ACTIVITIES FOR FOUR TO SIX YEAR OLDS
THAT DEVELOP FINE MOTOR SKILLS

Hands are one of the most important tools that children bring to the classroom. Hands enable a child to physically interact in the learning process, to act on their learning environment and to demonstrate what they have learned. You can help your child to develop these very important motor skills by carefully choosing appropriate games and toys. All items on this list can be purchased at local toy and learning stores. When choosing toys for children developing fine motor dexterity and writing skills consider the shape of the tools used during the game or activity. For non-writing activities like Tumbling Monkeys and Lite Brite look for small pieces that require a pincer grasp (index and thumb). For writing activities look for thick writing tools, if the tools are small like with the Scratch Magic you can enlarge the tool with a “Jumbo Grip” pencil grip.

GAMES AND ACTIVITES TO DEVELOP FINGER DEXTERITY AND WRITING SKILLS
Ants in Pants   (Milton Bradley)
Barrel of Monkeys
Beads to string  - Large wooden beads work best
Bingo Bear Game  (Learning Resources)
Cootie  (Milton Bradley)
Crunch Art  (Hands on Toys)
Doodle-Pro  (Fisher-Price) - Look for the ones with thick pens
Do-A-Dot Art
Etch-A-Sketch  (Sababa Toys)
Flower Sculptor  (Unimax)
Hi Ho Cherry-O  (Milton Bradley)
Inch Worms  (Learning Resources)
Jenga  (Parker Brothers)
Kerplunk/Tumbling Monkeys  (Mattel)
Lacing Cards
Lite Brite  (Hasbro)
Magnetic Trace’ N Draw  (Milton Bradley)
Operation  (Milton Bradley)
Perfection  (Milton Bradley)
PlayDoh
Pick Up sticks
Pizza Pile-Up  (i-play)
Reading Rods  (Learning Resources)
String Along Lace Kit  (Educational Insights)
Silly Putty
Stamping Kits
Scratch Magic  (Scratch art) - Use a “Jumbo Grip” pencil grip on the stick
Trouble  (Milton Bradley)
Unifix Cubes  (Didax)
Wind up toys - The small animals and vehicles with small knobs work well
Wikki Stix
Wooden Toy Kits  (Melissa & Doug) sample kits: lacing beads, construction box, cutting food