Ball Scoop & Transfer Activity – Gross & Fine Motor for Young Children

Written on February 12, 2023

by Jordan Engdahl

I know you’re always looking for something to keep those speedy toddlers of yours busy!

Whether you’re a teacher, parent, nanny, grandparent, etc., I’ve got another activity to share with you today! 

There are so many ways to keep your chid interested, but sometimes it’s hard to find just the right ones that will keep them occupied for more than 2 minutes.

I don’t know about you, but I have a million and one things going on in my mind at one time. 

“What are we going to eat for breakfast? What about lunch? What about dinner?! What chores do I need to get done today? Was there an appointment that we were supposed to make it to today? What can we do to get out of this house? What do I need to put on the shopping list? What activities can I come up with on the spot for my child(ren)? What can I do, today, that makes me happy?”

(Side note: This last one is always on my mind. Don’t forget to think about yourself!)

Once you finally find an activity that keeps your child actively learning, independently (and not just watching a television show), you might feel like Wonder Woman (or Man!). 

In this post, I want to spark an activity for your children, so that you have that time to pee, or sit down and catch up with any missed messages on your phone, or maybe even some time to do the dishes.. who knows! Whatever you want to use your time for, you do it, Wonder Woman (or Man!) and you enjoy it!

Ball Scooping Activity 

Disclaimer: We had all of these items on hand, but if you don’t have a specific item, just accommodate!

Materials

• Hand sized Balls (beware of choking hazards that you don’t go too small)

• Regular cupcake sized tray

• Ladle/larger spoon (large enough to hold the ball being used)

• A larger bowl to hold balls

Material Notes

• We used those plastic balls that go into a ball pit, but you could use

  • cotton balls,

  • pom pom balls, 

  • tennis balls – a good way to switch it up because they are heavier

  • Wooden or plastic balls that go in certain toys – for example Drop Ball Towers

• Cupcake Tray: If you don’t have any cupcake trays in your home, use two bowls/small boxes to transfer back and forth

• To be honest though, if you have the ball pit plastic balls, there are SO many activities you can do with them! Pinterest it! (Side note: I know they have neutral colored balls now, or a specific color scale like “pinks” or “grays.” While these are aesthetically pleasing, they are not helping your child by introducing colors into their world. If your child is sensitive to too much color, then that could be a different story.)

Directions

• Your child should take their ladle and scoop the ball up.

• While balancing the ball, they will carry it across to their cupcake tray (or whatever you may be using) to transfer from one area to another without dropping it. This creates an appropriate challenge for the child and helps them to feel successful.

If they drop it, it is completely OK! Try not to show any anger or frustration towards the situation, as it may cause a negative affect on the child’s memory of this activity and your relationship.

Instead, you could say, “The ball fell off. That’s ok! Let’s pick it up and put the ball back on the spoon. You can do it!”

USE ALL THE LANGUAGE YOU CAN!! (Sorry, not sorry, BIG Advocate!)

You will want to model how to perform this activity to the child(ren) first, so that they can imitate your actions on their own, afterwards. 

Depending on how young they are, you may need to help them with the motions, but after a while they should figure it out and want to be independent carrying out the activity on their own. 

Your child may come up with a different way of accomplishing this activity in their own creative ways (which is great, because htey are using their nogin!), but if the child has decided they think it’s best to start throwing the balls or hitting/running around with the ladle, bring them back and redirect. Try to reiterate the activity to them and show your joy while doing so. If the child has still chosen to not listen, it may be time to move on to another activity.

Tossing the balls back into the bowl once the tray was filled. An extra skill she showed me during this activity!

I hope you find that this activity brings you a little piece and quiet for longer than a few minutes, as they are distracted by learning and practicing using their gross motor skills. If this is not the case, then don’t forget, they are still learning and that is the main reason we show our children activities like this.

IF you are still looking for some down time, check out my post on “Snow” or “Water” in the house! (Indoor & Outdoor Water Table Activities) Rilynn, our 18 month old, spent an HOUR playing in her Water Table. We live in Michigan and our outdoor temps were in the single digits for a few days, so we brought the snow inside! Be mindful, we are still learning how to keep it in the table, but we do confine her to an “area” with towels on the floor. Supervision is still required! Haha!

Water Table Sensory Activities

Remember! When introducing new activities to children, you may get excited about something new, as will your child! But, just because they acted in a certain way that pleased you during one sit down of said activity, doesn’t mean it is going to be the same the next go around. Don’t overdo activities, spread them out, add in new things, and switch up the way you do something! 

Developmental Aspects

• Gross Motor: Using their arms to transfer ball in ladle and balance it to the next destination

• Fine Motor: Using their hands & fingers to pick balls up 

• Balance: Balancing the ball on their spoon to transfer to another destination.

• Hand-eye Coordination: The motion of choosing a ball in the bowl and scooping that same ball up. Then finding a resting area to drop the ball into.

• This can help with food ‘measuring’ when cooking or helping cook, too!

• Color Recognition

Fine Motor Skills & Hand-eye Coordination

MORE SORTING ACTIVITY IDEAS!

Switch the activity up!

• Color sorting: Make separate bowls and each are to be a different color. Only that color can go into that bowl

• Color sorting: Make each row of the cupcake tray a certain color 

• Color Sorting: Put a colored dot sticker on the bottom of each cupcake holder (mix up colors) for the child to match the ball to the correct color dot

• Have the child pick up more than one ball and balance.

• Put the balls in water to make scooping them up more challenging

• Use a heavier (not larger) ball – see Material Notes for more on this – to strengthen their gross motor skills

• A different way we spiced it up: Her ball pit has a basketball hoop attached to it. I dumped the balls in the pit, and handed her a ladle to transfer balls on the ground, to balls going into the hoop. Or just for picking up practice (in a confined area – this is great, because we’ve lost many balls to the “Under the Couch World”)

“Look, Mom! Two balls!”

Other fun “scooping” transfer activities include 

(Warning! Some activities may incorporate choking hazards):

• Tongs/Spoon & Cotton Balls/Pom Pom Balls

• Scooping Ice Cubes

• Scooping with a measuring cup (sprinkles or colored/non-colored rice)

• Small strainer & floating items in water

• Put a funnel in an empty water bottle, let child scoop rice into funnel

• Color sorting with tongs, with any manipulative toy (ex: colored bears, dinosaurs, beads)

• Color sorting with a spoon, with dried beans into an ice cube tray (ex: lentils, pinto beans, kidney beans) You can even buy mixed dried beans at some stores)

Always supervise children in any activity they may be involved in, and please be courteous of choking hazards.

Happy Activity’ing!