DIY Foam Geoboard Tree for Seasonal Fine Motor Fun

practice math & fine motor skills with DIY foam geoboard

three images of styrofoam trees with golf tees in them and rubber bands on the golf tees with the text, 'DIY geoboard Christmas trees'

At the end of November, my preschoolers had way too much fun with our fine motor Christmas trees! In fact, that “little” activity has been going strong for over two weeks now. That activity, along with our pumpkin geoboard from October, led to the creation of our own DIY foam geoboard tree later that same week! We actually ended up with three of them, as I wanted enough for multiple kids to play with at one time.

DIY Foam Geoboard Tree for Seasonal Fine Motor Fun

Supplies
Green and white foam cones
Golf tees
Rubber bands (we used the tiny ones leftover from Rainbow Loom bracelet-making)

Set Up
I placed golf tees all around the cones. Then I placed the teed-up trees on our math/fine motor table, along with rubber bands. These geoboard trees looked even more like Dr. Who’s Daleks than the fine motor Christmas trees did! My English friend even walked into my classroom and said, “Oh, look at the little Daleks! Dalek geoboards!” 🙂

How the Kids Played
The kids got their fingers moving right away with these conical geoboards! Some of the children made a variety of geometric shapes with the rubber bands.

Others just had fun adding as many rubber bands as possible to each tree.

Still others worked together to make one giant foam geoboard tree! This process was hysterical to watch, and I loved the team work and spatial thinking that went into it!

Ideas for Next Time
I used the Styrofoam cones for this activity, but I’d be interested to see how the “softer” foam cones would fare. I think the kids might be more inclined to pound the golf tees into the softer cones on their own. For this activity, they focused on playing just with the rubber bands. I’d love to have seen them move the golf tees around on their own next time — I think if I had left the tees off the cones, they would have done just that. It would have led to a different playing experience. There’s always next time! 🙂

A Different Take
As I was readying this post, School Time Snippets shared her Christmas Tree Geoboard activity! She does hers a bit differently than my kiddos did, so be sure to read her take on it!