We did this fine motor activity last year and the children really enjoyed it. They used cookie cutters to make heart shapes out of playdough and lined them up. They then took the pony beads I had set in a bowl and found the colors that matched the playdough hearts.
The next step was to press beads in to the same color hearts. They could put on as many as they wanted and at the end they counted how many beads were in each heart. We used eight different colors of playdough but you can use less colors with younger children.
You can see a video of this activity by clicking below:
You can see a video of this activity by clicking below: