Fine Motor Skill activities
FINE MOTOR SKILLS - Home Practice
Fine motor skills are used often in school, especially when writing, coloring, and cutting.
Suggested Activities to Improve Fine Motor Skills
* Give your child opportunities to put together puzzles, complete dot-to-dot worksheets, build block towers, color within lines, cut and paste on lines, fold paper designs, and string beads. Give feedback and assistance when needed.
* Allow your child to hide and retrieve marbles, buttons, or beads from play dough. Emphasize the use of thumbs. Also,
encourage your child to use both hands to make balls and other shapes with play dough.
* Give your child plenty of opportunities to practice tracing lines and pictures. After tracing over a shape, have your child
draw smaller and larger samples of the shape.
* Guide your child in learning how to independently fasten clothing such as zippers, snaps, buttons, and tying shoe laces.
* Encourage your child to draw pictures with pencils, crayons, markers, and chalk. Provide stencils and templates of shapes, letters, and numbers for your child to use.
* Let your child string spools of thread with buttons, macaroni, or fruit loops. Encourage your child to create a pattern.
* Give your child opportunities to play in sand or water by filling and transferring the contents into various containers.
* Provide marshmallows and toothpicks and encourage your child to build a person, house, etc.
* Have your child match lids with their paired jars or containers.
* Let your child use tweezers to pick up various objects such has cotton balls, beads, and pom-pom balls.
* Have your child duplicate patterns or configurations of beads and/or blocks with and without the use of a model.
* Have your child tear paper, use a hole punch and scissors for art projects.
* After seeing a shape, letter, or number, ask your child to reproduce it on paper.
* Playing games such as Marbles, Pick-up Sticks, Jacks, Operation, and Bed Bugs all help develop fine motor skills and
good hand-eye coordination.
Fine motor skills are used often in school, especially when writing, coloring, and cutting.
Suggested Activities to Improve Fine Motor Skills
* Give your child opportunities to put together puzzles, complete dot-to-dot worksheets, build block towers, color within lines, cut and paste on lines, fold paper designs, and string beads. Give feedback and assistance when needed.
* Allow your child to hide and retrieve marbles, buttons, or beads from play dough. Emphasize the use of thumbs. Also,
encourage your child to use both hands to make balls and other shapes with play dough.
* Give your child plenty of opportunities to practice tracing lines and pictures. After tracing over a shape, have your child
draw smaller and larger samples of the shape.
* Guide your child in learning how to independently fasten clothing such as zippers, snaps, buttons, and tying shoe laces.
* Encourage your child to draw pictures with pencils, crayons, markers, and chalk. Provide stencils and templates of shapes, letters, and numbers for your child to use.
* Let your child string spools of thread with buttons, macaroni, or fruit loops. Encourage your child to create a pattern.
* Give your child opportunities to play in sand or water by filling and transferring the contents into various containers.
* Provide marshmallows and toothpicks and encourage your child to build a person, house, etc.
* Have your child match lids with their paired jars or containers.
* Let your child use tweezers to pick up various objects such has cotton balls, beads, and pom-pom balls.
* Have your child duplicate patterns or configurations of beads and/or blocks with and without the use of a model.
* Have your child tear paper, use a hole punch and scissors for art projects.
* After seeing a shape, letter, or number, ask your child to reproduce it on paper.
* Playing games such as Marbles, Pick-up Sticks, Jacks, Operation, and Bed Bugs all help develop fine motor skills and
good hand-eye coordination.
