Fun Ideas: Fine Motor Activities

Fun Ideas: Fine Motor Activities

23 July 2024

We can support children with a variety of fun games and activities that can assist with fine motor muscle development. This month, our Educators/Nannies will be receiving a pack of bamboo tongs that can be used in a variety of ways:

  • Head out into nature on a scavenger hunt with the tongs and use these to pick up leaves, shells, sticks and anything else you find. Older children might also hold a kete to collect the resources in one hand, while using the tongs in the other.
  • Play ‘your turn, my turn’ by picking up objects with tongs, like milk bottle tops or buttons (with supervision), and transferring them back and forth. There are two learning opportunities here – practising taking turns and strengthening the small muscles.
  • Use the tongs to hold a small sponge for painting or gluing.
  • Use the tongs to tidy up play spaces – this provides an opportunity for children to also learn about weight and size.
  • If the tongs are kept for kitchen purposes only, then they can be used by tamariki to serve the food at meal/kai times.

Here’s some more ideas to support tamariki of all ages to engage with play to strengthen their fine motor skills:

Infants:

Have a range of small hand-held toys; provide space for infants to lie and roll with interesting items placed close by that they can reach for; have sensory items such as sensory bottles, squishy toys, and fabric or board books; heuristic kete - include items such as spoons, measuring cups, small wooden bowls; paper for scrunching and tearing (with supervision); posting activites.

Toddlers:

Stacking cups; interactive sensory boards with zips, latches, switches etc; playdough/clay; fingerpainting; pegs and basket to help hang artwork up/hang up dolls clothes or clipping together; blocks; picking daisies off the grass; small spray bottles with water; painting using a peg holding a cotton wool ball; wooden puzzles.

Young Children:

Weaving and threading; supervised craft with pens, crayons, paintbrushes, paper clips, hole punch, scissors and rulers; stacking and organising objects; providing time for tamariki to do up zips and buttons on their own clothes; duplo or lego blocks; pipe cleaners that can be threaded, bent, and wound around other items; supervised carpentry table; finger puppets.

 

Fine Motor Skills is linked to the Exploration Mana autūroa Strand of Te Whāriki and includes the following goals and learning outcomes:

Their play is valued as meaningful learning and the importance of spontaneous play is recognised: Playing, imagining, inventing and experimenting | te whakaaro me te tūhurahura i te pūtaiao

They gain confidence in and control of their bodies: Moving confidently and challenging themselves physically | te wero ā-tinana

They learn strategies for active exploration, thinking and reasoning: Using a range of strategies for reasoning and problem solving | te hīraurau hopanga