[sarahz1916]

Hello Ladies!

I am trying to create Fine Motor Center during my Developmental Play time of day. I was hoping you could give me some ideas on what you use or have stored in your Fine Motor Area.

So far, I have beads the children can string on pipecleaner.
All ideas are needed and appreciated!

Thanks!

I am using lacing cards, playdough, tweezers, clothespins. I found books by the Kcrew (kcrew.com) for fine motor activiities too.

Hope that helps,
Kim

[URMySunshine]

Two that come to mind are lacing cards and small Legos. There are also some suggestions on this website: http://www.shrewsbury-ma.gov/schools...ties.html#fine

1. get tweezers and cotton balls pinch from one basket to another
2. get an old eyedropper add water student will pinch slowly and count thr drops of water
3. tongs/various size balls/muffin tin students pinch with tongs to pick up balls to transfer the balls into the muffin tin

[Strawberry_K5]

kcrew.com has great fine motor skill ideas. I made Scribble Art books just yesterday for my kids to work on during literacy centers.

http://jmeacham.com/fine.motor.htm
http://www.thekcrew.net/finemotor.html

[judy]

The children love to use chopsticks to move objects and that really develops their fine motor cordination. My first center is for them to use chopsticks to pick up pennies and place them on alphabet stickers which have been placed inside icecube trays and recognize the letters. They will do this with a teammate who will mark each correct answer on their papers.

[sweetpea]

I used nuts and bolts last year in my class and the kids seem to like it. It definitely keeps them busy for a while.

[gr8ideas]

I read on a Montessori site to use a bath tub shape upside down so the suction cups are facing up. Use an eye dropper with water and carefully fill the suction cups. I found my bath tub shapes at a recent conference from the "Junkman"...you know the guy who has everything for great prices.

[judy]

I haven't heard about the JUNKMAN as yet. Tell me more!

[autumnblossom]

I had a few children at the start of our school year (February) that had poor fine motor skills in grade 1. I used lots of things to try to improve this.
1. Letters cut from magazines put into a container (I used pill boxes) then use tweezers to get the letters out and put them into a matrix a-z. The children could also make words with their letters.
2. Confetti or the holes punched from a hole punch used to paste onto big letters or words. Use tweezers to put confetti onto the letters.
3. peg puzzles
4. Use pegs and write a letter of the alphabet on each peg at the pincher part. Then use popsicle sticks and write on the end of them different spelling patterns. eg. sh, th, ee, ea, ll, etc. The children then use the pegs to make words with the pop sticks. Confused!
5. Tearing activities - Have children tear coloured paper and make a picture with the torn pieces. Like a collage. Have them tear the paper with pinched fingers.
6. Use pipe cleaners and bend them to make letters then make words and paste the pipecleaners onto card.
7. Sorting buttons or beads.
8. I bought lots of letter stickers off ebay and the children used these to spell out their spelling words or words they made with magnetic letters. The motion to get the stickers off the sticker page is the pincher move!
9. Making words with magnetic letters
10. Rolling playdough in their hands to make a long snake and then make letters with them and spell their name or other words
11. Colouring in pictures. We use ones that have a pattern on them like a mosaic, very small spaces hard to stay in the lines. Takes lots of control.

I am not sure what sort of lines you use for handwriting. We use something called dotted thirds. If you know what that is let me know and I will put you onto a good website for handwriting.

I hope these helped. They did for me. Plus patience!!!!