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Hey Gabriella,
I have several ideas that you can do to help students improve their fine motor skills. One idea is to have students use Q-tips to paint. When I visited a Pre-K classroom, the teacher placed several small containers of paint on the students’ assigned tables and provided them with Q-tips. She had them dip their Q-tips in the paint and trace lines and other shapes. If you want to expand this activity to feature a science concept, you could discuss color mixing where students mix the different colored paints before they paint their images. Another activity you could do is have students use tweezers to pick up different objects. When I visited another Pre-K classroom, the teacher had students use tweezers to pick up pom-poms and place them on large black lines that were in the shape of letters. Although this was more of a literacy activity, you could adapt this activity to have students use tweezers to pick up various objects related to your science topic, such as plastic bugs if you are conducting a lesson on insects.
You could also have students engage in engineering based activities that incorporate fine motor skills. For example, students can build different structures out of marshmallows and sticks where they would have to push the sticks in the marshmallows to connect them. Finally, you could have students use squirt bottles to water classroom plants where they have to push the handle to expel water. When I completed my field placement last semester, my teacher mentor had students plant their own seeds where they used squirt bottles to keep the soil moist.
-Michelle
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