Developing fine motor skills

Fine motor skills are essential for everyday activities, from buttoning a shirt to writing a letter. They involve the coordination of small muscles in the hands and fingers to perform precise movements. Supporting the development of fine motor skills in children is crucial for their overall growth and independence.

Here are some of our favorite, fun fine motor development ideas your kids will love.

Table Of Contents

• Activites supporting fine motor development
• Toothpicks for developing fine motor skills
• Color mixing with playdough
• Outdoors sensory play activites for kids

Activites supporting fine motor development

Examples of fine motor skills development are

• using pencils
• cutting with scissors
• construction with lego or duplo
• sorting buttons like here
• sorting little pieces
• creating with playdough
• using pompoms in play
• and this diy button snake is amazing for fine motor development!

Developing fine motor skills means learning the skill of coordination of the small muscles and the eyes. They mostly refer to the small muscles in the hands and fingers. Kids don't need any sophisticated toys for fine motor skills development.

But it certainly helps if they get some encouragement, or additional opportunities to train their fine motor skills. Here are a few ideas.

Toothpicks for developing fine motor skills

This task will help your toddler in developing fine motor skills and practicing
deep concentration and persistence. But above all, it looks like it's a really engaging activity. M loves it these days.

I hardly ever see a household without an ORDNING flatware caddy from Ikea, meaning it is very likely you have one, too. Find it and get some sticks that fit into the pre-drilled holes: I used toothpicks (even left them wrapped in packaging, to prevent them from just falling through), but you may just as well use anything else that fits through the holes, such as wooden sticks or drinking straws.

Color mixing with playdough

Color mixing with playdough is an excellent activity for fine motor skills development because it involves various actions that require precise hand movements and coordination.

When children use the playdough to mix colors, roll it into balls, or shape it into designs, they engage the muscles in their hands, fingers, and wrists.

These repetitive movements help to strengthen their fine motor skills, including hand-eye coordination, finger dexterity, and grip strength. Plus, they are fun, allowing kids to get creative!

Easy Activities using pompoms - Decorate The Paper Tree

Here's a simple Christmas-themed fine motor activity for toddlers. All you need are several pompoms and a piece of paper and the fun can begin.

You'll need

• a piece of green paper,
• cut it to a triangle so it remotely resembles a fir tree
• and draw circles on it (I should have probably used a stronger marker than the one I did).

I added a cup with pompoms. The number of pompoms matched the number of circles on the green background).

Outdoors sensory play activites for kids

Here are a few ideas for play with natural materials, and sensory play. These activities are easy to set up, and excellent for outdoor play.

It can be as simple as putting various materials in boxes for the toddler to touch and explore. So many options, I've lined up a few for you:

Set up a corn box

You can use ground corn as sensory play:

Or set up a wheat grain box for toddlers to play with:

These are just a few ideas. You can also do a rice sensory bin, corn meal sensory bin, or even flour acivities as sensory play.

If you are looking for more fun kids activities, check out these too:

• Making Bubble Snakes – So Much Fun!
• How to Make Easy Diy Paintbrushes - Quick!
• Diy Paper Bookmarks - Made By Kids!
• Water Walking Experiment For Kids