Threading

Here is a simple threading activity which encourages young children with their very fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.
I presented my two year olds with some dry spaghetti strands, coloured pasta tubes, coloured cereal hoops and some straws, I joined it with this activity and so I could closely see what they were doing and how they were using the resources I supplied them with.
All 3 children instantly explored the materials picking up handfuls of pasta and cereal. My initial thought were that because of their young age they would use the pasta tubes to thread onto the spaghetti stands as they are larger in size and have a easier sized hole to thread onto the thin spaghetti but before long I was proved wrong!
They all picked up the hoops with their index finger and thumb (pincer grip) and carefully tried to thread them individually onto the spaghetti strand. What I observed was a lot of concentration and hand eye co ordination as at first they struggled to match the hole of the hoop up With the tips of the spaghetti strand, no one got gave up they all continued to keep trying and successfully achieved it once they had done it once they all went back for more hoops.
I later spotted one of the children pushing spaghetti into the straw she had already achieved one piece and was attempting to push another strand into the same straw, she eventually managed to get 4 whole strands in plus a few broken pieces too.
There was definitely more interest in the hoops and spaghetti than the pasta tubes and straws but the three of them all had a go exploring the different shapes and techniques whilst developing their fine motor skills for a good 30-45 minutes.