January is the time of year when it gets cold outside and if you are lucky, snow falls from the sky! The learning theme turns to snow, snowmen, ice…and all things cold. While there are so many in-depth, hands-on activities to add to your learning theme this month, don’t forget about the super simple activities that can be completed independently! Our fine motor snowflake craft for preschoolers (and even some older toddlers!) can easily be added to your winter themed plans.

Fine Motor Snowflake

The fine motor snowflakes can be prepped in no time!

The supplies needed for to create the snowflakes include blue paper, cardstock, or construction paper and hole reinforcement stickers. The hole reinforcement stickers can be found in any office supply aisles. My older kids use them when their papers in their binders rip through one of the punched holes.

I am a big fan of using cardstock for craft activities in my preschool classroom. The colors are brighter and the paper is stiffer. It makes it easier to cut and work with.

To prep the fine motor snowflakes, I cut the pieces of paper into one inch strips. After that I cut the strips down to 4 or 6 inches. These dimensions are not too long so that younger preschoolers don’t want to give up in the middle of the fine motor work. And they are wide enough to successfully use with the hole reinforcement stickers.

Preschoolers will peel one hole reinforcement sticker off at a time and place it on the blue strip of paper. The goal is to place the white circle stickers along the blue strip without letting the stickers touch. 

Lay out the 3 or 4 strips of blue paper in a row on the table. Give each preschooler a sheet of hole reinforcements. 

If you are making a snowflake with 4 strips of paper, glue 2 of the strips of paper together in a plus sign. Then glue the 2 groups together. (see below)

Break down the directions for your preschoolers.

Keep things simple. This is how the activity will be able to be done independently. When I say independently though, I don’t mean that they are all on their own. My preschoolers will still sit at a table together, all working on their fine motor snowflakes. So they are working on their own snowflake, but interacting with each other and helping each other as needed. 

Fine Motor Work

Do you model craft projects before your preschoolers head off to work on them?

If you don’t, you should! Modeling and making your own snowflake will allow you to go over the steps, expectations, and what NOT to do. 

It also gives you control to keep the focus on the fine motor parts of the activity. What does this mean exactly?

Well…it’s not ok to only put one white sticker on each strip of paper. Talk about how many stickers are expected. Show your preschoolers how to peel the circle sticker, how to problem solve if they get stuck, and even how to hold the circle sticker in their fingers.

Glue control is also important. While it’s easy to overlook the glue squeezing process, I recommend reinforcing the importance of this skill. It’s fun to squeeze a glue bottle for a long time to make a huge puddle of glue. We all get that. 

But that is not going to work with the fine motor snowflake. So your preschoolers need to know that how they squeeze the glue bottle matters.

And don’t forget to show how to criss cross the strips of paper. If the strips are piled on top of each other, it’s not quite the snowflake that is expected. Controlling the movement and placement of the strips of paper actually takes a bunch of different preschool skills. But one is fine motor control.

Focusing on these simple steps will help your preschoolers work hard with their fine motor skill strengthening. And it’s in a fun way!

Our spider craft and apple pie spin art are 2 fun ways to practice fine motor skills too!

If you need other themed ideas specifically for fine motor work in your preschool classroom (or at home!), our Fine Motor Busy Bins are the #1 printables that preschool and kindergarten teachers continue to rave about.

You will also want to check out a few of our favorite snowman ideas that can be played over and over again!