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20 Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers

Are you looking for fun fine motor activities for your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten students? Developing fine motor skills is an important part of a high-quality early childhood program, but finding “just right” activities that are engaging and effective can be challenging. These activities will help young children build fine motor skills in fun, playful, and hands-on ways they’ll absolutely love!

What are Fine Motor Skills?
The term fine motor refers to the small muscles in the hand and fingers. While some fine motor skills may develop naturally through daily play, it’s important to be intentional when it comes to strategically planning opportunities for your kids to practice these skills daily in the classroom.

Why are Fine Motor Skills Important?
Young children must exercise these muscles often in the early years so they can do daily tasks in the future like writing, tying shoes, buttoning, zipping, and other self-help skills.
It’s important that your toddlers and preschoolers have plenty of opportunities to work on fine motor development to prepare their little hands for the tasks listed above. Before children can begin to hold a pencil in their hands and write with control, they must first develop strength and dexterity in their fingers and hands.
You can help your kids develop fine motor skills by providing fun, engaging activities in your classroom like these that encourage using the hands and fingers together.

Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers
Everybody knows that kids learn best through play, and what could be more playful than stickers ? Stickers are super popular with the littles. Why not harness their natural fascination and invite them to use stickers as a way to practice those fine motor skills? They’ll think they’re just having a good old time!
Did you know you can often find inexpensive golf tees at the dollar store? Invite your kids to hammer golf tees in playdough, or even a pumpkin in the fall for super engaging fine motor fun!

Fine Motor Skills Activities
The possibilities for using clothespins to develop hand strength are endless. Use inexpensive sets of socks from the dollar section of your local big box store, or raid your laundry basket for old socks. String a piece of yarn or twine between two chairs to create a mini clothesline and your littles will have a blast hanging socks. In fact, they’ll be having so much fun they won’t have a clue that they actually practicing an important skill.
There are lots of things in your kitchen that can be used for fine motor practice. Kids love using tongs to pick up small objects like pom-poms to transfer into ice cube trays.
While geoboards are often thought of something used in math instruction, they’re also perfect for developing those little hand muscles. These geoboard task cards make geoboards even more fun and engaging.
Another common household item that can serve double duty for developing hand muscles is a plant sprayer . You can find inexpensive plant spray bottles at your local dollar store. Your kids will have a blast spraying water on the grass at recess, or add a little liquid watercolor and invite them to spray the snow if you live in a cold climate.

Fine Motor Activities for Preschool
Stringing beads on a pipe cleaner is a great way to support fine motor development in your classroom. You can invite your preschoolers to thread small pieces of paper straws onto chenille stems. If your children are old enough you may consider adding some pony beads to your fine motor tray. The beads shown above are called Biggie Beads , they’re bigger and easier for little hands to string than regular pony beads.

Using tongs is also a great way to practice those hand muscles. The scoop tongs pictured above perfectly sized for little hands. Children can use tongs to pick up items and transfer them from one container to another.
Invite your kids to twist chenille stems (pipe cleaners) and place them into a colander to develop fine motor skills. Bonus, this activity is also great eye-hand coordination practice.

Scissor Skills Activities
Have you tried crayon resist painting with your class? Invite your kids to put washi tape on white paper, then paint over it with tempera paint sticks. As if playing with tape and painting wasn’t fun enough, invite your kids to peel the tape off the paper and reveal the white space underneath – what’s not to love?
You can find squeeze bottles at your local dollar store, they’re great for squirting water or paint. Put a few squeeze bottles in your sensory bin along with water and your kids will have a blast squeezing water – within limits, of course. You can also put a little liquid watercolor into the bottles along with the water and invite your kids to paint the snow if you live in a colder climate. Sensory play is a super fun way for your kids to exercise and strengthen those small hand muscles.

Developing Fine Motor Skills in Preschool
A hole punch or shape punches are super fun for kids! Just put out some punches in your writing center along with some colorful construction paper scraps and invite your children to start punching away. You’ll be surprised by how long this seemingly simple task will keep them engaged. While it may seem simple, paper punches are excellent for fine motor practice.

You can’t go wrong with a good old crayon rubbing ! Use hot glue or liquid glue to create designs or images on paper. When they’re dry, invite your kids to make crayon rubbings of the dried glue images. Grasping the paperless crayons is another way to develop those small muscles.

Lacing Beads
One of the most popular fine motor activities for kids is lacing beads. When it comes to developing fine motor skills in the preschool classroom, lacing beads are the gold standard. Young children also develop important hand-eye coordination skills when lacing beads.
More Fine Motor Ideas

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Home » Fine Motor Skills Activities
18 Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers
Published: Oct 28, 2019 · Modified: Jul 18, 2022 by Vicky · This post contains affiliate links.
It's no secret that fine motor development plays an important role in a child's development and success at school. When I was teaching Preschool and Kindergarten, I saw many kids who had weak fine motor skills. I created a variety of fine motor skills activities to use in the classroom for students of all skill levels, as everyone can use a little help. Many parents wanted to work on fine motor skills at home too and they often asked me for ideas. The cheap fine motor activities for preschoolers that I will be sharing today will help kids strengthen their skills while incorporating learning from various parts of the curriculum. I just love sneaking in some learning wherever I can, don't you?

Why are fine motor skills important?
What items are helpful for practicing fine motor skills for preschoolers, fine motor skills activities for 3-5 year olds.
Fine motor skills are important for young children and they affect everything from self feeding to using scissors to writing with pencils. As children grow, there will be a greater demand placed on their motor skill development. They will be expected to dress themselves and use zippers and buttons. Drawing and writing will be easier if your child has strong fine motor skills.
- Tweezers - pinching these and picking up objects with them is a great activity.
- Pipettes or droppers - use these to draw up and release water in a cup.
- Ice cube tray - for sorting
- Lego toys - helps to work the pincer grasp while kids are pulling them apart.
- Lacing cards - they are great to keep in a car for road trip or to take to a restaurant.
- Paper clips - attach them and take them apart.
Please supervise children while they are doing these activities.
Pushing Toothpicks I just love easy fine motor activities! This one requires 2 supplies and is pretty easy to take anywhere. It really works on those small muscles! You can find the cheese shakers here .

Fine Motor Work with Golf Tees
This fine motor exercise will help kids to gain hand strength as they push golf tees into foam. Even a toddler can do it! We use these golf tees for lots of activities.

Fine Motor Fun Tong Transfer
In addition to fine motor practice, you can use this activity with pom poms to help with color recognition. These tongs are a great size for kids and you will use them again and again.

Play Dough and Beads
What kid doesn't love play dough? Take advantage of that by adding some beads for fine motor practice. Try making this oatmeal play dough recipe with kids. It works great for this activity.

Patterned Bead Snakes
Stringing beads on a pipe cleaner is a great way to work on fine motor skills. Add some fun by creating a snake. You can also use this as a way to teach colors and patterns.

Fruit Loop Towers
Raid your pantry for this yummy activity that will have kids reaching and grasping for more. When you are done, you can make this cereal rainbow craft with the leftover cheerios.

Making Straw Jewelry
Fun for little fingers! This is another activity that my preschoolers and toddler both enjoyed. When they are done threading the straws on to the pipe cleaners, they will have colorful pasta jewelry to wear and incorporate into pretend play.

Woven Paper Place mats
Small hand muscles get quite the workout as they weave paper under and over to create a pretty place mat. You can laminate these when they are done and use them for meals.

Fine Motor Work with A Colander
Love this new use for a strainer or colander ! In addition to being a great fine motor activity, this unleashes imagination and keeps kids busy. Win!

You Can Count on Me
Math combined with fine motor work? Count me in (pun very much intended)! This is another one of those activities that just use a few items you probably already have.

Fine Motor Skills for Preschoolers Pasta Play
Fine motor skills for preschoolers are so important. Here is a fun game you can make using dyed pasta. Directions to dye pasta included.

Color Drop Game

Fine Motor Skills Activity with Dyed Oatmeal

Marshmallow Sculptures
Kids will have no idea they are actually building small motor skills while playing with marshmallows. They may eat some marshmallows along the way
in this fun fine motor activity.

Counting Bead Fun
Pipe cleaners again? Did you buy them yet? Practice counting and math skills while working those little muscles with Counting with Beads and Pipe Cleaners.

Fine Motor Skills Water Art
Find out how to make this fine motor skills water art. You won't believe how easy it is and how quickly you can set up this art activity.

Q-Tips and Straws Fine Motor Activity
This is a great way to help little hands strengthen fine motor skills and work on colors at the same time.

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Reader Interactions
September 17, 2018 at 3:13 pm
It is must for working parents to choose good school nursery for the child.
September 16, 2018 at 3:57 pm
that is great article from child perpective
September 16, 2018 at 2:45 pm
Seema Mehta
September 17, 2017 at 10:31 pm
Development of motor skills is important for the overall growth of children and pre-schoolers and that is what I think. The ideas are amazing and the collection is really neat too! Not generic ideas that people think of everyday! It is a really great job by Vicky.
May 07, 2016 at 2:57 am
Superb activities. I am using them tom improve the fine motor skills of my year old girl
Vicky @ Mess For Less
September 10, 2014 at 6:52 pm
So happy it will be of help to you Nora!
September 05, 2014 at 5:30 pm
Thank you so much for the list here! I plan to use some of these with the kids I nanny for. Thanks so much!
Ashley Wells
December 27, 2013 at 5:52 pm
That must start from the childhood, and the best way to do that is to choose proper problem solving activities for preschoolers.
http://kidslearninghub.com
Angie Christensen
May 11, 2013 at 12:43 pm
We've used the bathroom clings with suction cups on the bottom (like what you might put in the bottom of your bathtub) for several different fine motor activities. Turn them upside down so the suction cups are facing up. The kiddos use tweezers or strawberry hullers to pick up beans or pom poms and put one into each suction cup. They an also use eye droppers to squeeze water into each suction cup. If you don't have bathroom clings, you can also use an inexpensive kitchen mat that you would sit underneath your dishes drainer.
Rebecca English
February 24, 2013 at 9:28 am
This is a fabulous collection of activities. My twins are nearly three and will love these.
Thanks for linking to the Sunday showcase. I've pinned this to our board.
Diana - FreeStyleMama
February 21, 2013 at 6:21 pm
Great collection!
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The Imagination Tree
Creative play and learning for kids
40 Fine Motor Skills Activities
September 3, 2013 by Anna Ranson
Here is a collection of 40 fine motor skills activities for young children that are easy to set up and promote a whole range of skills. They’re creative, open-ended, appropriate and varied with ideas for practising motor skills through art, sensory play and simple manipulative games, and there are so many to choose from!

One of the most important ways we can help our children while playing with them at home or in a childcare/ classroom setting is through setting up simple activities that help to develop fine motor skills. Young children need to be able to hold and use scissors and pencils appropriately before using them in a classroom context. We cannot expect them to be able to write if they haven’t yet developed the strength needed in their hands and fingers.
There are plenty of easy ways to strengthen these muscles, practise co-ordination and develop hand:eye co-ordination using simple, everyday materials and a bit of creative fun! Here are 40 that we have done over the past few years with babies to 5 year olds. There are a million variations you could make from each of these to cater for your own child’s particular interests and learning dispositions. Use these as a springboard and pin it for future reference too!

[ Herbal play dough with natural materials to explore]
My personal favourite tool for developing all fine motor skills is the humble ball of homemade play dough . It can be used in SO many ways by adding other combinations of materials to it, and automatically strengthens little hands as they roll, squeeze, twist and build with it. Here is a whole post about the benefits of playing with play dough and a handy guide to starting out with building your own play dough tool kit. Of course, baking with real dough is another wonderful way to play and learn simultaneously!
The many benefits of play dough (and a tool kit)

Other activities we have loved have included exploring sensory play materials, transporting small parts, threading beads, hands-on art projects, cutting and sticking, tearing and scrunching papers, opening and closing fastenings and countless others. Here is a selection of some of those favourites, all of which can be adapted for different age groups and abilities.
Threading with beads onto pipe cleaners

Threading, posting and slotting toys for babies and toddlers

Poking straws into holes

Pasta necklaces

Monster play dough

Weaving around cardboard

Fairy sparkle playdough

Pipe cleaners and colanders

Beads on spaghetti

Hair rollers sticky construction

First sewing basket

Edible fingerpainting

Making marks in fairy dust

Decorating play dough eggs

Mark making and scooping in lavender sensory salt

Building 3D models

Sorting and pattern making with shells

Patterning with lego

Lid posting game

Snipping and doodling sticky stained glass windows

Whisking up coloured sensory soap

Salt dough alphabet modelling

Pebble sorting

Stacking cups

Play dough cupcakes

Foam and water window art

Related Posts

September 4, 2013 at 5:44 am
Golly Anna! What a bumper collection! Love it.
September 4, 2013 at 8:18 am
What a great and amazing ideas !! I love it all ! Thank you for sharing …
September 4, 2013 at 6:26 pm
Love it, pinned for future reference! especially love the salt fairy dust.
September 5, 2013 at 2:45 pm
I am doing some early childhood graduate work with 2s and 3s…looking forward to incorporating many of these ideas…especially the twigs or birthday candles into dough activities! Thank you.
September 9, 2013 at 3:07 pm
Wow! You have a great selection of fine motor activities here! I used a lot of fine motor activities with my kindergartener last year because he had so much trouble holding a pencil. At the start of this new school year he has already shown me how well he can hold a pencil and print now! I’ll be using some of these to continue helping him with his fine motor, as well as his younger sister. Thank you for sharing!
September 9, 2013 at 5:35 pm
I’m a teacher’s aid in a SPED class and my students absolutely love sensory art and so many of these fine motor activities would be great for them! Thanks for sharing your great ideas and awesome projects!
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[…] to child development experts, completing crafts helps to build a child’s fine motor skills and dexterity. Not only do your children benefit developmentally from crafting, but the process […]
[…] fine motor skills activities for young children in this collection are easy to set up and will promote a whole range of skills. They’re creative, open-ended, […]
[…] Little kids usually seem to be mushing up objects they play with but they are actually using a gamut of actions and strengthening their muscles while they knead, pinch, mold,roll, squeeze and twist. Read more about activities that aid in fine motor movements here. […]
[…] https://theimaginationtree.com/2013/09/40-fine-motor-skills-activities-for-kids.html […]
[…] I was inspired for this post by a beautiful picture from the Imagination Tree on her post with 40 Fine Motor Skills Activities. I literally ran and got them right when I saw it, and we just started playing. I was a little […]
[…] this child-safe claylike substance is great for developing muscle coordination in the hands. The Imagination Tree has a simple no-bake recipe for homemade play dough as well as a host of ideas for using it in a […]
[…] activities (finger strengthening). This website has some fun ideas to aid fine motor control. https://theimaginationtree.com/2013/09/40-fine-motor-skills-activities-for-kids.htmlSome other things which help develop this are things like: pegging pegs onto objects (you could […]
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75 Fun Fine Motor Skills Activities for Kids (Free PDF Activity Included)
Fine motor skills activities for kids: explore fun games and everyday life activities that will help your child’s fine motor skills development + Download your free scissors skills activity (a bilateral hand coordination activity, also good for hand muscles and hand-eye coordination)
Fine motor skills are the ability to move the small muscles in our hands and wrists to complete a task. They are an important component in children’s development.
Fine motor skills start developing during infancy.
Even newborns can grasp objects. At that time, fine motor skills are a basic reflex, but by age three to six months, babies are actively reaching for objects with both hands and transferring from one hand to another.
Fine motor skills are essential because children will use them daily for the rest of their lives.
Some examples of the use of fine motor skills in everyday life situations are:
- zipping up a jacket
- squishing clay between fingers
- holding onto a toothbrush while brushing your teeth
- turning pages of a book

(Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. You can also read our Disclosure & Disclaimer policy here )
Fine Motor Skills Components / Examples of Fine Motor Skills
Several sub-skills or components build up the overall motor skills.
Examples of some (not all ) fine motor skills components are:
- Arm, hand, and finger strength
- Grasp which will build up from a palmar grasp reflex (that allows babies to grasp objects), adding in subsequent phases including the raking grasp (using fingers -not the thumb) like a rake and the pincer grasp (holding objects between the thumb and first finger), until they fully master the grip. An example of the use of grip is holding a cup.
- Bilateral hand coordination , using both sides of the body in the same activity (for example folding a washcloth)
- Hand-eye coordination or the ability to grasp or touch an object while looking at it (for example pouring liquid into a cup)
- Translation (moving an object from the palm of their hand to their fingertips and vice versa)
- Shift (ability to separate an object with fingers, like separating two pieces of paper)
- Rotation (rolling an object between the thumb and fingertips, such as a marble)
- Precision: the ability to grasp, use and release an object without a mistake (a good example of this is fastening a button without fumbling).
Let’s move to our favorite fine motor activities designed to help your child develop and work on all small muscles of the hand to improve manual dexterity!
75 Fun Fine Motor Skill Activities
There are so many ways to nurture fine motor skill development. Here are 75 different activities to help your child’s development.
String Activities
Fine motor skills activities don’t need to be complicated. In fact, one of the most valuable tools can be a simple piece of string. It’s common for an occupational therapist to try these activities for fine motor control in occupational therapy.
- Make a pasta necklace
- Weaving ropes
- Using lace cards (if your child loves the Very Hungry Caterpillar book, then they will love these ones )
- Tying Shoelaces (this wooden set is a fun option, the first part is a puzzle that created the shoe)
- Threading Beads (you can start with large beads and increase the difficulty over time by decreasing the size of the beads)
- Sewing a Button
- Wrapping string around pegs on a peg board
- Braiding string
- Stringing Cheerios
- Wrapping colored string around a stick

Arts and Crafts
For creative kids, arts and crafts are all excellent fine motor activities and a great way to work on hand-eye coordination, bilateral hand coordination, hand prehension, in-hand manipulation, or hand-muscle strength.
Plus, there are so many fun activities in art that both older children and younger kids will love to try over and over again.
- Modeling clay (little hands making small objects is perfect for building hand strength)
- Modeling with playdough (kneading, pinching…)
- Simple origami activities
- Dot to Dot pages
- Making dot art with paint dotters
- Cutting construction paper into different shapes with child-safe scissors
- Building animals with pipe cleaners
- Building a spider web out of yarn
- Finger-painting. Let them finger paint! Have them use different fingers to make straight lines. Start with the index finger and let them repeat with each finger to develop that finger strength/precision.
- Placing stickers on sticker books
- Drawing with chalk
- Painting with water
- Ripping or crumpling paper then gluing to make a beautiful mosaic
- Cutting food for the week’s meal prep with kid-safe knives
- Building a Fairy House in the front yard
- Stamping on a paper
- Doing paper garlands

More fun fine motor activity ideas!
- Wrapping rubber bands around a toilet paper or kitchen paper toll
- Pin and Poke
- Pulling beads from putty
- Picking beads into a bottle or another container with a narrow opening
- Using kitchen tongs to pick pompoms and placing them on a paper plate
- Playing cards (shuffle cards, distribute, hold them in your hands)
- Playing with finger puppets
- Coloring / Drawing
- Writing / Calligraphy
- Popping bubbles in a silicon pop sensory toy
- Color-matching pegboards

Everyday Tasks that Develop Fine Motor Skills
One fun way to help your child’s development is simple activities that are also life skills. In fact, one of the best ways to foster your child’s fine motor development is to have them help with everyday chores. Here are a few simple ideas that you can try with your own young children
- Water play by helping wash dishes
- Letting them play with your office supplies like using a hole punch or typing on a keyboard
- Sweeping or mopping
- Zipping up their coat
- Fastening buttons (decrease the size of the button when they are ready for an added challenge)
- Flipping Pages in a Book
- Have an old lock and key? Let them practice placing the key in and out of the keyhole
- Picking berries
- Filling cups with water
- Spraying and wiping down the table after meals
- Washing the windows
- Picking up small toys on the ground
- Placing coins in a piggy bank
- Sorting small objects such as small beads or coins
- Buckling → use a backpack you already have, or try a buckle toy to help them practice (with this buckle toy you can do zipping and laces too)
- Screwing in screws
- Screwing and unscrewing bottle-tops

Countless games are designed to be the perfect fine motor practice that your 5-year-olds will love to play (or a kid with fine motor skills issues).
- Board games
- Building with legos or blocks
- Playing Jenga
- Stacking objects such as rocks
- Pick up Sticks
- Letter matching eggs
- Building with magnetic blocks
Sensory Play
- Sensory Bin
Sensory Play is one of the most important things you can implement in your children’s routine to foster their development. It stimulates different parts of their brains and can be done in fairly simple ways, like a sensory bin.
In order to make a sensory bin, you only need a few items. Fill up a bin with one of these items and a few toys (like toy cars or a cup and funnel) and let your kid run wild:
- Coffee beans (The smell is incredible with this one!)
- Soapy water
- Shaving cream
- Gravel / Rocks / Pebbles
- Uncooked pasta
- Water beads
If you are nervous about adding a sensory bin into your routine, there are plenty of other sensory play options. Here are a few examples:
- Making your own sensory bottle (←in this post, I share seven different ways to prepare a sensory bottle for kids)
- Popping bubbles
- Bursting bubble wrap
- Squeezing clothespins
- Building mud pies
- Ripping the bark off of windfall branches
- Breaking sticks
Interested in more sensory activities? Check out our list of sensory activities for kids of all ages (40+ Activities and a free Sensory Meny PDF)
Download your Free Scissors Fine Motor Skills Activity
Download your free scissors skills activity (a bilateral hand coordination activity, also good for hand muscles and hand-eye coordination):

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Preschool Inspirations
Preschool Activities and Learning
Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers
April 22, 2021 by Shelly Riddle Leave a Comment
Kids and teachers both love these fine motor activities for preschoolers! It takes a lot of practice and strengthening to master fine motor skills, but luckily these learning activities are so fun that kids don’t even know they are “at work.” Check out the full list below and have your kiddos get to work, or rather, to play!

As a preschool teacher or parent, you probably hear and use the term fine motor skills on a regular basis. But what exactly are these fine motor skills, and why are they so important?
What are Fine Motor Skills?
Simply defined, fine motor skills are the coordination of the small muscles that control the hand, fingers, and thumb. They include movements like grasping and pinching. Developing fine motor skills is vital in young kids as they are the foundation of many activities including writing, drawing, cutting, grasping, buttoning, tying laces, zipping, and even using utensils.
As adults, it’s easy to take these fine motor skills for granted. However, we can’t underestimate the importance of strengthening those little muscles and helping young kids develop the skills that are important in all areas of their lives.

FREEBIE ALERT!
Another wonderful way to work on fine motor skills is through sign language, particularly the ASL alphabet. Enter your e-mail below to get this free ASL alphabet poster! It’s perfect to print and hang in your home or classroom. The hands are pictured in four different skin tones.
Fine Motor Busy Bags
Busy bags are ready-to-go bags or boxes that include simple, engaging activities that young kids can do independently, anytime, anywhere. They are an integral part of early childhood education because they allow for independent skill practice which helps boost confidence and autonomy.

Brown Bear Lacing Busy Bag – Preschool Inspirations Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? I see adorable lacing cards just waiting for me! That’s right – this activity brings a beloved children’s book to life with darling lacing cards. A fun way to integrate literacy with fine motor activities for preschoolers!
Rainbow Sight Words – Preschool Inspirations This is a rainbow-tastic literacy activity for fine motor skills. It’s always exciting when we can make sight word practice fun and hands-on. This activity does just that, while also developing hand-eye coordination.
Rainbow Fine Motor Sensory Bin – How Wee Learn If you’re looking for a sensory bin that is bright, engaging, and helps build fine motor skills, look no further! With colorful buttons, plastic eggs, and pipe cleaners, you may keep those little hands playing for hours! The perfectly fun way to help prep those hands for writing.
Fine Motor Practice with Buttons – Coffee Cups and Crayons Playdough is probably one of the most popular fine motor activities for preschool. This activity takes it to the next level by adding some dry spaghetti and buttons to work on threading. You can even add in some math applications with counting, patterns, and sorting.
Pincer Grasp
The pincer grasp is defined as the coordination of the index finger and thumb to hold an object. It’s extremely important in a child’s development and is crucial for several activities, including (but not limited to) buttoning, zipping, eating with utensils, and holding/controlling a pencil.

