Thread the Horse!

Turn a simple colouring activity into a fun fine motor threading activity with this engaging horse craft!
Children first colour and decorate their horse, giving them the opportunity to be creative and make their horse unique. Once the colouring is finished, the teacher can use a hole puncher to make holes in the marked circles around the outside of the horse.
Children can then use colourful shoelaces to thread around the horse, carefully guiding the lace through each hole. When they finish, they can remove the lace and thread the horse again using a different colour.
How to Use

1. Print the horse template on cardstock paper for extra strength and durability.
2. Allow students to colour the horse.
3. The teacher uses a hole puncher to make holes in the marked circles around the outside.
4. Give students colourful shoelaces and let them thread through the holes.
5. Encourage students to try again with different colours.
   Learning Benefits
   Threading is a wonderful activity for young children because it helps develop:
   • Fine motor skills
   • Hand-eye coordination
   • Finger and hand strength
   • Concentration and patience
   • Bilateral coordination
   • Following a sequence
   • Colour recognition
   For ESL learners, the activity can also be used to practice simple vocabulary such as horse, mane, tail, brown, black, red, blue, green and thread.
   Teachers can encourage simple sentences such as:
   “I have a blue lace.”
   “My horse is brown.”
   “I am threading.”
   This makes a lovely farm animals, horses, fine motor, early years or ESL activity and can be used as a classroom centre, small-group activity or quiet table task.
   Credits & Copyright
   © 2026 Sonyja Murphy. All rights reserved.
   This educational resource was created by Sonyja Murphy.
   Illustrations in this resource were created with the assistance of AI (ChatGPT by OpenAI) and have been edited and arranged as part of this original educational work.