20 Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers Using Things You Already Have
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Keeping preschoolers busy doesn't always have to mean running to the store for another new toy or activity.
As a daycare provider and mom, I've learned that sometimes the simplest activities are the ones that keep kids engaged the longest. Give a preschooler a pair of kitchen tongs and a bowl of random objects, and somehow you've created an activity they love!
And even better, many of these simple activities are also helping children practice important fine motor skills.
Fine motor skills involve the small muscles in the hands, fingers, and wrists. Kids use these skills for everyday tasks like holding a pencil, using scissors, buttoning clothing, opening containers, feeding themselves, and eventually tying their shoes.
Here are 20 easy fine motor activities for preschoolers using things you probably already have around the house!
Safety Note: Many fine motor activities involve small objects that can pose a choking hazard. Always choose materials appropriate for your child's age and developmental level and provide close adult supervision.
1. Transfer Items With Kitchen Tongs
Grab two bowls, a pair of kitchen tongs, and some objects that are easy for your child to pick up.
Kids can transfer blocks, toy food, cotton balls, large pom-poms, or other household items from one container to another.
Opening and closing the tongs gives those little hand muscles quite the workout!
Make it educational: Encourage kids to sort items by color, size, or type as you transfer them.
2. Build With Blocks
Don't underestimate a good old-fashioned pile of blocks!
Picking up, positioning, stacking, and balancing blocks requires kids to use their hands and fingers in all sorts of ways.
Challenge your preschooler to build:
- The tallest tower they can
- A house
- A bridge
- A garage for toy cars
- A wall
- A staircase
Then knock it all down and start again!
3. Tear Paper Into Pieces
Yes, I'm actually suggesting you let your child rip things up! Just make sure they understand it's only okay to do this with approved paper.... (NOT like the time our toddler shredded our TAXES because dad always let him help shred junk papers!)
Give your kids scrap paper, old wrapping paper, tissue paper, or construction paper and let them tear it into pieces.
Tearing paper requires kids to coordinate both hands while using their fingers to grip and pull.
When they're finished, use the pieces to make a collage. It's actually TWO fun activities in one!
4. String Pasta
Have some tube-shaped pasta in the pantry?
Use larger varieties of uncooked pasta and have kids thread the pieces onto a shoelace, pipe cleaner, or piece of string.
You can even color the pasta beforehand and turn it into a pattern activity.
Red, blue, red, blue...what comes next?
Just remember that uncooked pasta pieces can be a choking hazard, so this activity requires appropriate supervision.
5. Peel And Stick Stickers
Sticker activities are SO simple, but peeling a sticker from its backing requires quite a bit of finger control.
Give your child a sheet of stickers and a piece of paper and let them create.
You can also draw circles, letters, numbers, or shapes and have kids place stickers along the lines.
Bonus: Kids usually think stickers are WAY more exciting than practicing pencil control!
6. Make A Clothespin Challenge
If you have spring-style clothespins around the house, clip several around the edge of a cardboard box, bowl, or sturdy paper plate.
Have your child remove them and clip them back on.
Squeezing the clothespins helps strengthen the fingers and hands.
You can also write numbers or colors around the edge and turn it into a matching game.
7. Play With Homemade Play Dough
Play dough is practically a fine motor workout disguised as play!
Kids can:
- Squish it
- Pinch it
- Roll it
- Flatten it
- Pull it apart
- Cut it
- Form shapes
- Roll tiny balls
- Create pretend food
Don't have any play dough?
We've got an easy homemade play dough recipe that uses just flour, salt, warm water, and oil. It takes just a few minutes to make!
8. Scoop And Pour
Set out a couple of containers along with measuring cups, spoons, or scoops.
Depending on where you're playing, kids can scoop and pour water, dry cereal, larger craft materials, or other age-appropriate items.
It's simple, but preschoolers often LOVE transferring things from one container to another.
And yes, they'll probably pour everything into the smallest container possible and then act surprised when it overflows.
9. Sort The Silverware
Here's an activity that can actually help you get a chore done.
When unloading the dishwasher, let your preschooler help sort kid-safe silverware into the appropriate compartments.
Picking up and placing individual utensils encourages hand-eye coordination while sorting provides a simple matching and categorization activity.
(Obviously, remove sharp knives or other unsafe utensils first.)
10. Make A Paper Chain
Cut strips of paper and help your child turn them into a chain.
Older preschoolers can practice using glue or tape to connect each loop. Kids can alternate colors to create patterns or count how many links they've added.
You can even make a countdown chain for a birthday, holiday, vacation, or other exciting event.
11. Use A Spray Bottle
Fill a clean spray bottle with water and head outside!
