Blogger / 14 October, 2026 / Nanny Anita
I have done a similar activity to this with a previous charge, instead of using pop its, I used travel sized bathmats turned upside down so that you could use the suckers. This time I have turned it into a Halloween themed FMS activity. FMS stands for fine motor skills.
Make sure you follow my Halloween board on Pinterest for more ideas. Don’t forget to save the pin for later.
*I do recommend using smaller pipettes for this rather than the toddler friendly one. The reason for this is, it is easier to control the amount of liquid coming out with the smaller ones. Therefore, making it more likely that they will succeed in the activity.
I set up the pop-it with a pipette and small bowl of coloured water on a tray. The tray helps contain the mess.
Before I gave it to NC to do, I showed her what the activity was. I did this in a Montessori approach. This approach is done by introducing the material through a presentation: a careful, mostly silent demonstration by the adult that shows the child what the material is, how it is used, and what the activity’s natural cycle looks like from beginning to end. The child observes, then tries. This structure is not a teaching method in the conventional sense. It is a way of making the activity accessible without creating dependence. This sort of approach is best done when I child is well rested and not engaged in other activities.

After presenting the activity NC, I let her choose which pop-it and coloured water she wanted to use. As she did the activity herself, I continued using the other one. Actually, this is a very calming activity to do.

NC spent about 10 minutes carefully filling up each pop-it whole with the liquid. Then she wanted to switch pop-its with me. After about another 5 minutes she turned her attention to adding the water back to the bowl and then mixing the different colours together. Altogether, she spent maybe 25 minutes doing this activity.

The point of this activity is not necessarily to keep little ones engaged for extended periods of time, but to help strengthen their hand muscles and co-ordination.
If you enjoyed this Halloween FMS activity, be sure to check out my monster hair cut activity, pumpkin paper plate, and Hama bead pumpkins.
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