Preschool Sunflower Activity That Builds Fine Motor Skills

Inside: Put together a preschool sunflower activity that builds fine motor skills while removing the seeds!

We love to explore sunflowers for science, then creating large sunflower art for our classroom wall.

We ask our preschool families if they have any homegrown sunflowers that they’d like to donate.

We then add some fine motor fun to our day with the sunflowers.

We place the plants on a flat surface and invite our toddlers and preschoolers to remove the seeds with tongs. This is a much-loved activity!

Preschool Sunflower Activity That Builds Fine Motor Skills

What you will need:

Sunflower plants, the bigger the better

Tweezers

Cups to put the seeds

Setting up the activity:

Place the plants on a flat surface. Show the children how to hold the tweezers so that they can remove the seeds from the plant.

How this activity strengthens fine motor skills:

Before children can be asked to hold a pencil, they need to have strength and dexterity in their hands and fingers.

It’s important to provide activities that strengthen the hands and fingers during the toddler and early preschool years.

Using tweezers is an excellent fine motor activity that builds fine motor development.

We’ve used this set of tweezers for fine motor activities throughout the year, in all areas of the classroom.

These types of activities also build hand-eye coordination.

Some of our children put down the tweezers and used the tips of their thumbs and fingers to pull the seeds from the plant.

Once the seeds are removed from the plant, they can be used in artwork, in the sensory table, and removed from the shell to be tasted.

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