Tiny Hands, Big Skills: Boosting Fine Motor Development
As an educator, I have always loved creating opportunities for children to develop fine motor skills within the classroom. Recently, a friend reached out, asking for tips on how to support her son's fine motor development at home, and it sparked a wonderful idea for this blog post! Here at Mumma Chelles, we are passionate about helping families, educators, and carers nurture children's growth with simple and meaningful strategies - especially though the every day magic of fine motor play.
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What Exactly are Fine Motor Skills?
Fine motor skills are all about those small, precise movements our hands and fingers make. Think about holding a pencil, zipping up a jacket, or buttoning a shirt - these are all examples of fine motor skills in action. For our little Kindy kids, typically aged 3-5, developing these skills is a huge step towards becoming more independent and ready for school and life's adventures.
The Kindy Year: A Foundation for Future Success
The Kindy year is a special time brimming with growth, discovery, and preparation for the exciting learning journey ahead. It’s a year where children build not just academic readiness, but a whole toolkit of essential life skills. This includes strengthening their fine motor abilities fostering emotional development, building confidence, and deepening connections with others.
The best part? You absolutely don’t need fancy gadgets or expensive toys to support these milestones. Just a few simple, everyday items and playful moments together can make a lasting difference. Here are some of my favourite free (or very low-cost) activities that not only support fine motor development but also create beautiful opportunities for bonding and emotional growth too.
Snip, Snip, Hooray! Cutting and Snipping Fun
Paper Play: Give your child scrap paper, magazines, or junk mail to practice cutting with child-safe scissors. This is a fantastic way to build hand strength and coordination.
Line Following: Draw wavy, zigzag, or straight lines on paper and encourage them to follow along with scissors. These activities are brilliant for developing scissor control, visual tracking, and hand-eye coordination - all essential for early writing skills.
Pinch, Pick, and Thread: Pincer Grip and Hand Strength
Peg Power: Let your little one clip clothes pegs onto cardboard, boxes, or help you hang up socks on a low line. This is a wonderful exercise for strengthening those small hands.
Tweezers and Treasures: Use kitchen tongs, child-safe tweezers, or even just their fingers or fingers to pick up and sort small items like pom-poms, beads, or buttons. Great for fine control and patience!
Sticker Fun: Offer sticker peeling activities. The act of peeling and placing stickers is brilliant for developing fine motor control and concentration.
Threading Magic: Try threading dry pasta (like penne or rigatoni) or large beads onto string or shoelaces. This classic activity is great for hand-eye coordination. I wore many pasta necklaces to the shops for many years. 🥰
Get Creative: Pre-Writing and Drawing Adventures
Outdoor Art: Grab some thick chalk and let them draw on the footpath or a chalk board. Big movements help build foundational strength.
Tracing Fun: Print your child's name or simple shapes and have them trace over them. This helps with letter formation and control. Or buy a simple tracing book.
Free Expression: Encourage them to colour inside shapes or draw freely. It's all about building confidence and control.
Finger Painting: Get messy with finger paints! It's a wonderful sensory experience that also strengthens hand muscles.
Sensory Writing Tray: Fill a tray with salt, sand, or flour and let them write letters or shapes with their finger or a small brush. This is a lovely way to explore pre-writing skills in a tactile way. The Montessori Sand Tray is inexpensive and comes with sand and cards.
Spray Bottle Painting: Provide small spray bottles filled with coloured water and have them spray on paper to make art work for the fridge.
Paint the fence: Give them a paintbrush with a container of water and let them go… you may even get a clean fence out of it. This is great for developing grip strength, dexterity, and control needed for holding pencils and using tools.
️Build and Create: Construction Play
Playdough Power: Make your own playdough (we have a simple recipe in our free resources page) and encourage rolling, pinching, and shaping. This is brilliant for developing hand strength and creativity. Get them to choose the colour of the playdough and make it together. If you are not keen on making your own there are many commercial Playdoughs.
Block Building: Build with blocks, LEGO, or DUPLO. These activities are perfect for strengthening small hand muscles and encouraging problem solving.
Collage Creations: Tear scrap paper and glue it into creative collages. Tearing paper is surprisingly good for hand strength and coordination.
️Growing Independence: Self-Help Skills
Dressing Up: Practice buttoning, zipping, and lacing on their own clothes or dress-up dolls. These practical skills build independence and fine motor coordination.
Kitchen Helpers: Involve them in simple kitchen tasks like stirring, pouring (with supervision), or peeling boiled eggs. Let them help wash fruit and veggies. For older Kindy Kids Safe Knife sets are readily available so they can chop soft fruits like strawberries or bananas, or slice butter for baking (again with supervision).
Washing Wonders: Let them wash toys, clothes and pegs using a sponge to wring and scrub. This builds hand strength and coordination. A small clothes line is also ideal for encouraging imaginative play.
Playful Learning: Games and Movement
Action Songs: Sing songs with hand movements like “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. Use finger puppets for actions! Check out Mumma Chelles’ playlist to get started and look at these Australian Animal Finger Puppets
Board Games & Puzzles: Play simple board games or puzzles that involve turning small pieces. Great for developing fine motor precision and problem-solving. Click here to see some recommended puzzles to start with.
Sensory Art: Let them draw with fingers in shaving cream or paint spread on a table or tray. It's a fun sensory experience that also supports rhythm and emotional regulation.
More Resources to Support Your Little Learner
All of these activities help build coordination, grip strength, and independence — skills your child will use every single day in their life — whether at home, in the classroom, or out in the world. But they also support emotional regulation, rhythm and routine, and social connection — especially when paired with songs and playful interaction.
I went all out and also created the Spotify playlist: “Sing, Move, Grow”, packed with my favourite action songs that support not just motor skills, but language, listening, turn-taking, and emotional expression too. You can Listen to the Playlist: “Sing, Move, Grow” here on Spotify and find the playlist action guide on our free resources page.
To make things even easier, you can also grab your free printable Fine Motor Activity Checklist — perfect for the fridge, home-school space, classroom wall, or sharing with families: Download the Fine Motor Checklist here
Final Thoughts
Every snip, squeeze, and splash your child makes is helping build the strength, confidence, and coordination they’ll use every day. These early skills lay the foundation for writing, dressing themselves, and feeling capable in their Kindy year and beyond. I’d love to hear what’s working for you and your little learners! Check out the Mumma Chelles recommendations and most importantly enjoy the Kindy years.
love,
Chelle 💗
Special Education Complex Supports and Family Support Specialist
