Getting Hands-On With Fine-Motor Skills

Research has long shown links between students' fine-motor skills and their future academic achievement. Studies also indicate that low-income students in particular tend to enter school with low fine-motor skills. So how can we help students like Eric?

I'm always on the lookout for fun ways to improve students' fine-motor skills. Keep in mind that these activities don't have to be expensive or complicated—ordinary objects can be pressed into service easily:

Math-Based Activities

• Cotton ball races: Ask students to use clothespins to move the cotton balls from one jar to another. We make this a counting activity: How many cotton balls can a student move in a specific amount of time?

• Moving pipe cleaners: Cut up some pipe cleaners into shorter segments (or you can use jacks). Then challenge students to use an eyelash curler to move the pipe cleaner segments from one spot to the next. (This activity is great because it asks students to exercise the same three fingers they should use to hold a pencil. Make sure the concave side of the tongs is facing the thumb.)

• Stacking cubes: This activity requires a deck of numbered cards (at first limiting it to numbers one to 10), small cubes or blocks, and paper plates marked with numbers one to 10. I ask each student to select a card, identify the paper plate marked with the same number, then stack that number of cubes on the paper plate. As the stacks get higher, students must use steady hands to balance the cubes on the growing tower.

• Sorting buttons: Ask students to sort a handful of buttons into piles by various attributes. Then have students use the buttons to create patterns. (Instruct students to pick up the buttons with their fingers rather than sliding them off the table to scoop up.)

• Coins in clay: Embed coins within a ball of clay, then challenge ...

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