Erin from @taught.by.tatum gave us some extraordinary fine motor skills information and activities during our #letsgetreadyforkinder segment. Fine motor skills are very important for incoming kindergarteners! Read below to find out ways to help prepare your child!

What are fine motor skills?

Fine motor skills are coordinated movements using the small muscles in the hands and fingers. This includes things like zippering, buttoning, gripping a pencil, using scissors, etc.

Fine motor skills are good for self help and academic reasons.

Jessica touched on this earlier in the #letsgetreadyforkinder segment with self help skills. You can find a list of those skills here.

Hands on academic activities are important to help strengthen those small muscles in the hands and fingers.

Check out some ways to practice fine motor skills below:

• work on having your child grip a pencil correctly while writing
• work on gripping a crayon correctly while coloring
• play with Play-doh
• have your child practice using different types of manipulatives for learning (pom poms, snap cubes, connecting links, tweezers, counting chips, mini erasers)
• practice cutting lines and shapes with kid safe scissors
• practice cut and paste activities
• put together puzzles

Activities & Resources

Click on the pictures to find out more about the fine motor activities!

Math Manipulatives

Please supervise your child while they are using manipulatives or scissors.

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