29 Fun & Easy Fine Motor Activities for Fall
There are many fun and exciting ways to help you work on developing fine motor skills with kids. Today, I’m ready to share a BUNCH of fun and exciting fine motor activities for fall. These fall-themed fine motor activities are perfect for the fall season or to supplement your Halloween or Thanksgiving lesson plans in preschool, pre-k, kindergarten classrooms or occupational therapy sessions.
Pumpkin Sorting Activities
When I think about fall, I think about pumpkins and the pumpkin patch. That’s why it’s the perfect time of year for pumpkin-themed fine motor activities. After pumpkin carving, let the kids sort the inside parts of the pumpkins. If they don’t want to touch the parts with their fingers, they can sort them with tweezers or small tongs. Pumpkin sorting can be a great fine motor activity that provides wonderful sensory experiences …..plus kids can learn all about pumpkins.
Pumpkin Seed Counting
Picking up small items pumpkin seeds is a great fine motor exercise for young kids. Use them for counting games or in playdough trays.
Fall Dot Sticker Activities
Use dot sticker activities to help your kids refine their pincer grasps and hand-eye coordination. These dot sticker task cards are super easy to prep and EXTREMELY versatile.
Placing dot stickers in the right spot is perfect for developing the pincer grasp and promoting eye-hand coordination and visual perception skills.
My dot printable sticker strips can also be used with small groups or as an independent work. Add them to your fall fine motor task boxes, bins or morning tubs. Use them with dot stickers, a bingo dauber or dot marker, hole punchers, cotton swabs, and MORE.
Here’s a fun name coloring page that includes opportunities to apply dot stickers.
Pumpkin Puff Balls
I made these little pumpkins with orange pom poms, green chenille stems, and hot glue. You can also make an apple version. I cut the chenille stems or pipe cleaners, bent them in half, and glued the pointy side in the puffball.
Kids can pick up the little pumpkins with their fingers (picking them up by the stems will require a bit more skill) to place them in a container. They can also use tweezers or tongs to pick them up. Kids get a kick out of “feeding” the jack-o-lantern. You can add dice or a spinner to make a counting game.
Use the puffball pumpkins along with an empty squeeze bottle or turkey baster to create a blast of excitement. Kids can squeeze the bottle to blow the little pumpkins across the floor. You can have a contest to see who can blow a pumpkin the longest distance, race the pumpkins across the floor, or place a post-it note or tape a shape on the floor and ask kids to guide a pumpkin to its “home”.
Fall Fine Motor Craft Activities
These printable fine motor craft activities are designed to give your kids opportunities for fine motor development. Your kids can build those fine motor muscles as they work on scissor skills by cutting out the shapes and then they paste shapes together. Each craft includes different sets of lines. Your kids can work on their grip and crayon control as they trace the dotted lines.
Finally, the most exciting part of these crafts is they can use a hole punch on them. Hole punching activities are extremely motivating AND a great way to build hand strength.
From leaf shapes, jack-o-lanterns, owls, spiders, bats, and scarecrows. There are lots of fun crafts in the fall-themed craft sets.
Looking for more fall craft ideas? Check out this blog post about fun and easy fall craft ideas.
Fall Paper Tearing Activities
Tearing paper is a fun activity and a great way to build hand strength. It’s a super-easy activity because there is really no prep involved and kids have such a great time tearing up scrap paper.
Use a fall-themed image and fall-colored paper to make great fine motor activities for the fall season. Your kids can use the torn paper for art activities with fall thematic colors or glue it to thematic printables.
Pumpkin Pick-up with Tongs
Kids can use tongs or bug catchers to pick up small pumpkins. They can place them in mini cauldrons, mini jack-o-lanterns, or egg cartons.
Pumpkin Pre-writing Practice
These pumpkin pre-writing practice cards provide a fun way to help kids practice controlling a writing instrument. Kids can trace the long pumpkin vine on each card with a dry erase marker or crayon. The set is listed in my TPT store, and it includes a variety of cards with varying degrees of difficulty.
