Kids playing and learning with stickers for fun and fine motor development

I have to be honest, I love my kids playing and learning with stickers for fun and fine motor development. Children are like magnets to stickers and it’s wonderful to see their creativity and skills grow as they play.

Some of you might be aware of the #52weeksofplay Instagram photo challenge I’m running. Click here if you haven’t heard. This week we were focusing on ‘stickers’ and including it in our play. I was totally blown away with the many creative ways parents were getting their children to play. The truth is, stickers are totally awesome and they can be a great teaching tool with kids.

Recommended age: 1 year +
(Strict and active supervision is required at all times)

Kids playing and learning with stickers for fun
and fine motor development

Sensory development

Of course stickers are great because they offer children an amazing sensory experience. One side sticky, the other side smooth. Children, when they peel the sticker off the paper, can feel the sticky backing and make a conscious decision which way it needs to be in order for it to stick to the paper (or whatever surface they are putting the sticker on).

Fine Motor Skills

And lets not forget the skill required to actually get the sticker off the sticker sheet, hold it between the fingers and place it on the paper. There is actually a lot of skill required in doing that and so stickers do help build the small muscles in the hand, all whilst playing!

Stickers are great for all ages too. On a single sheet of paper I drew two lines for Boo (aged 2 years). One was a wavy pink line and the other a green line with some sharp edges. I gave her the instruction to place the stickers on the line. It didn’t matter where on the line, it just needed to be on the line.

I wasn’t too sure how she would go with it. The larger stickers certainly were going to help her with this task. She insisted that she start with the green line and clearly didn’t really quite grasp the concept. As soon as I demonstrated what the task involved she improved considerably. Just look at that first attempt compared to her second attempt.

And she continued to improve, as you can see from me asking her to place stickers along the single straight line.

Of course I wanted to extend this task to suit Possum (aged 5 years). I knew that adding stickers in a line wouldn’t be a problem for her and so I wrote out her name and she added sticker in the direction that her name would be written. This task helped her learn more about her name, how letters are to be scribed and continue to develop her fine motors skills which will help with future writing tasks and more.