Fine Motor Resources

As the end of the school year approaches, maintaining learning momentum while embracing the festive season can be a challenge. That’s where our Christmas PomPom Mats come in. These hands-on, differentiated activities are designed to keep early years learners focused, calm, and engaged while continuing to build essential skills.

Using child-friendly tweezers and colourful pompoms, students place pompom pieces onto colour-coded mats to complete festive images. It looks like play, but this type of activity targets multiple key learning areas—including fine motor development, number recognition, visual discrimination, and early counting skills. With three levels of difficulty, this printable set provides a flexible and inclusive way to support learners at all stages.

Why PomPom Activities Belong in the Classroom

While it might appear that students are simply playing with craft materials, pompom-based activities serve a significant developmental purpose. They help build the fine motor strength and coordination that young children need to succeed with tasks such as writing, cutting, and managing clothing fasteners.

Using tweezers to pinch and place small objects supports the development of the pincer grip—a foundational movement pattern for pencil control. As children align pompoms with printed guides, they also improve hand–eye coordination, spatial awareness, and bilateral hand use.

Beyond motor skills, these activities also encourage focus, attention to detail, and perseverance. Many students find this style of task calming and enjoyable, making it perfect for independent work during the busier weeks of Term 4.

What’s Included in the Christmas PomPom Mats Pack

This resource includes a collection of printable mats grouped into three difficulty levels, Easy (colour pom pom images), Intermediate (B&W pom pom images), and Hard (white pom pom images). This allows you to differentiate with ease, ensuring every student can participate meaningfully regardless of their current fine motor development stage. Within each difficulty level, there are 3 different versions of each mat, including:

• version 1 – red 10x A4 Christmas images with prompt: “Can you Build…?”
• version 2 – yellow 10x A4 Christmas images with prompts: “How many altogether? Write the name of the object.”
• version 3 – black 10x A4 Christmas images with prompts: “How many altogether? Write the name of the object. How many of each colour?”

How to Use the Pom Pom Mats

Getting started with these mats is easy. Simply print and laminate the sheets for durability, then set them out with trays of coloured pompoms and child-safe tweezers.

Students choose a mat based on their level or your recommendation. They use the tweezers to pick up the matching coloured pompoms and place them on the corresponding dots on the mat. This action strengthens the hand and finger muscles while also promoting focus and visual matching.

For an extra layer of learning, students can sort their pompoms by colour before or after the activity, count how many of each colour were used, or even write or draw their results on a recording sheet.

Tips for Classroom Success

To get the most out of this resource, consider using the mats in your fine motor rotation stations, morning bins, or as part of your maths centres. Use plastic trays to keep materials organised and minimise mess.

Encourage students to work at their own pace, and model the correct way to hold and use the tweezers. This is especially helpful for students still developing hand strength or struggling with grip technique.

Allow students to work alone or in pairs. Partnering students can foster cooperation and peer modelling, especially when pairing a more confident student with one who is still building skill.

You might also consider setting up a ‘Christmas Fine Motor Table’ for the last few weeks of term. Rotate in new mats each day or week to maintain engagement while keeping your routines consistent and manageable.

Why Teachers Love This Resource

Teachers love these mats because they are low-prep, flexible and purposeful. You can easily target different skill levels without needing three different activities. The festive theme adds a layer of motivation and joy, making these mats a great option for the final stretch of the school year.

Best of all, they align with key outcomes from the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics Foundation, especially in the areas of number recognition, sorting, comparing, and representing numbers.

Final Thoughts

Our Christmas PomPom Mats offer a fun, practical way to keep students engaged while still meeting key learning goals. By combining festive imagery with differentiated fine motor tasks, this resource helps children strengthen the physical and cognitive foundations needed for success in the classroom.

Whether you’re planning your December rotations or looking for calm, independent tasks for the end of the year, this resource has you covered.

Download the full Christmas PomPom Mat Pack and give your students a festive way to practise number recognition, colour matching and fine motor precision—one pompom at a time. Read more about fine motor development