Witchy Fingers — A Halloween Fine Motor Activity

More October fun with a Halloween fine motor activity my preschoolers have really enjoyed!  One of the kiddos dubbed the activity “witchy fingers”, and that name seems to have stuck!  🙂  I set this up in my writing center since it focused on fine motor skills (which are so important when children are preparing to write).

There were a slew of materials at this center!  The materials here could easily be changed up based on children’s interests, too!  I just went with what I had on-hand or what I found in the dollar bins at some local stores.

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• Plastic witch/monster fingers
• Pumpkin seeds
• Child-sized tweezers
• Small, plastic “cauldrons”
• Tiny Halloween-themed erasers
• Larger ghost erasers
• Buttons in “Halloween” colors
• Googly eyes
• Halloween-themed ice cube trays

In my head, I imagined them using the witchy fingers and tweezers to transfer items.  Of course, they ended up doing so much more than what I’d envisioned!  I love seeing how they take the materials and transform an activity into much more than I’d imagined.  Creativity at it’s finest, and they were able to practice so many skills.

Some children did set about transferring items.  A few of them were incredibly intent on using the tweezers and “fingers” to move pumpkin seeds into the cauldrons.  As they were doing this, they decided to count how many seeds would fit into the cauldrons!

Others were focused on filling the cauldrons with buttons.  One little girl made a pattern out of doing this by placing the buttons into the cauldrons in a certain order.  Her patterns turned out to be purple button, orange button, then two black buttons.

Stacking the larger ghost erasers inside the cauldrons caused a fit of giggles with some of the kiddos.  I never figured out what was so funny about it, but the kids were having a blast!

Some kids just used their hands to place erasers into the ice cube trays, one by one.  Others wanted to see how many erasers they could fit in each part of the ice cube trays.  Watching them do so reminded me of “Using Tiny Erasers to Promote Fine Motor and Math Skills”.  I have to admit I am such a sucker for those cute erasers!

My absolute favorite part of this activity was watching the kids use the witchy fingers to pick up and sort the Halloween materials!  My assistant and I had fun doing this too . . . and, let me tell you, it is harder than it looks!  Needless to say, there was a TON of laughter at the writing center.

If you’re looking for more Halloween fun for the little ones, feel free to pop by my Halloween Pinterest board!  Here are a few more from Fun-A-Day to check out, as well:

• “Where Do Monsters Live?” Halloween Book-Making with Kids
• Halloween Sticky Table Art
• Halloween Sensory Play: Haunted Pumpkin Patch
• Frankenstein Monster Pumpkin