Improve Your Preschooler’s Fine Motor Skills With These Activities
Fine motor skills are required for completing tasks that require small movements. They involve the coordinated efforts of the brain and the muscles. While they do not form a part of learning skills, they impact the child’s ability to learn and display what they have learned. They are also vital for performing everyday tasks for kids and, eventually, as adults.
Examples of Fine Motor Skills in School-Related Tasks
- Holding a pencil and using it to write, colour, draw or scribble
- Operating a pair of scissors
- Constructing with the help of Lego blocks, puzzles, etc.
- Manipulating Play-Doh to create models
- Using cutlery to eat, opening food bags and lunch boxes
- Getting dressed, zipping and buttoning up clothes, and tying shoelaces
Best Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers
Stringing Pasta
Materials
- A ball of thread or lace
- Macaroni pasta (or similar hollow pasta)
Process
Give the child a handful of macaroni and ask them to make a macaroni necklace by threading it through the lace. You may even draw symbols, colour the macaroni, or write alphabets over it to make it interesting for the kid.
Rescue the Spider
Materials
- A basket
- Some wool
- Plastic spiders
- Clothespin or tweezers
Process
Drop the spiders inside the basket and weave the wool through the basket holes to make a web. Give the child clothespin or tweezers to get the spider out of the basket. You can make this activity more challenging by making a denser web with more yarn.
Play-Doh Monster
Materials
- Buttons, glitter, bottle tops, etc.
- Googly eyes
- Pipe cleaners or twine or straw
- Play-Doh
Process
Give the child all the material and ask them to make a Play-Doh monster. Allow them to use as many supplies as required and let their imagination run wild! You could even include counting by instructing them to use X number of arms, and Y number of eyes. Further, asking the child stories related to the monster will also enhance their literary skills.
Materials
- Nuts and bolts of various shapes and sizes
Process
The child will use their fingers, hands, and wrists while perfecting hand-eye coordination to twist the nuts onto the bolts. To make this activity more challenging, you can give them an assortment of nuts and bolts, and they have to find the perfect match.
Sorting Beads
Materials
- Colourful beads
- Tweezers
- Bowls
Process
In a large bowl, mix different coloured beads. Hand a pair of tweezers to the child and let them sort them based on their colours (or shape or size) into smaller bowls. They can also sort the beads using their thumb and forefingers to grasp the beads.
Paper Mosaic
Materials
- A pair of safety scissors
- Strips of colourful construction paper
- White stock sheet
- Child-safe glue
Process
The children will use the scissors to snip small pieces from the coloured paper strips. They can then glue the smaller pieces to the white sheet to create a beautiful mosaic. Once the child gains confidence with using the scissor, you can give them a more challenging task of cutting the strips for the mosaic.
Colour Mixing and Blow Paint
Materials
- Water in small cups
- Liquid paint or food coluor
- Ink dropper or pipette
- Straw
- White stock sheet
Process
Mix a few drops of liquid paint or food colour in the water cups. The children can use the ink droppers or pipettes to mix the different colours and watch the new shades. They can then use the dropper to drop blobs of paint on the paper and blow it using a straw to make impressive and artistic creations.
Scooping Marbles
Materials
- Marbles (or pom poms)
- Ice tray
- Deep spoon
Process
Place the marbles in a large bowl. Ask the child to make use of the spoon to transfer the marbles from the bowl to slots in the ice cube tray.
Tie Your Laces
Materials
- A cardboard
- Pencil
- Shoelaces
- Toothpick
Process
The children can first outline their shoe on the cardboard and then draw six holes near the top. Help them use the toothpick to punch holes in the cardboard. Now, they can use the laces and string them through the cardboard as they would do in their shoe and tie the laces.
These activities are not only enjoyable for kids but also help them develop fine motor skills. It helps to enhance a preschooler’s fine motor skills to prepare them for the future.Want to know more about building your child’s fine motor skills? Contact Beansprouts Pre-school now 🙂