Apple Sorting Activity – Preschool Inspirations This adorable sorting activity is chock full of fine motor fun! Tracing, cutting, and sorting, oh my! Those little hands are going to get quite the fine motor workout, and may just sneak a few yummy fruit loops while they are at it!
Rainbow Name Tracing Activity – Preschool Inspirations In this fine motor activity for preschool, your kiddos get to practice something that is of great value to them- their names! Kids generally love anything that has their name involved. As an added bonus, the colorful dot stickers are an amazing way for kiddos to strengthen their small hand muscles, which of course, promotes fine motor development. Win, win!
Fall Alphabet – Preschool Inspirations This fine motor activity for preschool has a fun fall focus, but can be adapted for any season or theme! The large wooden letters make a great sturdy base for the kids to practice letter recognition and formation. You can get the fun fall acrylics (or any variety of acrylics based on seasonal needs) at the dollar store, Target, or online.
Strengthen Fine Motor Skills with Water – Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds When you incorporate water into your fine motor practice, it is sure to be a hit! Young kids love using pipettes and water and they don’t even know that it’s an amazing exercise in hand-eye coordination. Win-win!
Fine Motor Activity with Beads – Toddler Approved Beads make such fun fine motor activities. Kids will adore taking their beading to a new level while matching colors and decorating rainbow hair! It’s great for kids to work on different-sized pincer grips, which can easily be done in this activity by simply changing up the size of your beads.
Cardboard Roll Letter Match – Taming the Monsters This fine motor activity for preschool literally only requires three items, all of which you most likely already have on hand! Just grab a sharpie, toilet paper roll (or cardboard craft tube), and some dot stickers. Take a few minutes to prep it and you’ve got a fine motor literacy activity ready to roll!
Scissor Skills Activities
We all know that scissor skills are extremely important, but do we specifically know why? There are so many reasons, including: strengthening little hand muscles, developing visual motor skills (eye-hand coordination), increasing bilateral coordination (using both sides of the body at the same time), developing the important tripod grasp, and building focus and attention to tasks and details.

Scissor Skill Artwork Practice – Preschool Inspirations When you think of fine motor activities for preschool, I’m sure scissor skills pop in your head immediately. As you know, learning to use scissors can be quite a tricky task for those little hands. Having this station in your classroom is truly a genius idea for cutting practice and a way to use recycled artwork from your kiddos.
Open-Ended Fine Motor Practice – Preschool Inspirations How beautiful is it to see open-ended learning at work in a preschool classroom? This fine motor activity table for preschoolers is truly phenomenal. Some young kiddos can be very hesitant to work on the traditional “cut on the line on paper” practice and this activity table allows them to cut all kinds of materials at will which keep them engaged and truly learning and developing all those important scissor skills!
Cutting Practice – Days with Grey When it comes to fine motor activities for preschoolers, there’s nothing quite like a game of Trap, Cut, and Rescue! Your kiddos won’t even realize they are doing scissors practice, as they will be completely focused on one mission – rescue the bears!
Rainbow Confetti – Play to Learn Preschool Fine motor activities for preschoolers can be a rainbow of confetti fun! This simple activity incorporates two major fine motor skills along with color recognition, sorting, and letter recognition practice. Make your kiddos’ fine motor practice a confetti-filled party!
Fine Motor Skills Activities
Fine motor skills are the coordination of the small muscles that control the hand, fingers, and thumb. They help children perform important tasks such as writing, drawing, buttoning, zipping, grasping items like toys and utensils, and so much more!

Fingerplays – Preschool Inspirations Fingerplays are a fantastically fun way to practice fine motor activities for toddlers and preschoolers. They tie in so many other essential skills such as body awareness, listening skills, and vocabulary development. The best part is that you don’t need any materials (unless you want to incorporate some finger puppets, of course!) and they can be done anytime, anywhere.
Preschool Rainbow Craft – Preschool Inspirations Somewhere over the rainbow, you will find this amazing fine motor activity for preschool. The kiddos need to shape the pipe cleaners, which gets in some excellent and fun fine motor practice. This activity arrives just in time for all those spring rainbows!
Paper Plate Apple Lacing Activity – Preschool Inspirations When planning your fine motor activities for preschoolers, lacing activities should be high on the list. Lacing is excellent for fine motor, hand-eye coordination, and focusing on a task. Bonus – you probably already have most of the necessary supplies on hand!
Fine Motor Number Challenge – Fun-A-Day Fine motor activities for preschoolers just aren’t complete without some tongs mixed in! They are such a beloved part of fine motor practice and so good for the kids as they manipulate this tool. Check out this fun activity which uses the tongs, wooden spools, and organically allows for practice with one-to-one correspondence.
Egg Carton Geoboard – And Next Comes L What do you get when you flip over an egg carton and grab some rubber bands? Well, an easy homemade geoboard, of course! Don’t we all just love ideas that are this simple, this genius, and allow for fun fine motor practice with literally no prep?
Play Dough and Rocks – The OT Toolbox This fine motor activity for preschool is as simple as playdough and rocks. Yes, that’s all it takes! The rocks bring in some added fun and exploration to beloved playdough time and also help build those little hand muscles even more!
Fine Motor Journals – Stay At Home Educator Fine motor journals are a developmentally appropriate way for preschoolers to practice skills needed for writing. They allow fine motor practice in a variety of ways and engage the student in ways that letter tracing worksheets might not. They also give parents a snapshot of how their children are progressing in their pre-writing and writing skills.

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How to Help Your Child Develop Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills meaning
Early childhood development includes acquiring fine and gross motor skills. While both these skills involve movement, they do have differences:
- Fine motor skills involve movement of the smaller muscle groups in your child’s hands, fingers, and wrists.
- Gross motor skills involve movement of the larger muscle groups, like the arms and legs. It’s these larger muscle groups that allow babies to sit up, turn over, crawl, and walk.
Both types of motor skills enable children to become more independent. Fine motor skills are especially crucial, however, because the ability to use the smaller muscles in the hands allows children to perform self-care tasks without assistance. This includes:
- brushing their teeth
- getting dressed
Examples of fine motor skills
Babies and toddlers develop fine and gross motor skills at their own pace. Some children develop some skills earlier than others, and that’s perfectly normal. Children usually begin to acquire these skills as early as 1 or 2 months old and continue to learn additional skills through preschool and early elementary school.
The most important fine motor skills children need to develop include the following:
- The palmar arches allow the palms to curl inward. Strengthening these helps coordinate the movement of fingers, which is needed for writing, unbuttoning clothes, and gripping.
- Wrist stability develops by early school years. Itallows children to move their fingers with strength and control.
- Skilled side of the hand is the use of the thumb, index finger, and other fingers together for precision grasping.
- Intrinsic hand muscle development is the ability to perform small movements with the hand, where the tip of the thumb, index finger, and middle finger touch.
- Bilateral hand skills permit the coordination of both hands at the same time.
- Scissor skills develop by age 4 and teaches hand strength and hand-eye coordination .
Here’s a brief timeline of fine motor milestones for babies and toddlers:
0 to 3 months
- places their hands in their mouth
- hands become more relaxed
3 to 6 months
- holds hands together
- moves a toy from one hand to the other
- holds and shakes a toy using both hands
6 to 9 months
- begins to grasp things by “raking” with the hand
- squeezes an item with their hands
- touches fingers together
- grasps a toy with both hands
- uses their index finger to touch things
- claps hands
9 to 12 months
- feeds themselves finger foods
- grabs small objects with thumb and index finger
- bangs things together
- holds a toy with one hand
12 month to 2 years
- builds block tower
- scribbles on paper
- eats with a spoon
- turns one page of a book at a time
- holds crayon with fingertips and thumb ( pincer grasp )
2 to 3 years
- turns a doorknob
- washes hands
- uses a spoon and fork correctly
- zips and unzips clothes
- places lids and removes lids from canisters
- strings beads on yarn
3 to 4 years
- unbuttons and buttons clothes
- uses scissors to cut paper
- traces shapes on paper
Fine motor skills development
Fine motor skills develop naturally as your child gains the ability to control and coordinate their body . Keep in mind that some children might develop fine motor skills earlier and have better coordination than others.
One baby may learn to shake a rattle at 3 months, whereas a baby of the same age might not shake a rattle until a month later. This is totally normal.
Don’t be alarmed if your child isn’t developing as fast as a child of similar age. Remember, your child’s body is still growing. In a few weeks or months, they may build enough muscle strength in their hands to acquire new fine motor skills.
Fine motor skills activities
Incorporating fun activities into your child’s daily routine can help improve their fine motor skills. The ability to learn and practice fine motor skills at an early age can benefit them academically, socially, and personally.
Here are some activities you and your child can do together:
- Allow your child to assist with meal preparation, like stirring, mixing, or pouring ingredients.
- Put together a puzzle as a family.
- Play board games that involve rolling dice.
- Finger paint together.
- Let your child set the dinner table.
- Teach your child how to pour their own drinks.
- Have your child roll and flatten clay with their hands, and then use a cookie cutter to make cutouts.
- Show your child how to use a hole puncher.
- Practice placing rubber bands around a can.
- Place objects in a container and have your child remove them with tweezers.
Trouble with fine motor skills
Although fine motor skills develop at different rates, see your child’s pediatrician if they struggle with these skills or gross motor skills. Delays could be a sign of developmental coordination disorder. It affects about 5 to 6 percent of school-aged children.
Signs of a problem with fine motor skills include:
- dropping items
- unable to tie shoes
- difficulty holding a spoon or toothbrush
- trouble writing, coloring, or using scissors
Some fine motor skills delays aren’t detected until a child is older. Identifying a delay early can ensure your child receives the help they need to build their skills and help them grow.
Your child’s pediatrician may diagnose a coordination disorder if your child has:
- fine motor skills below what’s expected for their age
- poor fine motor skills that make it difficult to complete everyday tasks at school and home
- developmental delays of motor skills that started at an early age
Your child may need to work one-on-one with an occupational therapist to learn techniques to improve coordination in their smaller muscle groups.
Fine motor skills are essential to living and learning. If your child has difficulty with day-to-day activities or you feel your child struggles with these skills, discuss the possibility of a developmental delay with their doctor.
With an early diagnosis, home activities, and the assistance of an occupational therapist, you can help your child thrive and reach developmental milestones.
- Health & Well-being
How we reviewed this article:
- Activities for the development of fine motor skills in young children. (n.d.). schools.shrewsburyma.gov/ot/fine-motor
- Developmental milestones: Fine motor skills and visual motor skills. (n.d.). choc.org/userfiles/file/Rehab-Developmental%20Milestones%20final.pdf
- Diagnoses: Developmental coordination disorder. (n.d.). canchild.ca/en/diagnoses/developmental-coordination-disorder
- Help your child build fine motor skills. (n.d.). naeyc.org/our-work/families/help-your-child-build-fine-motor-skills
- The Understood Team. (n.d.). Find motor skills: What you need to know. understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/movement-coordination-issues/all-about-fine-motor-skills
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Helping Your Baby Reach Greater Wonders
13 Easy DIY Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers

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- Fine motor skills are the coordination of small muscle movements that occur in the hands and fingers.
- An occupational therapist can assess your child’s fine motor skills and provide strategies and exercises to help improve them.
- There are many ways to develop and improve fine motor skills, including playing with play dough, threading beads, cutting with scissors, and drawing or painting.
Fine motor skills are the ability to control small muscles in the hands and fingers in order to perform tasks. These skills develop over time, and toddlers typically begin to gain more control of their hands around 18-24 months old.
Many everyday activities require fine motor skills, such as holding a pencil, using scissors, buttoning a shirt, or tying shoelaces. For children with fine motor delays, these simple tasks can be frustrating and challenging.
While many parents are focused on teaching their toddler “Big Life Skills,” like potty training or learning to read, it’s also essential to encourage your child’s fine motor development.
From building blocks to drawing with crayons, toddlers are constantly exploring the world through their hands, and there are many simple activities to encourage fine motor development in preschoolers. Games that require grasping small objects, such as picking up coins or placing pegs in holes, are great fine motor activities. Arts and crafts also provide endless opportunities for exploring different textures and practicing precise movements.
Below are 13 of our favorite fine motor activities for preschoolers that you can set up quickly at home! They each use materials you should have readily available around the house (like cardboard, pipe cleaners, dried pasta, etc.) and can be simple or more complex, depending on your child’s developmental needs. We’ll also show you how to make each of these activities accessible for children who are visually impaired.
1. Color Match Pom Poms

What You’ll Need
- Cardboard cut into a large circle or a large heavy-duty paper plate
- 5 small water bottles, cut in half
- 5 small construction paper circles cut from different colors
- 1 paper cup
- Different colored pom poms
How To Set It Up
- Begin by gluing a paper cup to the center of your large cardboard circle.
- Glue the colored construction paper circles to the larger cardboard circle around the paper cup and glue the top half of a small water or juice bottle to each colored circle.
- Place multi-colored pom poms in the paper cup, and you are ready to play!
How To Play
The object of this game is to choose one pom pom from the paper cup in the center of the board and place that pom pom in the corresponding bottle with the matching color. Precisely picking up one pom pom requires fine motor control, but even more control is necessary to place the pom pom into the small opening of the bottle.
To make this activity easier, remove the color-matching aspect entirely and use bottles with larger openings. You can even begin with five paper cups in place of the water bottles and just have your child move the pom poms from the center cup to the five outer cups.
How To Make the Game Accessible
For kids who are visually impaired, pick colors they can see and use high contrast. For example, your board could be black and your colored circles bright yellow and bright red. Limit the pom poms to just red and yellow and help your child match the red pom poms to the bottles on the red circles and the yellow pom poms to the bottles on the yellow circles.
You can also replace the color differences with texture differences, like small seashells versus pom poms. Your child could sort the objects by touch rather than by sight.
2. Color Match Caterpillar

- Cardboard cut into a large rectangle
- 9 small bottle caps in different colors
- 1 large bottle cap
- Googley eye stickers
- Begin by gluing a large bottle cap to the cardboard rectangle to serve as the caterpillar’s head. Glue 9 more small bottle caps for the caterpillar’s body.
- Place googley eye stickers for the eyes and use a pen to draw a mouth, antenna, and legs on your caterpillar.
- Set the pom poms on the table or in a bowl and prepare to play!
Have your child sort the pom poms on the table into the matching color bottle cap on the caterpillar’s body. You can make this game more complex and use more hand muscles by offering your child tools to pick up the pom poms, like large plastic tweezers or a large plastic spoon.
Again, use high-contrast colors for kids who are visually impaired (yellow on black works really well for kids with CVI). You can also remove the color matching entirely and just focus on scanning the board to find the bottle caps and place the pom poms in the caps.
3. Count the Pom Poms

- 4 small plastic or paper cups
- 4 foam numbers or numbers written on thick cardboard
- For this game, just set a cup next to a number. You can place your numbers in order or make the game a bit more challenging by placing the numbers nonsequentially.
- Set out a pile of pom poms on the table and let the game begin.
This fine motor skills activity also focuses on math skills. Your child’s objective is to fill each cup with the number of pom poms determined by the number on the table.
When working on emerging motor skills, just have your child pick up the pom poms and place them in the cups. As they develop stronger fine motor skills, have them use tools to move the pom poms from the table to the cups.
To make this accessible for kids learning braille, cut out cardboard squares, write the number in large print, and add a braille number label. You can glue the paper cup to the cardboard if you don’t want your child to have to scan to find the cup associated with the number.
4. Pasta Straws

- Long tube pasta, such as penne or ziti
- Not much setup is necessary for this game; just place the straws and pasta on a table and help your child string the pasta on the straws!
This is a simple game but can be difficult for little hands to master, and it can take a lot of fine motor practice to get it right. Once your child is comfortable stringing pasta onto a straw, you can complicate the fine motor movements by having them string the pasta onto twine.
Another option is to place the straws in foam (like floral foam blocks ) so your child doesn’t need to hold or stabilize the straw in one hand while stringing the pasta with the other (a relatively complex fine motor skill). Depending on the size of your straws, you may be able to place them in the holes of a colander rather than in floral foam.
5. Play Dough Letters

- A large printed letter on stock paper
- Small objects to place in the play dough like rolled aluminum foil, bottle caps, paper clips, etc
- This is another simple game that doesn’t require too much setup. Print a large capital letter on stock paper. Kids love doing activities with the first letter of their name!
- Set out small objects for your child to decorate the play dough letter with.
Help your child form play dough in the shape of the letter using the print as a template. Have them pick up small objects (a simple way to develop fine motor skills) and push them into the play dough. This activity is fun because kids enjoy playing with the first letter of their name and there is no wrong way to decorate a play dough letter!
If your child is learning braille, rather than having them form a print letter out of play dough, have them use small objects (rolled aluminum foil works great for this) to push a braille cell into the play dough. Feel the six dots and see if they can recreate their name in braille in the play dough!
6. Scooping Beans

- A small bowl filled with dried beans
- A measuring cup or other cup for scooping
- A 6-cup cupcake pan
- This is another simple game that doesn’t require too much setup. Simply place the bowl, beans, measuring cup, and cupcake pan on the table and have your child scoop from the bowl to the pan.
Simply have your child move all the beans from the bowl to the cupcake pan. The best part of this game is the sound the beans make as they fall into the pan!
You can make the game more complex by adding other scooping tools, like measuring spoons, or asking your child to fill all the cups in the pan to the same fill line.
Do you know what else comes in sixes? A braille cell! If your child is learning braille, ask them to fill the cups in the cupcake pan to create braille letters!
7. Beads in a Container

- Any plastic container with a hole in the lid
- Party beads cut to length
- Start with a plastic container that has a lid. If the lid has a hole in the top, then you are all set! If not, cut a small hole using scissors. Empty Gerber cereal containers work well for this game.
- Cut a length of party beads so they are long rather than hooked like a necklace.
Place the party beads in the container with a short length set out through the hole in the lid. Have your child pull the beads out of the container!
Bead necklaces made with smaller beads can be more challenging to hold on to but easier to pull out of the container, while oversized beaded necklaces are easier to hold but harder to pull through. Experiment with both and see which poses more of a challenge for your child.
The great aspect of this game is that your child will have to hold the container with one hand while pulling the beads with the other, also known as bilateral hand coordination . If this is too complex for your child at the moment, you can begin this activity with a container that suctions to the table. As your child works on developing fine motor skills, move to a container that they will have to stabilize themselves.
This game is already pretty accessible for kids who are blind or visually impaired, but one fun add-on may be to play with light-up beads in a darkened room. Kids with light perception will work on their fine motor skills while also working on their visual tracking with bright lights!
8. Toothpick Cactus

- Thick corrugated cardboard
- Green paint or green crayons
- Cut a large piece of corrugated cardboard in the shape of a cactus and another smaller piece in the shape of a pot.
- Paint or color the cactus green and glue the pot to the bottom of the cactus.
- Use a toothpick to poke multiple holes throughout the cactus.
Help your child find all the holes in the cactus and place the toothpicks in the holes. Have your child remove the toothpicks and place them back again. Both taking the toothpicks out and placing them back in the holes support fine motor development.
To add complexity to this activity, have your child use a small tool, like a wooden mallet, to pound the toothpicks into place.
For kids with little to no vision, part of the game involves using their hands to scan the cactus and find the holes. For kids with some usable vision, look for colored toothpicks with frills and choose colors that are easy for them to see or that highly contrast the green on the cactus.
9. Drawing Obstacle Boards

- Thick card stock or poster board
- Small items like buttons, bottle caps, or popsicle sticks
- Cut a long rectangular piece of card stock or poster board.
- Glue small items, like buttons, in a pattern on the board.
Give your child pens or crayons and tell them to draw a path around the obstacles on the board. This game is similar to a maze, but there is no right or wrong way to “complete” the maze. The point here is to learn how to properly hold and manipulate a writing implement and to create unbroken pencil lines on the paper.
The items glued to the board will be easy for a child with a visual impairment to find, but the pencil lines might not have much meaning. If your child is blind, consider using scented markers or puffy paints to make the lines on the paper.
10. Watermelon Sponge

- Sponge sheets in white, green, and red
- Small black buttons
- Cut out sponge shapes and glue them together to build a watermelon. Alternatively, you can purchase a watermelon sponge already assembled!
- Use a knife to slice slits into the sponge where the watermelon seeds should go.
The seeds have fallen out of the watermelon, and it’s your child’s job to put them back! Show them how each of the black buttons fits snuggly in the slits in the watermelon sponge to create seeds. Placing the “seeds” in the watermelon is a great fine motor activity, but it’s even more difficult to remove the seeds. Work on both motor skills to develop those hand muscles.
11. Rubber Bands on a Tube

- 1 recycled toilet paper or paper towel tube
- Rubber bands
- There isn’t much setup required for this activity. Just bring out the tube and the rubber bands, and you’re ready to play!
This activity allows for more fine motor practice than you might think! Although relatively simple to set up, the action of holding and stabilizing the tube while placing the rubber bands on the tube is actually a pretty advanced skill. You can make the game more complex by having your preschooler group rubber bands together by color or asking them to count how many rubber bands are on the cardboard tubes.
If your child is blind, try introducing textures to the game! Rather than just using plain rubber bands, collect different types of bands like silicone bands, elastic hair bands, or cotton hair ties. See if your child can differentiate the textures and group the bands together by touch on the tube.
12. Butterfly Decorating

- Pipe cleaners
- Bottle caps
- Dried pasta
- Cut out a large piece of cardboard in a butterfly shape and add googley eyes and a pipe cleaner for the antenna.
- You can also cut a thin strip of cardboard and glue that to the center of your butterfly for the body.
- Use glue to paste bottle caps on the wings of your butterfly.
- Set out dried pasta and play dough for decorating. You can add more color by dying the dried pasta. Here is an excellent tutorial on how to dye pasta .
This is one of our favorite fine motor skills activities! After you’ve made your cardboard butterfly, your child’s job will be to decorate it with colors and textures. The bottle caps and body can be filled with play dough, and the pasta can be set into the dough to create fun textured designs.
This activity allows for a lot of imagination, making it easily adaptable. Try making a sparkly butterfly with plastic gemstones or glitter foam stickers, or add more textures with sandpaper wings or cut small pieces of paper to create a collage. Collages are also great scissor skills activities that allow for cutting practice, or you can work on tearing paper with your hands instead!
13. Pom Pom Tower

- Large cardboard tube (from wrapping paper)
- Plastic measuring spoons
- Cut the wrapping paper tube to your desired height. Thick tubes work best for this activity!
- Use a knife or scissors to create slits throughout the tube. This is where your measuring spoons will go.
- Slide the measuring spoons into the slits in the tube. You’ve made your pom pom tower!
Have your toddler place pom poms on each measuring spoon in the tower. They can count the number of pom poms or try to sort the pom poms by color. The biggest challenge for this fine motor activity is to balance the tower while using a pincer grasp to pick up the pom poms and place them in each spoon. Of course, it’s also so much fun to see the tower topple and spill all the pom poms!
This game is fairly accessible as is, but if your child is visually impaired you can focus on helping them scan the tower with their hands to locate all the measuring spoons before beginning play. See if your child can count the number of spoons and keep track of which ones have pom poms and which ones are still empty. This can be a wonderful way to begin learning about scanning and spatial awareness!

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28 Fine Motor Activities That Get Little Hands Moving
Fun ways to increase strength and coordination.
We all use fine motor skills every day without even noticing it. Tying our shoes, buttoning our shirt, feeding ourselves, and brushing our teeth all require fine motor skills, which involve using the small muscles of our hands and wrists. The development of these skills begins at birth and continues to develop over the course of childhood. Perfecting these skills becomes even more important as kids start school since classroom tasks like writing and cutting are dependent on a student’s hand-eye coordination. Bilateral coordination and balance are other examples of fine motor skills that require practice. Check out our list of the best fine motor activities for you to use in your classroom!
Fine Motor Activities for Preschool / Toddlers
1. process art sculpture.

