Fine motor activities: Work on fine motor skills with these fun and engaging cookie cutter activities. Find ideas for different materials that can be used in your kindergarten classroom.
Have you heard me talk enough about fine motor skills? Fine motor activities were a focus of a previous blog post (that you can find here) and a podcast episode (it’s a good one – listen to it here!).
Working on strengthening fine motor muscles is a focus in my classroom, and I even have a designated fine motor station that students can visit. That’s why I came up with a series of activities that use cookie cutters. They are simple and use materials you probably already have in your classroom:
1. Roll and clip
Materials: cookie cutter, dice, clothespins
Activity: Students roll the dice and clip that many clothespins to the cookie cutter.
Extensions:
- Use two dice and have students roll, clip the clothespins and count how many they have all together (addition).
- Add whiteboards to the center and have students record the number they rolled (number formations), or the number sentence if they are adding.
2. Roll and fill
Materials: cookie cutter, dice, pompoms, tweezers
Activity: Students roll the dice and transfer that many pompoms to the cookie cutter using tweezers. They continue until they have filled the cookie cutter up.
Extensions:
- Use two dice and have students roll, add and add that many pompoms to the cookie cutter (addition).
- Add a whiteboard and have students record the number they rolled (number formations), or the number sentence if they are adding.
- When the cookie cutter is full, have students guess how many pompoms they think they used (estimation).
- They can count how many pompoms they filled the cookie cutter with (one-to-one correspondence).
3. Wrap the cookie cutter
Materials: cookie cutter, elastics
Activity: Challenge students to wrap elastics around the cookie cutter.
Extensions:
- Add dice and have students roll and wrap that many elastics (number sense, subitizing).
- Use whiteboards to record the number of elastics they were able to wrap around the cookie cutter (number formations, one-to-one correspondence)
4. Wrap the cookie cutter 2.0
Materials: cookie cutter, yarn/string
Activity: Cut long pieces of yarn and students wrap the cookie cutter using it.
Extensions:
- Measure the length of the string before wrapping it (measurement).
- Count how many times you have to wrap the string around the cookie cutter (number sense)
5. more fine motor ACTIVITIES
Materials: cookie cutter, paint, crayons/pencils, cloud dough (flour & vegetable oil), eye droppers
Activities:
- Dip the cookie cutters in paint and stamp them on paper.
- Trace the cookie cutters and colour them in to make a picture.
- Make cloud dough and students can use cookie cutters with it.
- Place in a water table or bin with eye droppers and water. Students can pick up water and place drops in the cookie cutter.
Find more fine motor activities
Are you like me and always looking for more fine motor centers for your classroom? I have a variety of fine motor packs available! Reinforce phonics, go by theme (winter, spring, etc.) or a pack that will last you all year. Find them all in my store here.
Want to know more about how I run centers like these in my classroom? Check out My Ultimate Guide to Kindergarten Centers. I tell you everything you need to know.
What is your favourite cookie cutter or fine motor activity? Let me know in the comments!
Need more daily inspiration for your classroom? Make sure you are following me here, on Facebook and on Instagram!
Subscribe to my newsletter to get weekly ideas for your classroom: