Rubber Band Fine Motor Play

Rubber bands.. elastic bands… elastic loops… gum bands…. no matter what you call this stretchy object they are great for developing fine motor skills.

We raided our recycle bin to find a variety of household items and use them for rubber band fine motor play.

Stretching out the rubber band strengthens the muscles in the hands as well as developing hand-eye coordination.

We, therefore, are continuing our A to Z Fine Motor Series with the letter R – Rubber Band Fine Motor Play Using Household Items.

This activity was straightforward to set up. I simply went to our kitchen and into the recycling bin to find any cylinder household items.

These included:

cardboard tubes,
tin cans,
Pringle tube,
a wine bottle
gift box,
spice containers and
a yeast tin.

Some containers were empty and some were full. You may wish to secure any lid with sellotape if your little one is inquisitive and you do not want any spillages.

Finally, I placed a selection of coloured rubber bands on the table to finish our set up.

The aim of the activity was to stretch the rubber bands over each household item.

It wasn’t until I demonstrated how to do this that until I realised just how difficult it is to teach someone how to stretch out a rubber band.

What appears to be an easy skill requires precision, coordination and dexterity. However, my son was determined to get at least one rubber band onto each item.

My son actually found the objects that were full, and therefore heavier, easier to use. He did get frustrated when an elastic band would ping off but he persevered.

When my son was putting several rubber bands onto a spice container, he realised that the bands could make a noise.

He used his fingers to rub the bands up and down the container.

He then experimented with each household item to hear the different noises each object made.

I set my son the second task. This time, I wanted him to remove the rubber bands.

This required a different set of fine motor skills. He used his pincer grip to lift the rubber band up and take it off of the holder.

It was surprising how many different fine motor play activities could come from simply combining household items and rubber bands.

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