Light the lights with this holiday dot stickers activity!
Dot the lights is where it’s at, and this holiday dot stickers activity does not disappoint.
We already know that dot stickers make crazy fun Breakfast Invitations. Supplies are simple, and the learning engages children in play first thing in the morning.
RELATED: What is a Breakfast Invitation? Start here.
How can I use this indoor activity for multiple ages?
Older preschoolers love patterns, and younger toddlers love to color match.
You can do both, or either!
Since I knew both of my boys had a solid understanding of patterns, we went all in. I created 3 simple patterns for them to follow.
When my toddler thought it was funny to put the wrong color, we would laugh about how that lightbulb is broken and won’t light up the strand. He would then take it off and replace it with the matching color. Problem solved. Moving on.
Taking that approach kept things light and didn’t cause stress on either of us, making us want to give up.
Let’s get started with this fine motor holiday activity.
First, roll out the white paper roll and draw three long lines to represent the light strings. Create three simple patterns with your dot markers. For younger children, I like to do one strand at a time.
I chose three because I knew that was within their ZPD. It was an amount they could complete as they think. Not too easy or too difficult. It was also an amount that I knew they could complete before growing bored.
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Three simple supplies
- White paper – the one we love
- Dot stickers
- Markers – we love this 40 pack to match the stickers
Try to encourage moving left to the right as your preschooler works.
It can be tempting for children to dive right into the game.
“I see an orange! Here I goooooo. I put my orange right smack in the middle of the strand”.”
But we want a little more than that.
We want to remind our children that we start on the left and work our way to the right.
This is how we read and write and helps build a habit to focus on the harder things down the road, such as sounding out and forming letters.
We can do this by placing a large star to show the starting place for the activity. Peeling and placing these stickers are also helping your child with future pencil grip.
“Can you find the star? That means start! Put your finger on the star, and then you may begin your pattern.”
RELATED: Fine motor activities set up our children for successful writing down the road.
Say the pattern aloud as you go.
This can look different depending on what works in your home:
As you prepare breakfast, lean in and say something like, “Oh, I see! pink, orange, green, pink, orange, green, etc.” Then touch the colors as you say them aloud.
Your child may want to say the pattern as they go. – this is what we aim for
Apprehensive preschooler? Do a little pattern impromptu dance to pique their interest. Jumping jack and say pink, squat and say orange, clap and say green…” You get the idea. Just add something that also distracts them from stopping whining and wonder what mom is up to. You can also scale this down and allow more flexibility as we did in this monster sticker activity.
Remember to keep Breakfast Invitations to what works for your home.
There is no hard right or wrong way to make it your own. Our goal is to share with our children some tips. When they are ready, they will take build momentum.
Until then, keep at it. You are doing more than you think about leading them in the right direction for what’s to come down the road. Dot stickers make a great supply to get started!
