Fine motor activities seem to only be thought of at the beginning of the year, but it is something
that students need practice with all year long! It doesn’t take up a lot of extra time, just a few
materials and they are ready to go! Awhile ago we discussed six great fine motor activities, so
stay tuned for the next round of activities that you can quickly implement in your classroom.
1. Screws and Washers
Who knew screws and washers would hold a child’s attention? I like to put them in the iris photo
boxes that you can grab from Michael’s. Depending on how long they are, you can even put them
in the little crayon boxes that you can find at the Dollar Tree or Wal-Mart. They are super cheap
and perfect for little hands. Be careful, because they will end up all over the floor! One year I had
a custodian who asked if my desks were somehow falling apart, because he kept picking them
up off of the floor! I had to show him our boxes! Haha!
2. Cutting Practice
We all know that the only way children will get better at cutting is to practice. They’re always
itching to cut random bits of paper so I let them! Children need to practice cutting straight lines,
curved lines, zig zag lines, moving on toward cutting shapes and other pictures out!
I know that it can be a tad bit annoying for them to have paper everywhere, but I promise the
engagement is totally worth it! The practice that they will get is priceless! Let them cut!
3. Geoboards
Geoboards as a fine motor activity used to definitely make me nervous. I mean, children with
rubber bands and spikey boards were enough to make my blood pressure rise. Once I got over that,
and had plenty of talks about do’s and don’t’s with the rubber bands, they did surprisingly well
with them! And yes, a few of my friends had to have another talking to and consequences for
launching a few rubber bands across the room. Don’t worry, just correct, re-direct and move on.
4. Pattern Blocks
Pattern blocks get a bad rap sometimes it seems. They get relegated to math time but they
are good for multiple uses! I use them for literacy practice as well!
And wouldn’t you know it, your little ones are practicing fine motor skills at the same time.
Maneuvering the blocks into their appropriate place and in between other blocks definitely takes
some fine motor skills!
5. Sticker Lines
Stickers lines are almost the same as cutting lines. It’s exactly as it sounds! Add some lines to a piece
of paper, and let them follow the lines with stickers! If you find that your students are unable to
work with the smaller stickers, start them out with the larger ones, and then gradually move them to
the smaller ones.
6. Fine Motor Maze
Now we’re at our last fine motor activity for this post, the fine motor maze. I promise, it’s not as
complicated as it sounds! You fill up a ziplock bag with cotton balls, and then add a colored
pom-pom to the bag, then you zip it up! The students would then try to move the colored pom-pom
from the outside of the bag. They would push the colored pom-pom from the bottom of the bag
to the top. You can even do thematic mazes, for halloween put a ton of black pom-poms and then
add an orange one, for Christmas you can do green pom-poms and add a red one! Easy-peasy!
