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You are here: Home / Fine Motor Activities / Fill Up Your Word Cup

Fill Up Your Word Cup

May 5, 2016 by Amy Smith

Kids adore playing with water, especially colored water.  So, why not incorporate learning into something fun so that the kids will be motivated to play longer (translation to parents= learn more!).  This fill your cup game is very easy  to make and is completely adaptable to any age and developmental level.

Improve your child's reading and letter recognition and fine motor skills with this eye dropper game

In addition to the academic learning concepts in this game, your child will also be developing their fine motor skills, especially in the area of hand strengthening.  By using an eye dropper to transfer water into the cups, your child will be developing his pincer grasp.

Pincer grasp 
is essential for pencil grip, pre-cutting skills, feeding tasks, self- care tasks like snapping, buttoning, and zipping; and object manipulation like building blocks, turning pages, and holding onto papers.

pincer grasp dropper

Materials Needed:

Several clear plastic cups

Eye Dropper fill cup materials

Food Coloring

Paper

Scissors

Tape

Marker/Pen

 

How to Construct:

Decide what learning concepts your want your child to focus on (i.e. letters, shapes, numbers, words, etc..)

fill cup concepts

 

Cut paper in several circles and write your desired learning concepts on the paper circles

Tape the circles onto the bottoms of the clear plastic cups (tape on the outside of the cup)

Fill a larger cup or bowl with water and add food coloring

How to Play

Have your child fill the eye dropper up with colored water from the larger cup or bowl

 

fill word cup #1

 

Instruct your child to find the cup with a specific learning concept  (i.e. find the cup with word “Sat” or the cup with the “number 12”),

fill cup #1 edited

 

Have the child use the eye dropper to squirt the colored water into that specific cup

 

fill cup #3

 

Your child can repeatedly squirt the colored water into the same cup until it is about 1/2 full before moving onto the next one.  Make memories with every droplet as you laugh and learn together! Enjoy!


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Related

Filed Under: Fine Motor Activities, Handwriting Help Tagged With: fine motor activities, pincer grasp, preschool, water activities

Disclaimer

Kids Play Smarter is a blog about general ideas, theories, and concepts related to the field of occupational therapy and the growth and development of all children. The information presented on this blog is not intended to serve as or replace occupational therapy services for your child. The information on this blog is for entertainment, informational, and educational purposes only. This blog is not meant to replace formal professional consultation or evaluation from a qualified clinician. All children need to have the approval of a physician to participate in physical activities, including those described on this blog. In addition, children need to be supervised by a responsible adult at ALL times when completing activities that are illustrated and described on this blog. The author of this blog is NOT responsible or liable for any damage, injury, accident, illness, death, or adverse reaction due to participation in the activities described on the website.

Comments

  1. Cindy@Your Kids OT says

    May 8, 2016 at 11:07 am

    Great idea! I’m going to do this with my little one learning sight words and add a second colour so he can see what happens when the colours mix. Also scheduled to share on my FB page. Thanks!

    • Amy SmithAmy Smith says

      May 9, 2016 at 1:08 am

      Thank you so much Cindy! Today was the first “official” day I launched my new website so I REALLY appreciate any shares you can do! It’s been so exciting to see the responses I’ve gotten so far with my site. I have seen your site several times and really like your work as well, so I feel honored that you would share mine! Thanks again! 🙂 Amy

Welcome to Kids Play Smarter

Amy Smith I am an occupational therapist with over 10 years of experience working with children. I created this website to offer parents, teachers, and therapists FREE ideas, strategies, and activities that they can do with their children to improve their fine and gross motor skills, handwriting, academic learning, and regulate their sensory system all while "playing" (just playing smarter)! Read More…

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