Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Invitation to Play with Hearts and Straws {Valentine's Day Light Table Activity}

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It's day two in the Valentine's series with House of Burke and Still Playing School!  Yesterday's post was an open-ended invitation to play with buttons and hearts.  Today's post is a super fun fine motor and visual sensory activity.

It all began when I had this brilliant idea to try putting translucent straws into the holes of our homemade light bright.  When I discovered that the straws fit perfectly in the holes, I decided to come up with a simple fine motor threading game for the boys.  And since Valentine's Day is approaching, it of course has a Valentine's twist.

Invitation to play with hearts, straws, and light. - a great fine motor activity from And Next Comes L

Fine Motor Light Table Activity for Valentine's Day

We have plastic jewelry links that are shaped like hearts, stars, and flowers.  They were used in this shape sorting activity.  Each shape comes in yellow, pink, or purple, just like my translucent straws.  Since this activity was Valentine's Day themed, I used only the hearts.  And since the straws and plastic hearts all came in the same color, the hearts can be matched and threaded onto their corresponding colored straw. 

Invitation to play with hearts, straws, and light from And Next Comes L

The setup is very easy.  I put one straw of each color into a hole in homemade light bright and placed the hearts nearby.  If you don't have a light bright, you could always put straws into a piece of styrofoam, similar to this DIY light bright, and use it on the light table.

Invitation to play with hearts, straws, and light from And Next Comes L

Invitation to play with hearts, straws, and light from And Next Comes L

Then let the threading begin!  K was really into this activity, focusing like crazy, as you can see

K threading hearts onto straws from And Next Comes L

Hearts threaded onto straws from And Next Comes L

The boys didn't really care to match the hearts to the straws by color and that's okay.  They spent an entire afternoon just putting hearts on the straws, pulling the straws out of the hole, putting the straws into different holes (there are 1430 of them to choose from after all!), and starting the whole process over again.

Other Ideas You'll Love



Exploring Hearts Sensory Bin from House of Burke


Show Me The Love: Valentine's Crafts and Activities for Kids at And Next Comes L

Invitation to play with hearts, straws, and light. - a great fine motor activity from And Next Comes L