Sewing Hopscotch Markers

Activity Overview

Use the directions below to create your own Hopscotch markers to play with this week’s gross motor activity! This activity focuses on fine motor patience and dexterity through the life skill of sewing. This activity is meant to challenge the child in areas they may not have experience working in, and give them the ability to work through frustration to a place of accomplishment. Your role as the adult will be key in helping the student achieve this. Every student's abilities on this will be different, but do your best to make sure the student does as much of the work as possible.

What You Need

• Two equally-sized felt squares (4 x 4 or 5 x 5 inches work well) for each person doing the activity

• Child-safe needle or yarn-knitting needle (They have a big eye and are very dull, and are excellent for felt projects)

• Safety pins

• A chopstick, stick or skewer (anything you have that has a little bit of a point on it that is bigger than the sewing needle, even a kitchen thermometer would work)

• Rice or dry orzo pasta

• Craft Cord (If you don't have this already, it is an amazing addition to any home art, craft and child work area. Great for making necklaces and bracelets, lacing, and sewing, even our String Painting activity)

Steps: Adult Preparation

1. Place the two square in top of each other, so the edges are lined up. Pin about 1/8th of an inch in from the edge. One pin in the middle of each side will work well.

2. Take your sewing needle without any thread, and begin making holes about ¼ in apart from each other, and ¼ inch from the edge or the fabric.You can pull the needle about half way through the hole and wiggle it around to make the holes a little bit larger

3. Make holes along all four sides of the fabric.

4. Use a skewer or chopstick to go back through those holes and make them a little bit bigger. This will help especially the younger students feel challenged but not overwhelmed by poking all of the holes through.

5. Take a 2.5 foot piece of string and thread it through the needle. Pull the ends until they are even in length and then tie a knot at the end. This will make it so the string does not slide off the needle.

Steps: Student

1. Take the needle and do a running stitch, when you bring the needle up through one hole on the front, and back down through the fabric in the next hole with the needle moving to the back. Note: This stitch is also called a gathering stitch because if you pull the string hard, it will scrunch on the fabric. Pull gently and flatten out any bumps.

2. Help your student keep the bean bag in one hand and the sewing needle in the other. This will help them maneuver through the project.

3. Leave two inches unsewn, and pull your whole bean bag through the hole and flip it inside out.

4. Once it is flipped inside out, add rice or orzo until it is about ¾ full.

5. If the student is capable, have them follow the holes and sew to the end.

6. To finish, make three stitches through the same holes on top of each other and then tie a knot and to make sure the beanbag is sturdy.

7. If you would like to decorate your beanbag, markers work the best!

Guiding Questions

• What color do you want your beanbag to be?

• How can you move the needle through the holes?

• How can we make our bean bag sturdy?

• How does the bean bag feel?

• What do we add to the inside? How do we close it?