Submerge some numbers and have the children pick them
out using tongs to improve fine motor control while
working on number recognition!

• A substance like jelly or Oobleck, shredded paper, pasta or rice
• Bowls
• Plastic numbers
• Tongs

What you do:
What you’ll need:
• 1. First, take a bowl filled with your substance
of choice and submerge a few plastic
numbers in it. That might be a liquid
substance like jelly or Oobleck (see how to make this on the next post) or a solid substance like
pasta, rice, or shredded paper.

2. Once you’re ready to start the activity,
give your child/ children tongs and show
them how to pick up the numbers using
the tongs

3. As the children are getting stuck into the
messy play,  ask
questions about the numbers, helping to
improve the children’s number recognition.