Make a Lion Tail! – Threading Fine Motor Craft

Turn a simple lion colouring activity into a hands-on fine motor craft! Children colour their lion, use a hole punch to create the tail opening, and then thread a pipe cleaner through the hole to create a fun, bendy lion tail.
What’s included:
• A printable lion craft
• Colouring activity
• Clearly marked area for the tail hole
• Simple, child-friendly instructions
Why is threading important?
Threading is a fantastic activity for developing the small muscles in children’s hands and fingers. These skills are important foundations for many everyday classroom tasks and early writing development.
Threading helps children practise:
• Fine motor strength – building the hand and finger muscles needed for writing and using tools.
• Pincer grip – strengthening the thumb and finger movements used to hold pencils and crayons.
• Hand-eye coordination – learning to guide an object accurately through a small opening.
• Concentration and focus – encouraging children to slow down and complete a sequence of actions.
• Bilateral coordination – using both hands together, with one hand holding the lion while the other threads the pipe cleaner.
• Precision and control – developing the careful movements needed for cutting, drawing, writing and manipulating classroom materials.
This craft combines colouring, hole punching and threading into one fun activity, making fine motor practice feel like play rather than a worksheet.
Perfect for preschool, kindergarten and young ESL learners!
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.