Easy Christmas Candy Cane Activity for Fine Motor Skills
Looking for a fun way to work on fine motor skills this Christmas time? Try our fun candy cane activity that’s perfect for preschoolers and above! These are also a great way to make some homemade Christmas decorations.
Fun Fine Motor Activities for Young Kids
Keeping up with all the “goals” and skills they tell you for kids can be stressful. That’s why we love to do easy but fun activities that include these key skills. But the kids are having enough fun to not even realize that’s what we’re trying to do.
Fine motor skills are one of those goals that can seem daunting. But you’re probably already doing activities with your kids to help! A lot of fun crafts can also help while you get to create a work of art.
Make it fun!
Fine motor skills are built by using the small muscles of the hand and fingers. Often, you’ll see kids do this instinctively when they pick up small objects, eat little snacks, or try to dress themselves. It’s important to built up the strength of the small muscles and the hand-eye coordination.
This may sound boring at first, but all you have to do is make it fun for kids! Think of how much kids love to use their fingers and hands if you just give them some paint. This Christmas craft is one of those fun ways because kids get to make something for Christmas!
We have quite a few fun fine motor activities to try this holiday season like Christmas play dough and a very easy Christmas sensory bin! There’s an entire list of our favorites here, too.
Meeting Fine Motor Goals
Remember, fine motor skills are something built over months and years. So don’t be stressed if your child doesn’t meet the suggested goals right away. Just keep giving them fun activities to practice.
You can read the suggested fine motor goals for babies to young kids here. But remember, these are guidelines, so don’t stress too much about it.
An Easy Candy Cane Craft for Christmas Time
This time of year is one of our favorites for doing crafts! With an almost two year old and three year old, they love all things Christmas! And they love to be involved in the making and decorating.
So we try to keep things simple but engaging with a craft like this!
Supplies Needed for the Candy Canes
This easy Christmas craft is minimal in supplies, and we found everything we needed at the local dollar store. Honestly, the Dollar Tree has tons of great Christmas crafting supplies.
The best part about this craft is that all you need is red pipe cleaners and red and white beads. You can also get a real candy cane for reference but that’s not a must.
To prepare, I separated out the red and white beads from a pack of multicolored beads. But you can buy just red and white beads from some craft stores and Amazon. Then, cut your pipe cleaners in half.
Get to Crafting
To begin this craft, an adult will have to help bend the end of the pipe cleaner around the first bead. Next, your child can start placing beads on the pipe cleaners while alternating colors. If you have very young kids, don’t worry if they don’t get the pattern exactly right.
I kept repeating “red then white” with my kids to remind them. This is where is may be good to have a real candy cane to look at for kids.
Leave a little room at the end, and bend the end of the pipe cleaner around the last bead.
Once my kids were all done, I did put a dab of glue on each end to keep the beads and pipe cleaners in place.
Homemade Candy Cane Ornaments
If you added glue like I did, let it completely dry. Then, you can have your kids put their candy canes up on the Christmas tree! My son tied another one to his backpack, and we kept a few just to play with.
Remember, fine motor activities like this (and really any craft we do) is not about being perfect! No matter what their beads look like, just the act of putting the beads on the pipe cleaners is helping their fine motor skills. And that’s our real goal here.
More Fine Motor Christmas Fun
If you’re looking for more great ways to practice fine motor skills or a way to use more of those beads, try these pipe cleaner wreaths! This craft goes along great with the candy canes because it’s all the same materials.
More Easy Homemade Christmas Ornaments
If your kids love to make Christmas ornaments as much as mine do, try these easy DIY ornaments. These are another wonderful way to build fine motor skills while having a lot of fun.
