Pounding Activities for Children

Musical Pounding

• Although your child probably won̵7;t be pounding out Beethoven, a drum, tambourine or sturdy xylophone can give her a way to release some energy. Put on some music, give your child a musical instrument, and encourage her to pound away. Even better, find an instrument and join her. If you don̵7;t have drums use an empty coffee or oatmeal canister. Put beads or bells inside plastic water bottles and use them as maracas or shakers.

Modeling Clay

• Modeling clay or play dough can be very satisfying to pound on, either with a hammer or with your hands. Give your child a lump of play dough and encourage her to pound and roll it out as flat as she can. Roll it back up and have her do it again. A few cookie cutters, a plastic knife or some textured toys will let her cut her play dough into a variety of shapes, and rubber stamps will let her stamp designs into the dough.

Pounding Food

• Some foods are excellent for pounding. Give your child a lump of dough next time you make bread and let her pound and knead the dough. On hot summer days freeze small toys into ice cubes and let your child melt and pound the cubes outside to release the toys. Be sure to supervise this activity and remind your child not to put ice chips in his mouth. Let your child use clean pounding tools on crunchy cereal, squishy grapes and other foods to see how pounding changes them. Supervise this activity and do it outside or on a plastic table cloth to minimize the mess.

Hammering

• While many toy companies make pounding benches with pegs and hammers, you can make your own pounding activity with materials that are easy to find. Give your child a block of Styrofoam and a handful of golf tees. Encourage her to use a child-sized hammer to pound the golf tees into the Styrofoam. To build her fine motor skills, have her place a marble on top of each golf tee. Older children may enjoy pounding nails into blocks of wood, but you should always supervise this activity.