Marble Transferring Activity

I introduced this transferring activity to E(2) last week, and she was immediately successful when picking up the marbles with the spoon and then dropping them into the bottle. (I was very surprised that it was so easy for her). However, when I started videoing the activity, she had a VERY hard time picking up a marble with the spoon. It was almost painful to watch, and I wanted to jump in and do it for her. I had to bite my tongue, and I was just waiting for her to ask for help, so that I could jump in and help her...Here's the video.


After she spent so much time chasing the marbles around the bowl with the spoon, I realized that I needed to put something in the bowl to hold the marbles. I put a small square of tissue in the bowl, and it worked perfectly.

This is a great activity for developing persistence when presented with a difficult task (obviously!). She's also developing hand/eye coordination, fine motor control, concentration, the ability to transfer from left to right (which will eventually help with reading), and the ability to cross her midline. So many things are going on during this very simple task.


The idea for this activity came from this blog via Pinterest.