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Colour Match Peg Cards Basket
Printables Basket

Colour Match Peg Cards Basket

Printable cards and a tub of coloured clothespins. Match the peg to the dot - quiet, satisfying, and secretly building the exact pinch grip they need for holding a pencil.

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Ages 3-515 min prep

This was a nursery recommendation and I was sceptical, because it looked like nothing. Then my three-year-old sat with it for twenty-five minutes without a word.

The pinching is the point. Every peg he opens is the same muscles he will need for a pencil, and nobody has to tell him he is practising anything.

We keep the cards and pegs in a tin that goes in my bag. It has rescued two long train journeys and one very long wait at the doctor.

The pinch. This is the pencil grip, disguised as a game.
The pinch. This is the pencil grip, disguised as a game.

What you'll need

  • The printable colour match cards, printed on card - two sets, a counting page and a blank page
  • A bag of coloured wooden clothespins, in the same colours as the dots
  • Scissors for cutting the cards out, and a laminator if you have one
  • A small tin or pouch for keeping the whole thing together
  • Coloured stickers, for making your own cards on the blank page
  • A tray to work on, which quietly tells them where the activity lives
  • Counting bears or coloured pompoms, for extending the same game into sorting

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How to make it

  1. 1

    Print the cards on the thickest card your printer takes - thin paper bends the moment a peg goes on.

  2. 2

    Cut the cards out along the outer lines and laminate them if you can. These get handled hard.

  3. 3

    Sort the pegs into a shallow bowl so every colour is visible before you start.

  4. 4

    Show them once, slowly: pick a peg, find the dot that matches, pinch and clip. Then stop talking.

  5. 5

    Let them work through the cards at their own pace. Resist correcting a wrong match - they usually spot it themselves.

  6. 6

    When the colour cards get easy, bring out the count-and-clip page: count the dots, clip the right number.

  7. 7

    Use the blank cards with stickers to make a personal set - their favourite animals, or family photos.

  8. 8

    Pack it back in the tin together at the end. The packing away is part of the activity at this age.

Tip

Start with only four colours out. A full rainbow of pegs in front of a three-year-old is overwhelming and the cards get ignored in favour of tipping the tub out. Add colours as the four get easy.

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