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Finger Gym - give those fine motor skills a workout!
Developing fine motor skills in children and enjoying activities that improves their dexterity, which will support their early mark making and emergent writing skills. Our 'Finger Gym' helps our children 'workout' those fingers!
Getting ready for school can involve lots of new skills - check out our 'Big school journey' for tips on how to prepare.
This is a great activity to focus on developing fine motor skills in children and improving their dexterity, which will support their early mark making and emergent writing skills. Our Kindred Mayflower nursery, set up a great 'Finger Gym' to help our children 'workout' those fingers!
This is a great activity to try out at home with things you find in the garden. Not only does it focus on developing motor skills when using your fingers to wrap the resources around the stick and cutting with scissors, it also encourages problem solving skills by identifying the string that is long enough to wrap around the stick. Why not give it a go?
Resources
Can you find any sticks out in your garden or when on your daily walks?
- Sticks
- Ribbons, string, wool, shoelaces etc
- Scissors
- Rulers, number flashcards etc
Instructions
Search for some different sized sticks in your garden or when out for your daily walks.
Use your ruler or tape measure to see how long the stick is and how long your resource (string, ribbon etc) needs to be to wrap around it. You can use scissors if the resource is too long, incorporating more finger work.
Finally use your fingers to wrap the string or leaf or ribbom around the stick.
Then what does it turn into? A magic wand, a spoon to stir poitions, conductors baton for your teddy orchastra...let your imagination guide you.