Fun Fine Motor Hole Punch Activities for Preschool to use all year
Are you looking for some fun and creative ways to engage your kids AND boost their fine motor skills? I’ve got just the thing for you: hole punch activities!
Not only are hole punch activities a great way to keep your little ones entertained, but they’re also fantastic for developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Let’s take a quick look at why hole punch activities are so motivating for kids, and them I’ll share LOTS of hole punch activity ideas for your kids in preschool, kindergarten.
So, grab your hole punch, and let’s get started!
Why Do Kids Love Hole Punch Activities?
I am getting comments about my printable hole punch activities on a daily basis. Teachers and parents rave about how excited kids are to use a hole punch. There is just something very satisfying about using the tool to punch holes or other shapes into paper.
If you haven’t tried it yet, you must!
What are the Benefits of Hole Punch Activities?
When you let kids use a paper puncher, they not only have fun. Using hole punch activities is also a great way to help your kids in preschool and kindergarten build hand strength and finger control.
Build Hand Strength
The biggest benefit of using hole punchers is that the action of squeezing the tool builds hand strength and finger control.… which are skills that will help them as they learn to use scissors and grasp pencils.
Develop Hand Eye Coordination
In addition to building hand strength, hole punching activities can also help your kids develop hand-eye coordination as they position the tool and punch a hole into the paper.
Hole Punch Activities are Motivating for Kids
The thing that I love about hole punch activities is that they are so motivating for kids. Some kids really need to work on building hand strength, but they may resist activities that are too challenging. However, when you provide some exciting motivation (“Hey…look at this cool hole puncher that you can use!”), you can easily encourage kids to get the practice that they need.
There are a bunch of different printable hole punch activities from my store featured in this post. You can find links for the activities at the bottom of this page.
Simple Hole Punch Strips
It’s fun just to give kids paper and a paper puncher to let them create freely. You can also give them printables to provide extra motivation and targets. Punching holes in the circles of the printables is also great for hand-eye coordination.
These simple hole punch strips are one of my favorite hole punch activities. Yes, they are super simple, but there are many ways that you can use them.
Kids can punch holes in the rows of circles in these paper strips. The printable includes two options for different skill levels. If you don’t have the printables, you can easily make rows of circles on paper strips with a marker or with dot stickers.
Use different colors of paper for more open-ended creative fun. There are many ways to use the strips.
- Staple a strip to make a hole punch bracelet.
- Add the strips and hole punchers to a sensory table
- Attach multiple strips together to make a headband
- Combine strips to make necklaces.
- Use the stips for counting practice (count the holes).
- Provide some ribbon for and make a lacing activity.
- Use these strips to keep score in a game
Do you need some decorations for your room? Put them to work creating paper chains.
These simple hole punch strips are part of the Hole Punch Activity set in my store.
Hole Punch Letter Activity
Hole punch and cut strips are great fine motor hole punch activities for preschool, kindergarten kids, or occupational therapy. These hole punch letter activities are similar to the strips above, but they combine hole punching with a simple cutting practice activity. Kids can add holes to the images on the strips and then snip the pictures apart.
Do you want to combine some multi-sensory alphabet practice to your fine motor center? You can use alphabet hole punch strips to work on teaching the letters of the alphabet teach letter sounds, and build hand strength. I like encouraging kids to say the letter sound as they punch.
Ready to get started with multi-sensory letter learning? These Alphabet hole punch strips are available in my store.
Hole Punch and Cut Strips for All Seasons
Are you looking for seasonal hole punch activities for preschool, kindergarten, or occupational therapy? You can also use the seasonal hole punch and cut strips for all your thematic units and lesson plans throughout the year.
From back to school to summer vacation and everything in between. You can have consistent, motivating, and engaging activities for the whole year.
Spring, summer, fall, and winter….you will find strips for ALL the seasons.
The Seasonal Hole Punch and Cut Strips are available in my store
Hole Punch Shapes
You can use hole punch activities as a hands-on way to work on 2-D shape recognition with your kids. Make a DIY shape activity by drawing shapes on brightly colored paper and letting kids punch holes along the shapes.
In addition to hole punching, these printable shape activities give kids the opportunity to practice cutting and tracing.
