Students rely on fine motor skills for so many activities in school and for everyday life. Some children develop them without problem. But some children for a variety of reasons need our intervention and help as they build and strengthen their fingers, hands and wrist.
Having fine motor skills or dexterity means being able to make precise movements using the small muscles in the wrist, hand and fingers. These complex movements help students grip pencils, apply pressure as they write, use scissors, etc…
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Some students will come to us seriously lacking these skills. You may not have thought about it, but even during finger tapping for sounds they hear in words can be difficult for students if they do not have control over their thumb and finger movements.
We have some effective ways for strengthening those wrists, hands and fingers for your students that can make a huge difference in strength and muscle stamina!
Fine Motor For Wrists & Hands – Snakes & Balls!
I am sure each year you have students that have underdeveloped wrist and hand muscles. Give them Play Doh for making snakes and balls. If you have not been doing this at the beginning of the year, you may be surprised to find how many students do not know how to make Play Doh snakes or balls. You make even be wondering why even bother. Why is it important?
To make the snakes and balls, students must press down, applying pressure to change the shape of the Play Doh. If you have a student who cannot apply enough pressure with a pencil or crayon to write, this may help them to strengthen those muscles and develop the coordination needed. This is a great activity during the mornings or for a center. You will most likely need to teach them how to do it and to encourage them to use their strength. 😀
Another easy hand strengthener is to use scrap pieces of paper and have students use one hand to crumple it. Be sure to remind them that this is only for scrap paper though. 😉
And when their hands have gotten a bit stronger, let them use a hand held paper punch! This takes a lot of strength and coordination of muscles to squeeze that tool while also holding the piece of paper. Students find it fun if you have hand held punches with different designs. And let them use different pieces of colored paper too!
Fine Motor for Hands & Fingers – Press & Pinch!
Give students a container of magnetic letters and a pair of tongs for this fine motor and finger dexterity activity. At first they may want to their hand and fingers to manipulate the tongs.
As they build strength, direct them to use their fingers to press the tongs together and not grasp it with their hands.
You can go even a step farther and have them use their thumb and first two fingers to really build strength and fine motor control.
Go smaller too- have them pinch pom poms with the tongs to lift them or just thumb and fingers.
Bubble wrap is a fun material to use for pinching if you can stand the noise! And even with adults, who doesn’t like the pop of the bubble wrap? 🤣
Fine Motor for Fingers – Thumbs & Pointer Fingers!
Now, we are going to bring our focus in a little tighter… gaining control over our fingers and thumbs. And that can be difficult for some students at first, but it is key to develop muscles and control with the thumb and first two fingers, which is the tripod pencil grasp.
One fun way is opening and closing clothes pins. The kind that pinches open and shut. Some of those wooden pins take a bit of strength to use! Have students use them on clip cards, clipping them on pipe cleaners, pick up pom poms, etc… You can gain access to these FREE Clipper Cards by joining our literacy community! Sign up here to download them from our Free Resource Library!
Another great activity for the fingers stringing small beads onto shoelaces or pipe cleaners. Encourage students to only use the tripod pencil grasp (thumb and first two fingers) for picking up and stringing the beads.
Button sorting is also a fun activity and can bring in other skills along with developing fine motor skills. Using the tripod pencil grasp to pick up the buttons and move them (not just slide them over) as they are sorted by color, shape or size works on categorizing too.
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