Let’s talk about fine motor skills, preschool fine motor skills! I have three activities to show you to help build fine motor control in small hands. Fine motor activities are fabulous for building prewriting skills and working for those little hands.
- Block Stacking
You can use any blocks that you have on hand for this activity. If your child is bored with the typical block building, then this is a great activity for you. Hold two blocks – one in each hand – and use these blocks to pick up and stack other blocks. It’s just a new way of stacking but it’s a little more challenging, and it’s really great for practicing fine motor control.
2. Beanbag Flipping
I use a set of three beanbags and a regular kitchen spatula. This activity is simple: Using the spatula, scoop up each beanbag and then flip it over. If you wanted to make this educational, you could put sight words on the beanbags or use them to practice colors. But just the wrist motion alone in flipping the spatula is really good for fine motor control.
3. Rubber Bands
For this activity, you’ll need an empty paper towel roll, a canned food item, and a handful of rubber bands. Work with your child to put the rubber bands around the can and around the paper towel roll. This looks easy, but it’s very challenging for little hands so your child may need some help at first. I’ve also seen similar activities using girls’ hair bands so you could use those, too, if you have them on hand. And, as always when using items like rubber bands, make sure your children are well supervised!
That’s it! Three simple activities you can do today to practice fine motor skills. I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments – what’s your favorite fine motor activity? You can also check out the video below to see these activities in action.
