Skill: Hand Dexterity

How skillful and quick the fingers are when handling small objects. Good dexterity helps with tying shoes, handling coins, and manipulating fasteners.

Multi Step Shamrock

Print and cut the provided picture below of a shamrock (about 7 inch in size). You will use this as your stencil.

Provide the child with a green or white page of construction paper.

Ask the child to trace the shamrock on his paper using the stencil you made.

Instruct the child to cut out the shamrock.

Allow the child to spread some glue over the shamrock he cut. You may use a paint brush or a craft stick if the child avoids sticky materials.

Place the different manipulatives in front of the child inside a shallow container or a paper plate.

Instruct the child to glue the different objects on the shamrock transferring the objects from the container to his paper using the tweezers or the tongs.

The child may also use his fingers to reinforce pincer grasp and in-hand manipulation skills.

You may also have the child crumble pieces of tissue paper into small ball to work on dexterity and strengthening of the small muscles in your child’s hands.

Spaghetti Stringing

Using a paper cup, a styrofoam plate, or a piece of play dough, instruct the child to place the spaghetti vertically.

Provide the child with cheerios or beads and have him string the small objects onto the spaghetti.

If using different color beads or cheerios, you can have the child either sort the items into the different color groups or work on patterns (e.g. yellow-red-yellow-red…)

Paper Fish

Prepare Ahead: 
– Trace a triangle shape from the edge of the paper plate towards the middle part of the plate.
– On the construction paper, draw 2 ovals and one triangle.

If the child you work with has higher skills and can trace the shapes, let him complete this step independently.

Ask the child to first cut out all the shapes from the construction paper and the triangle on the paper plate. the triangle on the paper plate will be the mouth.

Once the shapes are cut out, ask the child to use the triangle as the tail and glue it on the back of the paper plate, on the opposite side of the mouth. Then, use the ovals as the fins and glue one oval at the top and one at the bottom.

Instruct the child to glue the pom-pom as the eye (wiggle eyes or buttons can also be used).

Use the crayons/markers/stickers to decorate the fish.

You can also provide the child with some blue and green construction paper to create an ocean scene