For Day 6 of our 23 Days of Christmas Activities series we are sharing a super easy activity that is great for strengthening fine motor skills and helping kids work on language development.
Our Christmas Tree Sticker Wall was inspired by this Sticker Station by No Time for Flashcards.
Stickers are one of my favorite learning tools. Just having a pack of stickers on hand while on an airplane or waiting at a doctor's appointment can help save the day and give you something to do!
Every time I am at Target or any store that sells stickers, I usually buy a bunch. I especially love ABC stickers. I have several plastic tubs filled with stickers and sometimes we just pull them out and talk about them and stick them on kids arms and legs and paper.
Today we decided to make a Christmas tree out of some brown packaging paper that I have and stick it on the wall with painters tape.
M A T E R I A L S N E E D E D
- painters tape
- brown packaging paper
- stickers
- scissors
- markers
Once it was on the wall, we grabbed some of our favorite stickers (my daughter is obsessed with Elmo and Nemo right now, so we grabbed ocean and Elmo stickers), and then we started sticking stickers to the Christmas tree.
We talked about how the stickers can be ornaments.
Ornaments is a new word for my daughter this year (she'll be two next month). I showed her the ornaments on our real tree and then we stuck the stickers on the fake tree to decorate it. She loved pulling the stickers off and putting them back on.
Originally I wanted to use dot stickers, since they would've been uniform and round and they would turn out cute and kinda look like lights, but my toddler had no interest in the boring round stickers since the character stickers were around. LOL.
I loved watching her try and stick any star stickers on the big star on top of the tree. I have never seen her match before like that, so it was fun to watch.
L A N G U A G E D E V E L O P M E N T
While adding stickers to the walls we talked about words like, on top, in front, up high, down low, press, stick, and pull. We also talked about the colors of the characters and fish and practiced saying their names. The whole experience was filled with language.
F I N E M O T O R S K I L L S
Kids need strong fingers so that they can write, zip up their coats, button their shirts, and even tie their shoes. There are a lot of ways kids can strengthen their finger muscles. I love using stickers! Pulling stickers off their base, holding onto them, and then placing them and sticking them onto a picture or paper helps kids in small ways to strengthen their finger muscles.
If your little one can't pull stickers all the way off yet, pull them partially off to help get them started. As they get stronger and more coordinated, pull less and less of the stickers off the paper to help them.
Do you have any kids who love stickers? Which type of stickers will be ornaments on your tree?
2 3 D A Y S O F C H R I S T M A S
If you're following along with our 23 days of Christmas series, you can find the whole series on Instagram here (I'm @kristinatoddlerapproved) as we update it each day.
Here's what we've done so far...
Day 1- Wreath making station
Day 2- Cooking Cutter painting (to make wrapping paper)
Day 3- Candy Cane hunt & match
Day 4- Make Giant Gingerbread men
Day 5- Christmas Fizzy Drips Science
If you do any of the activities, tag them with the hashtag #23daysofchristmas so we can see what you are up to!
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