Developing Your Preschoolers' Fine Motor Skills

Erica, contributor to ABC & 123 Learning blog, has developed a comprehensive post of games and activities that will strengthen your preschoolers' fine motor skills!

Here's A Short Recap...

1. Biggie Beads - Offered by Fun Fusion, Erica suggests having your students use tweezers to pick up each bead and place it on the fusion tray. BONUS: Practice counting, color recognition, and patterning as you go!
2. Toot & Otto - Similar to 'Connect Four', it takes control and coordination to get the tiles into the small slits at the top of the game board. BONUS: Practice reading, phonics, and patterning!
3. Balancing Marbles - Cut a piece of craft foam into a rectangle, have your students push golf tees into the soft material, and then practice balancing marbles on top of the tees!
4. Sticker Tracing - Make worksheets of shapes, letters, or numbers and have your students use small stickers to 'trace' the objects.
5. Cutting Practice - Provide students with a worksheet that has different lines (e.g. straight, wavy, zig zag, etc.) and have them use kids scissors to cut along the lines.
6. Counting Cards - Have students practice counting and fine motor skills. Erica suggests using tweezers to place pom poms onto the number dots, providing clothespins for children to clip onto the card, laminating the cards and using a dry erase marker to trace the numbers, or placing small stickers over the number dots. Super versatile and effective!
7. Chopstick Transferring - Provide students with a set of kids chopsticks, a pile of pom poms, and ice cube trays. Invite them to transfer the pom poms to the tray with the chopsticks.
8. Bead Lacing - Provide children with a leather cord and a pile of beads. Invite them to string the beads onto the cord.

Be sure to check out the full post at ABC and 123! Here's Part 1 (described above) and Part 2 for your perusal!