DIY Pokey Pinning Boards

Do your kidlets pokey pin?  Mine do!  I love this simple activity for really working out those hand muscles (so important for writing stamina) and improving fine motor control.  It's simple to do, you just need a few thumbtacks and a dotted outline.  Kidlets poke their pin through each dot on the outline.  Easy peasy!  The only tricky thing is finding a safe base for them to pin into.  Some people suggest using the carpet, but having the pins on the floor worries me.  So I grabbed a few cheap bits'n'bobs and made my own boards that have the added benefit of holding the paper in place.

You'll need some wooden clipboards, cork placemats (mine were from Ikea - $3.99 for a pack of 4) and some glue.

I bet you can see where I'm going with this. :) All you need to do is cover the board with glue and pop the placemat on top.

The placemats are larger than the board, so once the glue is dry just cut off the excess.  I tried a craft knife and it made a bit of a mess of the cork.  Scissors worked much better!

There you have it! A sturdy, safe board for your kidlets to pokey pin away.  If you're looking for some templates to use, Mel From the Pond has lots of packs in her store.  I love Tracing and Pinning All Year Round because I alternate pokey pinning with tracing in my fine motor groups, but she has heaps of packs to choose from including sight words, shapes and the alphabet.

Linking up with Tara for Monday Made It - pop over and see the other inspiring DIY projects. :)

Happy pokey pinning!