Coffee Cups and Crayons

Simple play ideas, learning activities, kids crafts and party ideas, plus acts of kindness for kids!

Corn Silk Fine Motor Sensory Play

 
Summer means backyard cook outs, picnics, and fresh veggies.  What is a key part of all of these summer things?? Corn on the cob!  Kids love eating corn on the cob at picnics and summertime dinners.  Peeling all of that corn is part of the summer experience and can be a family event if the kids are involved.
When peeling the corn husks, I’m always amazed by the texture of corn silk.  It’s stringy, soft, and a little sticky.  We are giant fans of sensory play and learning so we’re always looking for fun ways to incorporate sensory play and fine motor play into what we’ve got on hand.  What a great sensory experience it is to peel corn on a hot summer day!  So of course, when the kids and I peeled a bunch of corn one day, we had to play with all of that corn silk. 

Fine motor play

Fine Motor play can be incorporated into many sensory play activities.  Manipulating different tools and small objects with sensory exploration is a great way to develop the small muscles of the hands.  We added a few fun items to our corn silk tray and had so much fun with our corn silk play activity!

Sensory Play

I put a bunch of corn silk onto a recycled Styrofoam tray and tossed in a few dry kidney beans.  This was a pretty fun invitation to explore different textures as my Little Guy searched for the beans in the corn silk.  He thought it was like a cool little mini Easter egg hunt.  Manipulating the sticky corn silk to pull out the beans was a great way to explore the textures of the materials. 

Something was missing…after searching around in a kitchen drawer for a bit, I pulled out a pair of chop sticks.  This was a great way to work on tripod grasp and hand strength as Little Guy pulled out the kidney beans.

We had so much fun with our fine motor and sensory play activity.  And by the time we were finished playing, the corn was done and ready to eat!

Looking for more sensory and fine motor activities for kids?  We had fun with our rock sensory play and in hand manipulation activities.   These handwriting practice in dirt and water painting handwriting practice activities from Coffee Cups and Crayons looks like a fun way to combine sensory and fine motor play, too!

 

The Sugar Aunts are three sisters who blog about
all things creative in motherhood.  They love playful learning, creative kid’s crafts, sensory and fine motor activities, kid’s party themes, DIY, and so much more.  Between the three Aunts, there are 8 cousins who are around each other so often, they are more like siblings than cousins! You can see the action at www.sugaraunts.com.  Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

 

About Colleen SugarAunts

Colleen Beck, OTR/L is an occupational therapist with 20 years experience, graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 2000. Colleen owns and authors www.theottoolbox.com, where she inspires therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Colleen is passionate about play and strives to empower those serving kids of all levels and needs.

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