Students who struggle with fine motor activities (cutting,
holding a pencil, etc), often need to build up the small muscles in their
fingers and hands. All of these websites will provide you with some great ideas
that you can do at home with simple things that you probably already have. The
focus is on building those fine muscles so that students can properly learn how
to hold a pencil and write from their wrist, as well as cut with scissors. We
encourage you to work with your child on a few of these each week so that they
can build up their skills to be great writers and crafters this year!!
Pencil
Grip Video: This is a quick video that shows a
simple way to hold a pencil.
**Other tricks that I have seen for holding a
pencil- have them grip a pom pom with his other fingers to occupy them, while
the thumb and index finger are holding a pencil. Or use a rubber band around
the pencil and his hand:
Great
websites for fine motor activities:
Fine
Motor Centers: Many of these involve chopsticks
or tweezers- both are good for developing fine motor muscles. Most involve
products that you can find at home- beads, pom poms, paper strips, pipe
cleaners, etc. These would all be simple to set up for your kinder to do on his
own.
Fine
Motor/Scissor Skills: More ideas for developing fine
motor skills- particularly related to cutting.
Fine
Motor Activities: LOTS of great, and super simple,
fine motor activities! This was the best site that I found!
Name
Game/Fine Motor: This is a simple activity involving
stickers and name practice. You could do this with letters of the alphabet or
word wall words!
Fine Motor
Activities:
Another great site with lots of simple activities involving household objects.
OT Tools: A great
list of tools that you can buy (or even may already have) that help with fine
motor, straight from an occupational therapist!
More Fine Motor
Activities:
A list of 40 simple activities to do at home.
Websites
for cutting activities:
Cutting
Practice: These are good ideas for working on cutting
skills. I would start on bigger paper and gradually move to smaller paper.
Scissors
and Straws: Ideas for how to use scissors to
cut straws and paper to build cutting skills.
Play-Doh
Cutting:
A great idea for improving cutting skills by cutting play-doh!
Cutting
Skills Worksheets:
Links to several cutting worksheets that have a variety of patterns that will
help students practice cutting on a line.
More
Worksheets: More pintables with cutting activities for
young students.
