Do you know a child who has difficulty with handwriting, fastening buttons or opening a zip-lock bag? They may benefit from activities to further develop their fine motor skills.
What is Fine Motor?
Fine motor is the strength and coordination of small muscles in the hands and wrists. Buttoning a shirt, zipping up a backpack, writing a sentence, cutting paper, beading a necklace and picking up a Cheerio that landed on the floor are all examples of fine motor skills.
Fun Activities to Promote Fine Motor Development:
- Bubble wrap: pop by pinching with fingers
- Spray bottle: squeeze spray bottle of water in the bathtub; outside on plants or at targets
- Sponges: squeeze sponges to transfer water from one bucket to another, paint with sponges or squeeze out sponges while taking a bath
- Kitchen tongs: pick up objects using serving tongs
- Clothespins: attach them onto the edge of a box or connect them into a long chain
- Rubber stamps: dip stamps in ink and press onto paper
- Stickers: peel stickers and place on paper to make art
- Scissors: cut paper, cardboard, Play-Doh or sandpaper
- Hole punch: create confetti out of construction paper and glue it on a piece of paper to make a design
- Staple: craft a paper-chain a snake by stapling loops of paper together
- Crumple paper: crumple scrap paper and throw at a target, crumple tissue paper and glue on construction paper as an art project or crumple scraps from a cutting project on the way to a trash can
- Tear paper: tear small strips of paper or tissue paper to make a collage
- Color: color with broken crayons to encourage use of fingers instead of the whole hand
- Crayon Rubbing: rub side of crayons on paper
- Painting: paint with a paint brush, Q-tip, sponge or fingers
- Vertical Surface: tape paper to a vertical surface such as a wall to increase wrist strength
- Mirror writing: write o n a mirror with a dry erase marker
- Play-Doh or putty: roll it, pinch it, press it, make a snowman, pancake or snake
- Baking: squeezing dough, pressing cookie cutters into dough or rolling cookie dough into balls
- Peel fruit: peel or help peel oranges, mandarin oranges, bananas, etc.
- Beading: string beads, Cheerios or Fruit Loops on to string or pipe cleaners
- Eye droppers: transfer water from one cup to another, put one drop of food coloring into different cups of water, mix the colors to see what happens, then create a masterpiece by dripping colored water onto a piece of paper with an eye dropper
- Tug-of War: use a large-diameter rope or large towel twisted lengthwise
- Finger puppets: moving one puppet/finger at a time
- Coins: grasp from table top or floor and insert into container with slit in the lid
- Pom poms/cotton balls: place into a container with a hole in the lid
- Pipe cleaners: turn a colander upside-down and insert pipe cleaners into the holes
- Hammer: turn an egg carton up-side-down and smash each egg compartments or play with a plastic hammering toy
- Games: check your closet to see if you have any games that require fine motor skills like Don’t Break the Ice, Bed Bugs, Operation or Pizza Pile-up
- Finger bowling: flick marbles, M & M’s or Skittles into a goal
- Ball rolling: roll a tennis ball up your leg or arm