Sweet Pea is 38 months old.
From: This is another very simple idea from Teach Mama.
Material:
- Paper.
- Hole Punch.
Procedure:
- Show your tot how to carefully line up the piece of paper into the business end of the hole punch.
- Demonstrate squeezing the handles together to punch the hole.
- Next give your tot the hole punch and help him or her grip the handle correctly and squeeze the punch.
- Once your tot gets the hang of it, ask him or her to punch holes all the way around the edge of the paper.
Observations: Sweet Pea loved trying to use the hole punch, although she really struggled with it at first. I had to actually put my hand over hers and show her how to punch a hole several times before she was able to do it alone. As you can see in the picture below, she often had to use both hands to get the punch to close, but overall this was a nice challenge for her and kept her engaged.
Learning to use a hole punch is a great little exercise for an older tot, although I’m sure it would require too much strength and dexterity for a younger one.
We didn’t do anything with the little circles that came out of the punch, but I imagine that gluing them onto paper would be a good extension to this activity.
Notes from the Trenches: Some hole punches could probably pinch a small finger, but we didn’t have any trouble.
Rating: 4 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Independent, Frugal)
Carnivals: This post is linked at One Hook Wonder’s weekly Montessori Monday and Mommy Moment’s Montessori Moment. Take a look at those sites for other great Montessori ideas.
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We played with a hole punch this week too! My son enjoyed folding the paper up and seeing the design we could make punching multiple holes at one. When our white paper was full of holes we glued it on top of a blue page and made it a card!
I love the card idea. I’m sure that the blue card a great background behind the hole punched paper!
Love it! I was scrolling through old posts & love all of your great ideas! I am going to have to become your newest follower & take note of all your ideas to start them with my son!
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Thanks so much for Linking up on our Monday’s Montessori Moment! This is a great activity…thanks for the reminder that I should put it back out on the shelf!
Have a wonderful day & hope to see you again next week 🙂
Jody
Short Pants loves using the hole punch as well. I actually just bought 2 new ones on sale so both boys could have one as our old one has been “loved” a bit too much. 😉 Thanks for linking up to Montessori Monday.
We used hole punches to make paper snowflakes out of coffee filters. We folded the coffee filter into fourths and cut a few snips around the edges. We then used a hole punch for punching holes in the middle. It was a little hard for the younger kids to punch through without help, but the older ones could do it.
I really like the idea of using the hole punch to create something instead of just doing it for it’s own sake. Nice idea!
[…] Hole Punching (add strips of paper to your bag instead of entire sheets) […]