I love this fine motor alphabet activity for early readers and writers because it provides plenty of opportunity to develop alphabet awareness whilst also exercising and strengthening the muscles of the fingers. Plus, it uses simple, everyday materials that you quite possibly already have in your home or classroom.
Fine Motor Alphabet Activity
For this activity you will need;
- A large, plastic lid – ours was from a peanut butter jar
- Playdough or silly putty
- A short pencil
- Small beads
- A set of alphabet cards – download our free alphabet cards below
Fine Motor Alphabet Activity instructions:
1. Invite your child to flatten and smooth the playdough to cover the surface of the lid, this is a great finger muscle strengthening activity.
2. Next, invite your child to use the pencil to ‘write’ a letter onto the playdough surface.
3. Finally, have your child cover the shape of letter they have made with the small beads – so great for fine motor control and hand-eye co-ordination!
4. Once the letter is complete, have your child remove the beads, re-smooth the playdough and start again with a new letter.
Download our free alphabet cards here: Printable Lowercase Alphabet Cards. Save the PDF to your computer. Open the PDF to print the pages you require. Please carefully read any printing instructions included within the document.
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Please note: All Childhood 101 printables are for personal use only, you may not use any part of this content for commercial purposes-that includes selling the document, giving it away to promote your business or website, or printing the file to sell. You may not share, loan or redistribute these documents. Teachers may use multiple copies for students in their own classroom.
For more alphabet learning, check out these related activities;
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
Great help. Thanks for printable cards.