All. Day. Long.
So, it was time to break out the free snowman printables. My little boys really loved this rainbow snowman printable and as a teacher and mom, I love that it doubles as several winter fine motor activities. If you’re looking for fine motor activities, you’ll love these fine motor task boxes.
Be sure to grab your free printable at the end of the post where you can also find additional winter fine motor activities. I offer several ideas for how this single printable can be adapted to different age and skill levels during a winter theme.
Winter Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers
These winter themed fine motor activities are geared toward preschoolers, but not to worry, as always I offer a few ways to use this same printable for toddlers, too!
I have a two-year-old little boy who loves to “go sool”, (go to school), so I’m always inventing ways to include him without having to completely redesign the activity.
Materials
- free snowman printable (grab it at the end of this post)
- pom poms in rainbow colors (or other rainbow colored manipulative)
- small tongs or tweezers
The Snowman Printable Set-Up
Print the snowman printable on heavy cardstock. There are two versions available. You can print the snowmen in color or alternatively you can print the blackline copy on colored paper instead.
Place the snowmen on a table with a set of rainbow manipulatives of some sort. Here are some ideas of manipulatives you can use:
- pom poms
- buttons
- math counters
- floral pebbles
- connecting cubes
- crumpled paper
Place the counters on a tray, all mixed up, alongside the snowman printable.
Winter Fine Motor Activity Using Free Snowman Printable
The primary activity that inspired this simple (but oh-so-fun) preschool activity is straightforward. Invite your preschooler to use the tongs or tweezers to sort the pom poms into the snowman printables. I referred to the pom poms as snowballs, which my boys loved all the more.
Using the tweezers was a little challenging for my boys. They are hard to “tweeze”, which is by design because it really works on strengthening their hands.
You can read more about the importance of hand strengthening here, here, and here.
If your preschooler chooses to use their whole hand to grasp the tweezers, that’s ok. Just like in pencil grasp development, using tweezers comes in stages. It takes coordination and strength.
If your preschooler is using his whole hand to squeeze the tweezers, it’s because his fingers are not strong enough. Whole hand strength comes before fine motor strength. In fact, some preschoolers or toddlers might even use two hands, which is also ok!
Reach a Wider Range of Skill Levels
One challenge of teaching preschoolers is that they come to you with such a wide range of skills. Some might already have a mature tripod pencil grasp while another student in your class might still be using the “death grip”, as I like to call it.
Here are some ideas of how you can use my snowman printable with various skill levels in your classroom.
- Provide older preschoolers with various color sorting manipulatives that may be more difficult to use with tweezers. Connecting cubes, for example, might be more difficult.
- Add even more fine motor fun by inviting your preschoolers to make their own rainbow “snowballs” by crumpling up construction paper or tissue paper.
- Invite younger preschoolers to just explore using the tweezers or tongs. Don’t worry about the color sorting.
- Or, do just the opposite and eliminate the tweezers or tongs and just invite your younger preschooler to sort the pom poms by hand.
- Add a math component by rolling a die and inviting your preschooler to count sets of pom poms onto the snowmen printables.
- Use the blackline copy of the snowmen and staple into a booklet. Invite your preschoolers to color their own snowmen in rainbow colors.
- Make small copies, and multiple copies, of the snowman printable to place in a sensory bin. Throw in all your rainbow pom poms and some scoops to make a complete winter sensory bin.
What other ways can you use a rainbow printable like this one? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!
***Don’t forget to grab your free snowman printable below this image!***
Grab Your FREE Snowman Printable
Think this snowman printable fits in with your winter fine motor activities? Grab your free copy by clicking the image below.
Looking for More Winter Printables?
You might enjoy some of these winter printables.
How About More Snowman Activities?
Check out these other snowman activities by some of my favorite kid bloggers! So fun!
Then, keep scrolling for some of my most popular winter theme activities for preschoolers.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Rainbow Snowman Fine Motor Activity
Want Even More Winter Activities for Preschoolers?
Add some of these amazing activities to your winter theme preschool lesson plans.
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
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