7 Day Work Task Challenge - Day 6: Put in, Sorting & Fine Motor Task

Today’s task is one I have been wanting to create for a long time. It is a little more involved and costs a bit more than the others (mostly because I don’t have any little girls at home to steal hair clips from!). In this task, students have to use fine motor skills to pinch off hair clips and place them in a correctly colored hole.  This task goes beyond sorting by the basic colors and moves on to black, brown and clear.  

 All I did to make the task was cover a box with contact paper and trace the tips of the dowel rods on to the top of the box.  Then, I used an exacto knife to cut out the holes.  I put Velcro on the bottom of each dowel and the inside of the box to make the dowels more sturdy and to make them removable for storage purposes.  

Notice I also velcroed a paint stir stick to the top of each dowel.  This makes it so the students can’t simply slide the clips off the dowel.  They must pinch them off using fine motor skills. 

I then cut three squares on the top of the box and outlined them with white, black, and brown For black and brown outline, I used permanent marker and for white outline I used an Elmer’s Paint Pen.   Next, I taped two pieces of cardstock as dividers for inside of the box so it could be self checking. 

Just add the hair clips and Ta-Da, you have a fine motor sorting task.  To make it an easier task, I can remove two of the dowels and just have the student put in one size clip.  The large clips can be easiest for little hands or sometimes even the medium sized clips are easiest depending on the student.   

Another variation is covering two of the square wholes and having the student work on taking off and putting in, rather than taking off and sorting to put in.  

Or yet another variation that is a little trickier is taking all the clips off and having students pinch to open them and put them on the right sized dowel. 

So there you have it a hair clip task that works on fine motor and can work on put in, sorting by color or sorting by size!  What do you think?  What tasks can you make from hair clips?  I see lots of potential with them.