The setup for this activity is so simple—it requires only some foam blocks, pipe cleaners, and beads. Be sure to have a variety of beads and colored pipe cleaners so students can really personalize their sculptures.
Learn more: School Time Snippets
2. Fruit Loop and Spaghetti Stringing

Kids will love this activity, however, you will want to make sure to check for allergies before proceeding. Always have some extra fruit loops on hand since kids will likely steal a few!
3. Button Squiggles and Swirls

Draw squiggles and swirls on card stock, then let students line buttons of different shapes and colors along those lines.
Learn more: Learning 4 Kids
4. Counting With Elastics

We love that this is a fine motor activity that also teaches counting. All you’ll need are oversized Popsicle sticks and a ton of little elastics.
Learn more: Little School of Smiths
5. Pom-Poms in Water Bottles

This is the perfect activity to work on bilateral coordination since kids will have to hold the bottle with one hand while stuffing the pom-poms in with the other.
Learn more: The OT Toolbox
6. Pom-Pom Sorting

Instead of building with all of those mega blocks you have in the classroom, why not turn them upside down and repurpose them for a color-sorting activity? You’ll also need some pom-poms in corresponding colors and some plastic tweezers.
Learn more: Happy Toddler Playtime
7. Cardboard Roll and Straw Threading

Cut up some toilet paper rolls, then have your students work on punching holes in them. Add another fine motor activity by having your students thread straws through those holes.
Learn more: Laughing Kids Learn
8. Dinosaur Spikes

Print and laminate some dinosaurs in different colors and have your students practice attaching clothespins in matching colors to their backs.
Learn more: Oh Hey, Let’s Play
9. Animal Tape Rescue

Little ones will certainly get a kick out of “freeing” the animals from the floor or whatever surface you decide. You can work on hand-eye coordination while also working on animal recognition.
Learn more: Messy Little Monster
10. Sticker Color Sorting

This activity is so simple yet it works on both fine motor skills and color recognition.
Learn more: Busy Toddler
11. Another Animal Rescue

Here’s another adorable animal rescue mission for your little ones. This time, they will have to remove the elastics to free their animal buddies!
Learn more: Team Cartwright
12. Colorful Rainbow Hair

This might just be the cutest pipe-cleaner-and-bead fine motor activity we have ever seen!
Learn more: Toddler Approved
13. Button Sorting

Find some small bowls with lids, cut slits in the top, then let your students sort different-colored buttons into the appropriate containers. Kids will be working on their hand-eye coordination while also practicing color recognition.
Learn more: About Family Crafts
14. Pumpkin Sorting Bin

This is the perfect fine motor/sensory activity for October, although it would be fun anytime! Grab some small pumpkin containers and orange pom-poms or small pumpkin candies, then let your students see how many pumpkins they can pick up.
Learn more: I Heart Crafty Things
15. Q-Tip and Straw Activity

Another threading activity, this time using cotton swabs and straws. We love how inexpensive this activity is to pull together!
Learn more: Mess for Less
16. Holiday Tree Balance Activity

Despite this being a Christmas tree, you could easily make it non-denominational by simply creating a forest in your classroom using green painter’s tape. Have students practice their balance by walking along the limbs of the tree.
Learn more: The Inspired Treehouse
17. Quiet Books

Quiet books are soft books that often contain real-life tasks for little ones to complete like tying shoelaces or buttoning buttons. Purchase some to include in your class library, or if you’re feeling really crafty, make one yourself!
Learn more: My Mommy Style
Fine Motor Activities for Elementary Students
18. pushpin mazes.

If you’re doing this activity with older elementary students, you will be able to let them design their writing patterns with the pushpins before they practice their writing skills following the maze.
Learn more: Planning Playtime
19. Yarn Wrapping

Yarn wrapping is so fun, and it makes for the perfect craft for elementary school–age students. Be sure to have plenty of varieties of yarn so your students can really express themselves.
Learn more: The Pinterested Parent
20. Perler Beads

Since stringing beads onto pipe cleaners might not be challenging enough for elementary-age students, why not try Perler beads? In addition to the hand-eye coordination required to put the small beads on the boards, it will also take patience and determination. Having an extra adult on hand to handle the ironing will help!
Learn more: Mama in the Now
21. Beaded Friendship Bracelets

A childhood staple for generations, kids will love creating these cute beaded bracelets to keep or give as gifts.
Learn more: Projects With Kids
22. Play Dough Writing

Practicing handwriting can be tedious, but practicing it in play dough can liven it up a bit.
Learn more: Fantastic Fun and Learning
23. Stack the Erasers

Roll some dice, then have your students stack mini erasers to get to the desired number. Keep stacking until they fall over!
24. LEGO Challenge

Since most kids love LEGO, this fine motor activity is sure to be a hit in your classroom. Come up with daily or weekly challenges for your students, then watch them get to work. You may need to ask for donations of LEGO bricks from friends and families.
Learn more: Life Over C’s
25. Edible Toothpick Sculptures

Provide your students with grapes or marshmallows and countless toothpicks, then watch their creativity flow!
Learn more: Artful Parent
26. Paper Weaving

First, have students cut up strips of paper and magazines, then have them practice weaving them through slits in paper.
Learn more: Babble Dabble Do
27. Bean Mosaic Art

Older kids will really excel at painting beans and then arranging them into creative mosaics.
Learn more: Pretty Life Girls
28. Braiding Boards

Braiding is the perfect activity for older elementary students to work on their hand-eye coordination. Similar to tying shoelaces, braiding requires patience and mastery that is age-appropriate for elementary students.
Learn more: Happy Hooligans
Looking for more fine motor activities? Find out how handwriting helps develop fine motor skills!
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Fine Motor Skills
So, what exactly is fine motor skills, explore popular topics.
What do all these words mean?
Fine Motor Skills impact function and hand use in small motor tasks. You may have heard the term fine motor skills before. If you are familiar with occupational therapy, then you know that fine motor activities are an integral part of OT interventions. The hands play an important role in most occupations that we perform. From writing, to tying, getting dressed, feeding ones self…most of our day to day tasks involve using our hands. So, when fine motor control and dexterity impacts functional performance, it can be a reason to work on motor control of the hands.
Here, we are covering all aspects of fine motor skills when it comes to children. We’re covering fine motor development, each aspect of fine motor skills, and fine motor activities that are rooted in play and learning to develop these essential skills of the hands.

What are Fine Motor Skills?
Fine motor skills are the refined movements and actions of the hands, fingers, and wrists that enable precision and dexterity of movement. Fine motor skills can be broken down into different motor components that impact the ability to use the hands in functional tasks and tool use.
Fine motor skills are necessary for every task that a child completes. From play, self-care, to managing clothing fasteners, and coloring, motor skill development is needed for every aspect. Fine motor skill development is essential to pencil grasp and handwriting. Fine motor skills make up a huge part of learning and the school day (Read about the various fine motor skills needed at school .)
Motor skills like pincer grasp and hand strength are essential for a child’s development and ability to use their hands in small motor movements.

what are the fine motor skills
Fine motor skills are made up of several components of motor skills using the fingers and hands. related, and an important piece of the fine motor puzzle, are the core stability, strength and positioning of proximal positioning, strength, and gross motor skills. developmentally proximal positioning, strength and stability and motor skills enable distal mobility and coordination..
Fine motor skills are made up of various motor components. These sub-areas impact mobility, tool use, manipulation of objects, strength, and endurance. These examples of fine motor skills are needed for everyday tasks like cutting with scissors, tying shoes, fastening buttons and zippers, coloring, and holding a pencil.
Let’s cover all of these fine motor areas in more detail:
- Bilateral hand coordination – Coordinated use of both hands together, or using one hand as a stabilizer and one hand as a manipulating hand. Bilateral coordination includes three components: Symmetrical movements, Alternating movements, and Dominant hand/supporting hand movements.
- Also called bilateral integration, the movements of both hands together in activities requires processing and integration of both hemispheres of the brain to enable both hands working together at the same time, or bilateral movements. Without bilateral coordination, a child might appear to be clumsy or drop items, use primarily one hand in activities, or switch hands during tasks that require a dominant hand and a helper hand. Development of bilateral coordination skills is powerful in functional skills like self-feeding, handwriting, self-dressing, grooming, and more.
- Gross grasp – Gross grasp is used when squeezing all of the fingers shut around an object, like when holding the handle of a suitcase. Gross grasp is important in tasks like handwriting and scissor use. To do these activities, you need to squeeze your whole hand shut and maintain endurance to complete the activity. Development of hand arch and thumb web space is important for these functional skills and gross grasp plays a part.
- In-hand manipulation – In hand manipulation refers to the ability to manipulate objects within the hand. Manipulation of objects within the hand includes three aspects of mobility: translation, shift, and rotation of objects.
- Translation is using your fingers to moving a little item from your palm to your finger tips (or your fingertips to squirrel the item into the palm). When you hold a coin in your palm and manipulate it to your finger tips to push it into a piggy bank or vending machine, you are demonstrating palm-to-finger translation .
- Shift is moving an object using the pads of your fingers…adjusting the pencil grip is demonstrating finger shift. Another example might be manipulating a button or a zipper with the finger tips.
- Rotation is rolling an object using the fingertips. Examples of rotation are rolling a pencil in your fingertips, turning a pencil over to use the eraser, or opening a bottle top by rotating the lid on your finger tips.
These fine motor skills are needed for functional tasks like managing a pencil or crayon during handwriting, opening containers, managing coins or small items, manipulating a spoon/knife/fork, adjusting the paper when cutting with scissors, and fastening buttons or shoe laces.
- Pincer grasp – Pincer grasp refers to pad-to-pad grip needed to pick up small bead-sized objects. Pincer grasp is important for many fine motor tasks. Any functional skill that involved holding items between the thumb and index finger are based on effective development of pincer grasp.
- Neat pincer grasp – Neat pincer grasp uses the tips of the thumb and pointer finger to stabilize objects. When using a pincer grasp , children use the pads of the thumb and finger to stabilize the object. Neat pincer grasp is used to pick up very small items such as perler beads, a thread from a surface, or a needle. You might see the tip-to-tip grasp to pick up a sequin or fuzz from clothing.
- Tripod grasp – Tripod grasp is the opposition of the thumb to the pad of the pointer finger and middle finger when grasping and manipulating objects. Tripod grasp is the optimal (though not the only functional grasp) used to hold and write with a pencil.
- Strength – When kids have a functional finger strength levels, they are able to write and color with endurance. They are able to manipulate small items. Finger strength looks like the ability to open and close plastic baggies and other meal containers at lunch time in the school lunch room. It looks like the ability to manipulate clothing fasteners like buttons, snaps, and even the buckle on a car seat. Finger strength can be tested to see if grip and pinch strength are at typical levels for the child’s age, but if you are noticing that activities the child should be accomplishing like managing items is hard, you can look into hand strengthening and grip strength exercises in more depth.
- Open thumb web space – The thumb web space is that space between your thumb and pointer finger that makes an “O” when you make the “OK” sign. In order to grasp small items with your thumb and index finger, you need to oppose the tip of your thumb to the tip of your pointer finger. Not only do the tips of the fingers need to touch, but the thumb must rotate at the joint closest to your hand. This opposition is needed to manipulate and grasp small items like shoe laces, buttons, and zippers.
- Separation of the sides of the hand – Separation of the sides of the hand refers to the imaginary line drawn from your wrist directly down the middle of your hand and between your ring finger and middle finger, separating the precision side of the hand (thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger) with the power side of your hand (pinkie finger and ring finger). These two sides work together in skilled activities with precision and power grasp in functional activities.
- Eye-hand coordination – Eye-hand coordination, or Visual motor skills , refers to the coordination of visual input and the processing of that visual information for coordinated movement of the hands. These skills impact fine motor dexterity and motor movements in functional tasks for so many tasks while manipulating movements and objects. Eye-hand coordination is essential in handwriting, scissor use, threading beads, reading, throwing a ball, placing a cup on a shelf, coloring in lines, feeding, self-care, and much, much more.
- Wrist extension – A slightly extended wrist or neutral wrist allows for a functional grasp and optimal position of the fingers in opposition to the thumb. Wrist stability enables the fingers to manipulate objects without the wrist moving around. Proximal stability is needed for distal mobility and this applies in the wrist in relation to the hand and fingers.
- Wrist stability
- Arch development – Arch support in the hand is related closely to the separation of the sides of the hand. Refinement of fine motor skills in the hand (the radial side) happens when the power half (the ulnar side) is stabilized. A functional fine motor grasp and manipulation of objects is more accurate when the ring and pinky fingers are flexed (bent) into the palm. This positioning stabilizes the MCP arch and allows for control of the pointer and middle fingers. Separation of the two sides of the hand allow for more precise use of the thumb. Hand separation starts when a baby bears weight through their arm and ulnar side of the hand while carrying a toy in the radial side. This simple activity developmentally lengthens the muscles of the ulnar side.
- Intrinsic hand strength – The intrinsic muscles are the muscles in the hand that define the arches of the hands, bend the knuckles, and oppose with the thumbs. Among these muscles are a group called the lumbricals. The lumbrical muscles have a job to bend (flex) the MCP joints and extend (straighten) the PIP and DIP joints. When the lumbricals are in action, the hand might look like it is holding a plate with the big knuckles bent and the fingers extended.
- Thumb IP joint flexion – The thumb interphalangeal joint is responsible for flexing or bending the end of the thumb. the joint allows us to pick up very small items in pincer grasp and enables a functional tripod grasp while holding a pencil. Sometimes, kids hold their pencil with the thumb IP joint in a hyper-extended position as a result of weakness or lax ligaments and in effort to provide stability while moving the pencil. Other times, kids wrap their thumb over the pencil in a thumb wrap grasp as a result of weakness and also in attempt to provide stability in handwriting.
- Thenar eminence strength (thumb side of the hand) – Separation of the sides of the hand divides the hand into halves. The thumb side has a fleshy mass below the base of the thumb called the thenar eminence. These muscles pull the thumb into a bent, flexed position and opposition. positioning stabilizes the MCP arch and allows for control of the pointer and middle fingers.
- Hypo thenar eminence strength (pinkie side of the hand)- That same separation of sides divides the pinkie side of the hand. Along the length of the pinkie side is the power muscles which help with stabilization of the hand during precision tasks such as writing with a pencil or cutting with scissors. A cupped palm requires engagement of the hypothenar eminence in order to hold objects in the hand. Hand separation starts when a baby bears weight through their arm and ulnar side of the hand while carrying a toy in the radial side. This simple activity developmentally lengthens the muscles of the ulnar side.
- Opposition – Opposition of the thumb means the tip of the thumb touches the tip of a finger, or the fleshy pad of the thumb touches the pad of a finger. When opposing the thumb to the fingers, small objects are able to be held and manipulated. When opposing, the thumb’s thenar muscles work to advancing and positioning objects pencil when writing, managing a button with ease, and pulling a zipper. Rotation of the thumb at the CMC joint is needed in collaboration with flexion of the MCP joint and IP joints. With a closed thumb web space and lateral pinch of the thumb versus true opposition, a child will fumble.
- Cylindrical grasp – A cylindrical grasp is one in which the whole hand is in contact with an object, and curved with thumb opposition. A common term for this grasp is gross grasp. A cylindrical grasp requires use and strength of the extrinsic muscles and intrinsic muscles of the hand in order to flex the fingers around curved objects. The thumb is positioned in flexion and abduction. A cylindrical grasp is needed in order to hold a broom handle, baseball bat, and ice cream cone.
- Spherical Grasp – A spherical grasp is one in which the hand curves to hold a round or sphere-shaped object. The intrinsic muscles of the hands play a big part in this grasp. In order for the hand to curve, the metacarpal phalangeal joints need to abduct. Involved in this action are the interossei muscles and the hypothenar eminence. The interossei include the palmer interossei and the dorsal interossei. These allow the fingers to abduct and adduct in order to grasp smaller and larger sphere shaped objects. The hypothenar eminence includes three intrinsic muscles that allows the pinkie side of the hand to flex, rotate to oppose the thumb, and create the bulk of the pinkie side of the palm when curving around shapes like spheres.
- Finger isolation – Finger isolation is the ability to isolate and use the fingers one at a time in functional tasks. Finger isolation is using one finger to perform a task. Pointing with the index finger, wiggling all of the fingers individually, and counting out the fingers on your hand are finger isolation. This finger isolation is needed for many functional activities, like dexterity in managing pencils, paintbrushes, and other tools, typing on a keyboard, tying shoes, finger games like “Where is Thumbkin?” and many other skills.
- Hand dominance – This ability to utilize a dominant hand and a non-dominant hand in activities indicates a maturation of the brain and lateralization in functional tasks, which is very important for motor planning, directionality, and visual motor skills.
- Core strength and stability – A weak core leads to weak fine motor skills distally. The engaged and strong muscles of the abdomen and upper body allow for strength and engagement of the upper arm, and in turn leads to dexterity and motor control of the hands. When the core is weak the hands can not effectively do their job to hold the pencil and manage tasks such as eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, and in-hand manipulation.
- Precision – precision refers to the fine movements of the hand. Precision release is needed for stacking blocks without toppling them over, placing cards on a pile, opening scissors just a small amount, or placing small beads into a bowl. Precision is needed for a child to let go of an item in a controlled manner. If they are not exercising precision in release, you might see them rolling or tossing an object as they let go. They will knock over a stack of blocks, or over open the scissors when cutting lines, making their accuracy very choppy. Precision in grasp is related to the picking up of items. A graded lateral grasp is needed to cut with scissors and only squeeze the scissors halfway shut for accurate cutting lines in some situations. Around 3-4 years, a preschool aged child typically develops a greater variety of grasping patterns, including precision. They begin to grade their scissor strokes so that they can cut a line or shape without opening and closing the scissors completely. Precision in this skill occurs when the child is able to pick up very small items like beads with accuracy and graded movements.
- Shoulder stability- Proximal stability of the shoulder is needed to support and stabilize distal movements. Activities that challenge the shoulder against gravity such as working on an inclined surface can strengthen and stabilize the shoulder girdle.
These are just a few examples of fine motor skills that are essential for functional development and effective manipulation of tools.

Fine Motor Activities
Almost every activity you see here contains developmental information and explanations of what skills your child will be working on with the activities. I love to discuss the basics of playful activities and why it helps with developmental skills and functional tasks like handwriting , scissor skills , dressing, and shoe tying.
The fine motor skills that we share in the creative activities below are some of our favorite ways to play! Read specifics about building fine motor skills through play .
This page is a huge resource of fun ways to play and learn while working on fine motor skills. Most activities here are easy prep and use recycled materials or items you might find around the home. Occupational Therapists can use these activities in treatment and parents can do these projects at home for quiet time or developmental skill-building.
Add these fine motor activities to your therapy tool box:
One way to work on fine motor skills is to use one material for a variety of skill areas. We’ve put together some resources to just that! Try these specific tools to work on fine motor skill development in kids:
- Fine motor development with clothespins
- Fine Motor Activities with Play Dough
- Fine Motor Activities with Paper Clips
- Fine Motor Activities with Craft Pom Poms or Cotton Balls
- Fine Motor Activities with Playing Cards
- Fine Motor Activities with Beads
- Fine Motor Activities with Chalk

- Separation of the sides of the hand activity- Use sponges to work on separation of the sides of the hand and a tripod grasp with precision of grasp and release.
- Use Sidewalk Chalk to Build Fine Motor Skills- Improve hand strength and endurance with the resistance of side walk chalk. This is a great fine motor activity for building a stronger shoulder girdle and shoulder stability as well as core strength.
- Teach a Better Pencil Grasp with Molded Crayons- Add resistance to tripod grasp and arch development with these molded crayons.

- Extended Wrist Fine Motor Activity- Work on wrist stability and wrist positioning with flexion and precision distally in this fine motor activity.
- Fine Motor Feather Burlap Weaving -Work on bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, and precision of grasp.
- Teach Kids to Slow Down and Cut on the Lines – Graded grasp and release is needed to cut with scissors. This activity also works on separation of the sides of the hand and arch development.
- Neat Pincer Grasp Activities – These neat pincer grasp activities work on precision, tip to tip grasp, and opposition with precision and dexterity.

- In-hand Manipulation Letter Puzzles – Work on the various types of in-hand manipulation through play with this letter puzzle activity.
- In-Hand Manipulation with Coins – A functional activity that uses coins can build translation of objects from the palm to the fingertips and the fingertips to the palm.
- Jumbo Fine Motor Skills Threading Activity – Work on bilateral coordination, tripod grasp, eye-hand coordination skills, and more.
- Intrinsic Muscle Strength with an Egg Carton – Build arch strength, precision skills, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, and refinement of the internal muscles within the hand to build endurance in fine motor tasks.

- Magnetic Spoons and Handwriting Game – Work on eye-hand coordination, precision, refinement of grasp and release. Other skills include shoulder strengthening, wrist stability, and grasp.
- Pencil Grasp Trick Thumb IP Flexion – This simple strategy builds hand strength, flexion of the thumb IP joint, opposition, and rotation of the thumb CMC joint for functional use and an open thumb web space.
- Thumb Opposition – Use simple objects found around the home to build refinement of opposition including strengthening of pinch and grasp.

- Fine Motor Play Dough Intrinsic Muscle Strength – Work on hand strength of the intrinsic muscles using play dough balls. Work on finger isolation as well and endurance needed for functional tasks such as coloring and handwriting.
- Rainbow Hundreds Chart – Improve precision, neat pincer grasp, bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, and much more with this fine motor activity.
- Pencil Control Exercises – Work on functional grasp and eye-hand coordination, or visual motor skills with these pencil control exercises that will impact handwriting legibility in big ways.
- Pre-Writing Handwriting Lines – Pre-wiring lines is a fine motor activity that requires visual motor integration. Use of a pencil or crayon at pre-writing ages will impact handwriting skills in the elementary years when writing is essential for education.

- Benefits of Stickers in Occupational Therapy – Work on precision, strength, and dexterity, as well as other ways to build motor refinement using stickers.
- Neat Pincer Grasp Fine Motor Activity – Address fine motor dexterity and precision with neat pincer grasp activity you can do right now.
- Buttoning Tips and Tricks – Build the skills needed to fasten and unfasten buttons using this fine motor activity that works on opposition, eye-hand coordination, open thumb web space, separation of the sides of the hand, and more.
- Travel Sensory Diet Bag – Use these fine motor activities to add proprioceptive input in the form of heavy work through the hands.

- Homemade Pencil Grip – Improve tripod grasp, open thumb web space, thumb IP joint flexion, and eye-hand coordination using this DIY pencil grip.
- DIY Pick-Up Sticks – Address precision, graded grasp and release, motor skills, and more.
- Gross Grasp with Recycled Containers – Build hand strength, cylindrical grasp, opposition, translation, and even in-hand manipulation using objects you have in the home.
- Finger Isolation Fingerprint Activities – Work on finger isolation, separation of the side of the hand, arch strength, and refined motor skills.

- Hand Dominance and Fine Motor with Scooping and Pouring – Build eye-hand coordination, precision, grasp and release, laterality, directionality, hand dominance, shoulder stability, crossing midline, and motor planning skills.
- The Benefits of Coloring – Work on hand strength, endurance, precision, eye-hand coordination, motor planning, and more.
- Clothes Pin Exercises and Pinch Grasp Types – Improve pinch and grip strength, eye-hand coordination, grasp and release, arch development, separation of the sides of the hand, hand dominance, and bilateral coordination.
- Homemade Pegboard Activities – Improve precision, visual motor skills, tripod grasp, open thumb web space, in-hand manipulation skills, and more.

- Creative Scissor Skills Practice – Develop scissor skills and the graded grasp and release needed to operate scissors through a variety of paper textures and cutting lines. Also provides resources for the visual motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and wrist stability, proximal stability needed for distal mobility in scissor use.
- Precision in Grasp and Release of Fine Motor Skills – Picking up and releasing small objects or objects of differing weights requires precision, proprioception, and grasp dexterity. Work on refinement of these skills with a simple material.
- Chain Link Counters Color Sort – Address bilateral coordination, hand strength, eye-hand coordination, and pinch skills.
- Hand-Eye Coordination Heart Math – Use tongs to work on open thumb web space, eye-hand coordination, arch development, and endurance in fine motor tasks.

- Handwriting Warm Up Exercises – Use play dough to work on pinch and grip strength, tripod grasp, eye-hand coordination, wrist strength and stability, open thumb web space, flexed thumb IP joint, and opposition.
- Homemade Lacing Cards – Address bilateral coordination, wrist extension, open thumb web space, tripod grasp, pincer grasp, eye-hand coordination, and more.
- Motor Planning Fine Motor Maze – Improve finger isolation, motor planning, eye-hand coordination, motor control and other skills.
- Hand Strengthening Building Activity – This activity develops hand strength, arch development of the intrinsic hand muscles, pinch, and grip strength, endurance, arch development, and opposition, as well as motor planning and problem solving skills. It’s a fantastic fine motor STEM activity for children.

- Fall Leaves Craft – Work on eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, pinch, grip, pincer grasp, wrist mobility and extension, and motor planning challenges.
- Scarecrow Math Craft – Strengthen scissor skill development, eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills, direction following, motor skill development, and more.
- Homemade Lacing Cards – Address bilateral coordination, wrist extension, open thumb web space, tripod grasp, pincer grasp, eye-hand coordination, and more.
- Alphabet Discovery Bottles – Work on bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, pinch, grasp, and release.

- Crayon shaving art – Work on finger isolation, hand strength, motor planning, arch development, wrist extension and stability, and more with this creative art activity kids won’t forget!
- Shape building – All you need are lollipop sticks to make this therapy tool! Work on hand eye coordination, motor planning, precision, grasp and release, problem solving, and more.
- Dyed lollipop sticks – This activity helps with visual motor skill development, precision, grasp and release, and much more.
- Rainbow color sort – Build hand eye coordination, problem solving, bilateral coordination, motor planning, and much more with this colorful activity.

