pom poms & golf tees {working those fine motors}

Through my years of working with kiddos I have found that they absolutely LOVE poking things. What better investigation to set up than golf tees and styrofoam. Play dough is great too but lacks the satisfying punch that styrofoam gives. These foam pieces were scrounged from a local electronics store, it never hurts to ask your local shops for cast off items such as cardboard tubes, boxes, and/or styrofoam. Years ago I would set this up with small hammers but the kiddos would get so hammer-happy that the poor golf tees would splinter to pieces. Now we use pom poms to entice the kiddos to poke the tees into the foam and carefully balance a pom on top.

Set up is so ridiculously easy you can do this at home...place a neutral colored tray or basket next to the foam piece and add a collection of poms and tees. I absolutely adore these square malamine plates from Target. The colors are so happy that you will not need to explain anything to the kiddos, they will get right to it working those fine motor skills.

An added bonus to using the brightly colored tees is the color matching that can happen which I did not even think about until one of my students showed me her hard work. I was blown away! You gotta love what they come up with. If you do not have foam you can use play dough or sand and if you do not have pom poms you can try marbles, flat backed jewels (which most dollar and craft stores carry for a buck or two) like these or beans even. Have fun!