Back to school fine motor activities are here! I love sharing my favorite fine motor activities on the blog and this months are full of back to school fun! These are 10 of my absolute FAVORITE fine motor activities to do in my classroom during the back to school season!
1. Trace, Color, and Write Activities
This activity is great for back to school time. I get an idea of how my students are able to control writing instruments and I get a chance to try out some different ones! In this activity, my students trace and color the picture, then trace the word of the item. I’ll often switch out different adapted writing instruments for students to try.
2. Kids on the Bus
Who doesn’t love a clothespin activity? I prepped a quick bus and some kids to go on the bus. After those were prepped, I hot glued the kids to clothespins and my students add the kids to the bus. I have both an errorless and a counting activity. This one is super fun for a back to school task box!
3. Recess Fun Scissor Skills Box
I created some scissor skills boxes that my students LOVE to complete. They seriously don’t know they’re working on fine motor skills! This box is a classroom favorite. I (quickly) prepped the kid pictures by printing and trimming. I did the same to prep the grass pieces. When that was done, I tossed everything in a pencil box with some scissors and some glue. My students trim the grass to practice making snips with scissors. Then they glue the grass down to their kid pictures. If we have time, some of my students like to color their pictures, too!
4. Q-Tip School Painting
Q-Tip painting is one of my favorite activities! I print off a quick page of my school house printable and prepare paint for my students. The goal of this activity is to use the Q-Tip to dot the circles on the image. I love practicing targeting with this activity and using Q-Tips helps my students practice proper grasp on their instrument. Another tip is to cut your Q-Tip in half. The smaller your instrument is, the more likely students are to adapt to a more function grasp.
5. Wooden Clips
I shared about this activity in this blog post and we still love it in our classroom! I found some wooden pieces at a craft store and hot glued them to clothespins. Then I whipped up two different pieces to match their clips to. First, I made images for my students to match their clips, too. Second, I made word cards for my readers to use and clip the pieces to.
6. Name Tag Necklace
I know a few teachers (myself included) who like to create name tags for students to wear when they have a guest teacher in their classroom. This is an activity you can do at the beginning of the year and keep throughout the year so they can be used when you have a substitute teacher. I cut a length of string for each student. I also printed and laminated a name card for each student. On their length of string I added their name tag to the middle by using a slip knot. Then I grabbed a bunch of beads and have my students practice stringing beads. They love “decorating” their name tag for the year and the fine motor practice they get by stringing those beads is perfect!
7. Classroom Fun!
This is a fine motor activity I use with students who have some more complex skills. This activity has students cutting out kid pieces in more complex shapes. Then students glue the pieces to a classroom scene. If we have time and students want to, we’ll usually color our classroom scene. The practice of using scissors to cut out complex shapes is where I’m aiming to get my students, so this is a fun activity to practice those skills!
8. Fine Motor Tracing
I was in need of a quick prep, lower demand activity to get us started in my fine motor center this year, so I made these line tracing cards. After a quick print and laminate, I tossed these cards and a few dry erase markers in a bin. My students practice drawing lines to connect the two items. This is a favorite activity because I’m doing a lot of observation at this time. I’m looking to see what our grasp and motor control looks like. Looking at these things and keeping them in mind will help me plan more meaningful activities throughout the year. Line writing and tracing is also great for my students who are practicing prewriting skills!
9. Name Formation
So many of my students are working on writing or spelling their names in the classroom. This activity is really fun. I prep a quick page with the students name and grab some different items for students to use to form their name. I’ve use paper bits, stickers, buttons, sequins, and so many other small items. The students practice gluing or sticking items on their name and forming the letters within their name.
10. Bus Bead Sorting
Color sorting is a great back to school activity. I prepped these bus cards by laminating and cutting them. Then I used a hole puncher to make a hole and attach a pipe cleaner to the card. I grabbed some beads that matched the colors of the cards and placed everything in a bing for my students. My students sort the beads by color and string them onto the pipe cleaner for fine motor practice!
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