It’s a great hands-on way to learn shapes….Don’t you think?
These simple hole punch shape printables are available in my store.
These shape hole punch strips help kids learn to recognize 2D shapes while building hand strength.
There are three levels of hole punch strips. The more difficult letters challenge kids to use visual discrimination skills to identify one shape on a strip that includes more than one shape. In this example, kids find and punch holes in the triangles on the hole punch strips.
These printable shape hole punch activity strips are available in my store.
Hole Punch Activities for Fine Motor Task Boxes
In addition to the hole punch strips and shape printables, you can find a variety of seasonal hole punch printables to use throughout the year.
Are you looking for an alternative to fine motor hole punch worksheets? This set of seasonal hole punch printables are perfect for fine motor task boxes and to supplement your spring, summer, fall, and winter themes.
Print some activities, add them to a photo storage box with a hole punch, and you’re ready to go with some portable fine motor activities for your kids.
Do you have some kids who could use some extra fine motor practice? Send a kit home with them for the weekend.
Your kids will enjoy these fun fine motor projects throughout the year. The set includes snowflakes, hearts, shamrocks, caterpillars, flowers, butterflies, fish, apple trees, pumpkins, leaves, wreaths, rockets, cars, and construction vehicles.
These hole punch task box activities are part of the Hole Punch Activity set in my store.
Free Hole Punch Activity
Do you want to try one of the thematic hole punch activities from the set for free? You can get some ocean-themed fine motor printables…that include a fish-themed free hole punch activity. I know that your kids will get a kick out of punching holes in the bubbles!
Printable Hole Punch Craft Activities
There are so many benefits to making crafts with preschoolers. Because I know how much kiddos LOVE using hole punches, and because I know they need extra help developing hand strength, I started creating some printable fine motor crafts for kids.
These cute fine motor crafts all provide an opportunity for using a hole punch, PLUS your kids can also work on scissor skills and pre-writing skills.
Stop by this post about the printable fine motor craft activities to learn more.
Hole Punch Cutting and pasting Activities
I love hole punch and cutting strips. Kids can begin by punching holes into the images. Then, they can snip the lines to cut the pictures apart, which is a great way to build scissor skills. Finally, to get even more fine motor practice, get out the glue sticks, and your kids can use the strips for a cutting and pasting activity.
Hole Punch Counting Books
Want to add a little multi-sensory fun to a number and counting activity? Try a hole punch counting book. Your kids can count as they punch holes into each page of this 1-10 activity.
This hole punch counting book is available in the store.
Additional Hole Punch Activity Ideas for Your Kids
I love to add contrasting colored paper behind the punched image.
Provide glue sticks, paper, crayons, etc. Your kids will have so much fun creating that they won’t even know they are building muscles.
Get the Printable Hole Punch Activities Today
Are you ready to help your kids build hand strength? Here are the hole punch activities for preschool, kindergarten, and occupational therapy that you can find in my store. Click on the picture below to purchase the fun fine motor hole punch printables today.
Purchase Hole Punch Activities on TPT
Do you prefer to shop at Teachers Pay Teachers? You can also purchase the hole punch printables in my TPT Store.
What are Teachers Saying About Our Hole Punch Activities for Preschool?
“I could definitely see an increase in their hand strength after they had been out for some time.”
Jenna D.
“ Wonderful fine motor resource and it’s an activity the children in my classroom can’t wait to go to, they love the different pictures to hole punch. I am happy it helps with their fine motor skills. Big hit in our room, thank you. ”
Sandy D.
“ This was a hit during our fun Friday activities. It seems like a game, but is actually working on fine motor skills. The older students in my class (3,4,5) all wanted a turn with these activities, so it ended up working for everyone in our class. Who knew paper punching could be so rewarding!”
Linda E.
My Prek homeschoolers have been loving hope punching activities lately. I love that these are super low prep, just print on plain or colored paper if you choose, and cut into strips! There is such a variety that it’s been easy to match them up with our thematic units!
Scot E.
Additional Ways to Use Paper Punches
Looking for more ideas for hole punch activities for preschool or kindergarten classes? Check out these articles.
