Fine motorics box

Why a fine motorics boxs?

The fine motorics box is a fun way to bring technics into the class. You will be able to introduce this in every topic you are teaching. In the example here, the box's material is linked with nature and the forest.

What can you find in the box?

• Four wooden planks with various holes of different sizes. 
• Four boxes with nuts and bolts of different thicknes and shape. 
• Wrenches, English keys and screwdrivers

The relative simple tools allow for many small but motorically and logically challenging games to be played by your toddlers. Take the bolts as an example, you could let them sorth them from small to large or sort the different sized bolts in different boxes. For older toddlers an interesting challenge is to try and fit the bolts into their respective holes and nuts.

Just like the bolts, the English keys also fit specific nuts and they have specific sizes (numbered even!). They can also be used as an addition to the bolt games as you have to use the correct key to tighten or loosen a bolt. Let them pair up to tighten or loosen up the bolt and nut. (Carefull, you still want to reuse the bolt 😉)

How did I introduce the box to my class?

Pick a topic to work with

Pick a topic that is interesting to the kids, but also can be related to the content of this box. In my example I used trees. We talked about trees a bit, like how birds make their nest in it, how it protects against the rain and the sun, how they are the reason we can breathe and much more. I concluded this part by considering the wood they produce. Then I let the kids show me objects which they thought were also made of wood. Most of these were furniture. From here on the link with the box was easy, because furniture combines wood and bolts, nuts etc.

Get some stories from the toddlers

Line up all the objects and tools that you have (mostly from the box, but class materials can be useful) and let everyone tell about their experiences they had with these tools. Did anyone see their parent screw in a bolt? Did someones sister once put a nail into a plank? They will have plenty of stories. 

Now that the toddlers have some inspiration from the stories. Motive them to think of different ways to use these tools. What else can they be used for?

Time to play

Having spoken about the tools quite a bit, you can now use some of the games I mentioned ealier. Let them sort the bolts and screw some nuts on them. Do this under guidance for a short while, and when they seem to get the hang of it, let them play freely. Their creativity will create plenty of new opportunities that adults won't ever think of.

Do make sure to keep a close eye on them, and perhaps make some clear boundaries. Let the bolts and nuts go around to let them feel the sturdyness of the material. Make clear that this shouldn't be used for throwing.Try not to let the youngest of toddlers play alone as some of these parts may be a chocking hazard for the little ones.

For your older toddlers, it might be interesting to mix and match the board and boxes so that they don't know which nuts and bolt belong to which board.

As the toddlers are playing, you can continue to stimulate them by doing some small interventions or asking some small questions:

• Which bolt fits in the hole? 
• Which key fits which nut or bolt? 
• What differences do you notice between the nuts and bolts? 
• In which direction do we tighten/loosen them?  (Righty tighty, lefty loosy)

My own experience

I had a blast playing this with some toddlers around the age of 5-6. They really enjoyed it and could play with it for several days. When I tried it with younger kids, they were having fun for a while, but the interest didn't last for more than a few minutes when left alone.

Thank you for reading this post, let me know what you think. What would you do different? I would love to hear about it and please feel free to share you experiences with me.