Many daily activities in the classroom require fine motor skills such as eating, writing and playing with toys. As your students develop these skills, they’ll gain a sense of independence and realize they can take on many new tasks on their own. As a preschool teacher, here’s how you can support the development of your students’ fine motor skills:
- Encourage Finger Painting
Activities like finger painting allow children to experiment with hand and finger movements and learn about the feel of different textures. In addition to developing key fine motor skills, finger painting can help preschoolers learn how colors work and blend together. - Play With Puzzles
Puzzles are great for challenging preschoolers strategic learning skills. While doing a puzzle together, show your students that their eyes, brain and hands must work together to find the right piece. Through this activity, students will learn patience as they use trial and error to fit the pieces together.
- Build With Blocks
As children play with blocks, they’re strengthening their fingers, hands and arms as they reach for, lift and move blocks around. As children are playing with blocks, they’ll also enhance their cognitive and social skills as they work together with others to create a structure.