Most of my kindergarten students come into school without knowing how to use scissors. I’ve come to expect it, and always teach lessons on cutting in September.
This year I was pretty surprised to see that many of my kids couldn’t hold a pencil. Or lacked the finger grip strength to control the pencil to make legible letters.
I knew I needed to do something.
I have already changed my morning routine by adding the new power point sign in (check it out HERE!). We used to do pencil and paper morning work, but that wasn’t engaging for my kiddos. I did some research and found some fine motor stations to use every day in the morning!
Here are the 5 stations I have made (so far!). Click each picture to find a link to where I purchased each material. I am not affiliated with any of these retailers, just passing on where I found them!
Pop Beads
These pop beads bring me back to my childhood. They take a lot of dexterity to pop them together and then pull them apart! My students try to make the longest chain they can, or they make bracelets.
Fancy Scissors
The bright paper takes this fancy scissors station from meh to WOW. And the smaller the paper gets, the more precision they need to cut!
Fun Shaped Hole Punches
This set of hole punches is awesome. They have to use a strong grip to punch the hearts, stars, etc. The bright paper makes it super fun. You can even save the shapes for later!
Nuts and Bolts
These nuts and bolts are so simple, but they love them! They work to twist the nut onto the bolt. My students like to see how many nuts they can twist on and then take them all off! So easy.
Squeeze Tweezers
These squeeze tweezers are SOOOOO worth the price They pinch the tweezers to pick up and drop the puff balls into the cups. They work to fill the cups as quickly as they can.
I store my stations in these snap and lock bins. I ordered them from amazon, but they sell them all over. I like that they stack and don’t take up too much space!
This year I have a number of students who need a routine to be comfortable in the classroom. So instead of allowing my students to choose an activity, I rotate them between my 5 tables daily. We are on week 2 and my students love it. I can already see their grip strength improving!
I have plans to add more stations (pipe cleaners and pony beads, scissors and straws, therapy putty, etc.) — but $$ is an issue so I’ll be holding off for a while.
