Sure, teaching a toddler or preschooler how to button clothing is an important life skill, but at our house buttons are also used for so much more!
I’ve put together a list of button activities for kids. These activities are easy, fun and they focus on learning.
(Note: Buttons are obviously small and could be swallowed by younger children. Make sure this activity is right for
your little one and always supervise him or her while playing with buttons.)
6 Simple Button Activities for Kids
You can get a package of buttons in assorted sizes and colors at your local craft or discount store. (Or you can colorful buttons online. That’s an affiliate link. Thanks for supporting A Mom with a Lesson Plan.)
Dump the buttons out on your table and get ready for some fun!
- Fine Motor Play. We play a game called “All on the Line.” I draw several types of lines on construction paper. Then I ask her to line up the buttons on the lines. This is great for working on fine motor skills.
- Sorting. I showed my daughter how to sort the buttons by color and put them in little plastic bowls. She likes the sound the buttons make as they “plink and plunk” into the containers.
- Counting. We also practiced our counting skills. How many red buttons? How many green?
- Patterns. We also practice patterns with buttons. I’ll lay out three or four buttons in a pattern on the table. Then I ask my daughter which button should go next. She gets to put the next one in place… and then the next… and then the next! We can do this several times with as many different simple patterns as I can think of.
- Comparison. You can use buttons of different sizes to help teach comparison words. Spread out several buttons on the table. Ask your preschooler which is the biggest. How about the smallest? Can he point to buttons that are small, smaller and smallest?
- Position. We practice positional words. I put one big button on the table. Then I ask her to add another button above or below, to the right or the left of the main button.
Using buttons works great for my family because we do so many different activities with them. And clean up is fast and easy… just scoop them back up and put them away for next time!
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Kara White is the mom of two children, a son, 7, and a daughter, 3. Kara enjoys reading, baking, and trying to finish a cup of coffee while it’s still hot!
We love buttons in our house too! My littles are 5.5 and almost 3 and it’s so fun to see the variety of approaches they take to sorting and manipulating the buttons. Thanks for these fun ideas!
Knock Knock. Who’s there? Jimmy. Jimmy Who? Jimmy Saville
These are all great ideas! I do a lot of these with my prekinders at school and they love them!
We often use buttons for crafts in our house, and my daughter loves them. However, this means that many of them end up glued or tied to something else (wind chimes, collages, etc.)! Recently, I purchased some coloured and various sized pom-poms for our endless crafting… so I’m thinking that the activities you’ve suggested would also be great with pom-poms! Thanks for sharing!
Yes!!! I love the ideas of switching to pom-poms