Fine Motor Skills incorporate the use of the small muscles - hands and fingers - with the eyes. These skills are used for tasks such as grabbing small objects; manipulating things; and even handwriting.

Encouraging children to sort pom pons with tweezers helps fine motor skills as well as counting and sorting.

Our Muffin Math Game is one of the best fine motor activities for young learners. Using tweezers, the children sort pom pons by color, shape, and size into the correct muffin spots. Not only is the game strongly focused on fine motor skills development, but also on counting and sorting.

We create fine motor activities to be fun and engaging. Most children love Play-Doh. Encouraging students to make shapes and letters with the Play-Doh helps strengthen their hands and fingers, while developing their academic knowledge. It's important to make learning fun.

We always start by putting the Play-Doh in front of the child and asking them to divide it into four (4) parts. The child should use their whole hand to squeeze the Play-Doh and use their number knowledge. We then ask them to use their pinchers - index finger and the thumb - to pinch off some of the snakes, and then we proceed with the skill building activities.

If we are creating letters, we always sing the sound while creating it: "C,C,C" or "S,S,S,S". Children love rhyme and music. "C says /C/. S says /S/. We try to integrate all the components of learning while engaging students in the activity. If they are manipulating Play-Doh; singing the sound a letter makes; and seeing the actual letter in front of them; they are more likely to perform the activity successfully and retain the learning.

The Toddler Matching Bundle is great for fine motor practice. It provides early exposure to foundational skills such as letters, numbers, shapes, and colors while practicing fine motor skills with the hands-on nature of the activities. These activities allow for parents and teachers to sit down with their children and have easy resources to practice the basics.

The Toddler Matching Bundle includes:

Flower Color Match - Match the petals to the correct center of the flower.
Alphabet Match - Match the picture on the ice cream cone to the correct letter cone.
Animal Match - Find the other half of the animal.
Shape Match - This can be used as a memory game, or larger pictures can be used to sort the shapes.

These activities are meant to be used over and over. At first, this will be a guided activity but eventually your child will be able to use these tools independently. Don't forget that your child pointing to the right card (before they are able to pick it up) is a fine motor milestone too!

Be sure to grab our Plah-Doh freebie this week to practice fine motor skills at home!

Master Fine Motor Skills With These Fine Motor Activities