Want to boost your child’s pencil grip over the summer? Fine motor letter grab is your game. Fine motor letter grab is an activity that helps preschoolers with pencil grip by strengthening hand muscles and encourages letter recognition using small plastic letters. Grab the jumbo tongs. Easy setup and a hands-on way to review the alphabet!
RELATED: Here are 50 kid activities at home for babies, toddlers, and big kids!
Why hand strength is important for children
At Days with Grey, we like to pump the brakes on writing letters and build finger and hand strength first. Taking this time for ideas like this to build fine motor strength is a big piece of the end game. Preschool activities need to be playful and encouraging to take risks.
The big picture is that we want children to enjoy learning and hit milestones over time. (not before a child shows signs of readiness)
Pushing writing letters before their hands are ready is like driving a car without gas. We don’t get very far if we don’t add what’s needed to help it go the distance.
RELATED: I put together 50+ Fine Motor Activities for Kids.
Who has time to search for ideas?
Save with the PDF bundle to have everything you need on your digital device without ad interruptions.
Jumbo tweezers are a great fine motor tool
But that doesn’t mean they are always a home run with young children. One of the reasons jumbo tongs help strengthen small hands is that they are difficult to squeeze. The effort and movement create strength.
What we do NOT want is to create frustration around an activity.
RELATED: I walk you through what this means in our workshop called WONDER; Playing to Learn.
How do we support our children with learning activities?
So what do we do? How can we support letter recognition and fine motor development at home?
- We offer jumbo tweezers with activities and keep them within reach of other toys.
- We allow our children to explore the fine motor tool and put them down when they lose interest.
- We stay flexible. Picking up small objects with their pointer and thumb is another way to improve fine motor skills. So we can encourage that too!
Introduce, offer encouragement, and allow your child to take the lead.
PRO TIP: Kitchen tongs also work well. Check it out in Egg Drop and The Claw.
Do you need alphabet letters to play?
I like to keep alphabet toys within our collection of other toys for my toddler and preschooler to understand what the different letters look like.
Here, my four-year-old is playing with alphabet lacing letters found in our alphabet toy list. (and also supplies down below)
But like most preschool activities you see here, we can play this fine motor game in several ways:
- pom poms
- counting bears
- Legos
RELATED: Cutting is another great way to improve fine motor skills.
Supply List
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White Paper Roll
This paper is a staple in our home. Place it on the table or a verticle surface. So many uses!
Washable Markers
Share these markers with your kids, or keep them for yourself. I am not one to judge; I like my own pack too.
Alphabet Lacing Letters
These alphabet letters are so much fun to play with. We even freeze the letters in muffin tins for an alphabet rescue party.
Kid Tweezers
The best way to encourage children to play with jumbo tweezers is to leave them out! Keep them where your child can reach and explore on their own terms.
Setting up fine motor letter grab
I call this preschool learning activity, Rescue the Alphabet.
Setting up this fine motor letter grab takes less than five minutes. As a busy mom, I don’t have the time or energy for a lot of prep work.
- Tape the white paper to the table.
- Color in a section with a blue marker to look like water.
- Place a container under the blue area to take the form of a boat.
- Spread the letters in the blue area and add jumbo tweezers to the left of the activity.
- Invite your child to rescue the letters with tweezers and place the letters into the boat.
We like to do morning learning activities for preschoolers like this to begin our day with intention and play.
How I guide my child as he plays
My pitch to welcome my preschooler into the alphabet activity was that the letters needed help returning to thier ship. (the blue container)
This reminded me a lot of the book Alphabet Adventure.
We use this storyline for many preschool activities. In most cases, it is saving bears from lava. Here are some of our favorite fine motor activities using jumbo tweezers:
FAQ
Creative learning ideas for preschoolers involve movement, the senses, and play. Preschoolers enjoy exploring their environments and repeating play patterns. Hands-on preschool activities include sensory play, letter/sound recognition, counting, art, outdoor exploring, simple science experiments, and more! I have everything organized in this list of 101 preschool learning activities.
Teach the alphabet using the letters in the child’s name first. It is common for children (and adults) to shut down when there is too much new content at once. Rather than introduce all 26 letters simultaneously, begin by introducing the letters of your child’s name. These name recognition activities are a terrific starting place! This alphabet post will also share which letters to teach after the child learns the letters in their name.
Fine motor skills activities use movement to develop the small hand muscles in children. It’s essential to use activities for fine motor skills in early learners to prepare their hands for fiddly things. For example, writing, zipping, shoe tying, and more.
