Preschool Fine Motor Activities

Peg boards
Peg boards are wonderful for fine motor preschool activities. You can also do patterning and sequencing activities with them. They are normally available in different sizes for different ages.

Pencil grips
Working on your preschoolers pencil grip starts to happen about now. They need to hold the pencil in their preferred hand between thumb and fist finger resting on the third.

If this is a problem you can buy a grip at educational toys stores or purchase pencils that are triangular in shape as versus round. Pencil grip can be practiced on worksheets specially designed for tracing and tracking as well as colouring in pages.

Playdough
Playdough is still a wonderful preschool fine motor activity as it continues to build strength in the little muscles in the hands.

The playdough syringes can be used now with ease and this opens a whole lot more fun than just rolling and cutting.

Lacing cardboard outline
Your preschooler can now begin to lace more complicated shapes or you can buy some of the wrap ups for your preschooler to play with. These are great activities for car trips and it is good practice to keep one or two in your car.

Screwing lids
The twisting movement needed to screw bottle lids on and off is necessary for writing in school. Save your cleaned empty bottles and lids in a box for your preschooler to match and screw on and off.

Dressing dolls
Dressing and undressing dolls is also a fine motor activity! Purchase a doll or two for your toddler and some clothes for them to put on and off.

Cutting and sticking
Cutting out pictures from magazines and sticking them onto cardstock in collages is great fun. You can also draw large basic shapes for your preschooler to colour and cut.

Duplo
Purchasing a nice big kit of basic duplo box with a few special pieces in an investment in your child’s future. Duplo is expensive but it provides hours of educational fun. Duplo also creates lots of opportunity for imaginative play.