Fine Motor Activities – Paper Clips

Activity: Very simple and cheap way to challenge your child to clip as many paper clips onto a cardboard tube as they can in a certain time. Coordination is also  practiced; to grip and steady the tube as they attach the clips at the same time. Differentiation: Set targets for your child. Reduce the amount…

Read More

Fine Motor Activities – Cutting and Sticking

Activity: Scissors are a very tricky tool to learn to use. Small, safe, plastic only scissors are the best to start the training. Any number of fun activities can be done with scissors, from cutting along dotted lines to cutting out photos, shapes and pictures from old magazines. Collages and other nice craft ideas will…

Read More

Fine Motor Activities – Nuts and Bolts

metal and clay sculpture at British Early Years Centre International Kindergarten, Bangkok

Activity: Plastic nut and bolt sets are an ideal choice for this fine motor activity but they aren’t always that easy to source. The best place to look would be online but otherwise real nuts and bolts can be uses. The threading of the nut into its partner bolt takes alignment and fine adjustment at…

Read More

Fine Motor Activities – Play Dough

Natural Material Crafts at British Early Years Centre Bangkok

Activity: There are so many ways that play dough can be used and whilst any activity will help strengthen fine motor muscles in the fingers. Rolling, squashing, moulding and stretching can all be modelled by an adult when making objects and allows children to experiment with a variety of finger and hand movements. Differentiation: Swapping…

Read More

Fine Motor Activities – Marble Balancing

Activity: Using the finger tips to carefully balance marbles is a great activity to develop fine motor skills for toddlers. Using play dough is probably the quickest and easiest base to place the golf tees into. Differentiation: Try using egg cups to start with and play around with the size of ball that your child has to balance.…

Read More

Fine Motor Activities – Threading

Activity: The threading of beads, buttons cotton-reels is a much loved activity by children in any kindergarten and its such an easy activity to replicate at home even if you don’t have the purpose made educational toys. The threading process develops hand-eye coordination and the smaller the threading hole the more intricate the motor movements need…

Read More

Fine Motor Activities – Chopsticks / Tweezers

Activity: Using chopsticks is a difficult enough skill to grasp as an adult let alone a toddler, but when they have been fashioned in such a way to secure the two ends together, this allows them to be used more as tweezers. This is achieved simply by fastening an elastic band around the two fatter…

Read More

Fine Motor Activities – Lolly Stick Sorting

Activity: Children are asked to pick and sort coloured straws or lolly sticks into the correct container or pot. In this way the activity also covers an important maths objective and also allows for language development. Differentiation:Straws would be used initially as they are easier to pinch between the fingers to pick up. As a child’s…

Read More

Playdough Balls

It is easy to make this activity easier or harder depending on the age of your child. Roll the playdough into strips to make it easier to mould or use clay for older children. Use different shapes and different sizes. You can also practice vocabulary for shapes and even colours if you use other playdough colours.…

Read More