Pick It Up
Using Tweezers with Tiny Hands
Fingers and tweezers do similar jobs. They both help to pick things up. Using tweezers takes lots of control and hand-eye coordination.
- Audience
- Caregiver
- Subject
- Fine Motor Skill Development
- Age
- KindergartenPre-KPreschoolToddler
- Languages
- ArabicBrazilian PortugueseCape VerdeanEnglishFrenchHaitian CreoleRussianSimplified ChineseSpanishVietnamese
- Materials
- Paper, plastic cup, plastic straws, popsicle sticks, tape, tweezers, yarn
The Basics
Help your child learn to use tweezers. Reminders are always helpful, show them how to:
- Hold their fingers or hand to grasp both sides of the tool.
- Open and close their fingers or hands to open and close the tweezers.
Tool Tips
Tweezers are a tool, not a toy. They can hurt if they are used to pinch someone. They should never go in eyes, ears, or noses. Remind children not to run while holding tweezers. Talk about using the tool to pick up objects, not siblings!
Things to Try with 2 to 3-Year Olds
Pick it up. Have your child help you rip a piece of paper into smaller pieces of different sizes. Work together to crumple up some pieces into balls. Leave a few pieces flat for a harder challenge. Encourage your child to use tweezers to pick up each piece and drop it into a plastic cup.
From here to there. Set out the crumpled and flat pieces of paper again. Add some yarn (at least 12 inches long), some plastic straws, and a plate. Invite your child to pick up the objects with the tweezers and move them onto the plate. Once they are done, dump them all out and start again.
Color connection. Work together to cut out small pieces of paper. Color each piece of paper to match the colors of the popsicle sticks. Drop a bunch of popsicle sticks into a pile. Encourage your child to pick up each popsicle stick with the tweezers and put it on the matching colored paper.
Things to Try with 3 to 5-Year Olds
Moving targets. Fill a large bowl with some water (or try this together during bath time). Have your child add some plastic straws to the water. Invite them to use the tweezers to pick up the floating straws. Bring the bowl outside and find some leaves to float and catch. For all water activities, make sure you supervise your child and empty the water when you’re done.
Stack it. Lay out some crumpled paper, plastic cups, popsicle sticks, and more. Invite your child to pick each one up with the tweezers and stack them on top of each other. How tall can they go before their tower falls over?
Spider web. Put small toys or crumpled pieces of paper in a shallow bowl. Make sure the tweezers can easily reach the bottom. Wrap some yarn around the bowl but leave space for the tweezers to go through. (You might want to tape the yarn
to the sides, so it does not move.) Encourage your child to use the tweezers to pull out the materials between the yarn without moving it.
Things to Say
“You almost got it! Try again. ”
“That's okay. Take your time. ”
“Wow! I can see that you're trying hard to pick it up. ”
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