Posting Pom Poms though coloured tubes

I have always been a fan of pom poms for developing fine motor skills and Hartley has enjoyed posting them through tubes since he was about 6 months old. 

This week I am doing lots of COLOUR activities with Hartley and the children I look after. I saw this idea on pinterest a few months ago and knew I had to do it 

 I painted the old wrapping paper tubes with colours that matched the pom poms I had. Luckily I also had matching coloured bowls.

I tied the tubes onto my fireguard but you could tape them to a wall or piece of furniture.

 Hartley loved this activity. He instantly knew what to do and keeps going back to it. He is a little bit too young to understand you have to match the colours yet, however I talk to him about the colours and I am sure by doing more and more activities like this he will begin to sort and match colours.

The older children I look after were able to sort the colours and have began to name the colours. 

The children have had lots of fun with the pom poms and have used them in lots of their play including filling cups with them and then pretending to drink them!

Of course pom poms should not be used with young children unsupervised, but I am a big believer that we should allow our children to develop their fine motor skills by handling small items.

I have lots of ideas of how I can extend this activity so watch this space!