Fine Motor. Why work on it?

In recent years, the emphasis on using crayons or markers to develop fine motor has declined.  More and more children enter kinder with little to no experience with coloring, drawing, painting, or cutting. These are things that strengthen little hands.  It is critical that teachers provide activities geared toward development of fine motor as quickly as possible! Here are a few ideas to get you started.

What are “Essentials” for Fine Motor skills?

Good fine motor practice involves putting something in a child’s hand that can be manipulated in a way to improve strength.  That something can be play-doh, little toy cars to “drive” across letters in the name, paint sticks (like Kwik-Stix) for practicing directional curves and circles, counting beans into an empty egg carton, looking for letters in a rice table with tweezers, and the list goes on and on.

What does Fine Motor Time look like?

Let’s break it down and explore common fine motor activities in a kinder classroom.

Play-Doh or Modeling Doh

What do you need in this center?

*multiple cans of doh

*scissors for cutting rolled doh ropes

*doh tools

*name mats with large letters to form student names with ropes

*doh molds and cutters (Dollar Tree has these)

*instructions for squishing, rolling, cutting, molding

Students entering this center should know how to use it properly, and how to put it away to keep the doh fresh.

Note: Some teachers like to make their own dough. If you do this, be aware it may sour, and will grow bacteria that is not safe for your kiddos. Use a disinfectant in the mix if you do this. Lots of ideas can be found on Pinterest.

Fine Motor Practice with Toy Cars

A few years ago, I invested in enough toy cars to have a class set. On these cars, I wrote the letters of the alphabet, then placed them in a tub. The cars serve two purposes: One is to put the cars in order of the alphabet, and the other is to drive around large letters of student names on double length card stock. Both activities are go-to favorites for at least half of the year.

Vroom, vroom!!!

What do you need in this center?

*tub with cars and name posters, and a large alphabet line to match cars to

*dry erase boards and markers

 

Students entering this center should know how to use it properly, and how to put it away for the next group of students.  Students need to drive their name, then write their name on dry-erase boards, or pull out the large abc line and match the cars to it until they have made the alphabet and can sing it in sequence.

 

 

Kwik Stix Fine Motor Center

The sheer simplicity of using Kwik Stix makes them perfect for an independent fine motor center. One of my favorite center is a coloring center where students follow the directional arrows with their paint stick to create the picture, then color it in with crayons after it dries (very quick to dry too).

What do you need in this center?

*bucket of Kwik Stix

*follow the arrow to draw sheets (see freebie below)

*crayons or twistable colored pencils

Student draws by painting the lines the direction of the arrows. Allow to dry a few minutes, then color the picture with crayons.

Counting Beans Fine Motor Center (very easy to set up)

What will you need for this center?

*counting beans: navy beans, popcorn, lentils or other small bean or seed

*egg carton with ten holes (this is important because of our math skills using ten frames)

*dry erase boards and markers to tally or draw how many

Students use their pincher grip (index finger and thumb) to pick up and place beans in the carton. They may use tally marks to record how many they counted, or draw pictures representing the count.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tweezer Activities and Fine Motor

Kids love tools! Plastic tweezers are readily available at discount stores including Dollar Tree and Target.  I purchased a class set of 24 ($24 at Dollar Tree) last year. We used them for all sorts of things during the year, then at the end, they were able to take them home for keeps! I had a water table filled with multi-color rice, letters, animal figurines representing the letter sounds, and tweezers. Students matched letters to the animal whose name started with the letter sound. These were placed on a grid until all letters had been matched. They loved this center!

What will you need for this center?

*small animal figurines (you do not have to use the entire alphabet, but there are figurines available for many letters if you look at discount school supply companies or Oriental Trading, etc.)

*card with at least 24 spaces (download mine below)

*tweezers for picking up each letter or figure

Students use tweezers to pick up letters and animals. They earn one point for each successful move to the template. If they drop a letter or figure, they lose that turn and the other student tries. This will keep them using the fine motor muscles rather than picking them up with just their hands (I realize pincher grip is a fine motor task, but tweezers offer resistance that helps to strengthen muscles).

Free Printable Grid (click pic to download and print on card stock, laminate)

 

Free Paint Marker (Kwik Stix) Direction Arrow Practice

 

I hope this post caused you to think about what can makes fine motor tasks fun and exciting.

Things from my store that address fine motor strength:

Scissor and pincher skills:

Pencil Grip skills:

Cutting and pincher skills: