fine motor
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Pumpkin Fine Motor Activity
If you’re stuck in a bit of a fine motor rut, this activity will shake things up a bit. These cute yarn pumpkins are super easy to make, meaning every child can feel successful with this craft. To make this fall fine motor project you’ll need 3 simple supplies; cardboard tubes, yarn, and felt. Start by cutting your cardboard tubes down to the height you want your pumpkins to be. I was able to get two tall pumpkins by cutting a toilet paper tube in half. You’ll wrap each cardboard tube piece with yarn, passing the yarn through the middle of the tube and around the outside. It helps to…
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Preschool Motor Activities with Mini Pumpkins
I just love these little mini pumpkins! They’re absolutely adorable and I can’t resist buying all of them. Luckily they are so handy to use in the classroom, their size makes them perfect for preschoolers. Here is a great list of fine and gross motor activities to do with mini pumpkins.
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Jellybean Relay Races for Preschool
Relay races are a perfect activity for the preschool classroom – they help children practice teamwork, waiting their turn, hand-eye coordination, and motor skills. It’s definitely possible to do the same races over and over throughout the year, switching up the materials to be seasonally appropriate, and children will love it every single time. This can be a wonderful way to assess how these social and motor skills are improving as the children grow. Here are some ideas for using jellybeans in relay races: I’d love to hear about some of your favorite relay races in the classroom!
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Easy Snowball Pompoms
Yarn pompoms are one of my all time favorite crafts, I’ve been making them since I was in elementary school! You can’t deny how much these white poms look like snowballs, which makes them absolutely perfect for this time of year. Yarn pompoms are so easy to make that even young preschoolers can do this with a little help. Follow these steps and make sure to scroll all the way down to see all of the different ways that the finished pompoms can be used in the classroom! You need three simple supplies to make these poms: Start by taking one end of the yearn and wrapping it around the…
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Paper Snowflakes – Elevated!
It’s been COLD here, so I’ve been spending all of my time inside. For me, that always leads to crafting! My daughter wanted to cut paper snowflakes, so we got out the paper and scissors and went to town. I feel in love with a couple of my surprise designs and wanted to take them a little farther. It turned into a fun, calming project that would be great for children of any age, so of course I had to share it here. I started with a simple paper snowflake, here’s one before opening it up – which is always the best part! And the the dramatic reveal of what…
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Fall Leaf Mosaics
It’s been a strange fall season so far – it hasn’t felt much like fall weather-wise, but I’m still yearning for all of the coziness and autumn colors. I’ve got a perfect fall preschool art project for you today! These mosaics require multiple steps (which mean that they can be on your lesson plans for a few days) and they target fine motor skills, sorting and categorizing, planning and execution, and artistic expression. To create beautiful leaf mosaics your class will first need to collect leaves in a wide variety of colors. This can be done on your program’s playground, on a walk in the neighborhood, a field trip to…
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Autumn Scribble Art
If you’re looking for an easy, low prep, and super powerful art experience this post is for you! Scribble art is developmentally appropriate for every age and can be done with materials that you already have. To make this really fit the fall season I stuck with traditional autumn colors, but it can be done with any color scheme which makes it an experience that you can revisit multiple times throughout the year with very different results each time. You’ll need paper, black markers or crayons, and colored markers or crayons. You can choose to have each child create their own art or use a larger sheet of paper for…
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Fine Motor Activities With Apples
You can’t escape the apple theme this time of year, and for good reason! Apples are a wonderful way to explore the science behind plant life and nutrition, but they can also be a great way to exercise some fine motor skills. Here are some of my favorite ways to use apples: Use a rotating apple peeler (like this one – affiliate link) to encourage wrist movement. It’ll fascinate the children and make quick work of slicing all of those apples so that you can taste them or bake with them. Of course, it does have a sharp blade, so this is a one-on-one activity that should only be done…
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Fine Motor Orange Pomanders
Have you ever made orange pomanders? I remember making these in preschool, but I haven’t seen them around much recently. I always love to refresh some of the activities that left an impression on me personally, so it seems like this one might be a keeper. They are very easy to make, you just need some oranges (any kind will work – even little clementines), whole cloves, something to poke holes with (a toothpick, push pin, screw, etc.), and some twine or ribbon. Start by showing the children how to poke starter holes into the skin of the orange. Once the starter holes have been made it is easy to…
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Activities to do with yarn – Fine Motor
If there is one thing that is universal for every single preschool program it’s that you never seem to have enough materials for all of the activities that you want to do with the children. Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at creating fun experiences with very few supplies. I thought it would be fun to focus on one simple supply and share a ton of easy activities that you can do to meet different learning domains. This week is going to be all about things you can do with yarn. Yarn is the perfect material for practicing fine motor skills because you can use it to string a…
