We do a lot of fine motor activities for toddlers on the light table, like our cutting water beads activity or our loose parts play, but this week we did a simple fine motor activity with our easy DIY lacing cards.
Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers: DIY Light Table Lacing Cards
(Post contains affiliate links for your convenience, see below post or my disclosure to learn more)
What you need:
- Transparent file folders/index dividers (similar to these but I got mine at Walmart for under
$3.00) - Hole punch
- Laminator
- Lamination pouches
- Yarn
- Tape
How to make our DIY light table lacing cards:
It’s very simple to make these! The most time consuming part was waiting for my laminator to warm up and that isn’t a very long process. I just cut multiple shapes from my transparent index dividers, ran them through the laminator, and the used the hole punch to create the holes for lacing.
Simple! I made ours into shapes but the sky is the limit, you could make all kinds of different things!
On each piece of yarn I used a small piece of tape on the end to keep it from fraying. It also makes it a bit easier for toddlers to thread the yarn through the holes.
Lacing cards are great activities for toddlers because they help develop hand-eye coordination, build their pincer grip (important for writing skills), and even help them learn patterns.
For my girls it’s also a bit of a lesson in patience as well because they can’t rush it. They have to move slowly, focus on what they are doing, and think about their next move.
You can adjust how many or few hole you want, how far apart you want them, and if they are straight or zigzag. MB and the daycare girls have had lots of practice with lacing cards so I put a lot of holes in ours but you can make them however you want.
Our light table is one of our favorite things to use, you can check out some of our other adventures on the light table by clicking here or the on the menu above.
What are your favorite light table toys?