Who’s up for a sticker maze? It’s a fine motor win every time!
What if I told you this sticker maze also helps fine motor development and assists with pencil grip?
It is a risk-free activity to help strengthen fingers for future writing. It is basically prewriting magic! The pressure of forming letters and numbers correctly is off, and the practice of holding the hand steadily is on.
The best part? Kids love sticker maze, and it is easy to set up. It’s a lot like it’s fine motor friend, Sticker Match, only with a twist.
RELATED: Tired of searching for activities. You must check out our activity cards!
Examples of fine motor skills
Fine motor skills are movements with small hand muscles. They include:
- Writing
- Cutting
- Buttoning
- Zipping
- Tying
- Threading
- Typing
- Playing with LEGOS
- Squirting condiments when eating
- Pouring drinks
We can practice fine motor skills in so many ways before asking our child to write a letter.
This is super important!
Would you run a marathon before being able to run a mile? Probably not. You would slowly build up your momentum, knowing that you will reach those 26.2 miles when your body is ready.
Let’s apply this same reasoning with writing.
RELATED: Here are the ages and stages of pencil grip!
Here’s how we can help our children practice pencil grip
Letters have lines and curves. If we expect our children to write an A, they need to practice writing straight lines. If we ask our child to make a B, we also need to have practiced drawing curved lines. There is so much more to form a letter than the actual letter itself!
Let’s not be rushed into letters and numbers.
Let’s begin by improving hand strength with simple practice and fun play ideas.
We can do this by taking a step back with comparing and a step ahead by helping our children strengthen thier fine motor muscles first.
Sticker Maze is easy peasy to set up.
I even have a trick that will make this super simple. (see below in set up steps)
We’ve played Sticker Maze for YEARS and I have seen so much grown with dexterity and pencil grip over time. The funniest part about this throwback is that today’s Sticker Maze uses some of the SAME stickers that were still in our art cart from years ago! Thank you, Target Dollar Spot!
First, let’s gather our supplies.
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Here’s how I set up Sticker Maze for fine motor
- Tape the white paper to your tabletop or on a verticle surface.
- Find a collection of similar stickers and begin to place them in a row. You can go in any direction, but the trick is to do one set of stickers at a time.
- Next, draw your maze lines around that particular line of similar stickers.
- After your first zigzag is complete, add the second set of stickers adding the lines around your row.
- Repeat steps two-four until you have a complete sticker maze.
Finally, invite your child to follow by dragging thier from left to right. Not only are they practicing holding a pencil, but they are also tracking the eyes left to right, just like we read and write. This practice will begin to become the habit needed for future skill sets!
Sticker Maze is on repeat for our weekday Breakfast Invitations.
What’s a Breakfast Invitation? I am so happy you asked! These are simple learning games to begin your day with play, and you can find an entire collection here.
The best part is you can make different variations for holidays or seasons!
When will you make your first Sicker Maze?
