How to Use Tweezers | Montessori Practical Life Lesson

This practical life activity is designed for 3 to 6-year-old children to show how to hold and use tweezers.

What is Tweezing?

Tweezer’s activities are simple, easy to bring along, and yet challenging. Transferring beans into another bowl using a tweezer is one of the Montessori practical life activities children enjoy thoroughly. Tweezing activity is introduced after a child master to hold a pair of tongs and transfer objects with it. It is because the tip of the tweezer is smaller than the tongs, making it difficult to hold and transfer objects. Learning how to use tweezers is a substantial way to improve fine motor skills and the formation of a pincer grasp.

Perquisites for Montessori Tweezer Activity

A child must be introduced to the following activities before introducing the tweezer activity for preschoolers:

Control of Error:

Objects filling container
Tweezers opening and closing

Points of Interest:

Exploring tweezers and holding them in the correct position.
Watching tweezers open & close.
Observing objects drop into the bowl and not anywhere else.

How Does Learning to use Tweezers Help Children?

Learning to use tweezers helps a child:

To improve order, coordination, concentration, and independence (OCCI).
To develop patience and persistence as they learn to master the skill.
To refine fine motor skills.
To prepare the hand and brain for reading and writing from left to right.
Encourage executive function skills like focus and self-control.
It teaches essential concepts of physics like weight, leverage, and pressure.

Materials Required for Montessori Tweezer Activity

A pair of tweezer
Two bowls (one filled with beans and the other empty)
Beans/ pompoms/ any cut fruits or vegetables

How to Introduce the Tweezer Activity to the Child

Invite the child to the table with the tweezer activity.
Hold the tweezer and tell the child that it is a tweezer.
Show the child how to hold the tweezer correctly and how to press and release the tweezer.
Ask the child to try holding the tweezer.
Now, show the child how to hold a bean using the tweezers and transfer it to another bowl.
Show it one more time for more clarity.
Ask the child to try transferring objects into another bowl.

Watch the Video along with the child and let the child repeat this activity with the items available at home like cereal, chopped vegetables, cut fruit, sugar cubes, cotton balls, cooked peas, corks, etc. Encourage the child to pick up the objects with tongs and transfer the items into another bowl.

FAQs

How to hold a tweezer correctly?

Hold one side of the tweezer using the index and middle finger and the other side using the thumb (known as a pencil grip).

How does holding a tweezer help the child?

Montessori tweezer activity indirectly prepares the child’s hand for reading and writing. Holding a tweezer helps a child to strengthen hand muscle and hand-eye coordination.

Tweezing