- Block sculptures – Use blocks to work on grasp and release, precision, opposition at various grades, eye-hand coordination, motor planning, crossing midline, with an easy fine motor STEM activity.
- Robin fine motor busy bag – Address tripod grasp and wrist extension with this fun feed the robin activity. Work on eye-hand coordination, grasp and release, open thumb web space, and more.
- Cherry blossom patterns – Use a cherry blossom theme to work on precision, bilateral coordination, pincer grasp, eye hand coordination, open thumb web space, opposition, and hand strengthening skills.
DIY stacking cups – This activity helps with cylindrical grasp, motor planning, crossing midline, bilateral coordination, problem solving, wrist stability, proximal strengthening and stability, grasp and release, and motor planning skills.

- 3 Ingredient Kinetic Sand – Work on hand strength, intrinsic strength, grasp, finger isolation, precision, manipulation of textures, motor planning, and sensory tolerance in fine motor play with easy homemade kinetic sand.
- Cursive Lines Fine Motor Art – Address handwriting and pre-writing lines with a fine motor strengthening activity. This one works on open thumb web space, intrinsic strength, opposition, eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills and more.
- Stamp Art – Address hand eye coordination, motor planning skills, pre-writing lines, proprioceptive input through the hands, and much more with this stamp activity.
- Base Tens Paperclips – Work on bilateral coordination, crossing midline, precision, eye-hand coordination, open thumb web space, wrist mobility, opposition, thumb mobility and rotation at the thumb CMC joint.

- Cotton Swab Letters – This coordination activity involves motor planning, eye-hand coordination, precision, grasp and release, and the ability to manipulate items located on a flat table surface.
- Learn with Legos – Building with LEGO is such a powerful way to foster hand strength, manipulation skills, eye-hand coordination, and add heavy work through the hands and finger joints. Therapists often recommend using building blocks like LEGO to strengthen the hands, arch development, and adding heavy proprioceptive input through the hands.
- Bubble Wrap Maze – Bubble wrap is another fine motor activity that offers heavy work feedback through the hands. It’s a great way to fidget or to “wake up” the hands before a handwriting task. This bubble wrap activity also works on visual motor skills, coordination, and bilateral skills.

- Foam Workout – This sensory play experience is a workout for the hands. Kids can make this sensory play material and work on upper extremity strength and coordination as well as stability needed for distal mobility. Especially addressed is wrist support and strengthening which enables a supported wrist when writing or cutting (or any fine motor manipulation activity).
- Water Bead Sensory Box – This fine motor activity helps with manipulation skills of a slippery material so it can be a challenging eye-hand coordination, pincer grasp, and graded resistance task.
- Handwriting With Cookie Cutters – Work on bilateral coordination, crossing midline with precision and a supporting hand, motor planning, and visual scanning across a midline.
- Cursive Lines Fizzy Dough – Work on fine motor strength, arch development, opposition with resistance, eye-hand coordination skills, and more.

- Handwriting on Resistive Foam Trays – This fine motor activity adds heavy work resistance with a writing tool, much like a pencil is used to form letters and pre-writing lines. With this letter formation activity, children can improve endurance when writing or coloring.
- Mini Rhythm Sticks – Work on bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination skills, pincer grasp, neat pincer grasp, and other fine motor skills.
- Push Pin Can Letters – This fine motor task is a great way to build arch development, tripod grasp, bilateral coordination, and motor planning for letter formation. Forming the letters with a resistive feedback offers a proprioceptive input to help with letter formation and kinesthetic feedback.
- Marble Run Water Table – Work on laterality with a scooping and pouring activity that offers opportunities for fine motor manipulation tasks, crossing midline, and bilateral coordination skills.

- Empathy Beads – Threading beads is a great way to work on precision, eye-hand coordination, tripod grasp, bilateral coordination. Other skills that are addressed include pincer grasp, tripod grasp, open thumb web space, in-hand manipulation, and holding and manipulating loose objects within the palm of the hand.
- Butterfly Craft – This fine motor craft challenges scissor skills with cutting a variety of resistances in papers. Work on placing materials to form the butterflies and picking up small pieces of paper against a flat surface. Glue skills are also challenged with this butterfly craft.
- Snap Block Light Sabers (Star Wars occupational therapy theme) – Snap and connect blocks to work on hand strength, wrist stability against resistance, shoulder and elbow stabilization skills. This is a great way to work on fine motor strength and endurance. You’ll find more Star Wars themed OT ideas in this post.
- Handwriting with Foam Strips- Writing on a resistive surface offers feedback to improve strength and endurance when writing. The activity also builds motor planning skills.

- Scissor Skills Flowers – Work on scissor skills with graded stopping and starting without cutting through a cupcake liner. This is a fine motor task that helps with scissor control and motor manipulation skills that carryover to many scissor skill tasks.
- Caterpillar Math – Make a cute caterpillar craft with fine motor benefits!
- Folded Paper Animals – Did you know that folding paper offers a powerful fine motor advantage? Skills addressed are finger isolation, graded resistance, finger strength, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination skills, and much more.

- Baby Shaker Bottles – Shaker toys are great fine motor activities for toddlers and babies. These DIY shaker bottles offer all of the visual advantages of a sensory bottle, and the auditory processing component builds a great foundation for listening and auditory discrimination skills. Use these shaker toys to work on coordination, head and upper body coordination and strengthening, positioning needs, upper extremity coordination and reach, and much more.
- Chain Link Activities – Therapists will often times have chain link toys in their therapy bag. These paper chain crafts and activities offer much of the same benefits: bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, precision, strengthening, motor planning, patterning, visual memory skills, and much more.
- Toys to Help With Pencil Grasp – These therapy toys are often recommended by occupational therapists for many reasons. I’ve put together toys that build the motor skills needed for a stronger pencil grasp. The toys build strength and coordination in all of the underlying fine motor skills needed for a functional pencil grasp.
- Activities to Improve Pencil Grasp – Looking to work on pencil grasp? Fine motor strength and coordination of the underlying skills and motor movements are almost always needing improved when pencil grasp suffers. These activities for a better pencil grasp are occupational therapist-approved!

- Fine Motor Christmas Tree – Work on precision, coordination, hand strength, bilateral coordination, pincer grasp, neat pincer grasp, and scissor skills, as well as other tool use: paint brush skills, and glue skills. There is a secret fine motor strengthening activity in this craft, too and it involves making the Christmas tree craft stand up!
- Snowflake Stamp Art – Work on eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills, strength, coordination, motor planning, and heavy work input with this stamping activity.
- Fine Motor Snowman Craft – This fine motor snowman craft builds coordination skills and neat pincer grasp to manipulate very small objects including small stickers.
- Fine Motor Ornament – Work on threading, hole punching, and peeling tape with this ornament craft with big fine motor benefits.

- Fine Motor Pincer Grasp Color Match – This fine motor color matching activity is a great way to work on fine motor skills including pincer grasp, tripod grasp, extended wrist, in-hand manipulation, and eye-hand coordination.
- Finger Dexterity Exercise – Work on finger dexterity and hand strength with this colorful bubble wrap activity that kids will love!
- Fine Motor Play With Crafting Pom Poms – This fine motor coordination activity is a great way to strengthen in-hand manipulation, motor planning, finger isolation, open thumb web space, and much more.
- Fine Motor Tripod Grasp with Cereal – Work on eye-hand coordination, wrist extension, bilateral coordination, grasp development, and more.

- Sparkle Collage Art – Use the art materials you have in your home to work on fine motor development with a colorful result. Builds eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills, neat pincer grasp, coloring and tool use, and much more.
- Visual-Motor Letter Match – This eye-hand coordination activity works on visual scanning, eye-hand coordination skills, precision including grasping small objects with pincer grasp.
- Bunny Scissor Tongs – Work on eye-hand coordination, crossing midline, visual motor skills, and scissor skills such as arch development, separation of the sides of the hand, and more.
- Cherry Blossom Trees – Build fine motor strength, coordination, motor planning, and eye-hand coordination skills with this cherry blossom craft.

- Fine Motor Rainbow Beads – Work on precision, threading, and pincer grasp with this threading activity. Other fine motor components include bilateral coordination, separation of the sides of the hand, in-hand manipulation, and more.
- Fine Motor Sprinkle Math – This fine motor activity challenges neat pincer grasp, in-hand manipulation, eye-hand coordination, placement and picking up of small objects.
- Smashing Peanuts – Work on hand eye coordination, graded resistance, and motor planning to break peanut shells.
- Concentric Circle Art – Use objects found in the home to work on gross motor skills, grasp, and placement to make concentric circle art.

- Fine Motor And Auditory Fireworks – This fine motor exercise works on bilateral coordination, thumb strengthening, finger isolation, eye-hand coordination, and offers heavy work input with auditory processing benefits.
- In Hand Manipulation Ideas for Kids – These fine motor ideas include different ways to build dexterity and in-hand manipulation skills. The activities challenge translation, rotation, and manipulation of small objects from the palm to the fingertips and the fingertips to the palm.
- Color Matching with Play Dough – Work on separation of the sides of the hand, in-hand manipulation, and heavy work feedback with resistance to place paper clips into different colored play dough. This is a great hand strengthening activity that improves strength and stability in the wrist as well.
- Feather Beading – This fine motor task helps with bilateral coordination, pincer grasp, tripod grasp, and motor planning skills.

- Fireworks Art – Make a fireworks craft while building precision skills, in-hand manipulation, and eye-hand coordination skills.
- Color Sort Scissor Activity – Use resistive materials to work on hand strength and scissor skills with other benefits like motor planning, crossing midline, core and upper extremity strengthening, and wrist stabilization and stability.
- Fine Motor Grow a Garden – Work on pincer grasp, bilateral coordination, motor planning, hand strength, open thumb web space, and in-hand manipulation skills with a strengthening and endurance activity.
- Play Dough and Rocks – Build hand strength and endurance by manipulating rocks in play dough.

- Fine Motor Brain Building – Work on threading and beading activity that challenges the brain to think outside the box. Kids can work “upside down” and really build shoulder and core strength that is needed for distal mobility and dexterity skills.
- Fine Motor with Keys – Work on in-hand manipulation, bilateral coordination, key grasp, and motor planning to turn keys in a fun key toy.
- Hand-Eye Coordination Cookies – Have you seen alphabet cookies? They are a great (and tasty) way to work on letter identification with motor skill benefits. Work on handwriting, visual motor skills, crossing midline, and grasp skills.
- Using Pipe Cleaners for Fine Motor Skills – This is a great fine motor activity for toddlers or preschoolers. Work on grasp development, crossing midline, bilateral coordination skills, and precision to manipulate pipe cleaners into a bottle.

- Crayon Play Dough – Play dough offers great heavy work feedback through the hands, as well as strengthening and an opportunity for heavy work through the fingers and hands. This crayon play dough recipe adds bold and vividly colored play dough and silk smooth resistance that kids will love to make AND play with!
- Fine Motor Play with Tissue Paper – This fine motor activity for toddlers and preschoolers adds an auditory feedback component to developing grasps. Work on eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, motor planning, grasp and release of thin materials, and much more.
- Golf Tee Hammering – Work on bilateral coordination, motor planning, hand eye coordination, strengthening of the shoulder and elbow. Hammering golf tees also offers wrist strengthening by holding the hammer in a neutral position against the resistance of hitting the hammer on the golf tee. This is a great fine motor activity that kids love!
- Fine Motor Table Top Play with Tape – Working with tape offers a pincer and neat pincer task with resistance. When placing the tape, kids need to manipulate the sticky material and position it on the surface, building coordination skills and motor planning, bilateral coordination skills, and more.

- Baked Cotton Ball Apples – Work on hand strength, bilateral coordination, resistive feedback through the hands, arch development, tripod grasp, and much more with this powerful fine motor activity.
- Pressing Too had When Writing – Pressing too hard during writing is often times a proprioceptive input issue and sensory tactics can help. But many times, fine motor skills play a part as well. Try these strategies to help with pencil pressure when kids write too lightly or with too much pencil pressure.
- Clothes Pin Scavenger Hunt – Pinching clothes pins offers a chance to build hand strength with many repetitions, adding strengthening opportunities through play and learning tasks. This activity also challenges gross motor skills.
- Fine Motor Suncatchers – Work on in-hand manipulation, placement of objects, peeling sticky backed paper with dexterity and precision, bilateral coordination, and many other skills.
More Fine Motor Activities
- Pencil Control Worksheets – Build the motor planning skills needed to manipulate and maneuver a pencil within a writing space.
- Manipulating Coins – Work on in-hand manipulation skills to hold and move coins from the palm of the hand to the fingertips and vice versa.
- Pipe Cleaners Cardboard Box – Address bilateral coordination skills in a fine motor challenge that kids love. Work on shoulder and wrist stability as well as tripod grasp.
- Icicle Scissor Skills – Work on scissor skills with a visual motor activity that helps kids with crossing midline, cutting simple shapes, and graded resistance.
- Sunflower Craft – Pick up and manipulate handfuls of seeds with in-hand manipulation skills, arch development, and hand strengthening with this sunflower craft.

- Straw Fine Motor Sort- Work on in-hand manipulation, separation of the sides of the hand, and fine motor precision.

- Valentines Day Color Sort – Sort and manipulate beads with a fine motor precision activity that builds in-hand manipulation, bilateral coordination, and motor planning skills.
- Baby Safe Water Beads – This fine motor (and gross motor) activity is great for babies and toddlers.
- Torn Paper Art – Tearing paper offers resistive feedback and a hand strengthening activity for kids. Work on stopping and starting at specific points and not tearing through to the edge of the page. This is a great fine motor skill craft!
- Olive Thumbprint Art – Build finger isolation skills, separation of the sides of the hand, and eye-hand coordination skills.

- Crayon Floam – Work on hand and finger strength.
- Turtle Thumbprint Art – Develop finger isolation, separation of the sides of the hand, eye-hand coordination skills, and more.
- Stress Reducing Sensory Bin – Work on gross grasp, hand strength, and more with this fine motor strengthening sensory bin.
- Body Wash Play Dough – Develop tolerance to tactile sensory materials and work on fine motor skills like pinch, grip, and hand strength with scented play dough.

- DIY Glass Gems – Address precision, manipulation skills, eye- hand coordination, bilateral coordination, and motor planning skills to pick up and manipulate these visual processing tools.
- Tools to Help with Fine Motor Development
- Fine Motor Color Math – Work on tripod grasp on a vertical surface to build eye hand coordination, arch development, open thumb web space, and shoulder and wrist stability.
- Scissor Skills Activities
Even More Fine Motor Activities:
Create Your Own Race Track Spring Sensory Seek and Find Sensory Soup with Fine Motor Sorting Fine Motor Strengthening with Color Match Cereal Box Fine Motor Coordination Activity DIY Lacing Cards Manipulating Coins Fine Motor Skills Best Fine Motor Play Ideas for Kids Tripod Grasp with Pipe Cleaners Textured Shaving Cream Play Finger Isolation Pom Pom Snowflake Line Awareness Craft Sight Word Scooping Golf Tee Hammering Honey Bee Pinch Pins Invitation to Scoop and Pour Spring Themed Play Dough Press Indoor Snow Painting, scooping, mixing Paint Baggie Letter Formation Light Bright Fun
Need some specifics? Fine motor skills are essential for independence in handwriting and scissor skills.
Fine Motor Skills and Handwriting
Read more about fine motor skills and how they impact handwriting .
Fine motor skills are essential in the classroom, and they can impact learning. For more information, check out this resource on fine motor skills needed in the classroom .
Here is a resource on cursive writing , much of which requires pencil control, in-hand manipulation, and motor planning of fine motor movements in order to form letters. While there is evidence of cursive handwriting being a more efficient and functional form of written work in the child with dysgraphia or other handwriting concerns, there is a component of fine motor dexterity needed for cursive writing.
Fine Motor Skills and Scissor Skills
A s an occupational therapist, working on scissor skills with kids is one of my favorite goal areas. There are so many ways to get creative with modifications to paper, lines, and scissors. The fine motor activities that work on the muscles and dexterity needed for scissor use are fun, too! Stop back soon as we add new activities all the time.

- Bilateral Hand Coordination
- Wrist Extension
- Hand Strength
- Pincer Grasp
- Intrinsic Muscle Strength
- Separating the Sides of the Hand
- Tripod Grasp
- Proprioceptive Input
- Finger Isolation and Dexterity
- Arch Development
- Distal Finger Control
- Finger Dexterity
How to Practice Fine Motor Skills
Simple activities that use the small muscles of the hand are ideal for practicing fine motor skills. While child development and age level plays a role in the practicing of fine motor activities, these fine motor practice ideas can be simple ways to develop hand strength, coordination, pinch, and dexterity:
- Use tweezers to drop crumbled paper into a cup
- Pinch, squeeze, and roll playdough
- Manipulating clothing fasteners: zipping zippers, buttoning buttons, snapping snaps, connecting belt buckles, tying shoes
- Placing beads into ice cube trays
- Squeezing colored water with pipettes into cups
- Tracing stencils
- Cutting straws into small pieces and threading them onto a pipe cleaner
- Cutting yarn and gluing it onto paper
- Positioning rubber bands around small toys…and then taking the rubber bands back off again.
- Playing board games. These board games are great for developing pencil grasp .
Why is Fine Motor Important?
We’ve already covered many of these areas, but in the world of occupational therapy, fine motor development is essential for functional participation. SO many daily tasks are impacted by fine motor development. This functional participation allows us to learn, grow, and interact with the world around them.
In children, fine motor skills allow them to experience the world around them.
- Fine motor skills enable feeding- Development of fine motor skills through play enables grasp of food, utensils, and the ability to scoop food, hold a cup without spilling, cut with a knife, spread butter or peanut butter, cut food, use a fork. Other considerations include opening food containers, managing a lunch box, opening and closing plastic food baggies, holding a tray of food, and much more.
- Fine motor skills enable grooming and hygiene- With the development of fine motor skills, we are able to hold grooming utensils such as combs and toothbrushes, squeeze toothpaste, pick up small objects, use tweezers, open containers, squeeze out a “just right” amount of shampoo, conditioner, or lotion, use and wash with a washcloth, manipulate and hold soap, and much more.
- Fine motor skills enable handwriting skills- holding a pencil, using a functional pencil grasp , coloring, writing at the correct pencil pressure , erasing, and much more.
- Fine motor skills impact scissor use – This includes holding scissors, cutting shapes, manipulating paper, cutting with correct speed, starting and stopping scissors at the appropriate place, and much more.
- Fine Motor Skills and Clothing management- Getting dressed is greatly impacted by fine motor development. Tasks such as managing buttons, zippers, snaps, buckles, shoe tying, hair ties, and other clothing tasks require fine motor strength and dexterity.
This is only the beginning. Relatively every functional task that we do includes aspects of fine motor. Consider your daily tasks. In every way, fine motor skills are included in some manner or another. From seat belt buckles to typing a message on your phone. Fine motor activities are a part of every day, all day long.
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Favorite Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers
I am a blog ambassador for Lakeshore and am compensated for my work. I received product free of charge, but all thoughts and opinions are 100% mine.
If you are looking for fine motor activities for preschoolers , then look no further. These fine motor activities are fun, engaging and super effective!

I am always looking for ways to work on fine motor skills with my kids. Thankfully, there are so many great fine motor tools and games you can play to work on small hand muscles and prepare kids for writing and other life skills.
This list is jam-packed with fun and engaging fine motor activities that your preschoolers will want to do again and again!

1. Alphabet Lacing Beads
Our favorite alphabet beads are these Giant Alphabet Beads from Lakeshore. They are big and chunky, so they are perfect for young preschoolers to lace. I like to use alphabet beads because they make it easy for children to engage with the alphabet while also developing fine motor skills. We’ve used them to practice spelling names, learn letters and sounds, build sight words and more.

2. Pom Poms and an Ice Cube Tray
My preschooler does this activity over and over again! Simply put a bunch of craft pom poms on the table with an ice cube tray. Then add some fine motor tools like tweezers or clothespins. Children will use the fine motor tools to pick up the pom poms and place them in the tray. This is easily one of our favorite fine motor activities for preschoolers!

3. Spider Web Game
One of our all-time favorite fine motor activities (and the most popular one on this website) is this spider web fine motor activity ! Just grab a small basket, weave some yarn through to make a “web” and add some spider rings to the bottom. Then give children tweezers or clothespins and let them get the spiders out of the web. Use more or less yarn depending on the abilities of your students/kids. The more yarn you weave around the basket, the more challenging the activity will be. My 6-year-old son still loves doing this activity! So, if your kids are older and still need fine motor practice, I highly recommend this game.

4. Getting Ready to Write Gumball Grab
My kids love practicing any skill when I turn it into a game. Getting Ready to Write Gumball Grab does just that and in a super fun way! My kids absolutely love this game and have no clue how much fine motor practice they are getting at the same time. Kids grip the tweezer tongs that come with the game like they would hold a pencil, so it is awesome for developing the fine motor skills necessary for writing. This is just one of the many wonderful tools and activities from Lakeshore that help promote fine motor skills in a fun and engaging way!

5. Hole Punch Game
Developing Fine Motor Skills in Preschool

6. Pipettes and Water Play
My preschooler’s favorite thing to do is play with water. So, I just give her cups of colored water and pipettes and she happily plays with the water while developing fine motor skills. These eyedroppers also work really well!

7. Scoop and Count Game
This Squeeze, Scoop and Count Ice Cream Shop is such a fun way for preschoolers to develop fine motor skills while also learning to count! It’s also perfect for pretend play. This is a staple in our preschool supplies!

8. Play Dough and Buttons
My kids really enjoy adding these large collage buttons to play dough. They like to hide the buttons in the play dough and then dig them back out. This process is awesome for strengthening hand muscles!

9. Tracing Lines with Gems
This fine motor activity for preschoolers is super simple to set up! Just draw lines on colored construction paper and have the kids trace along the lines with gems, buttons or beads.

10. Cutting Mazes
If you are looking for ways to help your kids with scissor skills, this activity is for you. I like to take squares of colored cardstock and make cutting mazes for the kids. Just use a marker or crayon to draw a maze and then invite your kids to use scissors to go through the maze. Another option is to have the kids make their own mazes that they can share with one another.

11. Q-tip Painting
Q-tip dot painting is always a favorite with my kids! Learn names or letters by dot painting along the lines of the letters. This requires children to use precision and helps to develop fine motor control.

