Fine Motor Skills – Get those fingers and hands strong to create proficient writers!

Writing your name and letters is an important kindergarten readiness skill. This fine motor skill is often tricky for a 4- to 5-year-old child; trying to hold a pencil correctly and form the shapes of letters can be tough! One way to help writing become more manageable is to strengthen the finger and hand muscles of the child. There are many fun ways to increase finger and hand strength. Here are some examples of fine motor skill activities I do with my students.

Using tweezers (large plastic ones made for little hands are best) to pick up small objects is a fantastic way to work those fingers! I like to use soft manipulatives like fuzzy pom pom balls to practice this skill. We can also practice sorting and counting skills as the kids place their pom pom balls into groups by color or size.

Working with playdoh or clay is a perfect way to increase finger and hand strength. In my program we use playdoh for many different activities. One way we strengthen our hands and learn letters is to build or create each letter of the alphabet with playdoh.

Bead work is another perfect way to increase finger strength.  Students have to work hard to hold onto the beads and focus intently in order to get their beads onto a pipe cleaner.  I will often use letter beads so while practicing fine motor skills the kids learn letters and learn to build words.

Lastly a super fun way to create stronger fingers is any activity using stickers! Kids love stickers and the process of peeling stickers from a sheet and placing them somewhere carefully and purposefully can really help their fine motor skills. We use sticker activities as another way to work on letter recognition and letter sounds. My students choose a sticker they love and then match it to the letter card that item begins with (i.e., Walrus begins with W). This is one of my students’ favorite activities!