Pom pom colour sorting with pegs is a fun and simple activity you can do with your toddler.
Strengthen those developing muscles in their fingers and hands while refining colour recognition with bright and fuzzy playful pom poms!
Pom Pom Colour Sorting with Pegs
Colour sorting is a fun early numeracy activity with your toddler.
Not only are they differentiating between colours, but while moving the pom poms using the peg, your toddler is refining vital fine motor and coordination skills.
This can be a fun way to strengthen knowledge of known colours and introduce new ones.
What you need for pom pom colour sorting with pegs:
- Peg - if you don't have a peg, these tweezers from my favorite fine motor set are perfect!
- Pom Poms
- Colored Cups
We used a painting tray with coloured cups to sort the pom poms. If you didn't have colored ones at home, you could use cups or bowls or add a piece of colored paper to uncolored vessels.
If you are short on pom poms, you could always swap them out with little balls of scrunched coloured paper.
We used a stainless steel peg as Mr 3 has spent a long time mastering pegs and has developed the fine motor strength to use them. The stainless steel pegs may be challenging for toddlers beginning this exercise. Wooden pegs’ springs are easier to open and close while developing strength and coordination.
How to set up your pom pom colour sorting with pegs activity:
Place the pom poms ready for sorting on the opposite of your child’s dominant hand.
This will encourage an important skill known as crossing the midline.
Basically, it means your child moving their hand across the middle of their body to the opposite side. This skill is vital for tasks such as playing sports and handwriting.
Place the coloured cups on the other side.
Demonstrate to your child how to squeeze the peg open, lower the peg onto the pom pom, and then release their grip to close it. Using a peg requires a few skill sets to work unanimously; for younger children, it may need a bit of practice.
For younger children, starting with just a few pom poms can allow them to succeed sooner, which is great for building confidence. As they master using the peg, more pom poms can be introduced.
The task is to pick up a pom pom with the peg and drop it into the corresponding coloured cup.
Once he moved all the pom poms into their coloured cups, we pointed out which cups had the most pom poms and then counted some out before doing the whole thing again.
Pom-pom colour sorting with pegs is a great fine motor and coordination activity that explores early math skills. This is another win for using household items for successful play activities!
For more fun toddler activity ideas, why not join our Facebook Group or follow us on Instagram – follow @myboredtoddler and use #myboredtoddler.
Follow us for more toddler activity ideas
SOME MORE FUN TODDLER ACTIVITY IDEAS YOU MIGHT ENJOY ARE:
50 Easy Toddler Activities
Pop It Pom Pom Sorting
About the Author
Dani is a busy stay-at-home Mum of 3 and an early childhood teacher in training who is passionate about play-based learning throughout early childhood. For educational play ideas that you can do at home and parenting tips visit Play Inspired Mum Check her out on Instagram andFacebook