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Fine motor skills have really been my jam this year. It’s no secret that our students to develop fine motor skills and strengthen the muscles in their hands if they’re ever going to be able to do most things at school. I took on the challenge this year and set up a fine motor center in my classroom. Groups rotate through and work on a variety of fine motor activities. Some students are working primarily on hand strengthening while others are doing some prewriting and even some name writing in the center.
We’ve been rocking our March activities, so I wanted to be sure I shared these awesome activities with you. These are 10 super simple Fine Motor activities that you can implement in your classroom with little to no prep.
1. Hidden Treasures
Grab some theraputty and some beads to put together this super simple fine motor activity. I have two strengths of putty in my center currently and have 4 colors of beads hidden in each putty container. Students LOVE digging through the putty to find the treasure hidden inside. I prefer the strength of the putty over play dough because my students need to use a little more force and dexterity to retrieve the beads, but if your students are having a difficult time with putty, I recommend hiding beads in Play Dough for them to find!
2. Number Lacing
I’m a sucker for combining academic skills with fine motor skills. I mean if our students can complete one activity and work on two skills I’m all for it! In this activity I prepared number cards (1-20 for my students). I punched a hole in the card and added a pipe cleaner. Students count out beads and string the same number onto the pipe cleaner. I grabbed some gold beads from my stash and my students love thinking they’re putting coins in the pot!
3. Rainbow Painting
Grab some paint and a Q-Tip for this super simple activity. I made a quick rainbow and ran off copies for my students. Grab some paint, dip your Q-Tip in, and dot to make the rainbow!
BONUS TIP: Cut your Q-Tips in half to promote student grasp!
EXTRA BONUS TIP: Not ready to let students have free reign on the paint just yet? Try these gem stickers instead!
4. Cube Towers
As you may be able to tell, we’re hitting counting HARD in my classroom right now. This activity is another classroom favorite. I made these quick shamrock pages and my students use Unifix Cubes to build towers that match the number. Pushing those cubes together is a great way to get students building strength in their hands and fingers!
5. Ripped Shamrock
Ripping paper is a great way to practice pinching and pulling with your students. I love to make this an activity throughout the year in our fine motor center. I used my scissor skills boxes for this activity. I ran off copies of the shamrock and grabbed some strips of paper in various colors. My students practiced ripping the paper and then we glued it to the shamrock. We also made a color book with these shamrock templates by completing the craft in different colors. This is one of my favorites because it allows my students to do the activity multiple times and keeps them engaged instead of bored.
6. Clover Clip
Clothespin activities are a classroom go to when it comes to fine motor skills. I found a set of rainbow clothespins at the store and knew I had to use them. I made some clovers and added spaces for students to place the clothespins. Sure my students could have just added the clips to the clovers and we could have called it a day, but adding the space helps them target and plan where they’re going to place the clothespin.
7. Leprechaun’s Beard
Scissor practice is a great way to build fine motor skills. Controlling scissors and opening and closing them is really one of the things we’re headed towards when we start building fine motor skills. For this activity I put together a quick leprechaun page that I made copies of for students. I grabbed some orange yarn and cut a length for my students. They used scissors to snip lengths of yarn and apply it to the leprechaun’s beard.
8. Finding Shamrocks
This activity is super simple. Find a basket with holes (this part is important) and fill it with all kinds of St. Paddy’s Day fun! My students love finding the coins and shamrocks in the bin! I also threw some poms in there because they’re easier to grab onto for some of my students who still have weaker fine motor skills. Then string some yarn through those holes and give your students some tweezers. I grabbed a shamrock cake mold and my students love sorting the different things they find in the basket.
9. Rainbow Necklace
Lacing and beading are such important activities for our students. I always love the focus I see from my students when they are attempting to string beads or, in this case, pasta onto a string. I dyed my pasta with food coloring and vinegar (I really need to try the watercolor method, my purple was not pretty!) and provided my students with a length of string.
BONUS TIP: For your students that are just getting started, try using a pipe cleaner for them to string the pasta on.
EXTRA BONUS TIP: Don’t feel like dying pasta? (I don’t blame you!) Swap out the pasta for Fruit Loops.
10. Leprechaun in the Grass
This is an activity for some of my students who are working on their scissor skills. Once they’re able to snip through paper, yarn, or other items I like to teach my students how to snip and stop. This is a great activity for students to work on motor planning. This is an activity from my scissor skills set. I run off the leprechaun templates for students to color. Then I run copies of the grass templates on green. I trim them into small rectangles and students will cut the grass then paste it on top of the leprechaun to make it look like he’s hiding his pot of gold!
Want to grab the printable I made for my fine motor centers? Click here and submit your email address and they’ll be sent straight to your inbox!
