Top 10 Fine Motor Activities For Kindergarteners – 2023 Guide

| Last Updated: June 15, 2022

Kindergarteners are full of imagination and creativity. It’s your job as their teacher to provide them with fun little activities that will help develop their fine motor skills. 

We have come up with a few suggestions of our own that incorporate sensory and analytical skills as well. In many of these activities, you can even join in the fun along with them. 

So, let’s hop right in!

Great Fine Motor Activities For Kindergarten

All these activities are great for fine motor development, which is essential for toddlers and children in their early childhood years. In order to learn how to draw and write in the years to come, they first need to learn the proper grip and holding technique of tools. 

It’s also necessary for independence so children can learn to button their own clothes or tie their own shoes. Some excellent fine motor activities include: 

Fine Motor | Creative | Problem-Solving

1. Help The Spider Motor Activity 

This is one of the all-time-favorite activities among children.

This spider web fine motor activity incorporates three basic tools: a basket, some yarn, and a few spider rings. Take the basket and wrap the yarn around it to form a web-like structure.

Finally, add the spider rings to the bottom, and voila! Just hand over the children some tweezers or cloth pins so they can take the spiders out of the web. 

This activity can range from simple to complex, depending upon how much yarn you weave around the basket. So, you can control its difficulty level depending on the ability of your students. 

It’s a game suitable for children of a number of different ages, from kindergartners to six-year-olds, so the versatility makes this activity quite attractive among teachers. 

Furthermore, it’s a great sensory activity for students to encourage the development of motor skills and induce problem-solving.

For more information on this activity, be sure to check FunLearningForKids.com.

Fine Motor | Language | Creative

2. Clothespin Letter Match 

Match the letters is an activity that uses two components: clothespins and boxes.

Children take the clothespin and clip them onto the box. To stimulate language development and build nerve connections in the brain of students, all four sides of the box are labeled with dot stickers having an alphabet on each. Letters are written on the clothespin as well, so students need to match the letters to their respective dot sticker on the box. 

Teachers could also use colors, numbers, or beginning sounds instead or in addition to letters. This is an excellent fine motor activity for preschool children that can aid in motor skill development and creativity.

For more details on this one, refer to PreKinders.com.

Creative | Fine Motor | Social Skill

3. Sidewalk Chalk Drawing 

What you need for this activity is chalk, brushes, and water.

When your students head outside for recess, you can distribute chalks, particularly stubby ones among them, so they can draw on pavements to challenge their young hands and encourage proper grip. Once they’re done with their work, encourage them to use the water and brush to erase their drawing. 

Teachers can even encourage students to paint designs on the sides of the school because children’s motor skills are developed best when they stand in vertical positions. 

This is an excellent outdoor activity to instill creativity and encourage the development of motor skills among students. It is perfect for children in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten and can really help teachers who want to introduce some mindful activities in class.

For more information on this fine motor activity, be sure to check out onelittleproject.com.

Fine Motor | Creative | Social Skill

4. Sculpt Anything With Playdough

Making playdough sculptures is an amazing fine motor activity for preschoolers. It’s not only fun but also involves fostering a lot of imagination and creativity. 

We all have grown up making and playing with playdough both in classrooms and at home. Today, there are so many types of playdoughs available in so many colors. The sensory and fine motor experience can even be enhanced if you introduce other tools, such as cookie cutters, rollers, and plastic knives, etc. 

Nowadays, there are even little toy presses that squeeze out different shapes, making this activity more interesting. You can even add buttons and beads into the playdough, but you might need to closely supervise if the kids are too small. 

Making your playdough can be a very fun activity as well. The teacher can ask the kids to bring all the materials required and then make it in class together.

For further detail on this motor activity, check out EmpoweredParents.co.  

Fine Motor | Creative | Social Skill

5. Cutting Depot 

For kindergarteners, you can even draw easy shapes for the children to cut, which can further enhance the development of their nerve connections in their brains.

It can also help the child gain confidence in his/her body and will give them the necessary physical exercise they need for a healthy lifestyle. 

This is an extremely easy activity that only requires scissors and scrap paper. If you don’t want things to get messy, you can even get bowls for your students, so they collect the scraps in the bowl while cutting the paper.

This activity is perfect for preschool students to shape their motor skills and explore their senses. 

It’s easy because it takes a few minutes to set up and can keep the students busy for quite some time. It’s important to note that proper supervision is required for this activity.

For further details, have a look at NoTimeForFlashCards.com.

Fine Motor | Creative | Cognitive Skill

6. Fine Motor Development Through Sewing Bin

Grab some buttons, burlap, lace, thick string, and a child’s needle and assemble them all in a small bin.

Now, distribute the bins among students and let them free play! You will need to help the students stripe the thread through the needle and show them how to prevent the thread from sliding out of the needle. 

Also, make sure that the buttons have openings that are big enough for the children’s needle to easily slide through them. Burlap is a good fabric to use for this activity as the holes are visible, so students can easily pass the needle through, which wouldn’t be possible with regular fabric. 

This activity is ideal for preschoolers who are three to five years old and can help invigorate creativity as well as the growth of sensory and cognitive skills.

It can further help students complete more complex learning tasks as time goes by and even promote social interaction as children help each other through the activity.

More details on this activity are available at childhood101.com.

