Shapes Lacing -- A Fun & Easy Preschool Activity

In following with this year's collection of Halloween-themed preschool activities, today's edition is about as easy as it gets: regular preschool stuff inside a plastic trick-or-treat bucket. But, as with most themed things, Olivia loves it! ...despite the fact that it only took me five seconds to throw it together. I'm sold!

This activity builds the following skills:

• shapes recognition
• color recognition
• hand-eye coordination
• fine motor skills
• focus and concentration

It's also good prep for one-to-one counting since each bead/shape has to be added to the string one at a time.

Step 1: Add lacing toys to bucket

Obviously this activity would be easy to put together any time of the year and in any kind of bucket or bowl, but since Halloween is on its way, the pumpkin is enjoying it's moment of glory.

Our lacing toys are some I picked up a couple of years ago from a yard sale or thrift store, but, if I'm not mistaken, they're Melissa & Doug brand. Basically, they're just colorful wooden shapes blocks/beads that string onto a shoelace.

Dump it all in the bucket and you're ready to go!


Step 2: Lace beads onto string 

Yeah, it's pretty self-explanatory. Olivia can actually do this activity all by herself now. (Hooray!) She likes to "make a train" or "make a snake" by--you guessed it--lacing the shapes onto the string.

You could also kick this up a notch by

• asking your child what each shape is
• having them create a pattern with the shapes
• counting the shapes as you put them on/take them off

Either way, it's a fun and purposeful activity that's easy for you to prep! Gotta love those.


Be sure to try out the rest of this year's fun Halloween preschool activities!

• Spooky Sorting

• Pom Pom Patterns

• More to come! (This list will be updated throughout the week until all of this year's Halloween preschool activities have been added.)

While you're at it, try out these other fun fine motor activities!

• Counting with Cereal

• Pattern Practice (with free printable)

• Fabric Sorting

• One-to-one Counting with Marbles

• Learning Colors with Fruit Loops

• Ice Cube Tray Sorting

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Find more fun and easy preschool ideas on the Preschool page.  You can also find them by clicking on the Preschool button in the header.  Enjoy!