Bead Tweezer Art Boards — Colour Matching Pictures

A clear board, a set of picture cards, coloured beads and a pair of tweezers. Your child slides a card under the board and uses the tweezers to lift one bead at a time onto its matching colour, until the whole picture — a butterfly, a flower — is filled in.

How you play

1. Pick a picture card and slide it under the clear board.
2. Sort the coloured beads into the side compartments.
3. Take one bead at a time with the tweezers.
4. Place it on the matching colour in the picture.
5. Keep going until every colour on the card is covered.

What it builds

• The tweezer grip, which is the exact hand shape used later for a pencil
• Colour matching, one bead at a time
• Patience — this is slow work and the picture only appears at the end
• Accuracy under a fiddly task

Three ways to play it

• Do one colour at a time rather than working across the picture
• Let a younger child place beads by hand before introducing the tweezers
• Photograph the finished picture before tipping the beads out

The details

• Ages: 3–5 years