School Strategies
Ideas teachers can use to support student achievement in the classroom,
hallways, cafeteria, restroom, P.E. and on the playground!
Strategies for Fine Motor Skills
Pick an item, choose what the student will do with it (Action), try one of the containers
that work best with your activity.
Item
Beads
Beans
Nuts & bolts
Paper clips
Coins
Poker chips
Macaroni
Small tiles (Scrabble®)
Small cards
Small picture cards
Small ABC card
Small word cards
Action
Pick-up
Sort
Place onto
Put into
Put together
String
Stack
Sequence
Sequence pictures
Sequence or sort letters
Container Suggestions
Coffee can with slit on top
Small plastic container
Plastic bottles
Small box with slit or hole
Shoe box with small hole
Muffin tin
Piggy Bank
Tiles or cards on Scrabble® tray
Use tongs, a strawberry huller, or tweezers with these items!
Item
Beads
Beans
Macaroni
Craft puff balls
Cotton balls
Varied small items
Snack food (use clean
tongs)
Gummy candy (use clean
tongs)
Tool
Use tongs
Tweezers
Strawberry huller
Sugar tongs
Activity
Sort
Place onto
Put into
Line up
Sequence
Put onto a glue area of craft
Put food into bowl, muffin tin, small
plate, napkin, or bag for snack
Copyright © 2011, Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists in the Region 4 Education Service Center area schools. Reproduction of all or portions of
this series must include copyright statement.
Every day materials that can help develop fine motor skills.
Item
Bubble wrap
Newspaper, magazine pages, tissue
paper, recycled paper
Newspaper or magazine pages
Zippered bags, mesh bags can
often be found at the dollar store
Hole punch, or craft punch
Straws
Egg shells, food coloring
Table, paper, tape
Large paper
Chocolate chip cookies &
toothpicks
Rocks, gold paint, aluminum pie
pans, and sand
Aluminum foil, small food pieces or
pretend nuts
Action
Pop bubbles by pinching or isolate a finger to pop by
poking at the bubble
Tear paper into strips or squares
Crunch pieces of paper into balls
Put students favorite items in the bag, this may
motivate them to open/close bag often
Use hole punched paper as animal “feed”, mosaics, or
in crafts.
String straws cut into pieces (nice cutting activity).
Spray them with a mixture of bleach and water to kill
any germs, then let dry. Crush the egg shells and add
different colors of food coloring. When the shells
are the color you desire, take them out of the food
coloring and let dry. Have the children use the
colored egg shells to create a beautiful collage!
Have the kids draw shapes or pictures on the floor,
under a table (tape paper to the bottom of the table).
This promotes strengthening (proximal to distal) to
prepare them for writing.
Get sheets of paper (approximately 4 feet) and have
the child sit on a “X” at the edge of the paper. Have
the children draw their own rainbow. This is a good
“crossing midline activity”.
Give the children small chocolate chip cookies and
toothpicks and have them try to pick out the chips
with the toothpicks very gently, just like a
paleontologist would when digging for bones.
Paint a handful of rocks with gold paint and mix them
with sand in the sensory table. Add enough water to
cover the sand, resembling a stream bed. Give
children aluminum pie plates and allow them to swish
the water/sand mixture in a circular motion. The
heavier "gold nuggets" will remain in the bottom of
the pan.
Feed the Squirrels (your students): Pre make some
foil wrapped surprises for your "squirrels" to find and
Copyright © 2011, Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists in the Region 4 Education Service Center area schools. Reproduction of all or portions of
this series must include copyright statement.
Aluminum foil and cardboard
Peanut butter, powdered milk, and
honey, or
Peanut butter, cocoa, and
powdered sugar
Whipped cream
Mud
eat - use real nuts or use marshmallows,other treat or
pretend food - hide the foil wrapped treats around
the room. Children pretend to be squirrels - and
scamper around finding the treats, unwrapping the
tin-foil like a squirrel getting the nut out of its shell.
Make horse shoes: Cut several horse shoe shapes
from sturdy cardboard. Allow children to trace
around the shape on heavy paper and cut out. Have
aluminum foil strips ready for them to wrap around
their cut out (you may want to secure with a bit of
glue on the edges); they can even play a game of horse
shoes, indoors or out, with their project.
Mix the three ingredients until slightly firm and not
too sticky. Students can mix it in a sturdy Ziploc®
bag. When ready, pinch off small pieces and roll into
balls. This can be animal or pet “food”. Option: roll the
balls in powdered sugar, shaking off excess.
Finger paint on blue construction paper when dry it
makes pretty clouds
Finger paint with mud (with a little glue mixed in to
keep from cracking when dry)
These games and toys engage students in using their fine motor skills during play.
Toy
Lite-Brite®
Wikki Sticks®
Clay or Playdough®
Lacing Cards
Puzzles
Operation®
Games with small pieces
Sand toys
Water toys
Bubble blower
Sidewalk chalk
Finger Paints
Beads for stringing
Fine Motor Skill
Pushing lite-brite pieces into the grid and paper
Bending, folding, manipulating the wikki stick
Pinch, making rolls and balls, cut with plastic knife, or, hide small
items in the dough for children to find
Pinch string, and coordinated movement with card & string with
two hands
Hand/finger manipulation
Using tweezers with small pieces
Pinch, grasp, release
Using hand strength and manipulation
Manipulating with hands, squirt toys are extra beneficial
Holding wand, dipping into bottle, popping bubbles with finger
Pre-writing skill
Finger manipulation
Pinch used on beads and string, coordinated movement with bead
and string with two hands
Copyright © 2011, Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists in the Region 4 Education Service Center area schools. Reproduction of all or portions of
this series must include copyright statement.