FREE printable Sequencing worksheets for preschool and kindergarten kids. Includes 15 activities featuring seasonal themes, hygiene such as brushing teeth, washing hands, and fire safety. Great for language and literacy development!
Your baby is growing up quickly and is having a whale of a time making discoveries and exploring new things. Of course, your excitement to knows no bounds. However, for your child to master important motor skills, it’s vital that she has good bilateral coordination.
Use this handy, one-page pencil grasp development handout to share about pencil grasp development with parents, educators, or therapists.
Hand and grip strength is a big contributing factor to functional use. Learn about fun activities, toys, and games for hand strengthening in kids and teens!
Try these hand-eye coordination games and activities with your kids. They are simple and quick to set up and play.
Free printable to play the Hands & Feet Hopscotch Game, at home!
A review of pencil grasp development in children is critical as an Occupational Therapist to understand where the child is in pencil grip development and how to best help them to be successful in writing and eventually holding the pencil in the best way they can. Image retrieved from here Fisted grasp: Reaching/holding items with entire fist. Pinky will be closest to the paper. Pronated grasp: All fingers holding the writing tool, movement comes mostly from elbow at this stage. 4 Finger grasp: Arc begins to form between thumb and index finger. Static Tripod Grasp: Children should be able to copy a diagonal line, a square, a diagonal cross, a circle, a triangle. *Quadrapod grip can happen at this stage with the fourth finger involved. Dynamic Tripod Grasp: Consistent 3 fingers on the writing utensil. "When OTs consider writing as an important early literacy and communication skill in addition to it being a complex fine motor task, their approaches to supporting writing are greatly expanded" (Gerde, 2014). According to Bear, children go through stages of on their way to conventional writing such as scribbling, drawing, scribble writing, letter-like formations (shapes that resemble letters such as /, +, and a triangle). and letters. Ideas/activities to develop and strengthen thumb/finger muscles from Royal Children's Hospital: Note: Have child use thumb and index finger (as well as middle finger if required). Finger games: thumb war, itsy bitsy spider Buttoning clothes Tweezers to pick up small beads or toys--place them into a bowl/container Remove coins one at a time from a bowl Playdough (roll, squeeze, push, poke) Tear up collared paper for a collage Threading beads Manipulating legs Squeezing clothes pins on/off a rim of a basket/bowl Sticker play Spray bottle play with water Citations Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Gerde, H. K., Foster, T. D., & Skibbe, L. E. (2014). Beyond the pencil: expanding the occupational therapists' role in helping young children to develop writing skills. Open Journal of Occuaptional Therapy, 2(1).
Tracing Lines - Worksheets For Little People As your little one learns how to write, tracing lines is a great activity! And there are benefits to it too! Line tracing is one of those activities that develop your child's control of the small muscles in his/ her hands (fine motor skills). Tracing will teach your child to make the precise movements that are necessary for forming letters. Tracing improves hand/eye coordination. Line Tracing By Age Line tracing is predominantly for little ones as they learn how to write. It's therefore perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergartners. Your child's age and
Fine motor skills activities for kids: explore fun games and everyday life activities / Child’s fine motor skills development activities
Hand games are a great way to develop hand-eye coordination and are great bilateral coordination activities! Parents love them, too!
Hand strength is essential in many aspects of life, and many kids come to preschool lacking hand strength. Many teachers and parents struggle to motivate kids to work on developing their hand
Use the free printables and sand to create this simple Fossil Sensory Bin. It's a fun sensory and visual discrimination activity in one!
Activities that develop early math skills are our favourites! We love working on our number recognition, counting skills, subitising and 1:1 correspondence. This “Build a City” activity…
30+ Kindergarten activities for hands-on learning. Inside you will find Kindergarten literacy, math and growth mindset activities for ages 5-7.
Not only will cutting sheets help teach your child how to cut properly, but they offer great practice for cutting a straight line.
Why you need to know what crossing midline is for your child's development! Plus, 6 therapeutic crossing midline activities you can do at home easily.
Tips for teaching scissor skills in your Preschool, Pre-K, or Kindergarten classroom. Tips to help your kids learn how to cut with scissors.
Teaching fractions with hands-on manipulatives and activities helps students develop a conceptual understanding that will endure.
Wondering why your hands look old and what you can do to make them look great? Here are 7 reasons why your hands look old & tips to fix them.
FREE printable game for toddlers and preschoolers to match pets with their cages or homes. Great for language development and learning about animals.
Find 5 number sense activities for kindergarten that build a solid foundation of math skills including counting, ordering, comparing & more.
This pre-writing practice worksheet allows kids to build their handwriting skills.
Developing empathy in children has never been more fun than with this collection of 19 simple empathy activities for kids!
We're always on the lookout for cool toys that make it fun to work on important developmental skills with kids. Ever heard of Squigz? Learn more here!
Here are 22 circle time ideas for toddlers and preschoolers that are easy, fun, and perfect for social development!
Easy firefly paper lantern craft for kids with printable template. Make a classic paper lantern decorated with paper fireflies.
If there is one thing I have learned from working with preschoolers and now, homeschooling my own preschooler, it is that they love, more than anything else,
Fun ways to work on handwriting skills : developing the fine motor skills required for good handwriting. Apps and resources to help, along with activities
History-themed art projects are an enjoyable alternative to extensive and time-consuming history activities. Hands-on history doesn't have to mean mummifying a chicken! These 30 + art lessons, projects, and tutorials are available for free!
Hello There! It’s been a while since I have written a blog post but I’m back and will be posting more freebies regularly. I’ve been working on a TON of ha
Make a fun DIY marble maze for kids with simple supplies. Can you make it around the maze with this easy engineering project.
Hand of Mental Health encourages us to reflect and discuss our everyday choices and their impact on our mental health. How does sleep and rest, food, relationships and emotions affect our mental…
One of the most simple things we can do to help prepare our children for school is to give them plenty of opportunities to develop their fine motor skills! A child who has poor fine motor skills or weak muscles in their fingers and hands will really struggle when it comes time to learn how […]
Art is an important element in developing a young child's creativity and imagination. Inspire your child to be creative with our arts printable worksheets including coloring pages, color by number, dot-to-dot and drawing activities.
Support your students' fact fluency by grabbing these FREE subitizing dominoes!
Strength in the hand muscles is a fine motor skill that is necessary for so many tasks. Strength in the intrinsic muscles of the hands allow for a curved palm which is used for cupping the palm in order to hold items such as coins or beads. The intrinsic muscles are needed for pencil grasp ... Read more
These FREE printable geometry nets will make learning about shapes fun and easy!
