Roald Dahl Themed Fine Motor Skills Activity Ideas

I posted a collection of fine motor skill activities a couple of weeks ago, which we had a LOT of fun putting together. Following on from those, we created a collection of Roald Dahl themed fine motor skill activity ideas that are perfect for World Book Day or Roald Dahl Day.

Willy Wonka Inspired Sensory Tray

How to colour rice

Simply pour uncooked rice into a ziploc bag, add a little food colouring ( you should find a little goes a long way ), give it a good mix, and leave it to dry. We use these gel colours from Wilton.

I added some colourful pom poms, and we used squeezy tweezers from Learning Resources to pick them out.

Younger children can try to move pom poms to the same colour rice or count the pom poms as they remove them.

For older children, try adding some labelled wrapped sweets with numbers or letters on. Children can then create words with the sweets after using the tweezers to remove them from the rice.

Mrs Twit Sensory Gel Bag

This sensory bag is made using cheap blue hair gel inside a sealable sandwich bag. I added ten spiders and covered the edges with masking tape to stop the bag leaking.

My 5-year-old has spent a lot of time today practising her number bonds to 10 by moving the spiders around the bag and then putting different numbers on each side.

Mr Twit’s Wormy Spaghetti

Mr Twit’s wormy spaghetti is similar to the rice sensory tray, but this time, we used coloured spaghetti with bugs in it, which is how I imagine the meal Mrs Twit served him to be.

The idea is to use the tweezers to remove the bugs, but my daughter couldn’t resist sticking her hand straight in. It takes quite a bit of effort to move the spiders so hopefully good finger exercise.

How to make coloured spaghetti

Cook the spaghetti and leave to cool.

Add a little food colouring and a few drops of vegetable oil, then mix well.

Willy Wonka Chocolate Shop

Inspired by my lovely friend Anna over at The Imagination Tree we made some brightly coloured play dough and used it to make chocolates.

I made a menu for my girls to copy, for example, 4 green chocolates with 1 straw and two pom poms. They had a great time making my ‘chocolates’ for me.

Play dough is great for improving fine motor skills as it involves a lot of pushing, pulling, stretching and rolling. Even I could feel my hands being exercised as we played.

Enormous Crocodile Tree Races

We used LEGO to race each other to build trees using only one hand whilst being timed. We found it much harder using our non-writing hand.

Enormous Crocodile Lacing Card

This is only half finished, but I can’t wait to try it. I just need to make more holes and find a shoelace.

Can you think of any more fine motor skill activity ideas for us?

Which is your favourite Roald Dahl book? Ours is Revolting Rhymes!

Last Updated on February 28, 2024 by Emma Vanstone