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.

Stickplane

Use the wooden sticks or craft sticks as the airplane wings.

Let the child paint or color the sticks with markers and decorate with stickers.

Once sticks are dry, instruct the child to glue on stick at the bottom of the clothespin and one stick at the top.

Using pincer grasp, instruct the child to pinch and open the clothespin while placing the third wing in the middle.

You can have the child glue the middle stick or do not glue the middle wing to allow the child to practice his grasp by removing the middle stick for a two wing airplane model.

Dream Catcher

Help the child to cut out a large circle from the center of the paper plate, leaving about 1-inch from the edge, and creating an outer ring.

Using the hole puncher, ask the child to punch holes around the outer ring you have created.

Give the child a large piece of yarn (you can also use more than one piece of yarn) and ask him to lace the yarn through the holes going diagonally.

Squeeze and Paint

A young child practicing fine motor skills by spraying colorful water onto coffee filters at a sunlit kitchen table.

Fill up the spray bottle with water and food coloring.

Have the child grasp the neck of the spray bottle using his/her little finger, ring finger, and thumb.

Have the child put his/her index finger and middle finger on the trigger.

Ask the child to squeeze the trigger and spray the coffee filter/butcher paper to create a colorful picture.

Matching Mittens

On colorful construction paper or paper with different designs (e.g. scrapbooking paper), draw 8-10 pairs of mittens. You can also let the child trace the shape a few times.

Cut, or allow the child to cut the pairs.

If using blank color construction paper (i.e. with no design), draw different designs on each pair (a pair with straight lines, a pair with circles, a pair with wiggly lines, etc.). You can also write letters or numbers on the different pairs.

Once the mittens are ready, place them on the table and mix them.

Provide the child with clothespins.

Ask the child to find matching mittens and clip them together using the clothespins