Here are 100 fine motor things YOU can try at home...
1. Write on a vertical surface (blackboard, grease board, easel, door, wall)
2. Open/close safety pins
3. Spin jacks or play jacks
4. Crumple newspaper with one hand
5. Cat’s cradle
6. Type
7. Play piano
8. Flick small wads of paper with tips of fingers
9. Shuffle cards and deal one at a time, rotate the cards
10. Place a rubber band around the palm and use the fingers to remove the rubber band
11. Buttons
12. Use tweezers to pick up small items like beads
13. Spin a coin on the desktop
14. Flip a coin into the air
15. Shoot marbles
16. Knit or crochet
17. Plastic canvas activities
18. Needlepoint activities
19. Journal writing
20. Tracing
21. Dot-to-dot puzzles
22. Mazes
23. Dice vegetables
24. Pick-up multiple coins using the thumb and index fingers and hold them in the palm
25. Snap
26. Drum fingers to the beat of a song
27. Macramé
28. Sew by hand
29. String art
30. Cut with scissors
31. String beads
32. Jigsaw puzzles
33. Roll flat pieces of clay into small balls using index, middle, and thumb only
34. Bolts and nuts
35. Braid hair or yarn
36. Apply nail polish
37. Nail small nails
38. Wind yarn into a ball
39. Make a rubber band ball
40. Open and close jar lids
41. Knead dough
42. Pull taffy
43. Plastic models (airplanes, ships, cars)
44. Games: Operation, Spiro graph, Battleship, Etch a Sketch, Jenga
45. Play dough
46. Hole punch
47. Wring-out wet sponges
48. Pop packing bubbles
49. Legos
50. Lincoln Logs
51. K’nex
52. Finger puppets
53. Squirt bottles
54. Clothespins
55. Getting coins out of a purse
56. Crumpling paper into small balls to “shoot” into a basket (garbage)
57. Picking-up small objects (paper clips)
58. Moving a nickel from the palm to the fingertips
59. Turning pages in a book
60. Separate playing cards
61. Tinker toys
62. Holding a pen and pushing the cap off with the same hand
63. Rotating a pencil using three fingers
64. Pipe cleaners
65. Tearing paper into small pieces
66. Zip and unzip
67. Brush teeth
68. Open doors
69. Write a note
70. Turn a key in a lock
71. Open a combination lock
72. Video games
73. Tie shoes
74. Lean the ABC’s of sign language
75. Using toothpicks to make designs in Playdough
76. Water plants using spray bottles
77. Shaking dice
78. Cutting a fringe on the edge of construction paper
79. Magna Doodle
80. Rotate Chinese Balls in hand
81. Threading cards
82. Finger painting
83. Lacing shoes
84. Folding paper
85. Origami
86. Cooking activities (stirring batter, moving a rolling pin)
87. Thread macaroni onto a string
88. Perform a “fingerplay” using finger puppets
89. Pulling out pennies, beans, etc. in putty
90. Play checkers
91. Cut fruit
92. Attach clothespins to string to hang pictures
93. Play the guitar
94. Paper punch
95. Use paint brushes and water to paint pictures on the sidewalk
96. Count how many items are in the hands without looking
97. Use the iPad or similar devices with a stylus
98. Put tacks or push pins to outline a picture on a cork board
99. Carry an egg on a spoon
100. use a water dropper to put drops on paper of the sidewalk to make a design
2. Open/close safety pins
3. Spin jacks or play jacks
4. Crumple newspaper with one hand
5. Cat’s cradle
6. Type
7. Play piano
8. Flick small wads of paper with tips of fingers
9. Shuffle cards and deal one at a time, rotate the cards
10. Place a rubber band around the palm and use the fingers to remove the rubber band
11. Buttons
12. Use tweezers to pick up small items like beads
13. Spin a coin on the desktop
14. Flip a coin into the air
15. Shoot marbles
16. Knit or crochet
17. Plastic canvas activities
18. Needlepoint activities
19. Journal writing
20. Tracing
21. Dot-to-dot puzzles
22. Mazes
23. Dice vegetables
24. Pick-up multiple coins using the thumb and index fingers and hold them in the palm
25. Snap
26. Drum fingers to the beat of a song
27. Macramé
28. Sew by hand
29. String art
30. Cut with scissors
31. String beads
32. Jigsaw puzzles
33. Roll flat pieces of clay into small balls using index, middle, and thumb only
34. Bolts and nuts
35. Braid hair or yarn
36. Apply nail polish
37. Nail small nails
38. Wind yarn into a ball
39. Make a rubber band ball
40. Open and close jar lids
41. Knead dough
42. Pull taffy
43. Plastic models (airplanes, ships, cars)
44. Games: Operation, Spiro graph, Battleship, Etch a Sketch, Jenga
45. Play dough
46. Hole punch
47. Wring-out wet sponges
48. Pop packing bubbles
49. Legos
50. Lincoln Logs
51. K’nex
52. Finger puppets
53. Squirt bottles
54. Clothespins
55. Getting coins out of a purse
56. Crumpling paper into small balls to “shoot” into a basket (garbage)
57. Picking-up small objects (paper clips)
58. Moving a nickel from the palm to the fingertips
59. Turning pages in a book
60. Separate playing cards
61. Tinker toys
62. Holding a pen and pushing the cap off with the same hand
63. Rotating a pencil using three fingers
64. Pipe cleaners
65. Tearing paper into small pieces
66. Zip and unzip
67. Brush teeth
68. Open doors
69. Write a note
70. Turn a key in a lock
71. Open a combination lock
72. Video games
73. Tie shoes
74. Lean the ABC’s of sign language
75. Using toothpicks to make designs in Playdough
76. Water plants using spray bottles
77. Shaking dice
78. Cutting a fringe on the edge of construction paper
79. Magna Doodle
80. Rotate Chinese Balls in hand
81. Threading cards
82. Finger painting
83. Lacing shoes
84. Folding paper
85. Origami
86. Cooking activities (stirring batter, moving a rolling pin)
87. Thread macaroni onto a string
88. Perform a “fingerplay” using finger puppets
89. Pulling out pennies, beans, etc. in putty
90. Play checkers
91. Cut fruit
92. Attach clothespins to string to hang pictures
93. Play the guitar
94. Paper punch
95. Use paint brushes and water to paint pictures on the sidewalk
96. Count how many items are in the hands without looking
97. Use the iPad or similar devices with a stylus
98. Put tacks or push pins to outline a picture on a cork board
99. Carry an egg on a spoon
100. use a water dropper to put drops on paper of the sidewalk to make a design
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