Here are the best fine motor toys for your preschoolers in 2024

It’s no secret that kids these days are coming to preschool with lower fine motor skills. This can be a challenge for teachers, who need to find ways to help their students develop these skills. One way to do this is by providing them with fun and engaging fine motor toys. Keep reading to find a list of the best fine motor toys for preschool kids!

You can get a printable copy of the list, and feel free to share it with your kids’ parents so that they can help them at home too. The gift guide will help with ideas for Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, etc.

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Why are Fine Motor Skills Important?

If you’re a preschool teacher or parent, you know how important it is to help your students or child develop their fine motor skills. These are the skills that involve the use of the small muscles in the hands and fingers, and they’re crucial for tasks like writing, cutting with scissors, tying shoelaces, and many everyday tasks.

What Are Fine Motor Activities?

Fine motor activities are activities that help children develop the small muscles in their hands and fingers.

There are many ways to help your kids improve their fine motor skills, but one of the most fun is by playing with toys! So, what are the best fine motor toys for your preschoolers? Here’s a list of our favorites:

Pincer Grasp Toys & Games

Tweezer Toys & Games

Gator Grabber Tweezers by Learning Resources – These tweezers are great for picking up small objects like beads, pom poms, and coins. They’re also color-coded so that kids can practice matching by color.

Noodle Knockout! Fine Motor Game by Learning Resources – This has to be my favorite fine motor toy right now because it is versatile and so much fun. Use this as a fun game with a group or as an independent activity that kids can play to practice their pincer grasp. They use tweezers or chopsticks to pick up noodles and drop them into the corresponding color-coded bowl.

Take 10! Color Bug Catcher Game by Learning Resources – Your kids can work on fine motor skills and pincer grasp as they sort and count the bugs with this game. It’s also super fun and perfect for kids who love bugs!

Wiggleworm Game by Learning Resources – Kids can work on color sorting and counting while they pick up the colorful plastic worms with the tweezers.

Beading Activities

Melissa & Doug Wooden Alphabet Beads Set- This set includes over 200 colorful wooden and ABC beads and eight laces for stringing. It’s perfect for practicing letters, along with fine motor skills like threading, counting, and sorting by color.

Pop Beads – Okay…these aren’t really lacing beads, but you can still make a necklace with these pop beads. It is easy to snap beads together and pull them apart to make all kinds of fun jewelry.

Eye Dropper Activities

Jumbo Test Tubes with Stand Set – These test tubes are perfect for your budding scientists. Kids can use the dropper to add water, and food coloring tubes, and then watch as the colors mix together. Don’t want to use liquids? Get out some plastic tweezers and kids can add pom poms or other items to the test tubes.

Animal Droppers – Want to add some extra fun to eyedropper activities? These animal droppers are perfect for making potions and mixing colors.

Silly Science Fine Motor Set by Learning Resources – Kids can count, sort, and match the silly germs with this adorable science activity set. Fine motor tools include a clamp and tweezers.

Lacing Cards

Animal Lacing Cards – Lacing cards are another great fine motor toy for preschoolers. They help kids practice threading and lacing, and they also work on fine motor skills like eye-hand coordination. We love these lacing cards from Melissa & Doug because they’re very sturdy. PLUS…you can use the box for a salt tray to practice letter formation.

Playdough

Many people think of playdough as a creative activity, and while that’s true, it’s also great for developing fine motor skills. Squishing, rolling, and pinching the dough helps to strengthen the muscles in little hands. Plus, there’s no right or wrong way to play with Play-Doh, so kids can experiment and use their imaginations.

Play-Doh Play-Doh Bakery Creations set: The Play-Doh Fun Factory is a great way to encourage creative thinking and exploration while also helping your child develop their fine motor skills. With this toy, your child can make all sorts of different cookies and baked goods with the dough. I especially like that it comes with extruders, shape molds, and a roller. These tools are great for building fine motor skills.

Playdough Tools – This set comes with a variety of extruders, rollers, and cutters for lots of fun with dough.

Building Toys

Using blocks and building toys are always great fine motor activities. Here are some of my favorite sets.

KID K’NEX – Budding Builders Building Set – With this 100-piece set, your kids can build a variety of creations. I love that the set includes eyes!

Squigz Starter 24 Piece Set Suction Toy – Kids can use these fun suction cup builders in the bathtub, on windows, or on tables. They are really exciting and they are a great way to build hand strength.

LEGO Classic Large Creative Brick Box – The classic box of bricks provides lots of open-ended creative play and fine motor practice.

LEGO DUPLO Classic Brick Box – If your kids aren’t quite ready for the smaller LEGO bricks, the larger DUPLO bricks provide all the creative play opportunities but may be easier to manipulate.

These are just a few of my favorite fine motor toys for preschoolers. Developmentally appropriate toys like these are essential for helping kids build the small muscle strength and coordination they need for writing, cutting with scissors, and performing other everyday tasks. If you’re looking for ways to help your child develop their fine motor skills, I hope you’ll give some of these toys a try!

Download the List of Favorite Fine Motor Toys

Do you want a printable list of these favorite toys? Fill out the form below and I’ll send it directly to your inbox. Feel free to forward the list to your kids’ parents so that they can help their kids at home.

We hope you enjoyed reading about our favorite fine motor toys for preschoolers! These toys are great for helping children develop the important skills they need for tasks like writing, cutting with scissors, and tying shoelaces. Do you have a favorite fine motor toy that we didn’t mention? Let us know!