Skill: Finger Strength

Having enough power in the small hand muscles to do things like open a lunchbox, squeeze a glue bottle, or hold a pencil without getting tired.

Cotton Balls Music

Musical Clothespin

Have the children sit in a circle.

Give each child a clothespin and a cotton ball.

Instruct the children to pick up and drop the cotton ball on the lap of the child sitting to their right when the music starts.

When the music stops, each child should pick up his cotton ball using the clothespin and raise their hand.

You can make it into a game by giving an additional cotton ball to a child who raised their hand but did not have a cotton ball caught on his clothespin.

The child with the least number of cotton balls at the end of the game wins.

Game Variations:

  • Instead of using a clothespin, you might want to use tongs or tweezers.
  • If you are playing with 1 child, you may want to just use one cotton ball and see who has it when the music stops.
  • After a few times passing the cotton balls to the right, switch and have the passing go left.

Squeeze this Puffy Paint

Puffy Painting

For this activity, you will need to use flour, salt, and water to add to the puffy paint.

In a mixing bowl mix an equal amount of flour, salt, and water.

Add the paint and mix well.

Fill the squeeze bottle with the paint mixture and let the child squeeze the puffy paint onto cardboard to create a picture.

When dry, the paint becomes hard and shiny.

To work on visual motor skills you can have the child imitate or copy different strokes, shapes or letters.

Nuts and Bolts Tripod Grasp

Activity Steps

  1. Preparation: Place a variety of nuts and bolts on a table or tray. If your child is new to this skill, start with just 2 or 3 large pairs to keep it successful and frustration-free.

  2. Sort and Match: Ask your child to dig through the pile to find a “match” (one nut and one bolt that fit together). This helps them practice visual discrimination to tell the difference between sizes.

  3. The Assembly: Have your child hold the bolt steady in one hand (their “helper hand”). With their dominant hand, encourage them to pick up the nut using their thumb, index, and middle finger. This is the tripod grasp.

  4. Twist and Turn: Ask them to screw the nut onto the bolt. Watch to see if they can use their fingers to rotate the nut rather than moving their whole arm or shoulder.

  5. Unscrew: Once they are all assembled, taking them apart is just as valuable! It uses different muscle groups and extends the play.

Construction Paper Guitar

Using a large piece of cardboard or construction paper, draw the shape of the guitar’s body. If the child is able to draw it by himself, allow him to do so. Otherwise, let the child trace your drawing, using a thick marker.

Ask the child to cut out the shape, following the lines. Depending on the child’s skill level, make the line thicker, and provide support as needed. Once the child cuts out the guitar’s shape out, ask him to draw or trace a circle in the middle of the guitar’s body. You can use a round object to help with drawing an accurate shape.

Instruct the child to cut out the circle, providing support as needed.

Using a single hole puncher, carefully have the child punch three holes on either side of the circle he just cut. Using 3 rubber bands, ask the child to cut through them so they are now one long string.

Instruct the child to thread each rubber band across 2 parallel holes, and tie on each end. Provide support as needed for tying the rubbers in place.

Using another piece of cardboard or construction paper, ask the child to draw or trace a rectangle. Instruct the child to cut it out, and use the glue and tape to attach it to the top part of the guitar’s body. To make the guitar look more life like, ask the child to draw lines continuing from the bands up the stem of the guitar.

Feed Me

In this activity, imagination and creativity are key components.

Begin by drawing the face of a child, a character (clown, robot, princess, etc.), or an animal that the child likes on the shoe box’s cover. Then, cut out the mouth of your figure so that it looks like the figure is opening its mouth. Make sure the opening is big enough so that the child is able to place the small objects through the opening.

Place the cotton balls (see additional ideas for objects below) on the table in front of the child or in a shallow bowl.

Give the tongs to the child and instruct her to hold it with her thumb, pointer, and middle fingers only, while tucking the pinkie and ring fingers into the palm of her hand. Then, ask the child to use the tongs to pick up one object at a time and feed the figure by placing the object into the figure’s open mouth.

This is where creativity comes into play as you can use the child’s imagination to decide what kind of food the cotton balls represent.

If you chose to draw an animal, you can have the cotton balls be the type of food this specific animal eats (i.e. monkey = bananas, dog = bones, bunny = carrots, etc.)

Based on the child’s developmental skills, you can have her draw the figure (can be a very simple figure) and cut the mouth opening independently.

Additional ideas for small objects (depending on the child’s age and abilities): pasta, beads (large and small), beans, cotton swabs, marbles, and Lego