21 Fun Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers & Preschoolers (2024)

FAQs

What is an example of a fine motor activity a preschooler can accomplish? ›

Play-dough and putty

They can also help improve a child's fine motor skills. Encourage your child to squeeze, stretch, pinch and roll “snakes” or “worms” with the play clay. You can even have your child try to cut the play-dough with scissors.

For example, fine motor skills are needed for things like self-feeding, dressing and undressing, grooming/bathing, toothbrushing, writing, and even texting.

Provide interesting experiences which help children practice fine motor skills. Cooking, gardening, sewing, fixing and making things are all good examples of activities that involve using tools and small movements with accuracy and precision.

Suggested objects to help develop fine motor skills at 3 to 4 years: Bricks (more complex/interlocking) Early roleplay (dressing and undressing dolls, food play with plastic cutlery and a variety of cutters, washing dolls' clothes and pegging them out to dry, or doctors and builders' tools)

What are Fine Motor skills? Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscle of the hands, commonly in activities like using pencils, scissors, construction with lego or duplo, doing up buttons and opening lunch boxes.

Is coloring a fine motor skill? ›

Manipulating crayons improves a child's dexterity and fine motor skills. Coloring improves hand-eye coordination, which is essential in learning to write letters. Kids learn about force with crayons. A mark can be light or very dark depending on the amount of pressure they use when they draw.

Stacking blocks or building blocks is a fine motor skill; when children are doing this, they are developing and refining their skills and senses. If you are able to add different colors, this is a good way to add extra development to their activity and skills.

In a Montessori classroom, fine motor skills are important for the development of hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity. Activities such as the knobbed cylinders, bead stringing, and pouring exercises help children refine their ability to manipulate objects with precision.

Between the age of 1 and 2 years old your child will be getting better at using those little hands and fingers to stack things and manipulate objects using both hands in a coordinated way. Encourage two-handed activities to help your toddler practice these fine motor skills.

At age 3, children are developing fine motor control: they're more able to move their fingers independently, using them in more complex tasks such as holding writing utensils like an adult, cutting with scissors and making more complex and precise drawings.

There are lots of activities that can increase muscle strength and coordination, preparing children for more advanced skills, from writing with a pencil, using a computer mouse, or playing a musical instrument.