I hope this list of fine motor activities for preschoolers is really helpful to you and that your kids enjoy them as much as my kids do!
What would you add to this list? Please share your kids’ favorite fine motor activities in the comments.
I am really excited to share this 20% off coupon , so you can get a great deal on one of these awesome fine motor games or tools for your kids too! For more activities, download Lakeshore’s FREE Parent’s Guide ,

12 Fine Motor Activities For Preschoolers
by Esther Evans | Sep 2, 2021 | Blog , Writing And Fine Motor | 1 comment

Did you know that the bones in children’s hands are still developing before the age of seven? An x-ray of a three-year-old’s hand compared to a seven-year-old reveals a startling difference. (Source)
For many young children, this means that the process of writing can be uncomfortable and even painful as they haven’t yet developed enough muscle tone to hold a pen or pencil correctly.
No wonder some children are reluctant to write!
In my work as an educational advisor, I tell everyone this:
The answer is to provide lots of activities to strengthen and build up the muscle tone in their hands and fingers. We need to give children lots of practice in precise hand movements such as:
All of these movements and many more will help to build up a good pincer grip and mean that the process of writing is more comfortable and enjoyable.
Fine motor development goes hand in hand with gross motor development which is all about building up the larger muscles in the body. (Source)
In my long career in teaching and advising, I must have tried hundreds of fine motor activities! And in this article, I’ve condensed all that experience into the ultimate twelve activities for preschoolers. Let’s dive in…

1. Pac Man Monsters!
These are ones you simply must try!
Get a tennis ball, and slice a hole in it with scissors or a knife. I have found dogs’ tennis balls work the best for this!
The hole becomes the mouth! If you now squeeze the ball, the mouth opens, and it looks just like a Pac-Man Monster.
There are all sorts of exciting activities you can do with these, but my favorite is simply to find some ‘food’ for the monster to eat. Something like pompoms would be perfect.
Put lots of pompoms into something like a big play tray. Then the pac-man monsters go around eating as many pompoms as possible, by squeezing the balls, opening the mouths, and picking them up. Hours of fun!
You can also decorate these balls in different ways to create a range of characters. For example, here is a Ninja Turtle tennis ball:

You can also try things like races, where the children try to eat as many pompoms as possible in a time limit.
All this tennis ball squeezing is brilliant for hand strength, and develops all those muscles in small hands.
2. Washing Day
Invite the children to help you have an old-fashioned washing day.
This is great to do outdoors on a nice sunny day. Provide the children with waterproof aprons and a water tray or washing-up bowl filled with warm soapy water.
Then all you need to do is find some items that need a wash. In my class, I used to find all the doll’s clothes and blankets, tea towels, and any other soft furnishings we had available.
Encourage the children to scrub the clothes, then wring out the water.
Really encourage the wringing movement. Ask the children to twist with both hands to rinse the water out of the clothes.
You could use words like:
You could even see how much water you can squeeze out by providing some empty containers.
When the clothes have been washed, they will need to be hung out. Have a clothesline in your outdoor area or garden and ask the children to peg the clothes on the line.
Pegging is a brilliant activity for building fine motor strength and developing the muscles ready to hold a pencil in a pincer grip.
The more they can peg, the better.
Ask the children to peg the items on the line with the pegs.
The younger the children, the more difficult they will find this, so help them to pinch the pegs at first if you need to, and leave some pegs and a washing line out so they can practice themselves once you have modeled it to them.
3. Pastry Faces
Any kind of dough is great for strengthening the muscles in the hands and improving fine motor development including:
Modelling clay
Plastercine
It’s a lovely idea to make the dough first with the children. There are plenty of simple pastry recipes around and flour, fat and water cost very little.
You could also use ready-made pastry if you wanted to. You will also need a bag of flour to stop the pastry sticking to your surface.
Provide the children with a clean flat surface, rolling pins, cutters and some flour for dusting.
It goes without saying that the children will need to wash their hands well and only use their own piece of pastry dough, to keep in line with current guidelines.
Ask the children to roll their piece of pastry into a ball, using the flat of their palm.
Show the children how to roll their piece of dough out flat with the rolling pin.
Encourage them to push and pull backwards and forwards as they do.
Ask them to push the cutter shape into the pastry and gently remove a pastry circle.
Use the leftover pieces of pastry to make the features of a face. Encourage the children to roll out small balls by using their palm in a circular movement and to roll longer pieces by pushing the flat of their hand backwards and forwards.
Like everything, this needs practice. Let the children use the shapes they have made to decorate their faces.
They can squeeze their pastry face into a ball and start again as many times as they like, or you can bake the faces in the oven. You can use currants or raisins if you prefer to make eyes, nose, and mouth.
You don’t have to stick to pastry faces. Here are some pastry activities I have done with my class:
Simple jam tarts.
Criss cross jam tarts.
Pastry animals
Pastry vehicles
Pastry shapes
Pastry flowers.
Pastry Christmas trees.
The children can even eat their pastry shapes at snack time. I used to provide jam or lemon curd to spread or dip. These activities are also great for developing fin motor skills.
4. Water Blast!
This is about as much fun as you can have!
This activity is perfect for a sunny day as there is some serious soaking going on usually.
The purpose of this activity is to give lots of practice in pulling the trigger to shoot water as this builds up both the pincher grip muscles and the upper arm muscles.
You will need:
A long tray of water, (builder’s trays are great for this activity).
Several water pistols
Some rubber/plastic ducks with numbers on
A supply of water
Waterproof aprons (optional)
Fill the tray with water so that the ducks float.
Give each child a water pistol and let them choose a duck.
Tell the children that on the count of three, they are going to shoot water at the ducks to make them travel across the tray to the other side.
The winner is the duck that touches the other side of the tray first.
(Also good for number recognition but the children will be having such a good time they won’t realize they are learning anything!)
You can easily adapt this activity to use:
Plastic boats
Recycled boats made from plastic tubs.
Or anything just as long as it floats.
I like to paint numbers on the ducks with nail polish as it doesn’t come off in the water.
5. Target Practice
This is another water pistol activity similar to the one above, but this time the children shoot at targets on a wall.
Find a wall (without doors or windows) that is suitable for the children to shoot at with a water pistol.
Using a piece of chalk, draw a large face on the wall.
Ask the children to listen carefully.
Depending on the age and stage of your children t’s a good idea to put their water pistols on the floor between each try.
When you say a part of the face they are to try and squirt their water pistol at it.
So, Ready, steady…..Nose.
This is really good for following instructions, increasing vocabulary, and of course squeezing the index fingers to build up that pincer grip.
Of course, you don’t have to draw a face. You could try shooting water at: Numbers
Different shapes
Colors (if you have colored chalks)
Mini- beasts
Anything really – just have lots of fun!
6. Threading
Sometimes the old ones are the best and we still use them for good reasons.
When children thread objects, they are using most of the muscles in their hands, as they pinch, twist, push and pull with small precise movements.
Threading can also help to develop the muscles in the whole of the upper arm and shoulders – which is vital for being able to write comfortably later on.
There are many colorful, attractive resources you can buy to develop the children’s skills in threading, but if you are at home, here are a few of my favorites:
Pasta necklaces
Provide the children with a bag of rigatoni, or a similar shaped pasta and some shoe laces or thick string. If you want to make this activity more creative, the children can paint the pasta before or after they have made their necklace.
Cheerio bracelets
The same principle, but use cereal. Cheerios are smaller and so the children will need to be more precise.
Button friendship bracelets
Choose some buttons that your friend would like. Think about the colors, size, and shape of the buttons. This can be tricky due to the very small holes in some buttons, so consider the stage of the children first and the types of buttons you are using.
Leaf threading
Tie a knot in a shoe lace and ask the children to collect as many different shaped and sized leaves as they can.
Push the shoelace through the middle of the leaves to thread the leaves together to create leaf mobiles/decorations. This is particularly effective in Autumn when you can talk about all the different shades of colors.
Curtain rings
If you have any old curtain rings lying around, this is a great one to start with as curtain rings tend to be chunky and wooden so they are easier for little fingers to manipulate. Use thick string or thin ropes to make necklaces.
7. Hole Punch Magic!
You can buy all sorts of craft hole punches now, and these can create a range of different holes – stars, crescents, hearts, and all other sorts of options.
These hole punches are a brilliant way to interest young children, and getting them using fine motor skills without even knowing it!
Making holes in leaves is an activity all children enjoy:

You can also make holes in paper, card, and flowers.
The confetti that you generate from doing it is also great for picking up with tweezers, in itself a fantastic fine motor experience.
8. Tear it up!
What? I hear you cry. I don’t want my children to start ripping and tearing things up!
Ripping and tearing paper are actually really important skills in developing fine motor control!
Provide old magazines or newspapers, or use the paper in your recycle boxes. You could also use old envelopes, junk mail, or any old paper you have around.
Ask the children to rip the paper and tear it into the smallest pieces they possibly can. Keep trying to see if they can make the pieces even smaller. Who can make the smallest pieces of all?
Talk about teeny, tiny, miniature, and minuscule pieces.
Again, this is about controlling the many muscles in the thumb and index finger and strengthening them. Keep the tiny pieces of ripped paper in tubs as they can then be recycled to use for craft or mosaic work.
Some children like to tear along a line at first, so just draw random lines on the scrap paper and see if they can tear along the lines.
You can also try this activity with leaves. Ask the children to tear up different leaves into the smallest pieces they can.
This is a similar variation to Tear it up. On large pieces of recycled paper, draw spirals. Show the children how to tear along the spiral lines to make a spiral mobile, then ask the children to tear along the curves themselves. Again, you will need to adjust the size and difficulty of the spirals depending on the stage of the children.
Draw horizontal lines across a newspaper and rip the pages down the lines, without ripping through the whole page. Twist the newspaper around and bind it with an elastic band to make a palm tree effect.
9. Planting Seeds
Seeds come in all different shapes and sizes, but many are tiny.
This gives the children an opportunity to pick them up between their fingers, requiring precision and dexterity.
As well as being a great activity for developing speaking and listening, and observation skills, picking up and planting seeds is also great for developing fine motor skills .
Ask the children to fill a pot with compost.
Push their finger into the pot to make a hole with their index finger in the middle.
Pick up a seed between their fingers and put it in the hole.
Cover the hole with a little bit more compost.
Using a water spray with a trigger to water the pot every day will also help to practice those pincer movements again.
10. Finger Painting
Another good activity for working on pincer grip and developing creativity.
This is all about precision.
Provide a large sheet of paper and some ready mix paint in saucers.
Encourage the children to dip their fingers in the paint, getting a dab of paint on their index finger.
To start with, you might want to draw a simple picture or shape for the children to dab along the lines. Once they have got the idea, you can add different colors and encourage them to be creative themselves.
You could also add cotton buds or Q-tips here. Encourage the children to dab the cotton bud or Q-tip into the paint and dot and dab the paint in lines and curves.
11. Tweezers!
Sorting is how we make sense of our world.
Young children need lots of practice and opportunities in sorting objects into colors, shapes, and sizes. They also need opportunities to match objects as these are the pre-cursors to reading skills.
You can start off with sorting small objects into sets by hand, and if the children can do this easily, try adding a pair of tweezers to pick up the objects with.
I’ve always found cake tins to be great for this but you could also use a collection of empty containers. Provide lots of loose parts such as buttons, curtain hoops, shells, pebbles, pasta shapes, marbles.
Any small but interesting objects would work well here.
Ask the children to sort the objects out into the containers/cake trays. If cosmetic tweezers are too difficult, you can buy some large plastic tweezers now from most resource companies that are perfect for little chubby hands.
12. Finger Rhymes
Singing songs and rhymes are a vital part of every child’s language development and I’m sure you use them on a daily basis.
Even our youngest children and even babies can start to join in with finger rhymes and actions. But they can also help to develop fine motor control as children naturally join in with the actions to songs and rhymes.
Two little dicky birds.
Round and round the garden
Incy wincy spider
The mouse who lived in a house.
One, two, three four five, Once I caught a fish alive.
I taught Nursery for many years before becoming an advisor and I always liked to use a selection of new and traditional finger rhymes. If you introduce Makaton signs it is the same principle.
Those are my top ten ideas, but hopefully, they may have sparked many other ideas. Most teachers and practitioners are providing fine motor activities without even realizing it!

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The 17 Best Fine Motor Activities for Kids
By: Author Tanja Mcilroy
Posted on Last updated: 10 Feb 2023
Categories Fine Motor Skills

Looking for some simple ideas for fine motor activities for your little ones?
While you can find many interesting, creative or theme-based activity ideas online, this is a list of the most basic and essential types of fine motor skills activities.
They are the kinds of activities that all kids should be doing in early childhood in order to improve their fine motor skills.
What is An Example of a Fine Motor Activity?
Any activity that engages the small muscles of the body – such as the fingers and eyes – is a fine motor activity.
An example is drawing a picture or pushing pegs through a pegboard.
What are Some Fine Motor Skills Examples?
These are a few examples of tasks that require fine motor skills :
- Closing a jacket zipper
- Brushing teeth
- Folding a piece of paper
- Decorating a cupcake
Why are Fine Motor Skills Important?
Children need to develop their fine motor skills in order to accomplish all kinds of self-care tasks, play and participate in activities and learn to write, among other things.
As they grow and develop, they progress through the fine motor milestones – such as learning to feed themselves, dress or build a 24-piece puzzle.
It is vital to their independence and their ability to cope academically during their years of schooling.
17 of the Best Fine Motor Activities for Kids
Here are 17 simple fine motor activities for preschoolers and toddlers.
Many of the same activities can be done with toddlers, 3, 4 and 5-year-olds. Just change the expectation to suit your child’s age and maturity.
For example, a 2-year-old may only scribble with a crayon, whereas a 5-year-old will start experimenting with writing their name; a 3-year-old may love pasting buttons with liquid glue onto paper, and an older child can categorize the buttons by size.
Although kids should have access to some fine motor skills toys , many activities can be done with waste materials or everyday items in your home or classroom.

1. Playdough
Playdough has so many benefits your kids should be playing with it often. It’s wonderful for fine motor control.
Provide a sensory, fine motor experience by using different materials and tools – cookie cutters, plastic knives, twigs, a rolling pin, etc.
You can also press items like beads or buttons into the playdough.
Here’s a recipe for easy DIY playdough .
There are variations of this substance that are also suitable, such as clay, plasticine, etc.
Drawing is one of the most important fine motor activities and one that kids should have the opportunity to do daily.
Drawing is the most important pre-writing activity . As kids progress through the stages of drawing , they eventually start developing the control to form letters and write.
Offer lots of different types of paper and writing tools – pencils, pens, oil pastels, markers, chalk, etc.
3. Painting
Painting is another activity that has so many variations and should be done often.
It can be easy to avoid because of the mess factor but the benefits of painting far outweigh the hassle of washing up.

Painting activities don’t need to be complicated and kids should be allowed to paint freely without much guidance.
Here are a few types of painting activities to try:
- Finger painting
- Painting with brushes of different thicknesses
- Stamp painting – with wooden stamps, potato shapes , orange halves, etc.
- Sponge painting
- Spray painting
- Painting with balls
- Roller painting
- Splatter painting
- Mud painting
- Feather painting
- Bubble painting
- Leaf printing
…and there are lots more!
4. Finger Plays
Teach your kids some fun finger rhymes like Tommy Thumb and Two Little Dickie Birds .
These are great for exercising little fingers and getting them to control and coordinate them.
Fingerplays also improve language, concentration and listening skills.
Here are some fun fingerplays for children .
This post contains affiliate links for educational products that I personally recommend. If you purchase through one of them, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the terms and conditions for more details.
5. Threading
Threading takes a lot of coordination and concentration and can take time to master. It is excellent for building eye-hand coordination and developing the pincer grasp.
There are many ways to teach kids to thread:
- Give toddlers chunky wooden threading shapes and string.
- Make a macaroni necklace.
- Make a necklace or bracelet with cereals or sweets (shaped like loops).
- Thread beads onto a string ( here’s a great bead set ).
The older children get, the better control they will have threading beads of smaller sizes onto a string.

Similar to threading, lacing is the action of moving a string/thread in and out of holes – like when lacing up shoes.
Apart from practising tying shoelaces – which is quite an advanced skill – offer activities like lacing cards ( this is a great set ) or lacing around a paper plate or shape cut-out.
7. Paper Tearing
Did you know that tearing paper is a skill children should learn?
Like any other skill, it needs practice to be mastered.
Give children different kinds of papers to tear. Add some glue and they can create a collage out of it.
While you’re at it – teach kids to crumple paper as well. This will strengthen the hand muscles.
Crumple papers and aim and throw them into a laundry basket to make a game out of it.
8. Paper Folding
When I taught in the grades, I was forever moaning at the kids for turning their worksheets into paper planes and flying them around the class during the lesson!
Paper folding is a fine motor skill kids need to develop before starting formal school and this is a great way to teach it.
See if kids can come up with some of their own ways of folding the plane before you’re tempted to explain step-by-step.

If the plane is not well folded it will not fly well and this becomes a great opportunity for some problem-solving practice .
Try folding hats and boats too.
Puzzles are my favourite fine motor skill activity because they are so good for a child’s cognitive development , visual perception and focus.
It takes children a lot of practice and fine motor control to learn to hold a piece steady as they try to join it to another piece, as can be seen when you watch a toddler trying to push a piece in with brute force.
Puzzles are for every age, from simple peg puzzles for toddlers to 48-piece puzzles for older children.
These are the best puzzles for toddlers and puzzles for preschoolers . There’s also a free downloadable set of printable puzzles at the end of this post.

10. Self-Care Tasks
One of the best ways to develop children’s small muscle skills is to encourage independence and let them learn self-care tasks.
Activities like feeding oneself, getting dressed (buttoning clothes, tying shoelaces, closing zips) putting toothpaste on a brush or opening a tap to wash hands will all develop this skill.
It also gives kids a great sense of achievement.
Every child should own a great set of wooden blocks ( like this one ).
Block play is amazing for fine and gross motor development , problem solving, science, early number concepts , spatial development and more.
Children progress through the seven stages of block play as their cognitive understanding improves so this is one of those activities where you can see the growth and maturity.
12. Construction Play
Apart from block play, there are many other forms of construction play , which help improve fine motor skills .
Lego is a wonderful alternative, as well as any other construction toys that link, snap together, fit into each other, or stack.
You can even make constructions out of toothpicks or matches – like a toothpick house or shape.
Hold the ends together with Prestick/Blu Tack, jelly sweets or marshmallows.
13. Cutting and Pasting
Cutting and pasting are great for hand-eye coordination and fine motor control.
This is one of the most “monitored’ activities for kids and one that should be done freely and with few restrictions.

Do a search online and you will find countless step-by-step crafts to follow.
While there’s a place for this – like when making a Mother’s Day card that actually looks like one – generally, cutting and pasting activities should be creative.
This means the focus should be on the process, not the product.
Give kids lots of freedom to cut and paste things into their own collages and let their imaginations run wild. They will be learning a lot more this way.
14. Playing with Loose Parts
Loose parts play is a simple way to make use of anything you have on hand at home or in class and turn it into an educational activity.
Loose parts can include beads, buttons, coins, shells, matches, pieces of wood, corks, ice cream sticks, lids and containers, pegs and anything else you can think of.

Kids can group and match these items, make art with them, engage in pretend play, pick them up with tweezers and sort them into egg trays and more.
Here are 17 things you can do with buttons .
15. Woodwork
Kids love hammering nails into wood. As long as this is done with child-safe equipment, it’s a good exercise in hand-eye coordination .
Use a toy hammer, some soft wood offcuts and a soft backing board.
There are also hammering sets ( like this ) and tool kits available online which also encourage pretend play .
16. Cooking Activities
Getting children involved in the kitchen is a good life skill and involves a lot of small muscle movements.
Baking or cooking activities will have kids cutting, chopping, slicing, spreading, stirring, mixing, piercing, squeezing and more.
17. Cards and Games
Playing with cards and games is not just good for intellectual development, but also requires the use of a child’s hand muscles.
While children are playing with cards, memory games , sequencing cards, board games and other similar games, they are using their fingers to lift, sort, turn over, stack and handle the cards and playing pieces.
The importance of fine motor skills for preschoolers and toddlers cannot be overstated. It’s necessary to expose kids to all the types of activities in this article but remember to focus on the process, not the product.
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Hands On As We Grow®
Hands on kids activities for hands on moms. Focusing on kids activities perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.
Improve Kids Fine Motor Skills with 30 Materials & Activities
Fine Motor Popular Preschoolers Toddlers My Favorites Resources 102 Comments
Fine motor activities have been put on a back burner in this house for a bit, about a year. Now we’re back on a big fine motor skills activity kick!
Which is probably a good thing.
Gross motor skills should come before fine motor skills.
Those big muscles help the little muscles!
But wow! What a difference a year makes!
You’ve got to try these cutting activities to build fine motor skills as well as learn to use scissors!
Last year, Henry wouldn’t sit still. He didn’t have any desire to do anything that didn’t involve a lot of running around.
We were really into activities that promoted his gross motor skills at that time.
But recently, Henry’s taken a turn and likes to focus on some of these littler things. He loves to cut especially.
Improve Kids Fine Motor Skills with 30 Materials & Activities
Now that’s he’s interested in these fine motor activities, what can we do?
I’ve gathered up some inspiration.

Download the Fine Motor Week of Activities
But, first of all, what are fine motor skills?
According to Understood.org :
What are examples of fine motor skills and activities?
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

Why are fine motor skills important for a preschooler?
As you can see, many of these skills are needed in a child’s (and adult’s) everyday tasks.
Without having gained strength in fine motor skills, a child can suffer moving forward. They may not have the ability to do these small tasks, but they also may lack the confidence to do more advanced tasks or projects because of this inability.
You can check out the chart of fine motor development on Kidsense.org .
Are you convinced now that fine motor skills are important to focus on just a bit?
Of course, I still recommend not going crazy about it. Don’t expect your kid to be able to make straight lines and hold their pencil correctly when they’re two years old.

Click here to Download the Fine Motor Week of Activities
But if you notice they are lacking in their fine motor ability, there are tons of fun ways to help improve it.
The big question becomes…
“How can I improve my child’s fine motor skills?”
Let’s have fun with promoting their fine motor skills anytime! No need to wait until they’re behind, right?
These are some supply suggestions that naturally promote fine motor through activities for preschoolers.
Materials that promote fine motor skills… and click the link (or look below) to find fine motor activities to do with them!
By the way, these would be fantastic to put together in a “fine motor kit” to have on hand.
- 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.

Fine Motor Skills Activity Ideas
Now that you have some materials to grab and have on hand to work on fine motor skill, put them to use with some of the activities that promote them!
These activities can be done with a great variety of materials, so don’t just limit yourself to what’s above. Instead, use our suggestions as inspiration!

If you’re struggling for younger kids to work on their fine motor skills, you may want to look into our fine motor activities for toddlers suggestions .
Below are some great fine motor activities for preschoolers to get started with.
- Make things small
Get a quick print of these materials and what to do with them here , or click the image below. Put this printout in a fine motor kit to have on hand with the supplies listed to use and you’ll be set!

Check out our 32 activities that focus in on objects that help strengthen a child’s hand grip.
Like I said, stock up on these fine motor materials and keep them handy. Here are some handy affiliate links to get you started: Plastic Sewing Needles for Kids , Colorful Buttons , Eye Droppers , Fiskars Pointed Scissors , Marbles , Beads .

