Let children put together and pull apart plastic building bricks.
Small fingers may struggle with buttons, zippers and shoe-laces. Youngsters can become frustrated as they learn to perform day-to-day tasks that require the use of their fingers. The nimble manipulation of the fingers requires practice, but children can speed up the process of mastering fine motor skills with daily practice in the form of play-time activities.
Sorting Activities
Gather sets of buttons, blocks or other small items and sort them into separate containers. Let children pick up items, one at a time, from the containers and sort them into piles, organized by shape or color.
Provide children with a set of household tweezers and let them pick up cotton balls or small beads with the tweezers and place them in a box.
Cut three different colored pieces of construction paper into 1-inch squares and place the squares in a box. Lay three matching, uncut sheets of paper next to the box and ask children to take the paper squares from the box and place them on top of matching pieces of paper.
Modeling Dough Activity
Let children pinch, pat and mold non-toxic modeling dough into shapes with their fingers. Teach them to transform small pieces of modeling dough into balls by rolling a piece of dough between their palms. Challenge children to stack the balls they make into little snowmen or igloo shaped structures.
Building Brick Activity
Let kids work those finger muscles as they create tall towers by linking together a stack of plastic building bricks. Find plastic bricks in sizes that are suitable for toddlers and preschool aged children. When the children are finished creating their structures, have them pull the pieces apart before they put them away.
Lacing Activity
Entice children to practice fine motor skills with a set of colored lacing cards. Children carefully pull the loose end of a knotted lace through the holes in a picture card. You can make your own set of cards by cutting out the picture from the front of a children's cereal box. Punch holes, 2 inches apart, around the outside of the card. Tie a knot in the end of a long shoelace and thread it through one of the punched holes.
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