Kids can spray:
- Sidewalks
- Plants
- Outdoor toys
- The side of the house
- A chalk drawing
Repeatedly squeezing the trigger works the fingers and hands, and they'll just think you're letting them spray water everywhere. It's a win for everyone!
12. Practice Opening And Closing Containers
Gather several clean, empty containers with different types of lids.
Think plastic food containers, reusable bottles, jars with easy-to-turn lids, or other child-safe containers.
Have kids figure out which lid belongs to which container and practice twisting, pushing, pulling, opening, and closing them.
It's a fantastic practical-life activity using items you'd normally toss into a cupboard.
13. Build A Toy Car Wash
Grab some toy cars or trucks, a bowl of soapy water, a sponge or washcloth, and an old toothbrush.
Let kids scrub those vehicles clean!
Squeezing the sponge, gripping the brush, and scrubbing small areas all require hand strength and coordination.
If the weather is nice, this is an especially fun activity to take outside.
14. Pick Up Small Items With Tweezers
If you have child-safe tweezers or larger plastic tweezers, use them for a transfer activity.
Have your preschooler move age-appropriate objects between bowls, muffin tins, or sections of an egg carton.
This is another activity that's easy to turn into color sorting, counting, or matching.
15. Thread Items Onto Pipe Cleaners
Pipe cleaners are often easier for beginners to manipulate than string because they're stiff and hold their shape.
Depending on your child's age, you can thread larger beads, pieces of cut-up straws, or other appropriately sized objects onto them.
Once your child gets the hang of threading, introduce simple patterns.
16. Crumple Paper
Here's another great use for scrap paper!
Have kids tear paper into pieces and then use one hand to squeeze each piece into a little ball.
Once you've accumulated a pile, use the paper balls for a craft, sort them by color, or toss them into a container for a simple aiming game.
17. Draw With Sidewalk Chalk
Fine motor activities don't have to happen at a table.
Head outside with some sidewalk chalk and let kids DRAW!
Making lines, circles, shapes, letters, roads, people, and giant masterpieces all provide opportunities to practice hand control.
You can also draw a road and bring out the toy cars for another layer of play. And don't forget to create a hop scotch board and burn some energy before heading back inside.
18. Help With Snack Prep
Preschoolers often LOVE helping in the kitchen.
Depending on your child's abilities and with close supervision, let them help with simple jobs such as:
- Peeling a banana
- Pulling grapes from the stem
- Spreading soft ingredients with a child-safe utensil
- Tearing lettuce
- Stirring ingredients
- Pouring pre-measured ingredients
- Using child-safe food preparation tools
Not only are those little hands working, your child is also gaining confidence and practical life skills.
19. Make A Cardboard Box Creation
Before you recycle that delivery box, hand it over to your preschooler!
Add crayons, washable markers, stickers, tape, and other age-appropriate craft supplies.
A box can become a car, house, rocket ship, barn, store, castle, or anything else your child imagines.
Coloring, peeling stickers, manipulating tape, and decorating all encourage fine motor development while leaving plenty of room for creativity.
20. Link, Build, Sort & Create
If you have plastic linking chains, building pieces, connecting toys, or other manipulatives at home, pull them out!
Connecting and separating pieces requires kids to grasp, push, pull, and coordinate both hands.
Let your child decide what to do with them, or add a simple challenge:
Can you make a chain 10 links long?
Can you make a pattern?
Can you sort them by color?
Can you build something using only one color?
This is a perfect example of why I love open-ended materials. One simple item can become a dozen different activities depending on how you present it.
Fine Motor Practice Doesn't Have To Feel Like Work
One of the biggest things I've learned from working with young children is that you don't necessarily need to sit a preschooler down and say, "Today we're working on fine motor skills."
Just let them PLAY!
That's Also Why We Created Bin Busy
This idea of learning through hands-on play is a big part of what inspired Bin Busy. Our Busy Bins give parents, grandparents, daycare providers, preschool teachers, and homeschool families a collection of engaging activities that's ready to pull out when you need it.
For example:
🍕 Bin Busy Making Pizza encourages kids to manipulate felt pizza pieces, create different topping combinations, use the included spatula, and draw or "write" orders on the LCD tablet; all while diving into pretend play.
🌈 Bin Busy Discovering Colors incorporates sorting, matching, transferring, grasping, and manipulating pieces through colorful hands-on activities.
🚜 Bin Busy Hauling Fun lets kids stack and build with foam blocks, connect and separate plastic links, scoop, load, dump, haul, and create with their construction truck.
They're designed to keep little hands BUSY, but all that playing can also provide opportunities to practice skills along the way.
Keep It Simple And Let Them Play
Give kids the materials, provide a little inspiration when they need it, and then see where their imaginations take them.
Because at the end of the day, some of the very best learning happens when kids don't even realize they're learning.
💛 Busy hands and happy hearts; Bin Busy is where the magic starts!