Fall Name Tracing Activities
After tracing lines, your kids will be ready to work on tracing their names with these editable name-tracing worksheets.
Fall Cut and Paste Name Crafts
These fall name craft activities were designed with fine motor practice in mind. Your kids can get cutting practice as they cut out the pumpkin letters. Plus, there are line tracing and hole punch opportunities on the page.
Hole Punch Activities
Kids are usually very excited to use a hole punch. That’s why hole punch activities are so motivating. Looking for some fall fun? These hole punch and cut strips with images of owls, bats, spiders, cats, and leaves are some of my favorite fine motor activities for fall.
Play Dough Pumpkins
Using playdough is always a fun way to help strengthen little hands. Roll little balls and push in a small chenille stem to create little pumpkins. This is a great activity to accompany the poem/song Five Little Pumpkins. Don’t forget to smash each pumpkin when you are done.
Pumpkin Cleaning
Years ago, my little niece always wanted to clean my apartment when she visited me. I didn’t stop her. Instead, I provided her with a spray bottle and a towel so she could go to town. At the time, I didn’t know that I was actually doing her a favor.
Now, I know that using spray bottles is a great hand strengthening activity……and kids LOVE them. Get out a spray bottle and let your kids clean and shine the pumpkins. Dirty up the pumpkins with dirt, paint, or even shaving cream if needed. Add a few drops of essential oils to the spray bottle for an added sensory experience. Hint: Use a calming oil like lavender to have a calming effect on the kids.
Pumpkin Cutting & Pasting Activities
These simple cutting and pasting activities provide a great way to give your kids cutting practice.
Pumpkin Games and Learning Activities
Look for or adapt learning activities that use fine motor skills. This pumpkin alphabet and beginning sound activity will encourage your kids to place the pumpkins inside the wagon/pouch. You can also adapt existing resources to encourage kids to get their little fingers working. Attach alphabet cards to the outside of envelopes and ask kids to put a matching alphabet card inside the envelope.
Additional Pumpkin Fine Motor Activities
Pumpkins are one of my favorite themes. Here are even more activities to try.
- Put your office supplies to work and wrap rubber bands around small pumpkins
- Pound golf tees into a large pumpkin
- Make a pumpkin theme or Thanksgiving theme mini cutting book
PlayDough Trays
I love assembling playdough trays. Create a fall-themed playdough tray with items like leaves, plastic acorns, sticks, etc., and let kids have fun creating.
You can also create an apple theme, monster theme, turkey theme, scarecrow theme, or spider theme playdough tray for kids.
Fold and Cut Activities
You can make your own fold-and-cut activity sheets by tracing half of a simple shape on a folded piece of paper. Kids can cut on the lines and then open up the paper to see the shape that they created.
Fine Motor Activities with Fall Leaves
In many places, falling leaves are abundant in the fall. Here are a few activity ideas using those leaves.
Use leaves for cutting practice or get out a hole punch and punch holey designs into them.
You can also sort real or fake leaves with tongs or tweezers. They are perfect for sensory play.
Spiders in the Sensory Bin
October is the perfect time for creepy crawly things. Add plastic spiders, bats, and/or rats to a sensory bin. These training chopsticks that I found at a thrift store are the perfect tool to pick up the creepy crawlies.
Spider Webs Lacing Activity
Your kids can make this spider web craft with a paper plate, a plastic spider, and some yarn. You can also let them do the hole punching to get even more fine motor practice.
Mini-Eraser Activities
If creepy crawlies aren’t your thing, the training chopsticks can be used to pick up fall-themed mini-erasers. This egg container from Costco makes a perfect sorting tray.
I hope that you have fun trying out some of these fall fine motor activities with your kids. Let me know which is your favorite.
Fall Activities from the Store
Are you ready to get started with some fine motor fun for fall? Check out the following fall fine motor resources in my store. Click on the images below to learn more.
Purchase the Printable Fall Activities on TPT
Do your prefer to shop at Teachers Pay Teachers? You can also purchase these fall activities in my TPT store.