However, keep in mind that before really you really focus in on fine motor skills, kids need to get moving and using their gross motor skills first to build up their big muscles which in turn will help support the little muscles used in fine motor activities!
- 30 moving activities for excess energy
- 26 gross motor activities for preschoolers
- 20 physical activities for toddlers
- 32 scavenger hunts for kids
What are your best tips and tricks to make fine motor activities super fun?
About jamie reimer.
Jamie learned to be a hands on mom by creating activities, crafts and art projects for her three boys to do. Jamie needed the creative outlet that activities provided to get through the early years of parenting with a smile! Follow Jamie on Pinterest and Instagram !
More Hands on Kids Activities to Try

Reader Interactions
102 comments.
January 29, 2023 at 4:31 am
his site is really useful for parents. children need to develop fine motor skills and there are many websites for this. one of them is: https://wunderkiddy.com / I am a mother myself and used this site together with my child. the result was already visible in a month and a half. also on the site there is a preparation for school. they taught my kid simple mathematical examples there. in general, I advise everyone
Graham P says
October 21, 2020 at 4:34 am
Some lovely ideas here for me to try with my daughter.
Robbin says
September 30, 2020 at 12:47 am
Great post. Thanks for sharing!
Jurrien Collins says
May 8, 2020 at 8:36 am
I am doing some early childhood graduate work with 2s and 3s…looking forward to incorporating many of these ideas…especially the twigs or birthday candles into dough activities! Thank you for these.
Suvarna says
May 5, 2020 at 11:55 am
It is very helpful and interesting.s
johnsonsophia016 says
December 10, 2019 at 11:24 am
very cool post. thanks for sharing.
Jeanette says
September 13, 2019 at 1:42 pm
Thats very interesting activities .something that I surely want to try with my children.
Kirsty says
July 28, 2018 at 9:42 pm
Love all the ideas you have gathered here and how super easy they are to do at home. It really is amazing how all these little activities help to make such a difference to children’s skills. I especially notice the difference between children that have done these sorts of activities and those that haven’t when they start school.
Tillie Clapp says
December 21, 2017 at 8:50 am
Can you put these together in a book?
Rachel says
January 2, 2018 at 7:44 pm
Thank you! Here are some ebooks currently available: https://room.handsonaswegrow.com/shop/?_ga=2.81849686.1143596184.1514920466-514156227.1474654125 Enjoy!
Beth Bishop says
October 10, 2017 at 12:05 am
This list is great! I am always searching for new books for my kids and it is so hard trying to find things in their age groups that they are also interested in.. My 11 year old actually just finished the first Harry Potter book(yea she started a little late with those, I won’t let her see the movies until she reads the books… I’m mean like that) but I have the hardest time finding stuff for my 9 year old. She is picky and hasn’t found a favorite genre yet.
Ambreen naveed says
August 7, 2017 at 12:29 am
Awesome plz keep updating me on my email thank u
Renilda says
July 30, 2017 at 9:47 am
Tnq for your idea’s…..its really nice
July 30, 2017 at 9:45 am
Its really very nice ideas……tnq fr ur sharing
Han-Son says
February 10, 2017 at 10:04 am
Love this. Those fine motor skills are so important to develop even at a young age. We’ve just profiled how you can do it with some Play Doh and Twigs too if that’s of interest? http://daddilife.com/daddilifeforce-re-imagining-new-uses/
August 20, 2016 at 11:28 am
This list is seriously amazing and gave me so many ideas as an art teacher trying to help young ones strengthen their fine motor skills for writing! Thank you so much!
Jamie Reimer says
August 22, 2016 at 8:31 pm
You are very welcome!
Amarjit kaur says
May 25, 2016 at 8:16 am
These are wonderful activities wl do with my grand dauggter
Jessika Arellano says
May 11, 2016 at 11:08 am
thanks for good information is important when we are want increase this motor ability is more help for me
ShishuWorld says
September 29, 2015 at 4:14 am
What a wonderful set of ideas! Thank you for sharing these! Pinning this page.
Deebi27 says
July 11, 2015 at 3:06 am
I will pass these on to my daughter and grandson…11 months old(out of towners), and book mark/Pin for when my grandson (10 days old!) who lives locally! Thanks so much!
Hani Andini says
July 3, 2015 at 4:07 am
Thank you. These fun way activities helping me to teach my awesome kids! :)
The Practical Mom says
January 24, 2015 at 10:22 am
A good list of materials and activities! We’ve used most of these and like you mentioned, it engages my 3 year old well and keeps him focused and calm!
ThePracticalMomBlog.Blogspot.in
Nath's Mom says
November 9, 2014 at 11:42 pm
I am excited about using these ideas for my son. Hopefully these activities will encourage him to write because he shows no interest at this time. Great ideas!!!
OneMommy says
May 15, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Some great ideas! My oldest never had a trouble with the itty bitty stuff, but I think I need to take time to work on some of these with my youngest.
R. Simmerman says
April 3, 2012 at 7:19 pm
These are great FM exercises!!! My youngest has Down snydrome and my oldest has very weak fine motor. Can’t wait to start on these exercises!
Thank you for sharing!
Lorna dEntremont says
February 16, 2012 at 11:25 am
Awesome post… amazing photos! What perfect ways to have FUN and at the same time practicing fine motor skills. Sharing on my Facebook page. Thanks! Lorna
Anonymous says
February 16, 2012 at 4:14 am
Thank you for sharing this awesome list. My little girl is 14 months so I'm collecting ideas for activities we can do that are fun for her (and ME!) and also help her development. Pinning! ;)
February 13, 2012 at 4:24 am
Thanks! I also use poster pins and call it pin prick art. Etcha Sketch, lite brite, aqua doodle, pushing beads through cutouts on a yogurt container lid, silly putty…
February 12, 2012 at 5:29 am
Wow- what an awesome collection! My little man is into beans and rice. He calls it scoop, scooop. Also- loved playing with oatmeal. He's getting pretty good with the plastic chopsticks, too. :)
February 11, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Thanks for all the great links, some I have used and several I will be using!
andie jaye says
February 2, 2012 at 5:03 am
so many great ideas! thanks for popping our math with tongs in there!
Junky Jen says
February 1, 2012 at 1:47 am
I work with developmentally delayed preschoolers and sometimes run out of "new" ideas!! Love all of your links and ideas and will be directing parents your way!! Thanks!!
January 30, 2012 at 9:41 am
Great round up! We do a lot of those activities, but I seen several that we need to do! Thanks for rounding all of these great ideas up into one easily accessible space. Can we predict more arts and crafts in your future? Haha :)
January 27, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Great post! I can't wait to do some of these with my kids!
rachelle | tinkerlab says
January 27, 2012 at 5:35 pm
I love this post, Jamie! You come up with the best ideas and I know my readers will love them too!
Our Country Road says
January 27, 2012 at 5:08 pm
What a great collection of ideas!! I'm excited to be on it!! Thank you :}.
PlayDrMom says
January 26, 2012 at 3:58 pm
THANK YOU for including me on the list! It's SUCH a great collection!
luckyrock says
January 26, 2012 at 2:52 am
this is such a great post and I thank you for it. here, here and here you can find my ideas.
Raising a Happy Child says
January 26, 2012 at 12:03 am
This is an awesome list! So many good ideas in one place. I am sure it will be pinned 1000 times :)
shirley says
January 25, 2012 at 9:00 pm
Thank you!! My son is still struggling and we are getting close to kindergarten roundup and I am concerned he is really going to struggle next year. Unfortunately, the suggestions from the OT at the school are pathetic at best. I so thankful there are other moms out there who share ideas. We have been doing the bolts & nuts (a suggestion from my mom) and being a boy he loves it plus the weight of the bolts is a great strengthening exercise for his hands as well. Since I do not have a blog I am glad to see someone else suggested it too!
January 25, 2012 at 7:07 pm
This post totally rocked. I just got so many ideas that are going to help me get through the winter! Thank you!
JDaniel4's Mom says
January 25, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Thank you for including me on the list!
Kristina says
January 25, 2012 at 4:26 pm
What a great list of activities! I am pinning this to use as a reference. I think the idea you shared from us actually isn't from Toddler Approved though.
Having Fun says
January 25, 2012 at 3:54 pm
This list will keep us busy for a long time. Several of your activities we haven't tried yet. Thanks for sharing.
Jessica says
January 25, 2012 at 2:25 pm
What a great collection of activities. Thanks for sharing!
January 25, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Great list!My son has just turned 2 and right now he is also into this kind of activities. He loves sticking things,posting buttons in slotted lidded container and tweezing pompoms are his favorites.
Deborah says
January 25, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Love them all!
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Books and Giggles
12 Fun Hole Punch Fine Motor Activities

Inside : these hole punch activities include crafts, math and literacy activities, and art projects. All of them are great fine motor skills work for kids!

(Disclosure: Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)
Are you looking for an engaging way to help your kids work on their fine motor skills? Many (but not all) hole punches are perfect for strengthening those little hands, and they’re so much fun!
What Kind of Hole Punch Should Kids Use?
Make sure you get a hole punch that is easy enough to squeeze and has a guard to prevent itty bitty fingers from reaching the cutting surface. I have a single-hole punch from Office Depot that is perfectly fine.
You can also get punches that are extra easy to squeeze , which might be a good solution for kids who have trouble with a standard punch. (ad)
If you pick an activity that needs lots of punched holes, you may want to use a 2 or 3-hole punch instead. Of course, then you aren’t working those future writing muscles in the same way.
Hole Punch Fine Motor Activities
All of these activities help young children develop fine motor skills. By using the hole punch, kids can have fun while exploring early math and literacy concepts and using their imaginations.
Let’s get started…
Rainy Day Craft – Perfect for springtime or for a weather unit, this rain craft makes creative use of a hole punch. A class set of these would also make a cute display. You may also want to read some books about weather or seasons when you make this.

Hungry Caterpillar Hole Punching Activity – Preschoolers or kindergartners can follow along with The Very Hungry Caterpillar as they punch all the items the caterpillar in the book eats.

Hole Punch Letter Worksheets – These alphabet worksheets in my store are a hit with hole punch fans! Print out these pages to give students practice recognizing uppercase and lowercase letters and their initial sounds.

More Hole Punch Fine Motor Activities
I’ve also found you some hole-punch activities from talented teachers and homeschoolers around the web. This first group can be used almost any time of year (or adapted for any time of year.)

Left to right by row:
Paper Donut Craft – Kids can add hole punch “sprinkles” to these crafty donuts. Wouldn’t this be fun to make after reading If You Give a Dog a Donut !
Munched Leaves Craft – Here’s another fun activity to do after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar .
Kinetic Paper Shape Art – Children use paper scraps and a hole punch to create moveable art in this fascinating project based on the work of artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Confetti Collage – Kids who are prolific hole punchers will enjoy this colorful art activity.
Rainbow Bookmarks – These ‘no glue, no mess’ hole punch bookmarks would be fun to make around St. Patrick’s Day. You could also try them with pastel colors for a Mother’s Day gift.
Uppercase Lowercase Letter Matching – Little hands can punch the matching lowercase letters on these free printable strips.
Seasonal Hole Punching Ideas
A few of the ideas above can also be used seasonally, but I’ve separated these out for you.

Hole Punched Hearts – These sweet hearts are a simple hole-punching activity that kids can work on independently. Then, string them up as a pretty Valentine’s Day decoration.
April Showers Craft – I linked to this rainy day craft at the top of this post, but I’m including it again here for your convenience.
Count to 20 Activity – This hands-on math activity would be a fun addition to your fall apples unit.
Christmas Tree Bookmarks – This is another cute seasonal hole punch craft for little book lovers.
Ready to get started? Hole punch activities are an awesome way to keep your little ones engaged while also practicing fine motor skills. Plus, who doesn’t love the satisfying sound of punching a hole in a piece of paper?

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25 Preschool Fine Motor Activities (2023)
Looking for preschool fine motor activities.
Practicing fine motor skills will help your kids ability to do things like tie their shoes, button their shirts and zip their jackets! Which are all really important everyday life skills!
Let’s get started with my 25 Preschool Fine Motor Activities.
Activity #1: Q-Tip ABC’s
We love Q-tip painting! It’s a great way for preschoolers to work on those fine motor and handwriting skills without a ton of pressure.
This is a fun alphabet and tracing activity! The kids will have a blast painting with Q-tips to create the letters!

How to do this activity
A. materials you need.
- washable paint

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Using markers, write the letters of the alphabet on paper. I chose to do the colors of the rainbow to also work on color matching skills!
Dump some paint into a paint tray.
C. Activity
Have your kids dip the Q-tips into the paint. They will match up the color marker with the color paint and create the letter using the Q-tip!
One thing I would change that I didn’t do, was to create arrows on each letter to show your little one how to form the letter correctly.
This is a great way to practice writing skills and involve some art too!
RELATED: Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers
Activity #2: jellyfish fruit loop threading.
We LOVE using Fruit Loops for activities. Adding this fun snack in is always a huge hit with kids.
This jellyfish activity is a perfect way to work on threading and fine motor skills for preschoolers.

- Fruit Loops
- pipe cleaners

Create a jellyfish shape out of paper and crayons! Let your little one color the jellyfish!
Grab some pipe cleaners and tape them to the back of the jellyfish.
Your child should work on color sorting by threading the correct color Fruit Loop on the pipe cleaners!
You can have them sort the Fruit Loops by color first, or they can just grab them from a bowl and place them on the pipe cleaner.
RELATED: How to Teach your Toddler Colors
Activity #3. pasta straining.
Want to know the EASIEST activity to pull off that your preschooler will love?
Add dried spaghetti noodles into a colander! I had no clue that my little guy was going to be so enthralled with this activity. I appreciate the activities that I can pull off with things that I have in my pantry.

- dried spaghetti noodles

Flip the colander upside down and grab the noodles
Have your little ones start to put the pasta noodles inside the colander!
Explain to your child that they don’t have to push down hard because then the noodles will break off. This happened several times with my son until I showed him how to do this correctly!
They can also try to pull them out once they are all in to extend the activity further!
Activity #4: Rainbow Cutting Craft
Cutting activities are important for preschoolers to work on and they improve fine motor skills!
This simple rainbow craft is adorable and it works on cutting skills in a fun way for the kids.

- colored paper
- kids scissors
- white paper
Create a cloud shape and cut it out! Then, create the rainbow by cutting strips of colored paper.
Attach the colored paper to the back of the cloud by using tape or a glue stick. Lastly, draw some lines on the strips. You can create them as easy or hard as you’d like depending on the skills of your little one.
Have your child use scissors to cut along the lines you created! They should try to stay on the lines the best they can.
To make it easier for them to cut, tape down the cloud to a flat surface.
RELATED: Kindergarten Activities for Kids
Activity #5: bead threading.
Here’s another threading activity for you, but this has an added element of counting!
This bead color sorting activity works on color recognition, number recognition, counting, sorting, and fine motor skills! That’s pretty amazing.

- multi-colored beads
Write each number out on a piece of paper and cut them out and tape them down. We only had room for 8 on our tray, but you can do as many as you want!
Tape down the different colored pipe cleaners that you want to use at the top
Show your child how to string the beads on the pipe cleaner. Depending on how old they are, you can do this activity together, working on counting out loud, or you can have them do it on their own to see how they do it and talk about it afterward!
RELATED: Number Recognition Activities for Kids
Activity #6: geoboard alphabet activity.
Do you remember using these boards as kids? I remember loving when my teacher pulled them out so we could play and create with them!
Work on creating letters with the geoboard! This is not only a wonderful way to work on letter-building skills, but it’s a great fine motor activity for kids!

- geoboard letter printable
- rubberbands
Click HERE to grab your Geoboard Lower Case Letter Printable .

Use my geoboard letter worksheets to help your little ones build the letters! Print off the letter Z and any other letter you want to work on.
Your little one will use the rubber bands to build the letter Z. Younger ones can use the worksheets to help guide them on building the letter. Older children can be challenged by trying to do it on their own!
RELATED: Free Alphabet Printables for Kids
Activity #7: hedgehog wrapping craft.
This hedgehog craft is the perfect fine motor activity for your kids!
They will love wrapping the yarn to create these cuddly little guys. I loved this craft because it was something different the kids have never done before.

- colored yarn
- googly eyes

Draw a hedgehog shape on cardboard. Cut it out using a box cutter.
Glue the googly eye and add a smile and little markings for the hedgehog’s feet! Lastly, glue different colored poms on the nose to work on color matching skills!
Tape a piece of yarn to the back of the hedgehog and have the kids start wrapping it around repeatedly. They will do this step until the whole hedgehog is covered in the yarn!
Since it’s made out of cardboard, the spikes will hold the yarn in place! When they are all done wrapping, they can place another piece of tape on the back of the cardboard and cut the piece of yarn!
RELATED: Letter H Crafts and Activities
Activity #8: alphabet color coding.
Want to try a beginner color-coding activity that’s perfect for preschoolers? I love that it works on several skills with just 1 easy setup as well!
This fine motor activity works on color recognition, color matching, number recognition, and letter building!
- plastic bottle caps
- dot stickers
- kid-friendly tweezers

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Inside the bottle caps, place a dot sticker with the numbers 1-3 written on them. Older children can have more numbers and colors!
Create the letter Y on the cardboard with the bottle caps in a mixed-up order. Write what each number signifies on the side; you can use a pom too for younger ones. Older kiddos can work on color sight word recognition.
Have your child use the key to place the correct colored pom in each bottle cap to create the letter Z! This works on letter building, color recognition, and number recognition!
Want to add in some fine motor skills? Have them use tweezers to pick up and place the poms inside the caps!
Activity #10: Tape Resist Art
I love how tape resist art turns out! It’s so cool to see the outline of the object when you are done!
When the kids rip and pull the tape off at the end, they are building those fine motor skills.

- colored masking tape
- watercolors
- cardstock paper

Create an upper and lower case letter M on the piece of cardstock paper with the masking tape! Also, grab some water for the watercolors.
Paint around both of the letters. When they are done, they can pull off the tape gently! They can see the outline of the letters! They will love seeing what they created!
RELATED: Letter M Crafts and Activities
Activity #11: fine motor boards.
This activity isn’t a DIY, and believe me sometimes you don’t have time to create every activity, which I totally get!
These fine motor boards are amazing because they work on essential life skills that kids will be expected to know how to do before school starts.

Work on lacing, buttoning, zipping, buckling, tying, and snapping with these boards. I especially like these because they are small and be taken on the go since they are small.
Suggestions
1. For young kids, start with the zipping and snapping boards; I just got these, and my son is two, and those are the boards we are working on now.
2. Preschoolers can try all of the boards! The tying and the lacing activities will be challenging, make sure to encourage them to keep trying and don’t get frustrated.
Activity #12: Beginning Sound Clips
This fine motor activity for kids is a great way to learn and review beginning sounds!
I love this activity because it’s bright, colorful and the kids get excited to see what pictures are on each board.

- FREE Beginning Sound Clip printable
- clothespins
- cardboard (optional)
- tape (optional)
Click HERE for your FREE Beginning Sound Clip printable

Print off the letters you want to work on. You can cut out the paper and tape them to a piece of cardboard if you want to! This helps the clips stay in place a bit better.
The kids will identify each picture around the letter. They will make the beginning sound of each image.
When they find a picture with the sound of the letter in the middle, they will open a clothespin and place it on the picture!
This is a great first step to reading!
Activity #13: fruit loop fish activity.
This threading craft is cute and fun for the kids to work on some color matching and fine motor skills.
They can even get a little snack out of the deal too :).

Bend a pipe cleaner slightly to begin to make the fish, but don’t close it because the kids need to add in the Fruit Loops.
Have the kids sort out the Fruit Loops by color in bowls. We did this activity on an art tray, if you don’t have one you can always do it on paper.
The kids will use color matching skills to thread on the Fruit Loops on the right colored pipe cleaner. Once they get enough on, you can close the pipe cleaner and turn it into a fish!
Place it on the art tray or a piece of paper and add a googly eye and a mouth to make a fish face!
Continue this for all the colors of Fruit Loops! This is a yummy and fun way to work on those fine motor skills!
RELATED: Letter F Activities and Crafts
Activity #15: q-tip sun craft.
This fine motor activity is cute and simple to set up! It’s sure to bring some smiles to your face!

Place a bowl down on a piece of paper and trace it using a pencil.
Create the lines for the sun all around the circle. Use a marker to color the lines whatever colors you want the sun to be.
The kids will use Q-tips to color match and trace the lines you created with paint! This activity also works on creating patterns.
Encourage your little one to stay on the lines as much as possible!
Add on a face once the paint has dried!
RELATED: Letter S Crafts and Activities
Activity #15: ripping a rainbow.
Ripping pieces of paper is a fun and simple fine motor activity!
My kids had a blast ripping the paper to create these beautiful rainbows. I know yours will too!

- construction paper
- white cardstock

Draw a rainbow shape on white paper and cut it out.
Have your child rip a bunch of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple pieces of construction paper into small pieces.
The kids will use a glue stick to paste on the ripped paper to create a rainbow!
Such a simple and fun fine motor activity!
Activity #16: Alphabet Play Dough Mats
Whenever I pull out the Play-Doh, the kids play for it for at least a half-hour. You know, that’s kind of a big deal, right? Most of the time, it’s longer than that, but at least a half-hour!
When the kids roll, cut, and piece together the play dough, they are working on those fine motor skills!

- My Letter Play-Doh mats
- dry erase folders
Click HERE to grab your Letter Play-Doh Mats! (Upper and Lower case letter included)

Print off the letters that you want to work on! Then, place them inside a dry-erase folder for your little ones to build on. This way, it won’t get the sheet dirty, and you can save and redo it repeatedly.
Your little ones should roll and create the letters using Play-Doh. You can have them match the colors that are on the sheet, or you can use whatever color you’d like. They should try to create the letter by following the lines!
RELATED: ABCDeeLearning’s TpT Store
Activity #17: sticker lines.
Peeling stickers and using small muscles in your fingers to place them in a specific spot is an excellent fine motor activity!

Plus, how colorful and fun does this activity look? We didn’t even finish the lines, so I could show you how to draw each of the lines, and it looks terrific!
- easel paper /regular paper
- do-a-dot markers

On a piece of paper, draw several different types of lines (zig-zag, curvy, straight, castle, and loopy).
Tape the piece of paper down to a flat surface!
Have your child place a dot sticker on the lines and tell them to try to get them close to each other to follow the entire line or as close to it as possible.
For older kids, start the line for them and create a pattern or colors that you want them to follow.
Activity #18: Ocean Jell-O Dig
Jell-O digs are a fan favorite around here. I love them because they taste safe for the kids it helps work on their fine motor skills.
This ocean bin is a perfect addition to an ocean-themed unit to learn about ocean animals!
- sensory bin
- Jell-O (2 packs)
- ocean themed animals

Make the blue Jell-O by following the directions on the box. I recommend grabbing two packs to have enough Jell-O to cover the animals.
Put the Jell-O inside the sensory bin then, place the animals in the Jell-O before putting it in the fridge.
Once the Jell-O is ready, have the kids use tweezers to grab each of the animals out! Talk about what each animal is when they are attempting to grab it out.
Once they are all done, enjoy a little snack 🙂
RELATED: 40 Sensory Activities for Kids
Activity #19: water letter tracing.
Tracing with water is a great introduction to writing skills! The kids will have a blast using water to erase the lines.
Tracing is the PERFECT fine motor activity for kids who are ready to start forming letters.
- chalkboard placemats

Write the letter that you want to work on, on the chalkboard. I created the letters then made dotted lines inside and outside the letter so they knew what lines in order.
Have the kids dip their paintbrushes into a cup of water. They will start painting the lines away to create each letter!
They should try to stay in the lines as much as possible! However, don’t worry if they don’t get it exactly right, you want to encourage them to keep trying-handwriting can be a discouraging thing for kids.
Doing fun activities like this will help them learn and gain confidence!
Activity #20: Dinosaur Count and Feed
Feeding activities have become a BIG hit around here! They work great for fine motor skills, color recognition, and counting skills.
I love when activities work on several learning skills at once!

1. Materials you need
- Count and Feed Dinosaur Printable
- plastic cups
- laminator (optional)
Click HERE for your Count and Feed Printable

In a sensory bin, dump a whole bunch of different colored poms! Print off the characters and the counting cards. Cut out the characters, punch a hole in their mouth using a knife, and then cut the inside part of the mouth open. Tape the characters to a cup.
3. Activity
Have your little ones use the counting cards to see what color and how many of each color they should place inside the character’s mouth. They can use kid-friendly tweezers to add some fine motor skills, or you can just have them use their hands. They should tell you the number and count out loud how many they are placing inside!
RELATED: Dinosaur Activities for Preschoolers
Activity #21: caterpillar sensory bag.
Sensory bags are a mess-free and fun way to get some fine motor skills in!
We are actually pretty obsessed with sensory bags over here. The kids always have a good time using them.
- ziplock bag
- FREE caterpillar pattern resource
- masking tape
- rubbing alcohol
- cotton ball
Click HERE to grab your FREE Caterpillar printables

Erase the label to the bag by using a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol!
In a ziplock bag, dump a bottle of cheap hair gel and 1/4 cup of water! Add some colored poms!
Print off my worksheet to work on some caterpillar pattern skills!
Tape the sensory bag to a flat surface with the printable underneath it. Have the kids scoot the poms to color match the patterns!
You can also use my number caterpillars to work on counting skills!
Activity #22: Alphabet Popsicle Stick Match
I love being able to reuse items like an egg carton for learning activities!
Pushing these popsicle sticks in their little slots on the egg carton is a fun fine motor activity!
- popsicle sticks

Flip over an egg carton and create slits using a knife (the adult needs to do this part).
Write the letters you want to review on the sides of the carton and on the popsicle sticks.
Work on upper to lower case letter matching or just match up the same letters! Have the kids push the popsicle sticks in the correct slots to match up the letters.
This is a fun challenge to practice the alphabet and test those fine motor skills!
Activity #23: Water and Oil
What a fun fine motor and science activity!
Squeezing these droppers is a fun way to strengthen those little muscles in your child’s fingers.
- fine motor droppers
- food coloring

In a baking pan, add some oil and lay it down on a flat surface. Then, in cups, add some water and food coloring (mix it up with a spoon).
Have the kids use droppers to suck up the colored water mixture and squirt it into the oil. Make observations about what happened when the two mixed together!
Try this with multiple colors for even more fun.
RELATED: BEST Sensory Bins for Kids
Activity #24: alphabet mats.
I have FREE alphabet mats that are perfect for some fine motor play!
These mats can be used in a variety of different ways. Pretty much any little supply you have on hand can be used to create the letters.

- free alphabet mat printables
- mini erasers
- dry erase marker
- mini marshmallows
Grab your FREE Letter Mats HERE

Interested in grabbing some Wild Dough for 15% off? Use the code ABCDEE15 at checkout!
Print off the letters you want to work on! Then, get the supplies out that you want your little one to build the letters with.
Have your child identify the letter before beginning!
They can choose which supply they want to build with. You don’t have to use all the supplies, you can even just choose one if you want.
They should try to stay on the lines as much as possible. There are also numbers located inside each letter to show what order it’s supposed to be created in. They should follow those numbers to learn how to create each letter correctly.
RELATED: Teaching Resources
Activity #25: alphabet handwriting sheets.
At the end of the day, one of the reasons we are working on fine motor skills is to be able to write.
I have FREE alphabet writing sheets for you to try out with your child. Letters A-Z are available!

