Materials
Foam gardening kneeling pads or thick pieces of Styrofoam (can be purchased in the floral department at craft stores)
Child’s play hammer
Package of golf tees
Gallon size Ziploc bag for storing the activity
Sharpie Marker
Directions
Place a thick block of Styrofoam or a garden kneeling pad, a container of plastic golf tees, and a child’s play hammer onto a hard surface. Invite your child to hammer the “plastic nails” into the Styrofoam. Encourage her to hold the tee with her fingers of one hand and use the hammer with the other hand. Your child will have fun pounding the tees into the foam.
Extension Activities
Write your child’s name or random letters on the foam pads. At the corners of the letters, draw little circles with a Sharpie for your child to aim for when hammering the tees. You can also draw various shapes and draw circles at the corners or around the circumference of a circle shape.
Cut foam pads into ten smaller pieces. On five of the pads, write the numerals 1-5. On the other pads draw small circles from 1 – 5. The child can match the numeral with the number of dots and hammer in the correct number of tees. Repeat on the flip sides of the pads with numerals 6-10.
These activities work on the pincer grasp, which is needed for holding a pencil correctly, as well as support counting, one-to-one correspondence, and the recognition of shapes, letters, and numerals.