**This blog post about Christmas fine motor activities for the classroom includes affiliate links.**
Using Christmas fine motor activities in my classroom is such a good way to keep my students engaged during the month of December. If you’ve ever taught in December you know the excitement leading up to Christmas makes it feel like you’re not going to get anything done in your classroom. That’s why I try to make as many activities Christmas themed as possible. These Christmas fine motor activities are favorites in our classroom during the month of December. Check them out.
1. Ripped Paper Stocking
Ripping paper is such a great way to get students building fine motor skills. The pinching and tearing motion helps promote a pincher grasp. I put together these stocking templates as part of my Grab and Go Scissor Skills Boxes. I have my students complete a color book with these pages. We make a stocking in as many different colors as possible and then add them to our little book. My students love creating little books they can read and this is a great addition to our collection.
2. Tracing Cards
As my students are gearing up to become writers, it’s important that they learn to write different kinds of lines. These fine motor tracing cards are a staple for my prewriters. I usually laminate and cut these cards. Then I give students a dry erase marker to practice making the different lines. There are lots of straight lines, zig zags, and bumps for my students to practice with these cards.
3. Bell Search
We love a good fine motor sensory bin in our classroom. This bin is full of holiday cheer. I filled a bin with some gold paper crinkle (like for putting in gift baskets) and added some small red and green jingle bells and mini ornaments (I scooped a set up at Target for $3, but these are pretty similar) to the bin. I gathered some of my favorite tongs and tweezers because they’re a great way for students to build their hand strength and promote a pincher grasp. Students use the different tongs and tweezers to pull the jingle bells and ornaments out of the bin and add them to a second container.
4. Yarn Snipped Wreath
Cutting is such a foundational fine motor skill that we do a lot of cutting practice in our classroom. This activity is fun because we’re snipping yarn instead of paper. I’ve realized that yarn is a great medium for students to practice cutting. Yarn doesn’t have the stiffness that paper has, so there’s some extra planning that goes into snipping yarn that my students need practice with. To complete the activity students will snip a big piece of green yarn into smaller pieces and glue them to the wreath template. I also pulled out some small jewels and sequins for students to glue onto their wreath because what is Christmas without a little sparkle?!
5. Ornaments on the Tree
I love decorating the tree during the holiday season and so do my students, so why not put a fine motor twist on it? I made this quick tree template and my students like to color it green. You could also print it on green paper and your students can cut it out to work on more fine motor skills! Then I pull out all of the stickers I can. I even found some fun ornament shaped stickers that are perfect for this activity. My students peel the stickers from their sheet and add them to their tree. Peeling stickers off the sheet is such a great way to work on developing that pincher grasp our students will need to write.
6. Shape Match Cut and Paste
Once we’re ready to dive into cutting out simple shapes, I love it introduce this activity. This activity is part of my grab and go scissor skills box collection. I copy off a few of the shape matching pages. Then, I made pages with single shapes if your students are working on recognizing shapes, this is a great way to isolate that shape and practice that vocabulary. I also included a mixed shape matching page that I like to use for students who can identify all 3 target shapes. Students will cut out shapes from the box and match them to the shape on their page. Cutting out simple shapes is great for students. It gets them planning how they’re going to move the paper and the scissors as they work.
7. Bead Sorting
If your students seem to have some weak fingers, this is a great activity! I made some sorting cards and tossed some beads of the same color into a container of theraputty. Then I kneaded the putty a bit to mix the beads in. When students complete this activity they will search the putty for the beads and place them on the matching sorting card. Theraputty has different strengths so I’ll mix those up in my classroom so students with stronger muscles are using more firm putty while students who need to develop their muscles are using a softer putty.
8. Gingerbread Chain
Threading is always an important skill for students to start working on. I love these linker chains because I can introduce a lot of academic skills with them, too. In our class, we have targeted patterning, color identification, counting, and so much more with these chains. I made a quick gingerbread template that I printed out and laminated then I punched holes on either side of the card and provided some linker chains. Depending on what skill I’m working on with a student, I’ll have them link the gingerbread cards together. If a student is working on identifying colors I may have them link all of the same color gingerbread cards together. If they’re working on patterns I may start a pattern and have them finish. There are so many ways to utilize these cards that they’re definitely a classroom favorite!
9. Holiday Clip Cards
Clothespins are a go to fine motor manipulative in our classroom. The squeezing of the clothespins is a great way to develop hand strength. I like to add in activities that also focus on targeting. That is having students place the clothespin in a specific location. Think about when we get to writing and we want students to place their letters on specific parts of the line or we want them to build their letters. Building targeting skills before we get to writing is a great way to develop that concept. I prepared a set of clip cards for my classroom and simple printed and laminated these cards. Then I grabbed some clothespins and my students practice placing the clothespins on the white dots.
10. Bead Counting
I know it seems like I do a lot of activities with beads and that’s because I do! Beads are such a great manipulative. Their small size is perfect for my students who need to practice handling smaller items. They’re also so easy to use for a variety of skills. In this activity, I prepared some number cards, hole punched a hole at the top and added a pipe cleaner. I give my students a container full of beads and have them count out the same number of beads and thread them onto the pipe cleaner. This is such a simple activity that we use all season long (and with all the varieties I’ve made, it’s an activity we use all YEAR long!)
These are 10 of our favorite fine motor activities for the holiday season. Want to grab these activities to use in your classroom? They’re in my FREE resource library! Just head on over to the resource library and download your FREE fine motor activities!
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