- Alphabet worksheets
- reusable folder (optional)
- dry erase marker (optional)
Click HERE for your FREE Alphabet Writing Sheets

Print off the letters you want to work on. This can just be used as a one-time worksheet or you can place the sheet in a reusable folder.
This way, you can use the same sheet repeatedly and use a dry erase marker instead of a pencil. This is also nice in case they make a mistake, you can just erase it and try again without a huge mess.
Have your kids trace the letters first at the top before attempting to make them on the line.
The first line should be used to make the upper case letter and the second line is for the lower case letter.
Encourage your child to make the letters like they did when they traced them. They should also try to stay within the black bold lines.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Fine motor skills are essential for kids’ development, self-esteem, and success in their school work.
The good news is, is that huge strides can be made to increase fine motor skills by doing fun activities that they will enjoy doing. All you need to do is start implementing these lessons at home!
If you have any fine motor activities that have worked for you and your family, please share them with our community by commenting below!
Happy Learning!
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Ideas for Pre-K & Preschool Teachers
Fine Motor Skills
By Karen Cox | Affiliate Disclosure | Filed Under: Fine Motor Activities , Fine Motor Skills
Here are ideas for improving fine motor skills in Pre-K/ Preschool children. Find additional fine motor activities here.

Find more fine motor ideas on the Fine Motor Skills Resource Page
Fine Motor Skills is one of the main areas I sought to improve in my Pre-K classroom this past year (2008-09). I think fine motor is an area which is often overlooked, yet it is so important. Fine motor skills are the foundation children need before they learn handwriting, in order to have proper pencil grasp and control of a writing instrument.
My goals were to increase the fine motor materials available in our classroom environment, and to plan activities and materials that are interesting and fun so that children would be motivated to use them and would choose them during their free choice time. Most of these activities use “found materials” that can be borrowed, donated, or purchased inexpensively, rather than commercially produced and sold in an educational catalog. Below are several of the fine motor skills activities my class did this year. A few of these ideas were borrowed from Montessori (and I’ve noted those below).
Water Drops with Suction Cups
The little suction cups on the bottom of these bathtub shapes become mini bowls when turned upside down and used in this activity. (These were purchased at the Dollar Tree.) Children use a finger grasp to squeeze one drop of colored water into each little bowl on the dish. [Idea borrowed from Montessori]

Beads with Suction Cups
These are the same bathtub shapes as in the above activity. Children use their thumb and forefinger to grasp each little bead and place it on a bowl on the shape. The beads are pony beads purchased from a craft store. [Idea borrowed from Montessori]

Clothesline
Children use their fine motor muscles to squeeze the clothespins to clip each piece of clothing to the clothesline. I tied a piece of thick string to the handles of a wooden tray to make the clothesline, and used mini clothespins (although the regular sized clothespins can be used as well). The clothes are Barbie doll clothes purchased at a dollar store. As an alternative, you could cut out shapes of shirts and pants from felt.

Clothespins on a Box
Children squeeze the clothespins and clip them to the sides of the box. To make the activity more interesting, I wrote letters on dot stickers and placed the dot stickers around the sides of the boxes. I wrote letters on the clothespins so the children would match the letters on the clothespins to the letters on the boxes. Other skills could be used, e.g. colors, numbers, beginning sounds. This is similar to activities where children clip clothespins to a paper plate or cardstock circle; however, in my experience, those were flimsy and awkward to use, which is why I like the box better. Any sturdy box could be used (shoe box, postal box). The boxes in this picture were stacking gift boxes that held chocolate covered nuts (a Christmas gift), and they worked out perfectly.

Nuts & Bolts
These larger nuts and bolts can be purchased individually at hardware stores. The cost is usually no more than $0.40 to $0.50 each. Children use their fingers, hands, and wrists, coordinating both hands while grasping and twisting the metal nuts onto the bolts.

Sewing/Lacing Cards
These can be purchased or made with poster board and a hole puncher. Use shoe laces or plastic lacing. Tie one end of the lace to one hole of the card. Children lace the string through each hole. These can be made to match different themes or holidays.

Plate Sewing
Tie lengths of yarn to plastic yarn needles, and knot the end. Children “sew” the yarn on a styrofoam plate by pushing the needle in and out through the plate.

Stringing Cut Straws
Cut plastic drinking straws into small pieces, about 1-inch. (Cutting the straws is another great fine motor activity for kids.) Tie yarn to a plastic needle, or use plastic laces, and knot the end. Children string the straws onto the yarn or lace.

Stringing Beads
Children string pony beads onto pipe cleaners.

Bean Gluing
Children draw a simple picture on a piece of construction paper with a pencil. They trace the pencil lines with glue and glue the beans onto the design. Gripping the beans with their fingers is good fine motor practice.

Seeds and Tweezers
Children pick up different types of seeds with tweezers and sort them by type into the cups.

Unifix Cubes or Interlock Cubes
Children push the cubes with their hands to hook them together. Unifix cubes connect on one end and can make a long “train”. Interlock Cubes connect on different sides and can make different things, for example the dogs the children were making in the photo.

In advance, cut construction paper into 1-inch long strips. Children “snip” the strips into smaller pieces and glue them onto their paper to make a mosaic. This activity is great for children who are not yet skilled with scissors, but need cutting practice because they can snip the paper with one cut.

Eyedropper Art
Children use eyedroppers to drop liquid watercolor onto a coffee filter or paper towel. (I use Colorations Liquid Watercolor from Discount School Supply.) If liquid watercolor is not available, you can color water with food color. Also see my blog post for adapting this activity for holidays or themes.

Paper Clips
The children in my class are always wanting to use paper clips because they see me use them, so I set up this activity in the fine motor center. I cut squares of colored construction paper and placed them on the tray along with colored paper clips. Children stack the papers (all of the same color) and clip them with the matching colored paper clip. This was challenging for some children to manipulate the paper clip, but they loved doing it, and it gave them an opportunity to use paper clips with permission.

I printed out the Geoboard Dot Paper from the Math Their Way website for this activity (I used the size on the second page). I added Pip Squeak markers, which are great for young children because they are short. Children draw lines with the markers to connect the dots on the paper.

Toothpick Punch
To do this activity, cut squares of construction paper (I cut mine 6×6 inches). Draw a numeral, letter, or simple shape with a Sharpie. I placed a stack of these papers in the fine motor center, along with toothpicks and a carpet square. Children place the paper on the carpet square and use the toothpick to punch holes all along the black lines. When they are done, they can hold their paper up to the light and see the light shining through the holes. Kids enjoy it and it’s great fine motor practice!

Pinching Sand
Sand art is a great fine motor activity because children can pinch the sand with their fingers to apply it to their art work. Provide a simple outline (or have the children draw one), a small bowl of white glue, a small bowl of colored sand, and a “glue brush”. I buy the cheap paintbrushes with stiff bristles that are sold in a package for $1 at dollar stores. These brushes are not a good enough quality for painting, but they make great glue brushes. Children paint the glue on their paper with the brush, pinch some sand with their fingers, and sprinkle it over the glue. Place a pan, tray, or paper plate on the table for children to shake off the excess sand.

Insect Wrapping
Children wrap the plastic insects with pieces of white yarn (“spider webs”). When they are finished wrapping all of the insects, they unwrap them and place the yarn back in the bowl. We do this activity during a study of bugs and spiders.

Birds Eating Worms
Cut pipe cleaners into smaller pieces and shape them to make several “worms”. Place the worms on a brown carpet square (this represents the dirt). Children use a clothespin as a bird beak and catch the worms with their beak. As they catch worms, they place them in a basket until all of the worms have been collected.

Marbles and Melon Scoops
Children scoop the marbles with melon scoops and place them in the ice cube tray. This ice cube tray was found at a kitchen discount store. Also posted at Fine Motor in the Sensory Table . See my blog post for a Halloween adaption to this activity.

Children pour something from one bottle to another. I started out having them pour popcorn seeds. They can later try pouring sand, and then water.

Color Mixing
Children mix primary-colored water to make secondary colors. The bucket in the middle is for dumping the water when finished, or to start over. Also posted on the Sensory Table page.

Knobbed Puzzles
Children exercise the fingers used for a pencil grasp when picking up puzzle pieces that have knobs or pegs.

A bit obvious, but should not be forgotten.

An old stand-by. Also see my webpage for more play dough activities .

Another old stand-by.

Additional Fine Motor Posts
- More Fine Motor Activities
- Fall Fine Motor Fun
- Winter Fine Motor
- Spring Fine Motor
- Summer Fine Motor

About Karen Cox
Karen is the founder of PreKinders.com. She also works as a full-time Pre-K teacher in Georgia. Read more...
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5 Activities to Develop Fine Motor Skills in Children

Fine motor skills involve fine movements of the hands, such as using pencils, and scissors, building with Lego blocks, and more.
The efficiency of fine motor skills influences both the quality and the speed of the task outcome. It requires a number of independent skills to effectively manipulate an object or accomplish a task using fine motor skills. It’s important that your child acquires effective fine motor skills at an early age.
Fine motor skills are important for a variety of reasons:
Fine motor skills are necessary for both academic and everyday activities, as they are essential for performing tasks that require precision and dexterity. When children cannot perform these everyday tasks, their self-esteem suffers, their academic performance is compromised, and their play options are severely limited. Furthermore, they cannot develop appropriate independence in terms of life skills (such as getting dressed and eating), which has social implications for both the family and peers.
We can help our children develop fine motor skills at home or in childcare/classroom settings by setting up simple activities that help develop their fine motor skills. Before using scissors and pencils in a classroom setting, young children should be able to hold and use them appropriately. If a child’s hand and fingers haven’t yet gained the strength necessary for writing, we can’t expect them to be able to do it. Best kindergarten schools incorporate these activities in their curriculum for pre-primary and primary children.
PLAY DOUGH:
One of the best open-ended toys is playing dough since it allows children to create almost anything they can imagine. As it encourages a variety of methods to use their hand strength, it’s also a great approach to train their fine motor skills.
But, simply placing a cup of play dough in front of them may be insufficient to hold their attention. Instead, lead them through easy play dough exercises before letting their imaginations run wild. You can give them a child friendly knife to cut the dough, make small balls by rolling it in their hands, roll the dough to make ‘snakes’, and mix different colours to the play dough will make it more attractive.
DRAWING AND PAINTING:
Children exercise and build the small muscles in their hands, wrists, and fingers as they manipulate various painting and drawing tools.
This is crucial for teaching children how to hold pencils and pens for writing in school and for turning pages of books while reading. Children who paint with brushes, learn how to hold a brush and have more control over it when they use it as a tool.
STRINGING BEADS:
Threading or stringing beads is a great activity for young children. Threading can be challenging for children when they start and will take time for them to master it. It also depends on their maturity and their fine motor development. However, with practice and over a period of time they will develop better control and be able to thread even smaller-sized beads. Threading is a great technique to build their finger muscles and learn how to control their fingers as they work together.
PLAYING WITH SPONGES AND WATER:
All that is required is a clean piece of sponge, two bowls, and water. Fill one bowl with water and let another bowl be empty. Encourage your child to dip and soak the sponge in water and then transfer it to the empty bowl by squeezing the water. This simple but fun activity helps strengthen hands and forearms.
TEARING PAPER :
Most parents are looking for easy ways to develop their children’s fine motor skills, and the very material that can accomplish this is right in their own homes. Are you aware that you can improve your fine motor skills by tearing paper? The only thing you need for this fine motor activity is scrap paper and your hands. Tearing a piece of paper improves hand strength and endurance in the small muscles in the hand. Fine motor skills, such as handwriting and coloring, rely heavily on these intrinsic muscles.
Few Helpful Tips:
- Keep the games entertaining and interesting. If they don’t seem interested try again the following day or with a different activity
- Keep the activities short. A few minutes a day should be okay unless your child is interested in doing more. One activity one day is preferred instead of cramming 10 activities all at once.
- Don’t put pressure on your child. Anxiety and pressure will only make your child dislike doing the activities. Just include them when they are in the mood.
- Practice everyday tasks. Chores like putting the buttons on a shirt or pulling small weeds from a garden can help build their hand muscles and pincer grasp.
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Back to School Theme | Fine Motor Activities for Preschool
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Introducing our fine motor activities for preschoolers! Our collection of fun and stimulating activities are designed to help young children practice their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. From lacing cards, geoboards, play dough mats, line tracing, and more; your kids will be engaged with hours of entertainment and learning. The sturdy construction allows these activities to be used time and time again while the vibrant colors make them visually appealing. With these fine motor activities, your preschooler can practice basic shapes, numbers and letters – setting them up for success in their academic journey!
Set includes:
Supply list with everything you will need for each activity Full-color photos and instructions for each activity How to find and print your file instructions 10 pages of play dough mats in color and b & w 16 pages of pom-pom picture patterns in color and b & w 6 pages of geoboard patterns color and b & w 6 pages of punch 10 cards color and b & w 8 pages of lacing cards color and b & w 14 pages of push pin pictures 18 pages of tracing pictures 5 pages of basic shapes cutting practice pictures 6 pages of bead pattern practice 6 pages of tracing line patterns 10 pages of unifix count and stack 12 pages of dab-a-dot mystery pictures 8 pages of perler biggie beads templates 16 pages of snap-cube patterns color and b & w
Fine Motor Activities for Preschool that are fun and engaging!
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Fine Motor Skills for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Ann Logsdon is a school psychologist specializing in helping parents and teachers support students with a range of educational and developmental disabilities.
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Lyndsey Garbi, MD, is a pediatrician who is double board-certified in pediatrics and neonatology.
Tatyana Tomsickova Photography / Getty Images
What Are Fine Motor Skills?
- Development
Many of a child's daily activities involve the use of fine motor skills like getting dressed, opening a lunchbox, and using a pencil. These skills, which involve coordinated efforts between their fingers, hands, and eyes, begin with grasping a rattle and the raking finger grasp as a baby and eventually evolve to more complex skills like using scissors, manipulating a computer mouse, and even playing a musical instrument . Learn why these skills are important and how to help your child build on these skills.
Fine motor skills refer to the coordination between your child's small muscles, like those in their hands, wrists, and fingers in coordination with their eyes. Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the body that enable such functions as writing, grasping small objects or toys , and fastening clothing. They also involve strength, fine motor control, and dexterity.
These skills are important in most school activities as well as in life in general. Weaknesses in fine motor skills can affect a child's ability to eat, write legibly, use a computer, as well as turn pages in a book and perform personal care tasks, such as dressing and grooming.
Milestones for Fine Motor Skills
Although children develop at different rates, having an approximate timeline when they reach certain milestones can be useful in helping you determine if your child is progressing at a normal rate. Here are some general guidelines for fine motor skill development.
Birth to One Year
During your baby's first year of life, they will develop a number of fine motor skills. For instance, a newborn typically has a primitive hand grasp and by 2 months of age they can hold a rattle when it's placed in their hand.
By 6 months of age , babies can typically hold one block in two hands and can shake a rattle. At 9 months , most babies display the raking pincer grasp and by 12 months of age they have perfected the pincer grasp, can hold a bottle, and can drop a block into a cup.
One to Two Years
At 18 months old , many babies can insert different shapes into toys as well as stack two to three cups. They also should be able to feed themselves with their fingers and scribble with a crayon in their fist. By 2 years old, a toddler usually can copy a vertical line, use a spoon, and stack six cups. They also are beginning to learn how to help dress themselves.
Two to Three Years
During the time period between their second birthday and their third birthday, most children are learning to make circles as well as copy a horizontal line. They also are mastering drinking from an open cup as well as using a fork and a spoon. Kids this age also can undress themselves as well as remove their socks and shoes.
Three to Four Years
As preschoolers approach their fourth birthday, they are perfecting their drawing skills. They should be able to copy a cross as well as draw a two- to four-part person. They also are learning to cut paper and can dress themselves but may still struggle with buttoning buttons.
Four to Five Years
By the time a child is 5 years old, they should be able to copy a square and draw a 10-part person. They also are likely more adept at holding a pencil using the tripod position and can color between the lines. Kids this age also should be able to wash and dry their hands thoroughly.
How Fine Motor Skills Develop
Your child's fine motor skills will develop through every day actions and at playtime with activities that involve grasping, holding, and pressing. They also will perfect the pincer grasp first through feeding and then through play and eventually by dressing themselves.
As your child grows and their fine motor skills improve, they will move on to more advanced skills. For instance, they will learn to tie their shoes, button buttons, use scissors, write their name, open and close plastic baggies, put a straw in a juice box, and open their lunchbox.
If you feel your child is falling behind or not meeting certain milestones, be sure to talk to your child's doctor.
They can evaluate your child and offer suggestions of things you can do at home to help improve your child's fine motor skills. They also can refer you to a specialist if needed.
Activities to Build Fine Motor Skills
When it comes to helping your child develop their fine motor skills, you don't have to do anything fancy nor do you have to buy expensive toys. Most kids can practice and improve their fine motor skills through play and normal every day actions.
For instance, you can invite your child to help in the kitchen by making cookies, setting the table, or pouring their own milk. You also can let them practice fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick things up or practice putting rubber bands around a cup. Here are some other ways to practice fine motor skills at home.
Toys and Games
Many toys develop fine motor skills, including those for infants and toddlers. For school-aged children, puzzles as well as board games with pieces and parts to pick up and move are ideal for developing these skills. For instance, Jenga is a strategy game using fine motor skills that focus on the pincher grip, which is necessary for writing.
Remote control cars are great for preschool and elementary kids. Video games also can be helpful but watch out for carpal tunnel syndrome. Also, be sure to check the video game ratings to ensure they are appropriate for your child.
Drawing and Coloring
You can help your child practice their fine motor skills by drawing with them using markers, crayons, colored pencils, and chalk. Drawings needn't be perfect, and scribbling is just fine for developing fine motor skills.
Scratch Magic kits have the cool factor older children like. Make your own by coloring paper with multiple colors and shapes and then covering the sheet in black crayon. Scratch off with an orange stick or safety scissors.
Paper-cutting activities build skills and muscle control and can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. Beginners can start with cutting out paper chains and progress to more complex projects.
For older kids try origami, a fun paper-folding art. Use construction paper, wrapping paper, or other decorative papers to make origami shapes. Or, try these crafts with your child:
- Create greeting cards and placemat crafts
- Learn Kirigami, a Chinese art that uses decorative paper cutting
- Make paper snowflakes
- Try a rainbow loom craft
- Develop a collage together
- Finger paint a picture
- Make figures out of clay
Problems With Fine Motor Skills
There are some warning signs that your child may have issues with fine motor skills such as frequently dropping things, difficulty holding spoon, as well as trouble writing or using scissors. As your child gets older, even the inability to tie their shoes could indicate a problem. To determine if your child has issues with fine motor skill development, it's important to ask your doctor for an evaluation if you suspect an issue.
If your child is identified with fine motor weaknesses that may affect their education, discuss your concerns with your child's teacher. Or, if your child has an individualized education plan (IEP), discuss the issue with the IEP team .
Evaluation by a physical or occupational therapist can determine if their fine motor skills are a concern and if therapy can improve them.
Your child's team will use the therapists' assessments and other evaluation data to determine if your child needs regular therapy as a related service. If your child needs therapy to benefit from specially designed instruction , these services will be written into the IEP.
A Word From Verywell
When it comes to the development of fine motor skills, most of your child's development will occur naturally as they learn and play. But you can help your kids improve these skills by choosing activities, toys, and games that support fine motor skill development.
If you start to notice some delays or suspect that your child is experiencing challenges learning or perfecting these skills, talk to your child's pediatrician. Early diagnosis and intervention is important in getting your child the support they need.
U.S. National Library of Medicine. Fine motor control .
Dosman CF, Andrews D, Goulden KJ. Evidence-based milestone ages as a framework for developmental surveillance . Paediatr Child Health . 2012;17(10):561-568. doi:10.1093/pch/17.10.561
By Ann Logsdon Ann Logsdon is a school psychologist specializing in helping parents and teachers support students with a range of educational and developmental disabilities.
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12 Fine Motor Skills Activities for Preschoolers
Fine motor skills activities for preschoolers are an essential part of early learning but what are they?
Fine motor skills refer to the coordination of small muscles in the hands, wrists, and fingers.
You are using your fine motor muscles when you hold a pencil to write, bead a necklace, cut with scissors, button your shirt , etc.
But there are plenty of fun and easy ways to build up little hand and finger muscles that you can do with your little one with things you already have around the house.

*As an Amazon affiliate, I may get a small commission for purchases made through links in this post.
Fine Motor Milestones by Age
When kids are 3-4 years old , fine motor skills they should be able to do include:
- draw lines using crayons
- stack blocks
- complete simple puzzles
- bead a necklace (using large beads)
Once kids hit 5-6 years old , they'll be expected to reach these fine motor milestones:
- write letters and words with a pencil
- draw simple shapes and people
- cut with safety scissors
- squeeze glue onto small pieces and affix them onto a desired location
- fasten buttons/zip zippers
- tie their shoes (6 years old)
Don't worry if your child doesn't reach a milestone at the exact age! Everyone is different. The more you practice fine motor skills with your child, the easier these milestones will be to reach, and it's never TOO late.
For a wider age range of fine motor skills milestones you can check out understood.org.
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To help you find what you're looking for, I'm going to separate these fine motor activities into hand strengthening activities and grasp developing activities.
Hand Strengthening Fine Motor Skills Activities for Preschoolers:
Hands strengthening activities work the wrist and hand while developing the skills needed for cutting with scissors, stacking blocks, squeezing glue, eating, opening containers, putting on shoes/socks, typing, and more.
Scoop and Transfer Sensory Bins
Any activity where your child is using precise movements to scoop and transfer items increases coordination and strengthens the hands and wrists.
Sensory bins are great ways to explore using the senses while also using different fillers like rice, beans, cotton, chickpeas, water, and other materials perfect for scooping. I just give my kids spatulas, spoons, and other kitchen tools and bam, it's a hit.

Tongs Letter Rescue
Create a "web" of blue tape around a baking dish before placing in items such as magnetic letters to be rescued. Give your child some kitchen tongs to rescue each letter as you call it out by name or sound. (Find 13 more fun alphabet activities like this HERE .)
Kids will use their hand muscles in an opening and closing motion similar to the motion needed to operate scissors. Since the tongs release on their own, kids only need to focus on the closing motion.

Hole Punching
Do you have a one hole punch handy? It's an extremely enticing tool to children and it works a whole other group of hand muscles that tongs and scissors don't really get to. Kids can hole-punch anything that is thin enough. My favorite is leaves!
Here's an example from the OT Toolbox on how to make fine motor lanterns with a hole punch!
Shaping Play-Doh Activities
Develop muscles in the whole hand with Play-Doh shaping. Making towers, letters, faces, you name it, it's all going to help build those hand muscles.
Download these free blank faces and build fine motor skills while also developing your preschooler's understanding of feelings, with Feelings Faces.

Shoe Tying Practice
Grab those sneakers and start practicing tying loops and knots to build coordination, motor planning, and fine motor skills. Have you heard of the Cheerio Method? It takes out that tricky bunny loop and replaces it with a cute as a button Cheerio. Check it out.
Tying shoes the Cheerio way is highly recommended by OT's (occupational therapists) because it doesn't require as much double handed dexterity as more "traditional" shoe tying methods.

Grasp Developing Fine Motor Skills Activities for Preschoolers
These activities focus more on the development of muscles in the thumb, pointer, and middle finger used to grasp items. Kids will use need to master pincer and tripod grasps for writing, buttoning, zipping, drawing, and more.
Find the Beads in the Play-doh
Our very clever school OT (occupational therapist) made up this favorite game for our transitional kindergarten centers. Hide beads in the dough and have kids dig for treasure.
At home I make each little play-dough ball into an egg and the kids love "cracking" each egg and digging out the beads.
By picking out the beads kids are working on their pincer grasp and manipulating the play-dough builds all the muscles in the fingers, hands, and wrist making this activity a DOUBLE fine motor skills builder and it's perfect for preschoolers!

Pipe Cleaner Beading
Often the beads that come in typical jewelry making kits have frustratingly tiny holes that can lead to meltdowns, especially for preschoolers who are only beginning to develop their fine motor skills.
To avoid that frustration, I recommend using large beads that will in turn, have a larger hole like these . For kids who have a bit more precision, pony beads come in all different colors are quite simple to lace.
My second secret for teaching your child how to bead without frustration is to use pipe cleaners instead of string. The point on the end is much easier to put through the hole, leading to more success.

Sticker Peel and Decorate Activities
I love grabbing whatever stickers I can find in the Target dollar section, but hiding in their office section are one of my most favorite, inexpensive stickers: dot stickers!
Dot stickers are an excellent teaching tool, but they're also a way to enhance your child's fine motor abilities. Peeling the stickers off a page requires kids to pinch and pull the sticker, using tiny finger muscles.
If this is really taxing for your child, I recommend removing the sticker backing, usually the white outline around the stickers, to make it easier to peel them.

Want another dot sticker peeling activity? In this phone number activity , kids practice number recognition while also developing fine motor skills.
Cheerios on Spaghetti
This one is just like it sounds and is a great fine motor skills activity to keep your preschooler busy while you cook dinner!
Grab a ball of playdoh and stick some dry spaghetti in, then use that pincer grasp to place cheerios or even penne pasta onto the spaghetti. Precision is key!

