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We are *so* passionate about all students being given the opportunity to develop, practice and refine their fine motor skills. The link between strong fine motor development and other aspects of language, literacy, and cognitive development has been widely studied and agreed upon. However we are also realistic, and totally understand that the curriculum in Early Childhood is already CROWDED. So how can this be squeezed into an already hectic timetable? That’s where we come in! Practising fine motor skills doesn’t have to be repetitive, boring and dry. In fact, we find practicing these skills (which many students struggle with) works best when the activities are short, sharp, fun and engaging!
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All About Play
By now you will know that here at Top Teacher we believe that student’s learn best when they are engaged. And the best way to get them engaged? Play! That is why we love setting up play trays. Each tray can be created to focus on a specific skill (eg pincer grip), and all of the parts are contained within the tray – along with any mess! Here are some of our favourite fine motor play trays. If you’d like to download the printable instruction card simply click on the play tray name... |
Letter Baking.
This is a great way to practice scooping. Scooping uses bilateral hand coordination, including using the non dominant hand to assist – just as they would to hold paper when writing, colouring in and cutting with scissors. This tray has an added literacy element of matching upper and lowercase letters. You could change this to suit the concepts being taught in class, or simply leave the stones blank and just focus on scooping. |
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Bead Pictures.
Using tweezers helps students develop their pincer grip, essential for holding a pencil. Tweezer use also helps develop the arches of the hand and strength required when using scissors. |
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Nuts and bolts.
Allowing student’s opportunities to play with nuts and bolts is a great way to strengthen and develop the smaller muscles in the hand. These finer muscles are activated through the twisting, pinching and turning of the nut and bolt. It is also great for their hand eye coordination! |
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Pom Pom Sorting.
This is another fun way to incorporate tweezer use in the classroom. We also think this activity would work well with scoop scissors. Using these would also enable students to practise the open-close movement associated with scissor use. |
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To make implementing fine motor activities in your classroom as smooth and seamless as possible we created our Fine Motor Task Cards Originally designed to be used as a morning activity (parent help and engagement for the win!), you can of course choose to use them whenever best suits your timetable! There are over 40 different fine motor activities available on the website, along with an editable format so you can add your own.
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Setting up your fine motor program takes a bit of preparation, planning and sourcing {not going to lie!} but once you've done the initial set up you'll be good to go for the rest of the year. Programs that tick over on their own are our jam, especially during the busy reporting season. You can read all about how we plan, set up and implement this program in our BLOG here.
