Fun music inspired activity for kids that works on fine motor skills.
This fine motor music idea has been in my head for months, but I kept putting it off because I never seemed to have enough cotton balls on hand. Well, after cleaning off the hutch in my dining room for the first time in months (yes, there may have been stuff from August and Halloween on that hutch!), I came across a bag full of cotton balls. So I decided then and there to whip up our very first batch of baked cotton balls.
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Fine Motor Music Inspired Activity for Kids
I was inspired to do a music variation on the classical baked cotton balls because of accents found in music. I wanted to show the boys that with some extra force from the arms, music notes can have more emphasis. Hitting the note with the hammer was our way of simulating those accents found in music. When the boys would hit the baked cotton ball music notes, I would reinforce the music terminology with words like "emphasis" and "accented music notes." Also, assembling the baked cotton ball music notes was a way to reinforce what music notes look like.
What you'll need to make baked cotton ball music notes:
- Cotton Balls
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 cup of water
- A few squirts of black acrylic paint (those are the official measurements...)
- Pipe cleaners - I wanted to use black ones, but I didn't have any on hand.
Mix flour, water, and paint together. Then dip the cotton balls in the black goopy mixture until well coated. Place the cotton balls onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Then bake at 300 F for about 45 minutes.
Once the cotton balls are cool, let the kids assemble them into music notes! Pushing those pipe cleaners into the baked cotton balls is a great fine motor workout!
Now for the fun part - the smashing of the cotton balls! Or to use music terminology, it was time to put some accents on those notes!
For this part, I highly recommend using a hard surface and a cloth or shower curtain for easy clean up. You will also need a hammer. Now, before the angry mobs start attacking me, please use your discretion. We did use a real hammer. I am confident in my children's abilities to use real life tools, but it is not for everyone and that is okay. Please note that my boys were fully supervised at all times.
Now back to regular scheduled programming...
The boys took turns hitting the baked cotton balls. I guided this process very carefully, saying it was "J's turn" or "K's turn," so that no little fingers were harmed in the process. I encouraged the boys to do a safety check before using the hammer. They were to make sure no one's hands or feet were on the board and that only one cotton ball was on the board.
My boys did amazing! They were great at sharing the hammer and taking turns. They also used positive words to encourage each other, which was really cute.
That was it! No injured body parts and the boys were thrilled to use real tools!
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