Fine motor skills involve the movement of the wrist/hand/fingers and are produced by many small muscles within the hands as well as the forearm for wrist movement. Coordinated movements of the fingers and hands along with visual attention from our eyes help us to complete many fine motor activities. Those activities range from feeding and dressing ourselves to playing games and handwriting. Other school related tasks that require fine motor skills include coloring, cutting with scissors, and using a computer keyboard. Please refer to the list and references below to find suggestions of fine motor tasks.

Straws: Can be bent in half and used as tweezers to pick up cotton balls or small balls of crumbled newspaper (tearing and crumbling newspaper is a great bilateral hand task) ***wrap rubber bands around tip of straw to increase ability to pick up items (works on tripod grasp skill=pencil grasp)

Rubber bands: Use bilateral hands to place rubber bands on cups/containers size depends on size of rubber band. Increase challenge by timing to see how many can be placed within 30 sec./1 min. (works on bilateral hand coordination, strengthening hands)

Stringing items: Can use shoe lace, yarn, string, pipe cleaner to string beads, pasta, cheerios (works on bilateral hand coordination, eye-hand coordination)

Clothes pins/bag clips: Pinch and place pins or clips on boxes/bowls etc. (hand strengthening, color matching if applicable)

Play Dough: Can be used in a variety of ways, use bilateral hands to roll it into a long "snake" then pinch it by taking turns using each finger opposing the thumb (finger opposition skill), hide objects inside and try to find them, cut the putty with a plastic knife or scissors, write or trace letters on it

Please use the links below to find additional ideas and resources for fine motor skills.

http://mamaot.com/fine-motor-activities-using-household-items/

http://mamaot.com/rainbow-fine-motor-printables/

https://handsonaswegrow.com/objects-fine-motor-skills/

Preschoolers: Links to guide parents through activities/tasks to be done at home.

Pipe cleaners/colander: Thread pipe cleaners through holes of colander (works on eye-hand coordination)

Sponges: Cut sponges into various shapes then have your child dip them into paints to make a picture

https://funlearningforkids.com/favorite-fine-motor-activities-preschoolers

Below is a free site that is divided by grade levels for additional suggestions:

https://www.abcya.com/