It was one of those days where we did not have anything planned for the afternoon and the kids were not really in the mood for enjoying life, so I decided maybe on a Fine Motor Skills Alphabet Activity that required no prep. This was the perfect answer to help us survive until dinner. I quickly rummaged through the house to see what I could put together for an easy activity with the girls. I immediately knew that using some buttons and construction paper was not just a way to occupy my daughters, but a perfect classroom activity to share!
The best thing about this activity is that there was hardly any prep involved, I literally just picked out random craft items that we already had in the house. It also introduces (or reinforces) the alphabet to kids and helps to sharpen their fine motor skills. What’s not to like?
Fine Motor Skills Alphabet Activity
Developing fine motor skills is something that is a huge part of teaching your children and students. Their ability to develop these skills is a vital part of how they can work in daily life, not just now but in the future. Learning the alphabet is just another bonus of this activity. I love that this simple process was a great way that I could occupy my daughters and at the same time could work on their fine motor skills and education at the same time!
Supplies Needed:
- construction paper
- sharpie or marker
- small manipulatives or buttons for kids to place on letters and/or numbers
I grabbed a handful of construction paper (you could also just use white printing paper too) and a sharpie. I wrote the ABCs and extended it on to the numbers 0-10. I did mine on a full piece of construction paper, but, honestly, you could probably get away with doing it on a half sheet (especially if you use smaller manipulatives). I grabbed random items from our craft closet for my girls to place on the letters and numbers. We used beads, google eyes, pompoms, and buttons. However, you can also use rocks, yarn, sequins, seeds, goldfish, chocolate chips, and/or paper clips. The list goes on and on, but hopefully, that gives you a few ideas of things that you can easily grab around the house.
How Fine Motor Skills Alphabets Activities Work?
It’s easy. Super easy. I let Molly pick which page she wanted to do first and also what manipulatives. I showed Molly how to place the buttons on the line of the letters and then she was free to do it on her own. As she was laying the buttons down, we talked about the letters and came up with a bunch of different words that start with that particular letter. When she finished the page, she chose another one. After a few, she was ready to move on to the next manipulative. With each manipulative, she showed just as much excitement as the first.
You can use this as a way for your child to practice recognizing the individual letters as well as using it as a fine motor skills activity. For older students, you could use things like pompoms, sequins, beans, or yarn to glue on the drawn letters to create a craft.
Another bonus was that little sister was just as into the activity. She spent the entire time picking up handfuls of whatever manipulative we were working with and dropping it on the table. Over and over again.
This doubles as a fun sensory activity! You could even have your younger children put the manipulatives in a bin and sort as a sensory project!
When it was time to clean up for dinner, she was already asking when we could do “activity mats” again. Fine Motor ABCs for the win!
Can you not find a resource that you would LOVE to have for your classroom? Contact me and I would be happy to make it for you.
I hope you and your children have just as much fun with this fine motor skills activity as we did! Don’t forget to check out our great resources below for introducing the alphabet to your young learners!
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