7 Materials to Strengthen Fine Motor Skills

Recently, I wrote a post about the decline of the quality of handwriting in students today. You can read that one here. In it, I mention that students need strong fine motor skills to be able to hold and write with a pencil correctly. I want to elaborate on that today.

Children start developing fine motor skills from a very young age. The baby who is beginning to pick up rattles is already beginning to use and strengthen their fine motor skills. What are fine motor skills you may ask? In case you are unsure or just need a reminder fine motor skills are, “the ability to make movements using the small muscles in our hands and wrists” (Belsky, n.d.).

When most children start school, they have already been working on developing their fine motor skills. However, as we know children develop at different rates and some children may either have a lack of practice using these skills or just develop them a little slower. We can help students strengthen their fine motor skills by including using them during other activities. That way we don’t have to add something else to an already busy day.

Here are some ways to include fine motor skills for reading and math activities in your classroom.

Material	Reading	Math
1. Playdough	-counting sounds/syllables in a word by creating dough balls and smushing them -building letters/words	-use as a manipulative for adding/subtracting (here’s a free one from 123homeschool4me) -play math games
2. Hole punchers (regular or craft)	-letter matching strips (from school time snippets for free) -punch the amount of sounds/syllables heard	-counting strips (punch the number shown) Another free one from 123homeschool4me -patterns
3. Beads and pipecleaners	-string letter beads on a pipecleaner to build words -story bead bracelets (here are a couple from Dr. Jean) -counting sounds/syllables in a word (check this out from ateachableteacher)	-use as a manipulative for adding/subtracting (number racks-see the math learning center) -patterns
4. Legos	-counting sounds/syllables in a word (here is an example from thisReadingmama) -building letters (here are the cards for free from wildflowerramblings) -write a letter or word on individual legos and put together to make words/sentences	-building towers to match a number or for comparing heights -color/size matching or sorting -patterns
5. Q-tips	-dab paint with them to form letters/words	-dab paint to add numbers -patterns
6. Tweezers/Tongs	-moving objects to count sounds/syllables	-count out objects/take away objects ex. pom-poms
7. Scissors	-any cut and paste reading worksheet	-any cut and paste math worksheet

By adding some or all of these activities in your classroom, your students fine motor skills will improve. Once your students’ fine motor skills are strengthened, your students’ handwriting should improve because they will better be able to hold a pencil and put the correct amount of pressure on it required for writing legibly.

Let me know what activities you try in the comments or add some of your own! I look forward to reading them!