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Tongs and Tweezers Training

Tongs and Tweezers Training

This week we’ve been working with tongs and tweezers, which is great for practicing fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and building hand strength! Tongs and Tweezers Training - fine motor skills practice for toddlers

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Mastering the skills of using tongs and tweezers is necessary before moving on to scissors – the action is fairly similar. So here are three activity ideas that also include tower building, colour matching, and counting!

Blocks and Tongs
We used tongs to stack blocks. The fabric-covered puzzle blocks that I made several months ago were the perfect size.

Tongs and Tweezers Training - fine motor skills practice for toddlers

It took F a few attempts to grip the blocks in the tongs. But he did it!

Tongs and Tweezers Training - fine motor skills practice for toddlers
Tongs and Tweezers Training - fine motor skills practice for toddlers

Pom Poms, Tweezers, and Colour Matching

We tried using tongs and pom poms a few weeks ago for a toddler activity over at B-Inspired Mama. However this week we tried using some loop-ended tweezers I bought from a science surplus store. I taped some colored construction paper to the base of a muffin pan and put out some pompoms of the same color as the paper. The lovely “shimmer poms” were kindly sent to us by craftprojectideas.com.
Tongs and Tweezers Training - fine motor skills practice for toddlers
The tweezers were a great hit with F – it didn’t take long at all for him to be able to use them. This activity also worked on sorting and colour recognition. 
Tongs and Tweezers Training - fine motor skills practice for toddlers

Cheerios and Counting
For this activity I wrote the numbers 1 to 12 in the base of an empty egg box. Then I provided the tongs,  tweezers and a bowl of Cheerios.

Tongs and Tweezers Training - fine motor skills practice for toddlers

I explained to him that we would try and put the right number of Cheerios in each section of the egg box. F went straight for the tweezers and started working on picking up the Cheerios and placing them in the egg box.


Tongs and Tweezers Training - fine motor skills practice for toddlers

Tongs and Tweezers Training - fine motor skills practice for toddlers

He started to get the hang of it so we stopped to redistribute the Cheerios so that there were the right number of Cheerios in each section. He did try the tongs but soon went back to the tweezers.
We didn’t get much further than section 6 before he had had enough, which is absolutely fine. Oh and yes he DID eat some Cheerios, but even though I hadn’t set any rules I was interested to note that he only used his fingers to eat with, but the tongs or tweezers to transfer the Cheerios to the egg box.
I originally started writing this post over six months ago, when F couldn’t really handle the tongs. I am so pleased that I waited and reintroduced these activities successfully!
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Find out what everyone else has been up to this week!
 Cranberry Fine Motor Games from LalyMom
Tissue Paper Cornucopia Light Box from Stir the Wonder
Chalk Fire Game from School Time Snippets
Handmade Birthday Card from Little Bins for Little Hands

7 Comments

  1. Samantha @Stir the Wonder

    I love the title of this post! “Training” LOL! I need to get some better tweezers and tongs for Caden.

    • craftulate

      Thanks! I nearly titled the post “Three Types of Tongs and Tweezer Training” just for some crazy alliteration!

  2. Sarah

    Great ideas for tweezers and tongs. Such a great skill to master and you can use them for so many different materials!

  3. Kristina

    My 2 year old daughter loves tweezer activities! I just posted our week with the Letter E and we did tongs and plastic easter eggs; that was fun! Btw, the open loop tweezers are so neat; I’ll have to look for a pair.

  5. Emma @ P is for Preschooler

    I definitely want to try that tongs to stack blocks with my daughter. She loves building in any form and that sounds like an extra challenge!

  7. There's Just One Mommy

    Mine both love when I get the tongs out! He looks like he is really concentrating and having fun!

  10. The Preschool Toolbox

    Great fine motor activities and suggestions! TY, again, for taking the time to share via FB this week! Pinning and sharing!