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Are you looking for inexpensive ideas for visual discrimination and fine motor practice? Use buttons! Sort them by color, by shape, or another attribute. Great activity for a classroom fine motor station, visual perceptual center, or as an occupational therapy session warm-up.
First, I sort out all the buttons looking for ones that are very closely related. Same pattern but different sizes, same color and size but two holes and four holes… I also like to have a category of 1, only one button that is not like any others.
You can decide how many different categories you want to have. I usually go with 8. I divide a piece of cardstock into 8 boxes and laminate it.
I then put varying numbers of 8 different buttons into a bag. I make enough for a small group; it would work for a classroom center or full class activity if you have enough buttons. I included one of these fine motor/visual perceptual activities in my Kits for Kindergarteners.
The kids are then asked to sort their bag of buttons into categories. Children who struggle with visual discrimination skills often miss the subtle differences of size, number of holes, texture. They are very used to sorting by color and shape, but when they need to fill each of the 8 spots with different buttons, they often think some are missing. Students can then trade bags and sort them again. They also get great fine motor practice when they are sorting, as well as, cleaning up the buttons.
For an added challenge find a set of all the same color. The subtle differences in texture and the outer rim of many of these buttons can increase the skill level needed to complete the task.
Another idea is to put buttons on clothespins. I ordered this set of buttons from Amazon and glued several of each color onto clothes pins with tacky glue. Then I made matching colored button cards, printed them on cardstock, and laminated them. You could also glue a button onto cardstock for your students to match.
Use any of the excess buttons for crafts or sensory bins. Check out the button tree template in my Free Resource Library.
Check out my TpT store for worksheets and activities to work on visual perceptual skills. Or my Boom learning store for interactive digital games.
About the Author
I am a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) and have been working in a public school system for more than 25 years. My resources can be found on TPT, BOOM Learning, Made by Teachers, Classful, and Your Therapy Source. I appreciate your interest wherever you wish to shop.
My mission is to help you find creative ideas to incorporate fine motor, visual perception, gross motor, and social-emotional learning into your lessons.
I hope you consider signing up for my Free Resource Library with your Email. I send out emails about once a week and share resources, tips, and planning ideas for your classroom or occupational therapy needs. Hopefully, these help your students work on building their skills in a fun and engaging way.
