Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Close Pin Horses


This activity covers an array of skills your child should have mastered before starting kindergarten. This teaches pincer grasp which is vital in learning how to write. Most children do not have the strength yet to do most pinching tasks, this will exercise those little fingers and get them strong to start writing. Close pins do not only teach this simple skill, but they also take a lot of concentration and finger balance to master. Not only will your child learn how to pinch, but they will learn colors, and matching as well. It can also be adapted to other animal. The possibilities are endless.


I colorized my horse by printing them on to construction paper. They are laminated and I painted the close pins with matching non toxic tempera paint. You can also color the close pins with markers or crayons, but I found that paint seems to last longer. I lined the close pins up on the rim of a plastic cup, weighted the cup down with a few rocks, then painted and let dry.


If you have any ideas or comments please feel free to leave them below. 
Thanks for looking!

8 comments:

  1. I found your website very informative. My boy is 21months old he plays with close pin try to pinch on cloths. this is beautiful idea. ill come back to see your different projects.

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  2. Love this idea, however my daughter is a little too old for color work. What I'm planning on doing with these is writing either uppercase or lowercase letters on the horse where the legs go and using the clothespins to match the corresponding letter in the other "case". Also using numbers- dots to written #. So much FUN!! Thanks!!

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  3. Love your horses! :) Have to find wooden pins somewhere :)

    Thanks for joining us at High paw last week. Featuring your blog as newcomer to our linky and as a great source of ideas for toddlers and preschoolers. Hope to see you adding your ideas in future too! :)

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  4. Look for the close pins at the dollar store you can get a lot for a dollar.

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  5. I love this idea. I painted my clothes pins today and printed off the horses tonight. I can't wait to "play" with this with my little ones tomorrow. Such a great idea. Thanks for sharing!!

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  6. you can buy plastic pins of all different colors, great for matching, but a bit more difficult to squeeze. I love the horses and pins, thanks.......
    Barbara
    RecyclingOT.com

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  7. Could you please send me the horses in a pdf?
    ssgroi@live.com

    ReplyDelete

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