• About Me
  • Disclosure Policy
  • Work With Me

Busy Toddler

making it to naps, one activity at a time

  • Play
    • Quick and Easy
    • Messy Messy
    • Bath Time
    • Sensory Play
    • Inside Play
    • Outside Play
  • Learn
    • Art
    • Science
    • Math
    • Literacy
    • Fine Motor Skills
    • Gross Motor Skills
  • Supplies
  • Shop
    • My account
  •  
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Fine Motor Skills Inside Play Math

Pom Pom Sorting: Fine Motor Skills Activity

Pom Pom Sorting: a simple toddler activity; fine motor skills for toddlers and preschoolers; early math learning

A fine motor skills activity with a math twist: you gotta try this pom pom sorting!

Pom pom balls are such a versatile toddler activity supply. We would be lost without our beloved bag of pom poms. Seriously, pom poms come out almost weekly around here and they still haven’t gotten old. In this activity, toddlers practice two important life skills!

This simple activity is actually a lot of bang for your buck: it’s fine motor skills AND math all rolled into one. Fine motor skills are important for future tasks like pencil grip and buttoning sweaters; sorting is a hugely important math skill that introduces the concept of classifying and organizing data (all that from a simple sorting game? You betcha!).

Pom Pom Sorting: a simple toddler activity; fine motor skills for toddlers and preschoolers; early math learning

It doesn’t take much to set up pom pom sorting.

Materials:
(this list contains affiliate links)

  • Pom pom balls
  • Clothes pins
  • Bowls (I used these IKEA ones)

Boy, this was an easy one to set up! I grabbed my favorite colored bowls as our “what to sort into” base for this activity. I poured some pom poms into a bowl and added a single clothes pin. I did make sure that I only poured in pom pom balls that I had a colored bowls for (sorry white and red, you don’t get to play today). My son took one look at the set up and knew exactly what needed to be done.

Pom Pom Sorting: a simple toddler activity; fine motor skills for toddlers and preschoolers; early math learning

The coolest part about this sorting activity was using the clothes pins to capture the pom pom balls and transfer them over. What a challenge and work out for my toddler son! This really exercised his hand muscles and he was working hard. Pinching the clothes pins to open them, capturing a pom pom and moving it to the bowl was a lot of work for a tot. But a good amount of work. Not too easy, but certainly not too hard. This was right in his “wheel house”.

Pom Pom Sorting: a simple toddler activity; fine motor skills for toddlers and preschoolers; early math learning

If you have a toddler who isn’t quite ready for clothes pins yet, consider small tongs or a pair of tweezers. My son used tongs with pom poms for almost a full year before he was able to master opening clothes pins. It takes time and there’s no rush! They all get it at their own pace.

Pom Pom Sorting: a simple toddler activity; fine motor skills for toddlers and preschoolers; early math learning

In the end, pom pom sorting took my toddler 16 minutes to complete. SIXTEEN minutes of hard at work, concentrating toddler while I made the grocery list and cleaned the kitchen. It was amazing – for both of us! He had so much fun doing this and worked his tail off to move all those pom poms. I was so proud of him. Pom pom sorting was a massive hit!

Need more fine motor skill activities for toddlers? Try a Fine Motor Skills Sensory Bin, Spider Web Fine Motor Activity, and Name Recognition Alphabet Activity.

Will you try pom pom sorting?

Pom Pom Sorting: a simple toddler activity; fine motor skills for toddlers and preschoolers; early math learning


5 Comments

« Dinosaur Archaeology: Cloud Dough Sensory
Colorful Ice Boats »

Comments

  1. leah says

    January 11, 2017 at 9:52 AM

    i wan to do this for my 3 year old who needs major help with motor skills…but what should i do with me 15 month old – who will just atack the pom poms and spill the bowls out and mees it up- i end up never doing these activities with my son bc my 15 month old girl ends up messing it all up- shes not ready for activies..advice please?

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Introducing Sorting: Teaching Young Toddlers - Busy Toddler says:
    May 16, 2016 at 6:11 AM

    […] and I love sorting activites. It’s one of our favorite go to “games”. We sort by color, by letters, by magnetic properties – you name it and I bet we’ve sorted it. Sorting is […]

    Reply
  2. 17 Pom Pom Activities for Toddlers - Busy Toddler says:
    July 17, 2016 at 6:10 AM

    […] […]

    Reply
  3. 17 Pom Pom Activities for Toddlers - Busy Toddler says:
    July 17, 2016 at 6:10 AM

    […] […]

    Reply
  4. Necklace Blog says:
    January 10, 2017 at 12:40 PM

    Letter K Fur Pom

    […] , a former teacher turned stay-at-home-mom. I’m all about fun, simple activities […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hello Hello

I'm Susie, a former teacher turned stay-at-home-mom. I'm all about fun, simple activities that can be set up in seconds but hold little attention spans for much longer.

Communities

© 2017 by Busy Toddler LLC

Copyright © 2019 · Divine theme by Restored 316