Fine Motor Skills Activities: Part 7

To repeat what I said during "Fine Motor Skills Activites: Part 1":

"I have been busy lately doing activities with my kids that are more learning-type activities and not as blog friendly as kids crafts. I wanted to do a series of post about fine motor skills though because that is something we have been focusing on at my house. My daughter started kindergarten this year and I spent so much time before kindergarten making sure that she knew her letters, sounds, shapes, colors, starting basic reading and site words, etc that in retrospect I didn't probably spend as much time on fine motor activities like writing her name and scissors as I should have. She is a little behind in those categories so I searched the internet for a variety of activities I could do with her that would help her fine motor skills that were fun activities and not just practicing writing letters and scissor cutting (although we do that too). I thought maybe this might be helpful for someone else in my same position. I actually made a little fine motor activities bin that we work from and she just gets to pick activities from it and the best part is she gets excited about it and doesn't know she is 'working'. "

Coin Play

 Supplies:
-Coins
-Piggy Bank
-Small cup or container

With this activity I was trying to combine a couple fine motor movements that I read about online.  

 We layed the coins out flat on the table.

 

I had them pick up each coin individually without sliding it to the edge of the table (fine motor skill #1), then have them rotate/turn the coin in their fingers (fine motor skill #2). I had them rotate each coin 3 times just to get more finger exercise in.

 
Just for a closer look at how rotating/turning a small coin works those important tri-pod fingers (index, middle, and thumb).

 After they had flipped the coin over three times, they could put it in their cup. In truth, the cup really has no purpose, but I was trying to draw out the process to make them have to work a little bit and make it feel like a game.

 It was fun to see her little fingers working.

 Once their cups were full, they poured the cup of pennies out.

 Then they had to pick up each coin and turn it three times in their fingers again

before putting it into their piggy banks (fine motor skill #3).  My kids LOVE putting coins in their piggy bank, so they thought this little "game" was fun.  You really could make a variety of games based on those three skills we worked on. Picking up objects like cards, coins, checkers, or buttons without sliding them to the edge of the table and then turning them over with their fingers is the main point. I will probably think of some other way to incorporate those skills in a new way.  Then the third skill being just having to focus to put that small coin in a small slit in the bank.