Unlock Your Child’s Motor Skills with a Fun Montessori Activity: Pegs and Basket

In a Montessori classroom, children develop important fine motor skills, including pegging. This activity encourages them to do things independently, helping them become more self-sufficient. As they gain proficiency in this task, they can assist their parents with pegging clothes on the washing line.

Pegs and Basket Activity

Suitable Age: 2 1/2+

Materials: A basket with several colored pegs arranged around the rim.

Direct Aim: Removing, placing, and balancing the pegs evenly around the basket independently, and the three-finger grasp

Indirect Aim:

• Hand/finger muscle refinement
• Concentration
• Hand-eye coordination
• Independence

Presentation/ Child instruction: 

1. Begin by showing the child the three-finger grasp – using the opening and closing movement with the three-finger of your right hand.
2. Slowly take one peg from the rim of the basket, open the end of the peg, and place it onto the bottom of the basket.
3. After approx. the third peg has been removed from the rim of the basket, the instructor-guide may invite the child to try it.
4. Once all pegs have been placed around the rim of the basket, invite the child to do it once again.
5. The objective of this particular activity is not only to grasp the pegs properly and place them from the rim of the basket but also to replace them and balance the pegs evenly around the basket to prevent the basket from tipping over.

Point of interest:

Color variation of the pegs and the basket

Control of Error: 

• Difficulty to complete the activity with the pegs
• Difficulty to find a proper balance with the pegs set evenly around the basket
• Difficulty in properly grasping the pegs with three fingers
• Pegs falling off the basket

>> Read more: Unlock Your Child’s Motor Skills with a Fun Montessori Activity: Pom Poms