Hammering with golf tees

I saw this idea when dropping the kids off at preschool a few weeks ago. The teachers had found these great Halloween kits that came with golf tees (not sharp) and a small wooden mallet. I thought this would be a great idea to do with them at home. At school they were hammering the tees into pre-drilled spots on pretend pumpkins, but I thought it would be fun to do it on Styrofoam cubes. They are cheap at Joann's or Michael's (remember your coupon!).  One of their awesome teachers picked up a kit for me at the local Halloween store, but I knew I needed to buy 2 more.  They were hard to find, but I ended up ordering them here.  The kits were about $5 each online and another $2 to ship. You could easily use the play hammer that most kids already have at home and golf tees, but I liked that these tees were not sharp and they were colorful :)
What you need:
-Styrofoam cube or half dome
-small toy hammer or wooden mallet

-golf tees

This activity is great not only for their fine motor skills, but really great for hand-eye coordination. I introduced the activity by going over all the pieces and reminding them to be careful not to hammer their fingers. I demonstrated the proper way to hammer the tees into the cubes and they got it right away. It was great to see their concentration on the activity. They were so engaged the whole time, for almost 90 minutes!!

This was so much fun and a great quiet time activity they can do independently while I'm making dinner. That's always a plus for me! (Also to prevent the minimal mess the Styrofoam makes you can wrap the pieces in wrapping paper or even newspaper.)  Hope you try this with your little ones, I know they will love it!