Fine Motor in Kindergarten

Hi everyone! It's Kelly from My Fabulous Class. I imagine many of you are settling back into school...and I know a few of you are STILL enjoying summer! We are on our third week. At the beginning of the year, I like to assess students on some basic fine motor skills. Can they do the basic skills of writing, gluing, and cutting? What about picking up small items? I have two FREE activities to help you assess these fine motor skills.

First up, cutting. These are HARD lines for kids to cut. I like to talk about taking "small bites" with the scissors. I model big bites, which is opening the scissors all of the way, and small bites, which is only opening them a little. After students cut it all up, I have them glue it on construction paper to have a display, but you could just as easily have students recycle the strips.

I LOVE these little glue dot apples. It's hard to see from the picture, but there are actually 3 sizes of sequins! Squeezing a dot of glue onto a dot is a pretty challenging fine motor skill. We talk about the different using the "right amount" of pressure when you squeeze. I model too little pressure and too much pressure before I have students practice. Then, you add in the fine motor skill of picking up tiny sequins, and wow, you'll be able to quickly assess a student's fine motor skills.

You can get both of these activities FREE HERE.

Now, you may be wondering, what do I do if my student has poor fine motor skills? Check out these posts.

This post is full of FREE ideas with play dough, dabbers, tweezers, and more. 

This is another great post with clothespins and pipe cleaners. I hope this helps you all!