Fine Motor | Math | Social Skill

7. Magic Bean Counting 

This is an inexpensive activity that teachers can fabricate using just egg cartons and dried beans.

The idea is to reinforce the concept of numbers by writing a number inside each hole compartment of the carton, and the students have to add the correct number of beans according to the corresponding number in the hole. 

Teachers must make their students perform this activity by holding a few beans in their palms. Then, students can begin adding the beans to the holes one by one by bringing them up to their fingertips each time. It is necessary to do so to ensure good hand exercises and finger activities among children to develop their fine motor skills. 

This activity is essential for preschool and kindergarten to get them ready for all the handwriting they will have to do in grade school. It will also help them learn the proper gripping technique in terms of holding a pencil, which can be a problem for some students whose motor skills have not been developed properly.

Moreover, it will help with their pre-reading skills and math. For more details, check out OT-Mom-Learning-Activites.com.

Social Skill | Motor Skill | Problem-Solving

8. Sponge Tower 

Sponge Tower is an excellent activity for preschoolers as it really helps them to focus.

For this activity, cut sponges into thirds or fourths. All you have to do is line them up for the students, and they can sort and stack them as they please.

This activity encourages scientific thinking and problem-solving because they have to make sure the tower doesn’t fall. It also invokes creativity as they can build any shape they want, all while stimulating their sense of vision due to the bright-colored sponges. 

It further enhances their motor skills as well as social interactions as this can be made into a group activity. Students further get joy after carefully stacking the pieces up and knocking them down.

Once the tower has been knocked down, children have to collect and assemble the sponge pieces, which is beneficial for stimulating their sense of touch and ability to take responsibility for their actions. 

For further information about this, head on over to toddlerapproved.com.

Creative | Fine Motor | Cognitive Skill

9. Art Class Extravaganza

Painting is a great activity for kids, which aids in developing their hand-eye coordination. Using small tools such as brushes and fingers can help build fine motor skills along with providing an in-depth sensory experience. 

Though this activity is quite common in most preschool art classes, teachers can mix it up by swapping brushes for any other tool. This may include Q-tips, droppers, forks, small pieces of fabric, paper, or even leaves, etc. 

If you want to add more fun, you can also get your students involved in tissue paper art. This will let the kids tear and pinch the tissue paper, making it an incredible process-based activity. 

Art class extravaganza is great for kindergartners and preschoolers. The best part is they would get an opportunity to express themselves in the most creative ways possible. It will let their imaginations go wild.

If you want more information about this fine motor activity, visit FantasticFunAndLearning.com.

Sensory | Fine Motor | Recognition

10. Color Sorting and Matching 

This is a fun little activity involving colors, pins, and elastic (or loom) bands.

You can place the different-colored pins on a corkboard and hand them to the kids along with the loom bands. They can place it on a single pin or even connect two same-colored pins with the same-colored band. 

There is a lot of variation you could come up with as well. This activity will not only develop their fine motor skills but will also incorporate sensory exercises. It will also help develop learning about colors, coordination, and concentration.

This is a great activity for preschoolers and kindergartners. However, it should be played under supervision as both pins, and elastic bands can be hazardous for children. 

If you do not have the supplies required or are not comfortable with involving pins, you can use playdough as an alternative.

Playdough can be cut into small pieces for a similar activity. If you want more information regarding this activity, check out Learning4Kids.net

What Supplies Are Needed For These Activities?

Our list of fine motor activities is geared towards children from ages two to five. For such an age group, you need to make sure the activities you are providing are simple, interesting, and safe. Some basic supplies you’ll be needing to provide these activities to the students are:

1. Paper

2. Clothespin

3. Bowls and boxes

4. Yarn and Fabric

5. Painting supplies

6. Pen and Chalk

7. String

Conclusion

We’ve tried to cover many of the common and uncommon activities you can easily include in your classrooms or homes to enhance kids’ motor activities. You can even tailor and tinker all these to your ideas and preferences. 

More importantly, the activities are not only useful for developing fine motor skills but are incredibly engaging and fun for the kids. Most of the supplies required would be available in most arts and crafts stores. Be sure to check back with us for more interesting and fun ideas.

People Also Ask

Last but not least, be sure to check out the following simple questions and our detailed answers if you want to know more about fine motor activities for kindergarten.

What Are Fine Motor Skills?

Fine motor skills are the coordination and movement of small muscles of the hand and fingers working in synchronization with the eyes. It’s the ability of children to use their muscles in their wrists, hands, and fingers for movement. Children need these skills for small tasks like holding a pencil, wrong, cutting, buttoning up their coat, playing with legos, etc.

Why Are Fine Motor Skills Important?

Fine motor skills are important for kids because they help them in muscle coordination and hence, the control of their hands, wrists, and fingers. These are necessary because they help children perform day-to-day activities, including feeding themselves, writing, cutting, drawing, grasping things, buttoning or zipping their clothes, etc.

How to Improve Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills can be improved by making children perform specific activities targeting those skills in their homes and classrooms. These can include tasks as simple as transferring water to an ice cube tray to complex ones like threading beads into strings.



Hi, I'm Amanda! Welcome to Education Outside! Im passionate about educating young minds and helping parents/teachers by providing easy and effective teaching resources. Check out all of my teaching resources on my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

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