Our dino obsessed littles love this activity. This is a purchased activity from Amazon but can also be subbed for other small colored toys or pom poms. Activity comes with all shown parts including 6 different colored dinosaurs, matching bowls, and 2 play tongs.
Recommended activity (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/40cH85E (dinosaurs), https://amzn.to/3ZDhwPp (animals), https://amzn.to/3HN4OHG (zoo)
Fine Motor Skills:
- Grasp patterns – particularly pincer grasp
- Tool use + hand strength
- Hand eye coordination
- Bonus cognitive skill: color matching
Related Cooking Skills:
- Grasping food items
- Adding ingredients to bowl
- Tool use – tongs
Activity Instructions By Age: click on age range below for more details
1-2 year olds:
Free play with toys allowing grasp patterns to develop and mature. If little toddler shows interest in tongs, you can model its use and try hand over hand assist but don’t expect independent use of tongs at this stage. Disclaimer: keep a close eye on your little toddler as the dinos can pose a choking hazard.
Pincer grasp used to pick up dinosaur.
2-3 year olds:
Start introducing tong use and identifying the different colors if you haven’t already. These are new skills so we should not expect perfection at this stage.
3+ year olds:
Encourage picking up the dinos with the tongs on their own and have them match the colors by sorting them into the matching colored bowls. You can turn it into a game by each person picking 1-3 colors and seeing who can get all of their dinos first. Easiest is starting with only 2 colors of dinosaurs in the middle to sort from. Then start adding in more colors to up the challenge.
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