Back

FINE MOTOR FUN FOR PRESCHOOLERS

Are you ready to have some fun with your preschooler while strengthening fine motor skills at the same time?  Great!  Let's get started!

Good fine motor skills are more than just having strong fingers that work well together!  good core strength and upper body strength are important pre-requisites.  These provide a sturdy "base of support" for the arms, hands and fingers.

• Wheelbarrow walking -- have your child get in the hands and knees position.  Ask him/her to keep his/her hands on the floor while you slowly raise his/her ankles.  Can your child walk forward on his/her hands?  How many steps?
• Puzzle relay -- wheelbarrow walk or animal walk (walk on all fours like a bear, slither on the floor like a snake, walk on hands and feet with tummy up like a crab) to one end of a room or hallway.  Grab a puzzle piece and race it back to the puzzle.  Do it again until the puzzle is complete!
• Obstacle course -- place pillows, foot rests, baskets, chairs, etc. around a room to wheelbarrow walk or animal walk around and over!  Pretend you in the jungle or rain forest.
• Treasure hunt -- hid small objects around the room.  Wheelbarrow walk or animal walk around the room, find the treasures, and put them in a treasure chest (i.e., basket or hamper).
• Tug-of-war -- try it while in half-kneel (the proposal position).  It's tricky to stay up!  Now switch legs and try again!

Good forearm and wrist strength are also key to fine motor development.  One of the easiest and most effective ways of building forearm and wrist strength in young children is having them draw, paint, etc. on vertical surfaces (upright in front of child).  This playing position encourages proper hand and wrist position and "unlocks" fingers to work with precision.

• Art fun -- drawing, painting, coloring on an easel, paper taped to wall, or use a white board.
• Shaving cream play -- squirt shaving cream on the side of the bathtub and practice smiley faces, circles, squares, triangles, and simple drawings.
• On the road -- attach a road rug to the wall or draw roads on a white board and give the child a car to drive on the roads.  Kids love this one!
• Refrigerator puzzle -- place magnet tape on the back of simple puzzles or matching games and play on the refrigerator or another magnetic surface!
• Try it lying down like Michelangelo!  Tape a coloring page from Shape Builders™ Learn to Draw or Color Bound™ to the underneath of a coffee table.  Lie under the table and reach up to color -- it's fun, unique and builds fine motor control all in one!

Encourage a variety of fine motor skills to promote well-balance strengthening of the hands and fingers.  In the preschool years, the main focus should be on skills such as holding a marker correctly, cutting, pre-writing, and beginning capital letter and number formation in the pre-k year. Try these fun ideas!

• Animal sculpt -- make animals out of non-hardening molding clay (it is more resistive than activity clay, so it strengthens the fingers).
• Build it -- build with small connecting blocks.
• Tissue paper coloring -- give you child small strips of tissue paper and ask him/her to crunch the tissue paper into small balls using only the "pincher" fingers.  Glue the balls to a coloring sheet to "color" the picture.
• On-the-Go Fine Motor Fun Kit -- make for restaurants or road trips.  Get a tackle box and fill it:  string and beads, beads that pop together, lacing toys, clothes pins, small objects to pick up, large nuts and bolts, putty, small dolls with clothes, mini markers and mini coloring pages, etc.
• Cutting
  • Snip-it!™ (as seen on Fox News) is not only a great introduction to cutting skills, but lots of fun, too!
  • Roll activity clay into a log and cut it into pieces to make some cookies or meatballs.
  • Use tongs to pick up small items (this requires the same motion and muscles as cutting).
• Pre-writing
  • Try Connect with Color™ for a first introduction to dot-to-dots
  • Shape Builders™ Learn to Draw and Shape Builders™ Stencil Kit -- bring out your budding artist with easy to follow step-by-step drawing designed just for little hands.  

If you feel your child is ready to start writing letters (see Is My Child Ready to Write? on mead.com), start good habits from the start!

• Start with Capital Letter Stories™ to give your child the best introduction to learning and remembering how to form capital letters with fun stories and colorful pages.
• After capital letters, try Number Stories™ for a great start to forming numbers and early math skills.
• Multi-sensory letter fun!  Remember, to encourage proper letter formation.
  • Make a rainbow letter with sidewalk chalk.  Write it once, then trace it again and again with different colors!
  • Draw letters in the sandbox with a stick.
  • Paint with water or an ice cube on the sidewalk. 
  • Write letters correctly in finger-paint or shaving cream.
  • Roll activity clay into "snakes" and then form the snakes into letters.

Try these activities and you'll have so much fun together.  You and your child won't even know you are strengthening his/her fine motor skills for ultimate school success!

Happy Writing!

Toni M. Schulken, MS, OTR/L

Toni Schulken Recommends...

GO




GO




GO



GO