fine motor activities for toddlers (2024)

If you're looking for fine motor activities for toddlers then we have a huge collection of ideas for you! It's amazing how quickly your toddler's fine motor skills will improve with these fun and easy crafts and activities.

Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers

Fine motor skills and fine motor activities are words you'll hear a lot from educators and I've often been asked in our Facebook group about why we put such a focus on this area.

The experts in this area are ocuptational therapists and that's not a qualification that I hold, however in my role as an early childhood teacher this is an area that we focus a lot on.

Lately I (along with my colleagues) have seen an increase in the amount of children who struggle to hold a pencil, use scissors and perform basic fine motor skills that you would expect when they start school. This article from ABC Newsdiscusses this same issue.

What do we mean by fine motor skills?

Fine motor skills are skills that require the use of the smaller muscles of the hands. Gross motor skills are the larger movements (like throwing and catching) whereas fine motor skills include pinching, grasping, holding a pencil, buttoning their clothes, using scissors etc. Like any other skill, this is something that needs to be repeated and practiced.

How can I help my toddler improve their fine motor skills?

The good part about fine motor skills is that it is fun and easy to add more of them to your toddler's day! Some easy ways to improve fine motor activities are:

Playdough - manipulating the play dough uses lots of the smaller muscles in the fingers and hands. You don't have to make your own - this set is always great value and will last for months.

Drawing and coloring - start early with these great toddler crayons and work up to smaller ones.

Encourage the use of scissors - so many children get to kindergarten and have never used scissors. A pair of toddler safe ones like these is a great place to start. Using scissors is a tricky skill that takes a lot of practice and I encourage you to start sooner rather than later.

Do crafts! Crafts naturally incorporate cutting, gluing and drawing which are all great fine motor skills.

Threading or lacing items -start with larger items like cut up toilet roll holders or pool noodles and work your way down to smaller items like beads. One of the best threading toys we bought were these. We started by using pipe cleaners as they were easier to thread. This set was great for building and stacking games too.

Sensory Play - there are so many ways that sensory play and sensory bins help with fine motor. You can find a huge collection of sensory bins HERE.One of my favorite fine motor sets is this one and is perfect for sensory bins and sensory play. You can get this set HERE on Amazon and it's cheap!Ok, let's get started on our activities! I'd love for you to share some pics in our Facebook group or over on Instagram (use #MyBoredToddler )

Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers

Pasta Threaded Straws

There are a lot of skills that go into threading. The rigid form of these strawsmakesthis activity a great introduction to threading. Without thechallenge of holding the straw in place, threading the pasta is much easier and a great confidence booster for beginners! See the full pasta threading activity HERE.

Make building up thoseall-importantfine motor skills fun with this easy to set up and inexpensive activity! See how to set up the activity HERE.

Toilet Roll Haircuts

Crazy hair, loads of emotions and lots of bright colours make this activity fun and engagingfine motor activityfor your toddler. Make use of those empty toilet rolls lurking in your recyclables and turn them into Crazy Hair Toilet Tubes!