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Digging for worms

November 4, 2015 by Kate 14 Comments

Children seem almost programmed to love digging and seeking out interesting things in the ground. I remember as a child I would love digging for worms from the garden. Whilst getting hands dirty outdoors is lots of fun, this is a cute little indoor activity that will tap into your child’s imagination and help them develop their fine motor skills at the same time.  
Digging for worms activity for kids. Great for developing fine motor skills with threading beads onto pipe cleaners.

Possum (aged 3.5 years) has had some time off preschool because of some cheeky bug that had made her feel really unwell. As she was beginning to feel better she was, of course, feeling a little housebound (like me) and looking for some quiet entertainment. I thought it would be a good idea to prepare her a fun and simple craft activity that would have her making pipe cleaner worms and digging through brown rice as a wonderful sensory experience.

Recommended age: 3 years + 
(Active supervision is always required on my activities)

Threading worms using pipe cleaners

Our first task was to make the adorable pipe cleaner worms.

You will need – 

  • Pipe cleaners cut in half
  • Beads
  • Glue 
  • Googly eyes (optional)

To begin, create a loop at one end of the pipe cleaner and have your child thread on the beads. Possum is really starting to recognise and create patterns and so I encouraged her to try out a few colourful patterns using the beads. As you can imagine, this threading activity is wonderful on developing children’s fine motor skills. Just be sure to fold over the end of the pipe cleaner to secure the beads. 

Threading activity worms

How cute are these worms! Before you tell me worms don’t have eyes, I know, but these didn’t look as adorable without eyes. Whilst Possum and I were making them, we talked about how worms moved about even though they don’t have eyes. How do they know where they are going? 

Digging for pipe cleaner worms. Fun activity in pretend mud.

Once we were done, I added our worms on a bed of brown rice, which I’d intensified the colour of using food colouring. Now the activity became completely open-ended and Possum was free to play however she pleased. She was only going to be limited by her imagination!

Playing with dyed rice that looks like dirt

Fine motor digging for pretend worms.

Possum really loved making and playing with this activity. She particularly loved using the brown rice to completely cover up the worms and use tweezers or child-friendly chopsticks to dig around and find them again. It was also very easy to clean and pack up once the playing time was over. I simply stored the whole thing in a large clip seal container for next time. 

 

Would your child love this idea? 

Filed Under: 3 - 5 years, 5 - 10 years, activities for preschoolers, activities for toddlers, Fine Motor, Sensory Play, Sponsored Post Tagged With: beads, patterns, pipe cleaners, rice

Comments

  1. Lucy @ Bake Play Smile says

    November 4, 2015 at 8:39 am

    I LOVE this!!! And perfect for days like today where it’s not very nice outside!!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      November 4, 2015 at 11:02 am

      Thank you Lucy! Who would have thought worms could be so cute. LOL

      Reply
  2. Terri Clark says

    November 7, 2015 at 5:21 am

    I have a 4yr old autistic grandson n I am going to do this for him. We look for new ideas n this one is great. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Kate says

      November 7, 2015 at 4:37 pm

      Thanks so much Terri. We found it to be a lot of fun. Enjoy! ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  3. Laurence says

    November 7, 2015 at 1:05 pm

    How did you dye the rice?

    Reply
    • Kate says

      November 7, 2015 at 4:38 pm

      Great question Laurence! Click this link to find out how I like to dye rice. Have fun.
      https://laughingkidslearn.com/2012/10/colouring-rice.html/

      Reply
  4. Chelsea says

    November 7, 2015 at 11:35 pm

    Those worms are TOO CUTE… and am I the only one who didn’t know worms don’t have eyes? LOL, I’ll have to ask my boys if they know that! We had some old legumes (soooo out of date- whoops!) that the kids have been playing with the past week, we’ll have to make up some worms to go in ๐Ÿ™‚ Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      November 9, 2015 at 3:47 pm

      I admit I had to google it Chelsea. LOL

      Reply
  5. Krystal says

    April 12, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    What a fun activity. I know my daughter will love making the worms and then finding them. I also love the idea of using tweezers or chop sticks, great for fine motor.

    Reply
    • Kate says

      April 13, 2016 at 12:56 pm

      Thanks Krystal. It’s a great activity and one that you can pack up and put away for another time. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply

Trackbacks

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    April 7, 2016 at 8:01 pm

    […] Laughing Kids Learn – Digging for Worms […]

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  2. Glow in the dark letter hunt literacy activity - Laughing Kids Learn says:
    August 2, 2016 at 8:23 am

    […] hour and then hide them into a tub of rice. I reused the rice I had stored away from our ‘Digging for Worms’ activity as the dark brown colour really worked well to disguise the glowing […]

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  3. Summer Explore Tubs says:
    October 31, 2016 at 5:11 am

    […] for Worms idea from Laughing Kids Learn EXPLORE TUB FIVE:Did someone say barbecue?  These are adorable little ketchup and mustard […]

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  4. Worm Art Activities For Toddlers – ART WABU says:
    May 4, 2018 at 10:56 am

    […] Digging for worms – Laughing Kids Learn โ€“ Nov 4, 2015. Children seem almost programmed to love digging and seeking out interesting things in the ground. I remember as a child I would love digging for worms from the garden. Whilst getting hands dirty outdoors is lots of fun, this is a cute little indoor activity that will tap into your child's imagination and help them. […]

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Welcome
Hello and welcome!
My name is Kate and I am a mum to two little girls, Possum and Boo. We have lots of fun together learning with play at home and are pleased to share some of what we do with you.
Read my about page to find out more.

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