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Home / Early Learning / Math / Dyeing Wooden Spools for Fine Motor Skills Activities

Dyeing Wooden Spools for Fine Motor Skills Activities

Shared by Mary Catherine Leave a comment

Over the summer, I came upon bagfuls of small wooden spools at a local craft store. I’m always on the lookout for materials for my pre-k classroom, so I picked up a couple. Looking at them, I decided they’d be great for a variety of fine motor skills activities for my students.

make fine motor skills activities even more fun with dyed wooden spools

Related: Dyed Wood DIY Toys for Kids

make colorful wooden spools for fine motor skills activities

I planned some colorful fine motor skills activities for the kiddos, so I decided to dye some of the wooden spools. I think the natural version is wonderful, but I needed some colorful spools too! My son really wanted to help, so I set us both up with some liquid watercolors and paintbrushes. I used watercolors from Discount School Supply, but you can find other brands HERE or HERE as well.

use dyed wooden spools in a variety of fine motor skills activities for children

The kiddo and I placed small squirts of watercolors into little containers. We painted the spools and rolled them around in the watercolors until they were fully covered. I love how beautiful the colors turned out, although I’m going to add more paint to the red spools. We really should have let them sit in the watercolors a little longer, but I still love the colorful spools.

stacking is one of many fine motor skills activities kids can do with small dyed wooden spools

Since the spools are small, the children have to use small hand movements to manipulate them. Here are just a few of the fine motor skills activities we’ve used the dyed spools (and their natural counterparts) for:

  • Building tiny towers
  • Matching colored spools
  • Placing counting bears one-to-one on spools and color matching spools to bears
  • Placing acorns one-to-one on spools, as well as using them to count acorns
fine motor skills activities with dyed wooden spools

The children really seem to enjoy having the spools in our  math and fine motor center. It’s always fun to watch what they’re going to do next! I picked up another bag of spools once I noticed how the kids use them. One of my girls has already pointed out that we need more colorful spools . . . and she wants to be first in line to help paint them! I love that!

Please note – I didn’t seal these colorful spools, so if they get wet I’m sure they’ll run a bit. I don’t plan on letting the kiddos put them into a water bin anytime soon, so I think we’re good!

natural and dyed wooden spools for fine motor skills activities

What other fine motor skills activities would you use the colorful spools for? I’m sure we’ll fine more and more as the school year progresses.

Check out my Fine Motor Skills Pinterest Board for more ideas

Follow Mary Catherine @ Fun-A-Day!’s board * FINE MOTOR Activities on Pinterest.

Dyed wooden spools for building and fine motor skills activities in the preschool classroom

Filed Under: Math Tagged With: Fine Motor

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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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