Fine Motor Activities

Fine Motor strength is so important to develop in order to prepare students to write. We have a lot of fun fine motor activities and centers that we use. We find different materials to cut.

We use a vertical surface to draw, color and paint. For this activity, we painted blueberries with clothespins and blue pom poms.

Mini erasers can be used for many things such as tracing letters and sorting.

Giant pushpins can be used with supervision to make our names or letters, numerals and shapes.

Q-tips make a fun paintbrush that uses a different hand motion then swiping.

Many literacy and math games also use fine motor skills like this pie sorting game. We also practice fingerplays and draw in our journals to strengthen our fingers to get ready for kindergarten.

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Nursery Rhyme Theme

A few years ago when I pulled out Nursery Rhymes to read to my class, I discovered many of them had never heard these stories before. I grew up on Nursery Rhymes so this was interesting to see. We dove into a unit of Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales and they loved it! This is also a great unit to really focus on rhyming with the children. Blocks, pool noodles, and cups can be used in STEAM challenges to build castles and towers. Straw, sticks, and rocks can also be added to use in building houses when you read "The Three Little Pigs." We create our own Nursery Rhyme book where the children illustrate the rhymes and then get to take their books home to share. The students love collecting the pigs and returning them to their pens. We use pink balloons and hula hoops. We also try to be as nimble and quick as Jack and jump over our own candlesticks. "The Three Little Kittens" lost their mittens but we play a matching game with ours. ...

Pumpkin Theme

Every October we learn about pumpkins. Mini pumpkins are brought into the Science Center for every child and we investigate them with magnifying lenses and our senses. We also cut the top off of a large pumpkin and scoop the seeds out to investigate as well. I allow every child who is interested, a turn scooping seeds out. I never require the students to help if they are not interested. In the Literacy Center, we use mini pumpkin erasers to trace around letters. Pumpkin stickers can also be used. We take a field trip to a local pumpkin patch where every child is allowed to pick a pumpkin to take home. In the Fine Motor/Sensory Center, we make pumpkin pie with orange playdough and rolling pins. We also count and make patterns in the Math Center with pumpkin erasers or manipulatives. In the Pumpkin STEAM box, I include mini pumpkins, leaves, acorns, magnifying lenses and orange slices of pool noodles that the children can play and e...

Christmas Theme

There are so many Christmas ideas and activities to choose from and I have tried many but in this post, I will include many of the ones that have worked well in our classroom. This candy cane fishing game is challenging but the children enjoy it and it's great for teaching balance, fine motor skills and concentration. I tie a single candy cane to a dowel rod and then place the remaining candy canes in a jar so they are standing up. Students use the candy cane fishing rod and try to collect as many candy canes as they can. A great STEAM activity is to lay out green Legos and green popsicle sticks and give the students a challenge to create a tree. Another fine motor activity is to place Velcro dots both on a Christmas tree and also on the back of several buttons. Students place the buttons on the tree as ornaments and then take the buttons off. I make large green triangle trees and then divide them into eight strips, writing a numeral 1-8 on each strip. St...

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