Fine Motor Skills: Tweezers & Goldfish
One of our favorite Dr. Seuss books is One Fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. It’s such a silly book, but that’s probably why my oldest likes it!
Since we focus on fine motor skills on Thursdays, I came up with an activity with tweezers & goldfish to go along with this book. It’s designed to strengthen fine motor skills and to help with counting and one-to-one correspondence. I created this Fine Motor Fish sheet to go along with the activity. The goal is to take tweezers, pick up a goldfish, and put it in the fishbowl. They also have to match the number of goldfish to the number on the fishbowl.Â
I recently picked up two kinds of tweezers at The Learning Post. The Easy Grip Tweezers
are designed for kids to use. They are a bit rigid, so it takes some strength from your child’s hand and it may take time for them to get the hang of using these tweezers. The skunk tweezers are fun and cute. They are a little easier to use, in my opinion.
Before starting, we reviewed over the numbers and directions with Troy.
He was a bit silly when we did the activity. I always find that if I do activities at night, they don’t go as well. He’s definitely not as focused as he is when we do activities in the morning. Good reminder for me!
Since using tweezers is new to him, he got tired fast. Eventually, he just used his fingers to put the goldfish in the fishbowl.
This is good practice for counting and one-to-one correspondence (matching numbers to objects). It seems easy to do, but for a 3 year old it does take some thinking. When we got to numbers 5 and 6, he had to really take time and count them. Eventually, he will start to recognize what 5 and 6 look like without counting each one, but it does take practice.
 
Overall, it was a fun activity and challenging for Troy.  We will practice using the tweezers more often to gain more strength in his hand. To download a printable, click here.
Have you used kid tweezers with your children? Please share if you have!
Your website is just amazing! I teached kindergarden for 23 years and I would have love to have access website like yours! You are. Special to put your work on line for parents or teachers! It is very appreciated! I just retired but I’m still fascinating to look at kindergarden’s. Websites! Continue to good work!
This is so cute. Thanks for providing the printable. Where did you get those skunk tweezers? They are so awesome!
Thank you, Kirstylee! I got them at the Learning Post- a local educational store. I’m not sure if you can find them online and it doesn’t have a brand name on it. Thanks for your comment!!
Angela mentioned to click on the print icon to access the goldfish bowl printable. After searching and not being successful, I am wondering if you could direct me to how to print it.
When I hit the print icon, only the pages on her wall would print.
Thanks,
Julie
Sorry to hear it’s not working for you! It works here, so I will send you the PDF copy over email.
I don’t have kid tweezers-but 2 pickle tongs that work great for my boys. I have used them with cotton balls and egg cartons so far. They enjoy it for a while, then get bored. I love this idea for my 3 year old. I may adjust it for my 2 year old.
Oh that’s a great idea! I don’t have pickle tongs, but I love your ideas! I may just have to get some. Thanks for your comment!