Make Your Own Lacing Cards

Make Your Own Preschool Lacing Cards

 Lacing Cards make great fine motor activities! Strong fine motor skills are important for our daily functioning. Preschoolers need strong fingers and hands to perform a variety of important activities from manipulating writing utensils to zipping jackets, so it’s essential that we give our preschoolers enough hands-on practice.  Lacing takes a lot of effort for those tiny muscles, and it’s an excellent tool for strengthening dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and the critical pincer grasp. 

Below you will find several low cost ways to make your own lacing cards! DIY Lacing cards are easy to make, and a simple way to create your own thematic fine motor activity that aligns with the different themes that your preschoolers will study throughout the year.

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For all of these lacing cards, you will need the following materials:

Materials:

• Yarn, ribbon, or laces for lacing
• Scissors
• Hole punch 
  
• Additional Supplies: Laminator or Contact Paper
  

3-Part Cards Lacing Cards

Thematic printables like these 3-part nomenclature cards are a great item to use to make your own lacing cards. 3-part cards are available in many of our themed activity packs! They are a fun way to introduce new vocabulary to preschoolers and can be used in many different ways. Try this using our free 3-part fruit and veggie cards!

After you have cut out your cards, laminate them, or cover them with contact paper (optional for durability) ! Then punch holes all around the edges.

​Teacher Tip: It's helpful to add a little tape to the end of the string/yarn to make it stiff and prevent fraying

Demonstrate to preschoolers how to lace through each hole. At first, it can be challenging for them to understand how to lace but with practice they will begin to do this with little to no help. Lacing is a great way to practice manipulating the small string through the holes. 

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Lacing Cards from Magazines or Posters

Gather magazines, posters, or other printed pictures for preschoolers to sort through. Then start by cutting out the individual pictures from the printable or magazine. 
If you teach thematic lessons keep your current theme in mind and offer magazines that feature your theme. 

*Teacher Tip: Give your preschoolers the criteria for choosing pictures and send them on a magazine hunt to choose the images for your lacing cards. For instance, one preschooler will find a blue food and another preschooler will choose a purple food. 

 Card stock is  thicker and more durable therefore it makes it easier for preschoolers to lace through. Cut card stock larger than each picture, and secure your images to the card stock with glue, and laminate (optional for durability).
*Teacher tip you don't have to always create rectangle cards! You can cut out a variety of shapes, and sizes to make more challenging cards.

Up cycle Holiday Cards into Lacing Cards

Holiday cards can easily be transformed into low cost lacing cards! Check out our DIY Christmas Lacing  blog post for how to make these.

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