Fine motor skills are the ability to use our hands and wrists to complete tasks. Strengthening these muscles is important for young kids because they directly tie into holding a pencil, drawing pictures, using scissors, and typing on a keyboard. Below are some fun ways to help work on fine motor skills and muscle strength. Even older children will benefit from and enjoy these play based activities with a Halloween twist!
Witch Haircut
Grab an old piece of cardboard and draw a witch face on it. Tie on some long pieces of yarn and let your kids give the witch a haircut. Be prepared to tie on more hair again and again because this one is always a hit!
Spider Rescue
Here you will use painter's tape to tape plastic spiders to the wall. Have your child peel off the tape to "rescue" each spider. If you want to add a little challenge for older siblings who might want to play, have them count how many spiders were caught in each color of tape and how many spiders there were altogether!
Scissor Spiders by @chasing50toes
@chasing50toes shared this fun scissor activity on their Instagram account. Take a piece of white construction paper and draw different types of "web" lines (wavy, zig zag, straight, etc). Then draw a spider at the end of each line. Have your child cut along the web line and stop when they reach the spider at the other end.
Witch's Broom
Take a pipe cleaner and tie some pieces of yarn at the bottom of one end to make the bristles of the broom. Then give your child some pony beads to string on the "handle" of the broom. They can string the beads however they want or you can challenge them to make a pattern with the different colors.
Pumpkin Tape Balance
For this activity you will put one piece of tape sticky side down going across two small pumpkins. Then give your child some small Halloween erasers to balance on the piece of tape. These are a cute eraser option (linked here) but are not the ones pictured. You can add a challenge by counting the erasers or making a pattern.
Playdough Costume
Playdough is such a great tool for strengthening kid's hand muscles and most kids love to play with it. For this activity you will give your child a variety of colors of playdough and whatever little trinkets you have around the house such as buttons, gems, feathers, etc. Let your child use their imagination to create all different kinds of Halloween costumes out of the playdough and trinkets.
Writing Tray
This is a combination of sensory and fine motor and will be a hit with your kids! You will color salt orange (full directions linked here) and let it fully dry. Then pour it into a tray that has sides and let your child practice writing their letters, name, sight words, etc. Some kids prefer to write holding a little tool (pictured below) and others just like to use their finger. After some letter work let them have a chance to free draw too. It's a really calming activity.
Play at Home Preschool Unit: Halloween
This downloadable unit contains 3 weeks (15 days) of play-based and fun preschool (and beyond) activities to play and learn at home or school. The units come with weekly overviews, suggested books, supply lists, and daily lesson plans. This is a 39 page digital download and its only $6!
Fine motor skills are fun and beneficial for all kids, not just your littlest ones. We hope you try out a few of these activities to spend some time together with your kids this week. Have fun playing and learning!
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