**This blog post about summer fine motor activities includes affiliate links.**
Summer is coming and we’re really excited in our classroom. I love taking my student’s excitement for the sun and fun and turning it into function hands on activities to improve fine motor skills in the classroom. Here’s quick peek at 10 activities we’re rocking in our classroom to gear up for SUMMER!
1. Shark Food
Put in tasks are such a great way to build fine motor strength. I’ll often make the hole a little smaller than the object we’re putting in the container so my students really have to push with their fingers. I’ll also use a variety of objects so my students have to practice handling different manipulation skills with their fingers. For my shark food, I adhered a shark’s head to a container and cut a hole. Then I grabbed poms of varying sizes. Students place the poms in the container to complete the task.
2. Counting Ice Cream Scoops
We’ve been focusing on counting a lot in our classroom this year, so I made an ice cream counting activity for my students to practice their counting skills. Each ice cream cone has a number on it and my students use the tongs to find that many scoops (poms) to add to their ice cream cone. The addition of tongs to this activity helps my students focus on pinching and grabbing items. They’re also practicing targeting when placing their ice cream scoops.
3. Summer Snipping
I always love to build scissor skills in my fine motor centers. This summer snipping activity is a great start for some of my beginning students. Students take a strip of pictures and snip them into small pieces. I also have some counting mats and sorting mats that my students can glue their smaller pieces to in order to make this a more functional skill.
4. Sticker Targeting Sun
I love a great sticker activity. This is a favorite no prep activity in our classroom. I print off a few of my sun pages and grab some sheets of stickers. I like the small circle stickers you can find at most teacher supply stores or online. Students practice pulling stickers from the sheet and covering the dots on the sun to complete this simple activity.
5. Watermelon Seed Hole Punch
What screams summer more than watermelon? I love this low prep activity. Print off some watermelon pages and cut them if you want, or your students can if they’re able to cut simple shapes! Students can color the watermelon or if you’re strapped for time, copy them on red paper. Then grab some black paper and a hole puncher. Students will create black “seeds” and glue them to the watermelon.
6. Dough Mats
Play dough is such a great tool to build fine motor skills. I print these dough mats and give my students a can of dough. Then, we practice rolling long snakes with our pieces of dough and use those to complete the 4 different dough mats I put together!
7. Summer Puzzles
Cut and paste puzzles are a great activity for students who have mastered snipping and are starting to work on cutting on a straight line. I put together a few puzzles in my Grab and Go Scissor Skills Kit. There are 2, 3, and 5 piece puzzles that my students cut, put in order, and glue to their matching board.
8. Fish in the Ocean
Did I mention I love stickers? Peeling them off the paper is enough fine motor practice alone to make me one happy teacher, but when we can incorporate coloring and even some targeting at times (I’ll draw a dot or an X on the paper for the student to cover), I’m an ecstatic teacher. This super simple activity is no prep and students love it! I copy the ocean template and my students color the page. Then, I give them some fish stickers I found online and they peel them from the paper and add them to their ocean scene.
9. Summer Clips
Clothespins are such a great tool for building fine motor strength. When students are squeezing clothespins to open them up, it really helps build that strength. I made some quick clip cards and laminated them. I give my students a pile of clothespins and they place the clothespins on the dots.
10. Animal Bead Sorting
I found these adorable sea animal beads at Michael’s and knew I had to do a theraputty activity with them. Theraputty is a great tool for motor skills. It’s tougher than play dough, so my students really need to pinch and squeeze to get things out of it. I made some sorting cards to go with my animal beads and hid the beads in the putty. My students use their fingers to search for the creatures in the dough. Then they place them on the appropriate sorting card. This is always a favorite activity in the classroom!
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Looking for more fine motor activities for your classroom? Check out my favorite activities here.
