The Best Fine Motor Tools for Pre-K and Kindergarten

In a perfect world, all students would come into our classrooms on the first day with strong fine motor skills. These skills should have been developed at home and in their preschool through the exploration and manipulation of toys and fine motor tools meant to strengthen their grip and increase their dexterity.

Unfortunately, for many students entering kindergarten, they lack the strength needed for proper pencil grip and scissor control. This is a growing trend in pre-k and kindergarten classrooms and there are a lot of theories as to what or who to blame. One of the leading theories is that students spend much more time on handheld devices now, and aren’t spending the time outdoors or playing with building and art materials like they used to. Here’s a great article that talks about the current issues with fine motor strength if you would like to read more:

What is Happening to Fine Motor Development

Every year I found myself adding more fine motor skills to our beginning-of-the-year centers to help assist the students who were unable to hold their pencils and scissors properly.

Today I’m going to share my favorite fine motor tools and share with you a simple fine motor activity (with a freebie) that you can easily implement into your beginning-of-the-year centers.

Best Fine Motor Tools

Lakeshore

Lakeshore offers a wide variety of fine motor tools. Here are my favorite Lakeshore tools:

Amazon

Amazon also offers a wide variety of fine motor tools. Here are my favorites from that site:

Fine Motor Tool Variety Pack (set of 4)
Theraputty (5 different strengths)
Plastic Scoops
Silicone Tongs (set of 5)
Scissor Scoopers (set of 4)
Jumbo Tweezers (You can also find these at the Dollar Tree sold individually)

Activities

There are so many activities you can do with these tools. I created this quick freebie that you can do with some manipulatives and a muffin tin from the Dollar Tree.

You can use magnetic or tile letters and numbers and hide them in colored pasta or rice (or any other sensory material). Using one of the tools above, students can find the letters and numbers and put them in the right cup.

For the numbers, you can also use manipulatives (like bear counters) and have the students add the correct number of manipulatives to the cup.

Grab your free copy of this resource just fill out the information below!

Fine Motor Academic Activities

It’s so easy to combine fine motor skills with academic learning! All throughout the year I like to have at least one center that allows students to use fine motor tools while brushing up on their academic skills as well. I use both literacy and math centers as a time to strengthen fine motor skills.

You can learn about how I combine fine motor and academic skills in the linked post. If you’d like to check out my sensory bin literacy and math resource just click on the link below: