Last week while I was sorting out toys and trying to decide what to keep and what to give I found this card slot drop activity. I made it for my little human six months ago. He is now 2 years old and he mastered this activity a long time ago so I decided to forward it to someone with a younger toddler. But what mistake that would be!
When my little human got home and saw this activity he immediately took it and started to play. He was dropping cards in a container with such ease and he was thrilled with his skills. It occupied him for more than half an hour. Then he took some toilet paper and tried to push it through the card slot. This gave me the idea to make new “cards” out of thin writing paper or toilet paper and make this activity more challenging for him.
Thanks to this, now we have this activity again in rotation on our Montessori shelf and my little human is practicing his fine motor skills on a whole new level.
Setting up a “Card slot drop” activity
For a container in this activity, I used an empty protein powder container. On a lid, I carved a hole in a size a little bit bigger than a credit card. Also, to make everything a little bit nicer I dressed the container in gift wrapping paper. Now you need to pull out some old cards like business cards you don’t need or other cards that are not valid anymore and you are good to go. You can also use playing cards or you can make your own cards out of cardboard or paper (if you want to make this activity more challenging).
Summary
Resources: empty container with lid, old business cards, playing cards or custom cards
Focus: eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills
How to: cut a hole on a lid of a container and let your kid drop some cards through the slot
Alternative: make cards out of paper to make activity more challenging