Finger Strength - Page 22 of 29

Acorn Stamper

Draw an acorn on the construction paper (see images for example) or you can let the child trace an acorn stencil to promote fine motor control and visual-motor skills.

Let the child cut the acorn shape using scissors.

Using a piece of small sponge instruct the child to pinch it and dip it into the paint then stamp and paint the bottom part of the acorn cut out. You can also use q-tips or cotton balls to paint.

Encourage the child to fill in the entire bottom part of the acorn.

Have the child spread glue on the top part of the acorn.

Provide the child with a few dry leaves. Instruct the child to crumble the leaves inside the palm of his hand and then spread them on the glue. This will promote finger strength and finger translation.

You may also use beans to cover the top area of the acorn.

Rainbow of Skills

For this activity, you will need to use a red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and purple construction paper.

Draw a line in the middle of the paper plate and have the child cut along the line you drew. Using the pen, draw 5 curves, spaced 1-inch from each other.

Draw a vertical line on each of the construction papers, making a 1-inch strip. Ask the child to cut along the lines you drew. Before the child tears the strips, ask him to arrange the strips in the correct order of the colors of the rainbow.

Have the child tear each strip into pieces. Encourage him to use both hands and tear the pieces from top to bottom. If you want to work more on scissors skills or visual-motor skills, you can draw lines on the strips (straight, crocked or curved) and have the child cut along the lines you drew.

Finally, have the child glue the small pieces onto the paper plate, using the curved lines you drew to place the colors in the correct order.

Thumb Opposition with Finger Paint

For this activity, you will work on thumb opposition and provide sensory input by using finger paint.

You should use 5 different colors of finger paint.

Pour the different finger paint colors into the paper plate.

Ask the child to dip each finger in each one of the colors. Provide help as needed.

Draw a pattern on the construction paper. For example draw a pattern like a blue dot, a green dot, a red dot, a blue dot, a green dot, a red dot, etc.

Ask the child to follow your pattern using the paint on his/her fingers.

You can also have the child mix the colors and create new colors by touching his/her thumb with any other finger (i.e. thumb to the pointer, thumb to the middle finger, and so on) to work on and promote thumb opposition.

Running Water

Place two containers or buckets on opposite sides of the room or the area you play at.

Fill up one of the containers with water.

You may add food coloring if you wish.

Have the child transfer the water from one container to the other using a squeeze bottle or an eyedropper.

Caterpillar Clips

Place the pompoms on a plate or in a container.

For each clothespin, have the child reach out and pick 5-6 small pompoms, using pincer grasp to pick them up, and place in front of him.

Ask the child to apply glue on the wide part of the clothespin, and use the tweezers to place one pompom at a time on the glue.

While the glue is drying, either draw 2-3 leaves on green construction paper or let the child draw them. Have the child cut out the leaves. If the child has difficulty cutting, we recommend providing thicker lines.

Once the glue is all dry, instruct the child to glue the googly eyes on the first pompom. Make sure to glue on the clothespin side that opens up.

Ask the child to put one caterpillar on each leaf by opening the clothespin with one hand, and holding the leaf with the other hand.