Pimp your motor skills box and fidget box for the classroom: simple tips!
Author: Tanja Damhof
Webshop owner and mother
Do you know what it’s like? You have a cupboard full of materials to fidget with and practice fine motor skills, but you don’t even use half of them. There’s a box with five different types of tweezers to practice pencil grip, but nothing to promote ambidexterity. There should be a magnet set somewhere at the top, but you haven’t used it in years, because half of it is missing. You have about twenty fidget toys that your students use to relax, but nothing that helps them to really focus on the lesson in silence. And now that the school year has been going on for half a year, you’ve lost track of what you have and what you don’t have. 
High time to organize and supplement everything, but how do you start? I will help you regain the overview and put together the ideal motor skills or fidget box for your students.
Use the checklists below or go straight to the webshop for a wide range of toys and materials to support the sensory development of your students. Are you curious about which materials I find indispensable? Attached you will find my favorite materials for the best fidget and motor skills boxes. Would you rather buy a ready-made fidget set?
This is how you make a clear motor skills box!
- Collect all the fine motor skills practice materials on a large table.
- Throw away anything that is broken.
- For each category, note whether you have sufficient materials.
- Turn
- Push and pull
- Tilt
- Oral motor skills
- Puzzling
- Stringing
- Closures
- Stiches
- Finger motor skills
- Go to the Toys42Hands website and use your list to purchase the missing materials so that you can offer the students a complete, versatile motor skills box.
- Still need extra help? No problem, send an email to info@toys42hands.nl and I'll take a look with you!
Tip: Keep an overview of your motor skills box with the categories and materials and note down throughout the year what breaks, is lost and what is used often or rarely. This way you can see at a glance how you can make your motor skills box even more suitable.
This is how you create a tidy fidget box!
This is how you create a tidy fidget box!
- Collect all the fidget toys from your classroom on a large table.
- Throw away all broken materials.
- For each category, note whether you have enough fidget toys.
- Apply pressure
- Focus
- Relaxed
- Incentives
- Sensory
- Quiet
- Go to the Toys42Hands website and use your list to purchase the missing materials so that you can offer the students a complete, versatile fidget box.
- Still need extra help? No problem, send an email to info@toys42hands.nl and I'll take a look with you!
Tip: Keep an overview of your fidget box with the categories and materials and note down throughout the year what breaks, is lost and what is used often or rarely. This way you can see at a glance how you can make your fidget box even more suitable.
Fidget box new in the classroom?
Then first read this blog about how to introduce a fidget box in the classroom. This is important, so that the play material is also seen by the children as what it is intended for. This prevents misunderstandings and even unrest!
