Fun fine motor activities for kids

Here’s Kristina…

I feel so honored to be over here at The Measured Mom today!  Anna has asked me to come share some of our favorite Fine Motor activities, and I have plenty to keep your little and/or older one busy!  Fine motor skills is the coordination of all the small muscles in your body, typically focusing on the hands.  Fine motor skills are the precursor to good handwriting, and you’ll want to strengthen such skills to use many of Anna’s great handwriting printables!

I have loved creating these activities for my kiddos; the looks of deep concentration during each task and upon completion is priceless!  Many daily activities require finger and hand strength, so why not have fun building those skills?  Many of these were created for my 2 year old daughter; however, Big Brother (6) often joined in on the fun, too, and I even made up some fine motor activities just for him!

Here’s some of our favorite fun fine motor activities that your kiddos can enjoy, too!

1. Post It Notes Sudoku: This was a fun activity for my 6 year old; it was a perfect blend of logic and fine motor skills!

2. Color Sorting Tower with Velcro:   I’ve recently become obsessed with Velcro, and this activity was created!  It is jam packed with fine motor skills.  This colorful activity was a hit with ALL three kiddos!

3. Alexander Calder Inspired Art: Create a free-style art piece using beads, pipe cleaners, and styrofoam while learning about the artist Alexander Calder!

4. Clip Sticks Counting Activity for Toddlers: Another favorite material to work on fine motor skills with is clothespins.  It’s an easy set up activity, which makes it perfect for toddlers.

5.  Paint Chip Pick Up: This activity uses tweezers to work on fine motor skills and doubles as a puzzle, too.

6.  Kandinsky Inspired Button Board:  One of my favorite activities was our colorful Kandinsky Button Board.  A great way to reinforce color matching, too!

7.  Yarn Wrapped Rainbow:  This was probably one of our favorite activities to date!  And, it is perfect for Spring.  Who doesn’t love a simple rainbow activity?  My 6 and 2 year old each made one.  I was going to join in the fun, but my 6 year old decided to do mine, too!!

8.  Excavating Playdough Dinosaur Eggs:  You cannot go wrong with play dough!  Digging through play dough is a great fine motor activity– even better when there is a surprise inside!

9.  Dot Sticker Spelling:  To make my 6 year old’s Spelling list not seem so redundant each week, I switched it up and instead of him writing the words out, he had to use dot stickers.  Fine motor skills aren’t just for the young ones.

10.  Bunny Tails Matching:  Dreaming of Spring?  Work on fine motor skills and color matching with this cute activity.  A little preparation was involved on my part, but it was worth it!

11. Clothespin Color Game:  Another way to work on color recognition– play a game!  All you you need are 3 materials to play.  Have fun!

12. Chalk Fire Game:  The kiddos loved this game!  It is a perfect way to add in some sneaky learning and get moving while we were stuck inside.

I hope you enjoyed these activities!  Come on over to School Time Snippets  to explore  even more fine motor activities, Tot School ideas, Five in a Row units, Baby Play ideas, and more!!