Crocheting is a great way to improve your child’s fine motor skills. You can make these easy coasters by learning a simple chain stitch and then following the steps below.

What you need:

• 1 x ball of variegated yarn
• 1 x crochet hook
• 1 x A4 piece of felt (makes six coasters)
• fabric glue
• scissors
• 1 x darning needle (optional)

Number of players:

Activity:

First you will have to make a chain.

Go here to find out how to do the simplest crochet stitch: chain stitch.

Make a 1.8m chain for each coaster.

Once you have the chain, tidy it up by sewing/tucking the short tail end (the start of the chain) into the back of the chain. Use a darning needle to do this. Alternatively, you could just snip this tail off.

Now make a coil with the chain. Make sure the back of the chain is on the outside of the coil. (See video for how to tell the front of the chain from the back.)

When the coil is about the size of a 10 cent piece, it will start to get unmanageable. So get your piece of felt and add a dab of glue the size of the coil. Glue the coil to the felt.

Keep coiling, adding glue as you go and glue the coil to the felt until it is about 10cm across.

Once you have finished, you will have a long tail end. You can snip it off. Or you can use the darning needle again to sew the tail back into the back of the coil to form a neat loop.

Now trim off the felt around the coil.

You have made a crocheted coaster!

• Thanks to our sister company Kidspot Australia for creating the instructional video.