Measuring with household items
Part of measuring accurately is through lining up items end to end. When kids are using small items, they're working that pincer grasp or two fingered grip they need for beginning writing skills.
To learn more about how to teach your child how to measure while incorporating fine motor movements check out my post on Measuring Me.

Flower Threading Craft
Try these fine motor skills activities for preschoolers who love nature! Draw a picture on some cardstock or cardboard and poke some holes through to have your little one decorate with any stem.
As they place the flower or leaf in the holes, preschoolers will work on placing the small stem with accuracy and that elusive pincer grip using the thumb and pointer finger. The product is always beautiful!

Tape Shapes Line Up
This great quiet time activity engages preschoolers in fine motor play with plenty of organic opportunities to learn about shapes while practicing fine motor skills.

Combine shapes with fine motor skills in quiet time activity for preschoolers
Simple reading, math, and fine motor activities delivered to you weekly in The Fun Club:
If you are looking for ways to teach your 4-5 year old from home with fun, hands-on activities that are fun for kids and easy to do, look no further than The Fun Club .
As an educator and mom, I know how little time we have to create elaborate activities and I also know that kids don't like worksheets (at least mine don't), so I crafted this program especially for kids 4-5 years old.
The progress is astounding, and the crazy part, is they only do one 20 minute activity a day. It's packed with fine motor skills, reading, writing, math, and social emotional fun that kids LOVE.
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60 Amazing Fine Motor Activities for Kids
Categories Fine Motor
Are you ready for some amazing Fine Motor Activities for Kids ? Here are 60 fine motor play ideas for toddlers and preschoolers. There are play ideas for specific seasons (such as Christmas or Halloween), as well as activities for everyday of the year. Which one will be your favorite?

Disclosure: Some of the links provided in this blog are affiliate links. I will be paid a commission if you use this link to make a purchase.
What are fine motor skills and why are they important?
Fine motor skills describes the use of the muscles in the hands and fingers. The term includes strength, dexterity as well as hand-eye coordination. Fine motor skills are important because they allow children to complete complex tasks. The most common example is writing and drawing, which is essential for school age children. However strong hands and fingers also help children to be more independent. For example, doing up buttons, feeding themselves, and picking up toys are all tasks that require fine motor skills.
What are some examples of fine motor activities?
Fine motor activities describe anything that involves the hand and fingers. Play ideas that use squeezing, pulling, pinching or manipulating (such as playdough) will help children to develop fine motor skills.
Everyday Fine Motor Activities

1. DIY Ball Drop Box Recycle an old box and learn how to make this DIY Ball Drop Box for Babies. A fun and easy fine motor activity for babies and toddlers.
2. Fridge door pom pom drop Develop fine motor skills in babies, toddlers, and preschoolers with the Fridge Door Pom Pom Drop Activity. This play idea is quick and easy to set up.
3. Egg Carton Color Sort Have 5 minutes to spare? Learn how to make this egg carton color sorting activity for toddlers. Develop fine motor skills, vocabulary, and more.
4. Magnetic color sort puzzle Learn about colors, fine motor skills, and problem-solving with this easy DIY Magnetic Color Sort Puzzle, a fun activity for toddlers and preschoolers.

5. Paper plate color match activity Create this Paper Plate Color Match Activity in less than 10 minutes. Toddlers and preschoolers will love matching colors as they develop fine motor skills.
6. Farm Lacing Cards Grab your copy of these Farm lacing cards. A free printable for toddlers and preschoolers to help develop fine motor skills.
7. Alphabet Puzzle Fine Motor Activity for Kids Help preschoolers and kindergartners learn their ABC’s with this hands-on Alphabet Puzzle Fine Motor activity for Kids. A fun and easy play based learning activity for early years classrooms.
8. Cardboard Roll Letter Match Puzzle for Kids Develop fine motor skills with this fun and easy Cardboard Roll Letter Match puzzle for kids. Preschoolers and Kindergartners will love these play ideas.

9. Sticker Shapes Fine Motor Activity This sticker shapes fine motor activity is a fun way for toddlers and preschoolers to learn shapes and develop fine motor skills.
10. Rainbow Sand Writing Tray Create this fun and easy Rainbow Sand Writing Tray to develop your kids’ fine motor skills. Draw, write and play with this colorful sensory sand idea.
11. Dinosaur stickers matching game This dinosaur stickers matching game takes 2 minutes to set up and is a great fine motor and quiet time activity for preschool or kindergartners.
12. Paper plate Dinosaur number match Introduce your preschooler to math with this fun Dinosaur Number Match activity. This is a fun and easy fine motor and number recognition activity for kids.

13. Storm Cloud Threading Storm Cloud Threading is a fun and easy fine motor activity for toddlers and preschoolers, and perfect for teaching about the weather.
14. Pirate treasure posting activity for kids Develop fine motor skills in toddlers and preschoolers with this pirate treasure posting activity for kids. They’ll love this fun and easy pirate game.
15. Easy Fine Motor Work Station – Learning 4 Kids Trace the lines with buttons, pom pom or mini erasers. This is an easy way to practice pincer grip without the worksheets.
16. Taped Toys – Laughing Kids Learn Tape some toys down using painters tape. The kids will need to rescue their toys by peeling (or pulling) the tape off.

17. Loom Bands Fine Motor Activity – Laughing Kids Learn Stretch loom bands over the spikes of a spiky ball. This is an easy 3D geoboard that will get kids developing fine motor skills while they play.
18. Colorful Rainbow Hair – Toddler Approved Thread beads onto pipe cleaners to make rainbow hair. This is a fun play idea for classroom fine motor stations.
19. Wash The Socks – Days With Grey Turn an old cardboard box into a washing machine and get your kids to put the socks inside. This is a fun way for the kids to mimic you doing chores, and hopefully encourage them to help you out around the house.
20. Pom Pom Color Sort – Active Littles Fine motor activities for kids don’t get more simple than this. Pick up the pom poms and drop them in the ice cube. To make it more tricky, use tongs or spoons instead of fingers.
Valentines Fine Motor Activities

21. DIY Valentines Peg Board Did you know that you can turn an old cereal box into a custom peg board? Let the kids decorate the heart any way they like as they practice pincer grip and hand-eye coordination.
22. Heart Lacing Cards These heart lacing cards are completely free, and so easy to prepare. They’ll make a perfect addition to your valentines themed curriculums.
23. Valentines Day Cutting Tray Develop fine motor skills with some fun Valentines-themed cutting materials. Don’t forget to save the pieces to make your own valentines collage with the kids.
24. Fishing for Hearts Valentines fine motor activities aren’t all about worksheets. Make some heart out of foam sheets and go fishing with pipe cleaners fishing hooks. This game is a fantastic way to practice pincer grip and hand-eye coordination.
25. Clothesline Hearts Activity – And Next Comes L Peg the hearts onto the clothesline. This is a fun activity for kids who love to help out with chores. Create their own clothesline out of tring and let them hang up the hearts again and again. For more ideas, visit 20 Valentines Fine Motor Activities for Kids
Spring Fine Motor Activities

30. Vegetable garden fine motor activity This is another free printable for you to download. Glue the vegetables onto some craft sticks and plant them into a tissue box garden. This is a wonderful way to talk about healthy food and how plants grow.
31. Spring Bugs Fine Motor Activity Turn dot stickers into cute garden bugs. Then stick the bugs onto a toilet roll garden scene. This can be used purely as a fine motor activity for toddlers, or a number matching activity for preschool and kindergarten.
32. Cut the Grass Activity This scissors activity gives the kids a wonderful surprise. As they cut the grass (green craft paper), they’ll discover different flowers and insects hiding underneath. The spring scene hiding under the grass comes as a free printable to make this activity easy to prep, even for a large class. Visit the Cut the Grass post to get your free copy.
33. Bee fine motor activity This activity starts with bee tongs flying around a garden of cupcake liner flowers. The flowers are filled with yellow rainbow rice which acts as pollen while in the flowers. Transfer the pollen into the beehive and turn it into honey.
34. Spring Flower Fine Motor Activity Tray – No Time for Flashcards Use a colander and fake flowers to make this Spring themed fine motor activity. This is a great busy box activity for toddlers and preschoolers.
Easter Fine Motor Activities

31. Feed the Bunny – Easy Fine Motor Activity for Easter Roll and dice and see what number you needed to feed the bunny. This free printable is both a math game and a fine motor activity. The difficulty can easily be adjusted, so that you can use it with toddlers, preschoolers or kindergarten.
32. Easter Scissor Skills break out the scissors and get your kids cutting into these colorful easter eggs. This free printable comes with easter eggs containing different cutting patterns to try.
33. Washi Tape Egg Rescue – Happy Toddler Playtime This Easter fine motor activity is a fun indoor toddler activity. Free the egg from the washi tape to reveal the treat inside.
34. Easter Egg Peg Board Learn how to turn an old cereal box into a DIY peg board. With a few simple supplies your kids can decorate their easter eggs again and again, developing fine motor skills as they play.
35. Easter Lace By Number Cards Lacing is one of my favorite fine motor activities for kids. However, these cards come with an additional level. You need to recognise and and then lace from the numbers 1 – 10. This is a fun way for preschoolers and kindergartners to practice some basic math. Grab your copy of this free printable to use in your early years classroom.
Summer Fine Motor Activities

36. Fine motor ice transfer It doesn’t get much simpler than this Ice Transfer activity. Kids can use tongs or their hands to move the ice around. Playing with something cold on a hot day is always refreshing and adds a wonderful sensory experience to this summer play idea.
37. Octopus fine motor activity This is without a doubt one of my favorite summer activities for kids. Toddlers and preschoolers can practice doing and undoing buttons with this fun octopus fine motor activity. The legs will get longer and your kids will learn some essential life skills.
38. Rainbow Fish Fine Motor ACtivity Practice color matching with this DIY Rainbow Fish Peg Board. All you need are a few simple craft supplies and your toddlers will be ready to play with this colorful sea animal.
39. Sun Fine Motor Activity Cutting around shapes sounds like such a simple activity, and it is. But don’t forget how important it is for kids to practice their scissor skills. Draw a sun on some yellow paper and grab some scissors. This activity is one of many fantastic summer fine motor activities.
40. Sunflower Seed Sweep – Little Pine Learners This beautiful flower is actually 3 activities in 1. The sunflower is a fun way to practice pencil grip and work on those fine motor skills. See how you can use sunflower seeds to play in 3 different ways. For more ideas, visit 15 Summer Fine Motor Activities for Kids
Fall Fine Motor Activities

41. Playdough hedgehog and echidna Have some fine motor fun this Autumn with a Playdough Hedgehog. Toddlers and preschoolers will love this sensory and fine motor activity for kids.
42. Toilet Roll Sticky Tree This Toilet Roll Sticky Tree is a fun and easy craft tube twist of the classic sticky wall idea. Toddlers and preschoolers will love doing this fine motor activity this Autumn.
43. Fall tree threading activity Are you looking for easy fine motor activities you can do at home with the kids? Try this Fall Tree Fine Motor Threading Activity a try. It’s easy to do at home with your toddlers and preschoolers, using supplies you probably already have in your craft box.
44. Playdough Turkey With some brown playdough and craft feathers, you can also make a playdough turkey. I used the same brown playdough as I used with the playdough hedgehog. It was great watching the kids make their different animals.
45. Printable Lacing Cards for Fall – Living Life and Learning
Develop hand-eye coordination with these leaf-themed lacing cards. Talk about the different leaves and what trees they come from while developing fine motor skills. For more ideas, visit 15 Fall Fine Motor Activities for Kids
Halloween Fine Motor Activities

46. Mummy fine motor activity Learn how to make mummies that need to be wrapped up. This Mummy Fine Motor Activity is a marvelous Halloween themed activity for kids. Preschoolers and kindergartners, who need to develop fine motor skills, will love creating their own yarn wrapped mummies.
47. Shape match spider Are you looking for some easy Halloween activities to do with your kids? This spider is a shape matching activity that is perfect for children aged 2 years and older. It helps to develop fine motor skills, shape recognition, language, and more. But the most important thing about it is… it’s FUN. Learn how to make a Shape Match Spider with common items already found at home.
48. Spiderweb fine motor activity Try to navigate this Spiderweb to rescue the toys hiding underneath. This Spiderweb Fine Motor Activity is a fun and easy Halloween play idea for toddlers and preschoolers. They’ll need fine motor skills, and problem-solving to rescue all of the toys.
49. Halloween writing tray Looking for some spooky fine motor activities to do with your class? This Halloween Writing Tray is so easy to set up and perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarten. Whether you want to practice correct letter formation or just want a different way for toddlers to explore mark making, this is the perfect way for kids to learn through play.
50. Feed the Ghost Fine Motor Activity – Happy Toddler Playtime Feed the Ghost is a fun Halloween fine motor activity for toddlers using recycled materials and pom poms! It makes a wonderful and not too scary Halloween activity for little ones! For more ideas, visit 20 Halloween Fine Motor Activities
Christmas Fine Motor Activities

51. Count and Clip Christmas Lights Cards Learn how to make some DIY count and clip cards. These Christmas trees all have a different number of Christmas lights on them. Your kids need to count the lights, then place the clothespin with the same number onto the bottom, to complete the tree. This is a fantastic activity for the maths center this holiday season.
52. Christmas Tree Fine Motor Activity How do you feel about making toys for your kids? What if I told you that it could be as easy as punching holes into an old cereal box? That’s exactly what this Christmas Tree peg board is. An old cereal box that the kids can decorate again and again. With this on hand, hopefully the kids will leave the real tree alone.
53. Christmas Scissor Skills Activity You can’t have a list of Christmas fine motor activities without including some scissor skills. These Christmas cutting practice images come as free printable templates for you to download. Cut out the shapes, or along the lines within. Go to Christmas Scissor Skills Activity to get your free copy.
54. Christmas Sweater Fine Motor Activity Stickers are one of my favorite fine motor activities for kids. Pinching, peeling and sticking are all skills that they’re practicing. Draw a sweater onto a piece of paper and hand the kids some Christmas themed stickers. They can place the stickers onto the paper to make their own Christmas sweater art.
55. Pine Cone Christmas Tree – The Imagination Tree Use some pinecones to create some easy kids Christmas activities. These pinecones look like mini trees, and decorating them with different objects is going to take a lot of hand-eye coordination and dexterity. For more ideas, visit 30 Christmas Fine Motor Activities for Kids
Winter Fine Motor Activities for Kids

56. Threading Snowflakes All you need for this easy fine motor activity is some pipe cleaners and wooden beads. Create a snowflake out of the pipe cleaners and decorate them with the beads. If you are doing this activity with preschool or kindergarten, you can also use it to practice pattern recognition skills.
57. What’s In The Snow What kinds of animals live in the snow? Find out with this free printable discovery tray. The animals are hiding under the snow (regular salt) and the kids need to brush the snow away to find the animals. This activity is also great for science centers as the kids learn about the harsh polar climate and the amazing animals that can live there.
58. Playdough Snowman Create a playdough snowman and practice developing fine motor skills. You can make a 3D or 2D snowman depending on if you’re working with toddlers and preschoolers. They’ll love this activity, especially if you don’t live anywhere near snow and they still want to make a snowman.
59. DIY Lacing Snowflake Cards Turn a regular paper plate into a lacing card. Lace a shoelace or string through the holes and turn it into a beautiful snowflake. These will look beautiful hanging up in your preschool classroom this winter.
60. Jumbled Snowman – Playground Parkbench You won’t believe how easy this sensory and fine motor activity is to set up. Use a permanent marker to draw a snowman outline on your bag. Next, cut out foam shapes to create the hat, scarf, nose and arms. Get the kids to move the foam shapes around until they’ve created their own snowman.
For more ideas, visit 15 Winter Fine Motor Activities
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6 fine motor skills activities for kids

By Amanda Morin

Kids develop motor skills at different rates . But when young kids struggle with fine motor skills , they can have trouble with key tasks like grasping utensils (like pencils), moving objects with their fingertips, and using tools like scissors. They may also have difficulty learning to tie shoes . If your child’s fine motor skills need a little extra help, try these fun activities.
1. Play-dough and putty
Play-dough and putty are often used as part of the heavy work component of a sensory diet . They can also help improve a child’s fine motor skills. Encourage your child to squeeze, stretch, pinch and roll “snakes” or “worms” with the play clay. You can even have your child try to cut the play-dough with scissors. (Learn how to make three types of sensory-friendly slime , including putty slime.)
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2. painting.
Different types of painting can help strengthen your child’s hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity. Finger painting gives kids an opportunity to use their hands — and to get messy. Painting with a brush helps kids learn to hold a brush and gain greater control using it as a tool. (Paint-by-number kits are great for brush painting.) To add a little sensory play to the mix, you can even try scratch-and-sniff painting .
3. Playing with sponges
A new, clean sponge, some water and two bowls are all you need for another activity to build fine motor skills. Fill a bowl with water and leave the other empty. Your child can soak the sponge in the water and then squeeze out the sponge into the other bowl. It’s a simple game that can strengthen hands and forearms. If you cut off a cube of the sponge and have a small chalkboard and some chalk, you can also do a “Wet-Dry-Try” multisensory handwriting activity .
4. Rice races
Divide a handful of uncooked rice into two plastic bowls and have an empty bowl handy. Give your child small plastic tweezers and grab a pair for yourself. Then, have a race to see who can be the first to transfer their rice into the empty bowl using the tweezers. If your child is struggling because the grains of rice are too small, you may want to begin with O-shaped cereal or pony beads.
5. Water play
Fill a cup about a quarter full of water. Give your child an empty cup and an eyedropper or a clean medicine syringe. Have your child try to transfer the water from one cup to the other by drawing the water into the dropper or syringe and then dropping or squirting it into the empty cup. You could also give your child more cups, add food coloring to the water, and make this a color-mixing experiment.
6. Gardening and planting
Digging and gardening may seem like activities more suited to building gross motor skills , but there are parts of it that require smaller muscle control, too. For instance, transferring seedlings into a garden requires hand-eye coordination skills to safely carry the smaller plant to the new hole. Your child will also need to be able to grasp a trowel to dig and to use a pincer grasp when picking up seeds to plant.
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Fine Motor Task Card Boxes for Preschool and Kindergarten- BUNDLE

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Fine motor skills workbook for preschool || March Morning Work for Kindergarten

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One of the most popular fine motor activities for kids is lacing beads. When it comes to developing fine motor skills in the preschool classroom, lacing beads are the gold standard. Young children also develop important hand-eye coordination skills when lacing beads. More Fine Motor Ideas
What items are helpful for practicing fine motor skills for preschoolers? Stickers Tweezers - pinching these and picking up objects with them is a great activity. Pipettes or droppers - use these to draw up and release water in a cup. Ice cube tray - for sorting Lego toys - helps to work the pincer grasp while kids are pulling them apart.
Threading, posting and slotting toys for babies and toddlers Poking straws into holes Pasta necklaces Monster play dough Weaving around cardboard Fairy sparkle playdough Pipe cleaners and colanders Beads on spaghetti Hair rollers sticky construction First sewing basket Edible fingerpainting Making marks in fairy dust Decorating play dough eggs
Modeling clay (little hands making small objects is perfect for building hand strength) Modeling with playdough (kneading, pinching…) Simple origami activities Dot to Dot pages Making dot art with paint dotters Cutting construction paper into different shapes with child-safe scissors Building animals with pipe cleaners
Developing fine motor skills is vital in young kids as they are the foundation of many activities including writing, drawing, cutting, grasping, buttoning, tying laces, zipping, and even using utensils. As adults, it's easy to take these fine motor skills for granted.
Here's a brief timeline of fine motor milestones for babies and toddlers: 0 to 3 months places their hands in their mouth hands become more relaxed 3 to 6 months holds hands together moves a...
There are many ways to develop and improve fine motor skills, including playing with play dough, threading beads, cutting with scissors, and drawing or painting. Fine motor skills are the ability to control small muscles in the hands and fingers in order to perform tasks.
3. Button Squiggles and Swirls. Draw squiggles and swirls on card stock, then let students line buttons of different shapes and colors along those lines. Learn more: Learning 4 Kids. 4. Counting With Elastics. We love that this is a fine motor activity that also teaches counting.
These fine motor skills are needed for functional tasks like managing a pencil or crayon during handwriting, opening containers, managing coins or small items, manipulating a spoon/knife/fork, adjusting the paper when cutting with scissors, and fastening buttons or shoe laces.
Stringing beads: Stringing beads onto a piece of string or pipe cleaners is another great fine motor activity for preschoolers. This activity not only helps with fine motor skills, but also improves concentration and hand-eye coordination. Cutting and pasting: Cutting out shapes with scissors and gluing them onto paper is a fun way for ...
This fine motor activity for preschoolers is super simple to set up! Just draw lines on colored construction paper and have the kids trace along the lines with gems, buttons or beads. 10. Cutting Mazes If you are looking for ways to help your kids with scissor skills, this activity is for you.
The answer is to provide lots of activities to strengthen and build up the muscle tone in their hands and fingers. We need to give children lots of practice in precise hand movements such as: Squeezing Twisting Unscrewing Pinching Pushing Peeling Rolling Pegging Threading
Drawing is one of the most important fine motor activities and one that kids should have the opportunity to do daily. Drawing is the most important pre-writing activity. As kids progress through the stages of drawing, they eventually start developing the control to form letters and write.
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.
Types of Gross Motor Skills Activities For Kids Indoor: Building, dancing, hopping, arts and crafts, pretend play, pulling, pushing Outdoor: Balancing, climbing, reaching, riding, swimming, playground play, walking, throwing, catching Games: Hit the target, jump the brook, paper plate skates, soccer, tag
Inside: these hole punch activities include crafts, math and literacy activities, and art projects.All of them are great fine motor skills work for kids! (Disclosure: Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)
Activity #1: Q-Tip ABC's. We love Q-tip painting! It's a great way for preschoolers to work on those fine motor and handwriting skills without a ton of pressure. This is a fun alphabet and tracing activity! The kids will have a blast painting with Q-tips to create the letters!
(Cutting the straws is another great fine motor activity for kids.) Tie yarn to a plastic needle, or use plastic laces, and knot the end. Children string the straws onto the yarn or lace. Stringing Beads Children string pony beads onto pipe cleaners. Bean Gluing Children draw a simple picture on a piece of construction paper with a pencil.
Fine motor skills are necessary for both academic and everyday activities, as they are essential for performing tasks that require precision and dexterity. When children cannot perform these everyday tasks, their self-esteem suffers, their academic performance is compromised, and their play options are severely limited.
Introducing our fine motor activities for preschoolers! Our collection of fun and stimulating activities are designed to help young children practice their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. From lacing cards, geoboards, play dough mats, line tracing, and more; your kids will be engaged with hours of entertainment and learning.
Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the body that enable such functions as writing, grasping small objects or toys, and fastening clothing. 1 They also involve strength, fine motor control, and dexterity. These skills are important in most school activities as well as in life in general. Weaknesses in fine motor skills can affect a ...
Fine Motor Milestones by Age. When kids are 3-4 years old, fine motor skills they should be able to do include: draw lines using crayons. stack blocks. complete simple puzzles. bead a necklace (using large beads) Once kids hit 5-6 years old, they'll be expected to reach these fine motor milestones: write letters and words with a pencil.
Fine motor activities describe anything that involves the hand and fingers. Play ideas that use squeezing, pulling, pinching or manipulating (such as playdough) will help children to develop fine motor skills. Everyday Fine Motor Activities 1. DIY Ball Drop Box Recycle an old box and learn how to make this DIY Ball Drop Box for Babies.
If your child's fine motor skills need a little extra help, try these fun activities. 1. Play-dough and putty. Play-dough and putty are often used as part of the heavy work component of a sensory diet. They can also help improve a child's fine motor skills. Encourage your child to squeeze, stretch, pinch and roll "snakes" or "worms ...
Fine motor skill is the coordination of small muscles, in movements—usually involving the synchronisation of hands and fingers—with the eyes. The complex lev...
5.0. (1) $6.75. PDF. This resource is full of hands-on March center activities to help your children work on their math, literacy, and fine motor skills. It includes fun Lucky Charm math activities that are perfect to use during the week of St. Patrick's Day! Some of the skills covered in this resource include patterning, counting, ten frames ...
Montessori toys for toddlers to help develop their fine motor skills. 【Premium Material】The color and number maze board is made of natural basswood, with a smooth surface, natural and healthy, sturdy and durable. The rounded corners of the color sorting board are smooth and do not hurt the baby's hands. And the closed beads can effectively ...