Unlock Your Child’s Motor Skills with a Fun Montessori Activity: Nuts and Bolts

As a parent, you always want what’s best for your child. You want them to grow up healthy, happy, and with all the skills they need to succeed in life. One of the most important skills to develop in young children is their motor skills. This is the foundation for everything from playing sports to writing their name. But how can you help your child develop these skills in a fun and engaging way? That’s where Montessori activities come in. In this blog post, we’ll explore one such activity that is sure to capture your child’s attention: nuts and bolts. Read on to learn more about how this simple game can unlock your child’s motor skills and set them on the path to success.

Nuts and Bolts

Suitable Age: 3+

Materials: 

• A tray
• 5 – 6 nuts and bolts (different sizes)
• A small mat

Direct Aim:

• For a child to be able to screw or unscrew nuts and bolts

Indirect Aim:

• Refining of the muscles in the hand
• Concentration
• Hand-eye coordination
• Independence
• Sequence of order

Presentation/ Child instruction:

1. Once seated, invite him to remove the mat from the tray, place it in front, and unroll it.
2. Once the mat has been placed on the table, slowly reach for a bolt on the tray, place it on the mat, and using your stable hand, hold the bolt while the other hand unscrews the nut. Then place the bolt on the top left of the mat with the nut directly underneath it. Be sure the child has good visibility of what you are doing.
3. Continue in this manner and unscrew 2 or 3 nuts and bolts, invite the child to unscrew the remaining nuts and bolts, and then place them on the mat.
4. When all nuts and bolts have been removed from the tray, unscrewed, and placed on the mat (forming a row of bolts with a row of nuts just below the bolts), pick up the first bolt to the left and place it on your hand (again, using your stable hand) and then reach for the nut.
5.  Once you have a nut and bolt in hand, slowly add the nut to the bottom of the bolt and begin screwing the nut on the bolt. Replace it on the mat.
6. After one or two, invite the child to try.
7. Once all nuts and bolts have been re-screwed, begin to place the nuts and bolts back onto the tray one at a time, back to their original order. Once again, invite the child to help.
8. Once all nuts and bolts have been placed back onto the tray, the child may re-roll the mat and place it onto the tray.
9. Offer the child a chance to try the activity again.

Point of interest:

• The various sizes of the nuts and bolts and the variations

Control of Error: 

• Difficulty using the proper nut.
• Unable to screw/unscrew the nut onto the bolt
• Difficulty holding the bolt with the proper fingers or stable hand
• Noise caused by dropping material
• Forgetting the sequence

>> Read more: Unlock Your Child’s Motor Skills with a Fun Montessori Activity: Screwing and Unscrewing with different screwdrivers