Hand Dexterity

Skills targeted: wrist extension, shoulder stability, pincer grasp 

Materials: large piece of paper taped to the wall, small pieces of broken crayons

Description: Children use small pieces of crayons to create a graffiti wall on a large piece of paper taped onto a vertical surface. Paper should be placed so that most students are drawing at eye height or higher.  Let children be creative and watch their creation evolve!

Verbal cues: “pinch the crayon” “draw a picture” “draw up high”

Alternatives:  Teacher could start “theme” of the wall (e.g. draw faces on a bus; create a garden; draw pictures that begin with certain letter sounds etc.) to give children ideas of where to start.  

Skills targeted: pincer grasp, fingertip rotation, learning to separate functions of two sides of the hands (ie. First three fingers = mobility; fourth and fifth fingers = stability)

Materials: squares of tissue paper in a variety of colours, construction paper/cardstock, glue

Description: Children use their first three fingers to roll small balls of tissue paper that can be used decorate a variety of pictures on construction paper.  To encourage students to use their “pencil grasp” fingers to pinch and roll the paper, have them hold a small toy/treasure (lego, bead, pom pom, coin etc.) under their fourth and fifth fingers.

Verbal cues: “Don’t drop the treasure” “Roll a ball with your fingers” 

Alternatives: Children can make a variety of pictures based on themes occurring in the classroom 

Skills targeted:  Open thumb-index webspace, hand strength, pincer grasp, separation of sides of the hand, fingertip translation

Materials: dice, tennis ball with small opening cut into it (hungry head), small objects to “feed” the hungry head.

Description:  Children roll the dice and feed the hungry head the number beads or other small objects rolled on the dice by squeezing the tennis ball to open the mouth.  To encourage students to use their “pencil grasp” fingers to hold the small objects, have them hold a small toy/treasure (lego, bead, pom pom, coin etc.) under their fourth and fifth fingers.

Alternatives: dice could have colours on it and children feed the hungry head matching coloured objects; Children could pick successive objects up one at a time in their fingers and move them into their hands (tucked under 4th/5th fingers) and then move these objects one by one to their fingers to feed the hungry head (fingertip translation)  

Skills targeted: pincer grasp, separation of sides of the hands, bilateral coordination 

Materials: a variety of sizes/shapes/colours of beads, pictures of bead patterns to copy, a variety of types of string (pipe cleaners, string, plastic string). 

Description: Children can work on copying patterns (or creating their own) by stringing a variety of shapes and sizes of beads. To encourage students to use their “pencil grasp” fingers to hold the beads, have them hold a small toy/treasure (lego, bead, pom pom, coin etc.) under their fourth and fifth fingers. 

Verbal cues: “Pinch the bead with your fingers” “Don’t drop the treasure” 

Alternatives: If children have difficulties stringing beads on regular string, try using stiffer plastic string or pipe cleaners.  Children could work on math concepts by rolling a dice and counting the correct number of beads to string. 

Skills targeted: pincer grasp, separation of sides of the hands, dexterity 

Materials: dice, small objects (eg. coins, beads, small erasers, pom poms etc.) 

Description: Children roll the dice to see how many objects they need to pick up.  They need to pick up the objects one at a time in their fingers.  Once the object is in their fingers, children need to place their elbow on the table, show you the object, then move it from their fingertips to their palm under their 4th/5th fingers.  Pick up the next objects, one at a time, trying not to drop the objects tucked under their fingers.  When all the objects are trapped in their hands, see if they can bring them out to their fingertips one at a time to place them back on the table. Ensure children do not trap the object against their bodies while transferring them. Get children to sit on their non-dominant hand so they don’t use this hand to help. With practice, children should be able to move increasingly move objects between their fingers and their palms.  Get them to try and break their previous record! 

Verbal Cues:  “Sit on your other hand”  “Elbow on the table” “Keep your hand away from your body” “Pinch the bead, show me, then hide it in your hand”  

Skills targeted:  pincer grasp, separation of sides of the hand

Materials: variety of colours of small crayons/markers and colouring sheets  

Description: Children should have already had some pre-teaching on how to hold their pencils.  Use consistent language when talking about pencil grasp (ie. Pinch your pencil and put it to bed/lie it down, pretend first three fingers are an alligator mouth and “chomp” the pencil). Have the children lie on the floor for this activity or draw on easel/paper taped to the wall.  Encourage children to colour with as many colours as possible so that they repeatedly pick up their pencils throughout the activity - hopefully using the correct pencil grasp pattern!

Verbal cues: “pinch your pencil” “put it to bed”

Alternatives:  To encourage a three fingered grasp, students could hold a small object beneath their 4th/5th fingers.  See Handwriting Without Tears worksheets as examples.