50 Free Fine Motor Activity Ideas for Children Ages 3-6
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Do you need some fine motor activity ideas for preschoolers? Today I have 50 fine motor activity ideas for children for ages 3-6. There's also a free printable download, so keep scrolling to get your copy.
As children develop, their fine motor skills become more refined and perfected. By the time they hit age 3, their hand grasp on writing utensils is developing, their pre-writing lines and strokes start to develop, as well as many other fine motor skills.
50 Fine Motor Activity Ideas for Children Ages 3-6
Bilateral Coordination:
1. Use peg boards
2. Lacing cards
3. Building with Legos®
4. Tear lettuce into pieces for a salad
5. Tear construction paper for a collage
6. Peeling stickers
7. Spread icing on cookies or cupcakes
8. Use both arms to twirl streamers
9. Making bead necklaces or bracelets
10. Putting up to 12 piece puzzles together
Scissor Skills
11. Cut straws into 3rds and use to make a necklace
12. Complete 4-6 turn mazes
13. Cut out circle, triangle, and square shapes
14. Cut out clothes for stick people with craft sticks
15. Folding paper into fourths
16. Cutting with crinkle cut or design scissors
17. Threading Buttons
18. Cut out colored lines and make a rainbow
19. Cutting yarn
20. Complete a cutting activity book
Pre-Writing Skills
21. Use clothespins to pick up objects
22. Pinch fruit loops and slide over toothpicks
23. Form letters with wiki stix
24. Push beads onto pipe cleaners
25. Form lines and shapes with pipe cleaners
26. Use fine motor tweezers or tongs to pick up objects
27. Trace letters in shaving cream
28. Trace sandpaper letters
29. Use letter stamps to form their name
30. String letter beads on string to form their name
Fine Motor Control
31. Use a hole punch to cut out designs
32. Button or unbutton large buttons on clothing or button board
33. Drawing a person with at least 6 body parts included
34. Learn to tie their shoes
35. Build complex shapes (towers, bridges, pyramids, etc) with blocks
36. Screwing various size lids onto containers
37. Practice coloring within the lines
38. Tracing around their own hand with a pencil or crayon
39. Reeling a fishing pole.
40. Simple food preparation (measuring, stirring, cutting soft items with a butter knife)
Sensory Activities
41. Play with sensory bins
42. Finger painting coloring pages or a picture
43. Popping large bubble wrap
45. Playing with bread dough
46. Planting flowers or plants in a garden
47. Drawing in sand
48. Washing dishes
49. Drawing or tracing in couscous, rice, lentils etc.
50. Playing with musical instruments (drum, piano, violin, recorder, etc)
Fine Motor Activity Ideas for Ages 3-6 FREE PRINTABLE
If you would like to get this free download, enter your e-mail address below and click the green “DOWNLOAD” button. You will need to check your e-mail to confirm your subscription (double check your spam folder!). Once you confirm using the link provided in your e-mail, the download will automatically be sent to your computer. Double check your “downloads folder” and save it to your computer for future reference!
For even more detailed information on fine motor development and how you can help support fine motor skills with your child or student, check out my book Basics of Fine Motor Skills.
Heather Greutman, COTA
Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with experience in school-based OT services for preschool through high school. She uses her background to share child development tips, tools, and strategies for parents, educators, and therapists. She is the author of many ebooks including The Basics of Fine Motor Skills, and Basics of Pre-Writing Skills, and co-author of Sensory Processing Explained: A Handbook for Parents and Educators.
This is a great subscriber freebie! Looks like it’s full of useful information. Thanks for linking it up at After School!
What a generous freebie to offer new subscribers!
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I subscribed to your posts but it never sent me a thank you page to download the fine motor activities.
Hi Amber, You should have received a second e-mail with links to all the downloads. Double check your spam folder to make sure it didn’t go there. Let me know if you still didn’t receive it!
~ Heather