So all children need to learn and improve on their motor skills. We use fine motor skills to make small movements. These movements come so naturally to most people that we usually don’t think about them. Fine motor skills are complex, however. They involve the coordinated efforts of the brain and muscles, and they’re built on the gross motor skills that allow us to make bigger movements.
Fine motor skills can include small movements such as:
holding a pencil
maneuvering a pencil
scissor skills
pushing Lego blocks together (and pulling them apart)
manipulating play dough
getting dressed with belts, buttons, zippers and snaps
using silverware while eating
opening and closing latches
technology/mouse manipulation
Pom Poms in general are small, needing small movements to grasp them, pick them up, and move them. They are fantastic material to work on hand eye coordination.
Buttons are also small items that work great in developing fine motor skills. Picking them up works those small muscles, But the true fine motor skills comes in the act of buttoning something up, that takes some amazing finger strength and hand eye coordination.
Paper Clips are great for finger movements and manipulation. Being able to slide the clip onto a piece of paper takes a lot of concentration for kids in preschool and kindergarten.
Clothespins are a fantastic material for building finger strength. We use them a lot in our learning activities that the kids absolutely love.
Rubber Bands also work on finger strength, but in the opposite way that most materials do. These are a fantastic addition to any fine motor activity!
Tweezers take a lot of hand eye coordination to be able to operate successfully and move an item from one place to another. Try it!
Pipe Cleaners can be used as a great tool for fine motor skills. They can be threaded and poked!
Straws can be used as beads, to thread onto something! But they also work great with play dough too.
Play Dough is fantastic for building those small muscles! Kneading, pushing and rolling the dough really helps! Find out how to make homemade playdough.
Knobs and Screws (or Nuts and Bolts), any real tool from Dad’s toolbox is a hit for my kids! These also take incredible hand eye coordination and concentration to be able to tighten and loosen.
Stickers are amazing! Have your child try to peel the stickers off the sticker sheet! If it’s tricky, you can remove the non-sticker part of the sheet and it’s still an amazing fine motor activity. And then placing the sticker on a paper also takes hand control.
Hole Punch are hard! Trust me, your child will need to work up to this amount of muscle strength in their hands before they’ll be able to successfully do this. So plan to help out, but give them the chance to try!
Syringes are so much fun for kids and have the added bonus of working those small muscles in their hands with control so they don’t squirt the liquid out too fast.
Eye Droppers are a fun way for kids to work on their pincer grasp. Suck it up and let it out!
Kitchen Tongs can be a great tool for working on hand strength and control. Bring them out during clean up time and I bet your child will be more willing to pick up their toys plus you get the added bonus of working on their fine motor skills.
Toothpicks are small and take a good pincer grasp to be able to hold it.
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