Fine Motor Skills Activities for Preschoolers

Here are some basic activities for kids that should be doing as often as possible to ensure they develop their fine motor skills. While there are endless activity ideas on Pinterest and Google for really creative fine motor activities, you don’t need fancy gadgets. The most common and easiest activities are usually the most effective ones. Remember – the activity should focus on the process, not the product, to have a positive impact on development and creativity. e.g. free drawing is far better than using a colouring book.

1. Drawing. Process art activities are one of the best ways to develop fine motor skills. Provide your child with daily opportunities to be creative, by using different materials and mediums. Children should be drawing every day without fail. They want to draw and create in nature. Use the opportunity to introduce different mediums, such as:

• Drawing with wax crayons of different sizes and thicknesses (regular as well as jumbo, triangular crayons for little fingers)
• Drawing with oil pastels, coloured pencils, led pencils, pens, washable markers and highlighters.
• Drawing on a board with chalk or on the pavement outside with chalk (use large sidewalk chalk and thin chalk).

2. Painting. Painting is another favourite for all children. The messier the activity the better! There are many different ways to paint:

• Paint on paper with different sized brushes, sitting down as well as standing up and painting at an easel
• Use finger paint –  experiment with making patterns and imprints with the fingers.
• Paint with leaves, twigs or other natural materials.
• Add dishwashing liquid to the paint and blow bubbles, then catch the bubbles on the paper.
• Use different types of paint – e.g. watercolours and tempera paints.

3. Cutting and Tearing

Cutting is an important skill that should be practised regularly. With time, children learn to hold a pair of scissors properly and hold the paper with their other hand, controlling the paper as they cut. Demonstrate the correct grip, and help correct it when necessary. Cutting activities include:

• Cutting paper without lines – cutting freely
• Cutting along lines – e.g. straight lines, wavy lines
• Cutting out shapes – e.g squares, triangles, circles
• Cutting out pictures along the lines

Tearing is an excellent activity for developing the finger muscles. At first, the pieces will be large and random but eventually, your child will have the control to tear small pieces of paper into the sizes they want.

• Let your toddler or preschooler (even your baby) tear paper freely and get used to controlling it with their fingers.
• Make a collage with coloured paper or magazines and tear pieces of paper to paste onto the picture.
• Make different coloured confetti by tearing little papers and separating them according to colour.
• Tear different materials – newspaper, paper, magazine paper, cardboard, tissue paper, etc.

4. Pasting. Children need time to learn how to apply the correct amount of glue to something (whether liquid or a stick), how to paste it exactly where they want it to go, paste it straight, etc.

• Use liquid glue (especially for younger children) and let them get their fingers in there! Many children struggle to have their hands get dirty in the sandpit or with glue and paint. Expose them early.
• Stick random paper tearings or cuttings with craft glue.
• Construct with paper and boxes and use liquid glue. Encourage them to persist when trying to get something to stick together. Take out rolls of tape and let them experiment with taping things together.

5. Playdough. Children love playing with playdough. It was my personal favourite in the classroom, and I had it out every morning. Not only does playdough strengthen the fingers and develop motor control, but it also stimulates creativity, planning and thinking skills.

• Allow lots of time for free play with playdough, without any cutters.
• At other times, provide cookie cutters, tools, etc.
• Encourage your child to find their own items to use with playdough (that are not part of a set), such as cups from the kitchen.

Use toys to go along with their playdough creations (such as dinosaurs on their playdough mountain) and encourage some fantasy play at the same time. Next time they can make the dinosaur out of playdough as well. This is also a highly therapeutic and relaxing activity. Children really should have daily opportunities to play with dough.

Works Cited

Gibbs, Marianne. “Get a Grip on Fine Motor Development.” Community Playthings, 18 February 2020, https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2020/Get-a-Grip-on-Fine-Motor-Development. Accessed 15 September 2022.

Mcilroy, Tanja. “A Guide to Fine Motor Skills in Early Childhood.” Empowered Parents, 19 August 2022, https://empoweredparents.co/fine-motor-skills-for-preschoolers/. Accessed 15 September 2022.