Dear Parents,
Studies have shown that strengthening children’s hands muscles helps them have a firmer grip on their pencil, gives them a better handle when it comes to zipping up their jackets and coats, as well as, other daily activities.
This blog has been set up to inform you of various activities you can try at home with your children to strengthen their hand muscles, otherwise known fine motor skills.
The activity I am currently posting is a colorful spaghetti one. I say spaghetti, but you can use any pasta really. Your child[ren] will have a lot of fun squeezing food coloring on spaghetti and placing it in a bin. Children will not realize that while they are squeezing the food coloring, they are strengthening their hand muscles. Also when they are stretching the soft spaghetti afterwards for fun; they are also using their hand muscles for that as well.
Below are some links relating to colorful spaghetti recipes and other fine motor skills you can do with your child[ren].
Resources:
This rainbow recipe site shows you how to cook this fun meal and leave extra as play spaghetti as well. There are also recipes on here when you need quick fix dinners. http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/rainbow-pasta/d7cb2f45-dea6-43e7-893f-6708e2dc10ec
I absolutely love this next site! The site is called Hands On as We Grow. It shows you various materials you can use around the house to help strengthen your fine motor skills. There is also a 7 day challenge you can sign up for stating that you will do fine motor activities with your child[ren] for 7 days (it’ not mandatory to sign up). There are also other links on this site that gives you more ideas on simple activities you can do to challenge your child[ren]. The site link is- https://handsonaswegrow.com/fine-motor-skills-activities/
Another site you can check out is called Laughing Kids Learn. This site features the rainbow spaghetti activity as well, and also has access to other fine motor activities based on various subjects (i.g. math, literacy, etc). The site link is http://laughingkidslearn.com/playing-with-rainbow-coloured-spaghetti/
Fine Motor SKills 