The holiday season is finally upon us and we’ve already begun counting down the days until Christmas. From Elf on the Shelf to advent calendars and driving around to see lights, we already have so many built in family Christmas traditions.
However, there is plenty of down time where I need to keep my toddlers and preschoolers busy while at home. For this reasons, I love creating printable activities that they can do with my help or even independently.
Dot printables are a fantastic activity for toddlers and preschoolers alike because they work on fine and visual motor skills while doing a fun activity. The circles allow them to visualize where their dots or color should go which really helps to develop hand eye coordination at a young age.
My 3 year old is now so particular in getting her dots right in the center and not going over the lines. She’s definitely going to be a very meticulous colorer when she gets older!
I wanted to offer you these FREE printable Christmas dot activity sheets to all my readers so you can get your toddler started with these fun activities. I have included 4 printables that you can use (Reindeer, ornaments, elves, and Santa and Mrs. Claus), but the rest are available in my Teaching Littles shop to purchase for only $4.25.
Your child will love these Free Printable Christmas Dot Activities! Read more about the activity and how to do it below.
Related post: Christmas Play Doh Fun with Cookie Cutters
What You Will Need:
- Christmas Printable Dot Activity Sheets (download for FREE below) Full version available for purchase here.
- Some of the following tools for coloring:
- Dot Markers
- Dot Stickers ( I love these because there’s no backing so they’re perfect for little fingers to pull off)
- Finger Paint
- Pom Poms
- Cotton Balls
- Clothespins
- Tissue Paper
- Glue Stick
What To Do:
- Print out the sheets for your child.
- Let them pick which picture they’d like to color.
- Use a variety of modalities to have them color in the dots.
There are so many ways to use these activity sheets with different tools and materials! See below for more details about each way and how they help to develop skills for your little one.
Related post: Christmas Tissue Paper Wreathe Activity
Using Dot Markers
Kids love dot markers because they are much easier to use than regular markers or crayons. They don’t have to put in a ton of effort to make their mark on the paper.
You just hold the canister upside down and it’s almost like a stamp pad. Just teach them how to make the dot in each circle and they will pick it up quickly.
When they see the circles over and over, they will begin to recognize this shape. Circles are one of the first shapes that a toddler will learn so make sure you’re speaking about circles as they fill them in.
Related Post: Free Winter Printables – Activities for Toddlers
Using Stickers
Toddlers love stickers. Therefore, I try to incorporate them into most of the activities that I do with worksheets/printables because coloring can get pretty boring for a toddler!
Stickers are also a great fine motor activity. Your child will develop a strong pincer grasp (using the thumb and index finger together) from picking up the sticker from the sheet and placing it down.
Have your child place dot stickers within the snowflakes and mittens, on the lines, or in the letters with the plain picture. Use the circle printable sheets to put stickers within each circle.
You can get dot stickers with your child’s favorite characters, objects, or colors which will make it much more exciting for them.
Get Creative with Multi-Sensory Materials
I love to use tissue paper as a colorful way to decorate pictures for toddlers. It’s such a great fine motor skill too!
Have your little one rip the tissue paper into small sections. You may have to teach them how to rip because it’s not a skill that comes completely natural.
Then, have them crumble each little piece of tissue paper into a ball. Crumbling tissue paper is a great fine motor skill.
Use a glue stick to have them glue each piece down to fill up the entire picture. They will love the colors and material of the tissue paper as a new tool to decorate with.
You can also glue pom poms or cotton balls onto each circle, use a clothespin to hold a cotton ball and dip it into finger paint, dip their fingers into finger paint to fill in the dots. There are so many ways to use them!
Related post: Felt Christmas Tree for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Practice Learning Colors
Have your toddler get familiar with colors as they use them to fill in each picture. You can only use cool winter colors (white, grey, blue, purple) or Christmas colors (red and green).
Here are some ways to work on learning colors:
- You name each color as they use it
- Have them name the colors
- Tell them to color 5 dots red and 5 dots green
- Have them choose between red or green tissue paper
- Have them choose their favorite color to use
Practice Counting
Using the printable with multiple dots, your child can practice counting as they color. Tell them to count all the circles on the page or only color 3 circles red and 4 circles green.
Some sheets are specific to counting, so have them count the ornaments or snowflakes.
Use Language
Toddlers are little sponges and they are constantly picking up new words each and everyday. The best thing you can do to help their vocabulary grow is to talk to them ALL THE TIME.
Make sure you are using all the words that would be mentioned throughout this activity. Here are some ways to incorporate language below:
- naming all the colors that they use
- counting the circles or objects using numbers
- naming and pointing to each picture
- action words like color, rip, peel, stick, turn
- naming objects like dot marker, crayon, tissue paper, stickers, paper, glue
- praise words like great job and It looks beautiful.
Develop Fine Motor Skills
This is a fantastic activity for practicing and developing fine motor skills in your toddler. Peeling the stickers, crumbling tissue paper, or using finger paint are all ways to get your child to use their hands and fingers.
I hope you and your toddler or preschooler enjoyed this free printable Christmas dot fine motor activity! To download the whole packet, purchase your full copy at my shop here.
