• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

PreKinders

Ideas for Pre-K & Preschool Teachers

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use
  • Help
    • Printing Help
  • Shop
  • Learning Areas
    • Literacy
    • Math
    • Science
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fine Motor
    • Christian Activities
  • Themes
  • Teaching Ideas
    • Centers
    • Teaching Tips
    • Assessment
    • Back to School
    • End of Year
  • Printables
    • Literacy Printables
    • Math Printables
    • Science Printables
    • Music Printables
    • Visual Discrimination Printables
    • Classroom Management Printables

Fall Fine Motor Fun

By Karen Cox | Affiliate Disclosure

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Here are nine Fall fine motor activities to use with your Pre-K students. These activities emphasize building the fine motor muscles to help with pencil grasp.

Fall Fine Motor for Pre-K

Download: Fall Printable Pack

Note: This is a free printable, just click to download.


This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Popsicle Stick Pictures

Children will place the popsicle sticks on the mat to create the pumpkin, apple, wagon, and basket. You will need orange, red, and brown popsicle sticks for this activity. Colored popsicle sticks can be purchased, or make them by coloring popsicle sticks with a non-washable marker or liquid watercolor.

Fall Fine Motor Popsicle Stick Mats

Toothpick Punch or Pinning Activity

Children will love this Fall toothpick punch activity, and without knowing it, they will be practicing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Print and copy the pumpkin punch onto construction paper. You will also need toothpicks and a carpet square. Carpet stores often give away these carpet sample squares for free. You can also just place the construction paper directly onto a carpet covered floor.

After placing the construction paper on the carpet, children will use the toothpick to punch holes along the black lines. Some teachers prefer to use the giant thumbtack pins. I prefer the toothpicks. If they break, children throw them away and get another. When they are done, kids can hold their paper up to the light and see the light shining through the holes.

Fall Fine Motor Toothpick Punch Printable

Fall Play Dough Mat

Print the play dough mat and have children create the squirrel and owl by rolling the play dough and placing it onto the mat.

Fall Fine Motor Play Dough Printable

Watercolor Drops

For this activity, draw a pumpkin or leaf shape on a plain white paper towel using a permanent black marker, like a Sharpie. It must be permanent ink, not a regular black marker. I just free-handed the shapes when I drew them. Use liquid watercolor (mine is Colorations from Discount School Supply), or food color. Pour the watercolor into a paint palette or small dish. Children will use medicine droppers to squeeze drops of watercolor onto the paper towel.

The watercolor will spread outside of the outline, but that’s okay. The point is to have fun while exercising the fine motor muscles.

Tip: place paper underneath the paper towel to soak up the extra watercolor because it will bleed through onto the table.

Fall Fine Motor Fun #1

Seeds & Tweezers

When you’re done using your pumpkins for displays in the classroom or other activities, cut them open & let the kids pick out the seeds using tweezers.

Fall Fine Motor
Fall Fine Motor

Spooning

To make this pumpkin fine motor activity, ask for an egg crate tray from a cafeteria. Paint the egg tray orange and add a green paper stem.

The children fill the crate with glass floral gems (a.k.a. flat marbles) using a spoon to dip the gems out of a container. When the tray is filled, they remove them one at a time.  You could also provide black and orange stones and let them make a face for the pumpkin. 

This idea comes from PreKinders reader, Martha Berry.

Fall Fine Motor 4

Sand Art

Sand art is a great fine motor activity because children can pinch the colored sand with their fingers to apply it to their artwork. Provide a leaf outline (or have the children draw one), a small bowl of white glue, a small bowl of colored sand, and a “glue brush”. I buy the cheap paintbrushes with stiff bristles that are sold in a package for $1 at dollar stores. These brushes are not good enough quality for painting, but they make great glue brushes. Children paint the glue on their paper with the brush, pinch some sand with their fingers, and sprinkle it over the glue. Place a pan, tray, or paper plate on the table for children to shake off the excess sand.

Leaf Sand Art 1
Leaf Sand Art 2

Post originally published Oct. 12, 2009. Updated in 2019.


Find more Fine Motor Activities here:

Winter Fine Motor Activities
Spring Fine Motor Activities
Summer Fine Motor Activities

You’ll also love these resources…

TPT Fall Writing Center
TPT Math Journals October
Welcome!
Would you like to join my FREE weekly update newsletter? Join 85,000+ subscribers!
We collect, use, and process your data according to our Privacy Policy.
Don't worry - we never sell or share email addresses!

14 Comments

About Karen Cox

Karen is the founder of PreKinders.com. She also works as a full-time Pre-K teacher in Georgia. Read more...

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nicole says

    October 12, 2009 at 9:28 pm

    We just did a project very similar to this over the weekend. I’ll be posting it later this week (hopefully Wednesday). I love your idea of using droppers and food coloring – much more vivid colors than the markers and spray bottle we used! Beautiful pictures! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Desiree says

    October 13, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    I like doing this activity with jumbo coffee filters! 🙂 I LOVE all of your ideas.

    Reply
  3. Polprav says

    October 16, 2009 at 11:23 am

    Hello from Russia!
    Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?

    Reply
  4. Mailin Lora says

    October 30, 2009 at 6:31 pm

    I will try this idea on Monday is going to be a lot of fun for my preschoolers.

    Reply
  5. Karen says

    October 30, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    Thanks!

    Reply
  6. Harendra Lawati says

    March 3, 2010 at 9:35 am

    I like your site very much which I am going to use in near future in my newly opening pre-school.

    Reply
  7. Mindy Singo says

    March 6, 2012 at 4:15 pm

    I love Liquid Water Color from Discount – I use it for everything to color noodles to rice to play dough. It is fantastic stuff and washes right out of everything

    Reply
    • Karen says

      March 7, 2012 at 7:13 pm

      I agree, Mindy! 🙂

      Reply
  8. Linda says

    September 11, 2013 at 1:25 pm

    I am a new teacher to Pre-K. Thank you for your ideas.

    Reply
  9. Ashley Reina says

    September 18, 2013 at 10:00 pm

    I love this! I have linked to it on my pre-school lesson blog. I love the simplicity. They come out really beautiful. Thank you!

    Reply
  10. Angela M. says

    September 20, 2013 at 4:34 pm

    Wow! I’m so glad I found your site. My 4 year old son is struggling with his fine motor skills. It appears he’s not interested in doing things that require that skill to be developed. I found at least 7 activities that hopefully will spark his interest. His other skills have developed well and I was getting a little discouraged by finding this out from his teacher. Thanks for the ideas!

    Reply
  11. Ateka says

    October 1, 2015 at 3:25 pm

    I love ur site. And I am using these ideas for my son.

    Reply
  12. Carrie Zeitz says

    October 7, 2019 at 12:02 pm

    My students LOVED doing the pumpkin punches!!! I was trying to see if you had something similar for other themes….?

    Reply
    • Karen Cox says

      November 19, 2019 at 8:20 pm

      Hi Carrie, I’ll make some for other seasons.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Visit My Shop!

Welcome!

Glad you're here! You'll find hands-on learning activities, themes, and printables for Pre-K, Preschool, and Kindergarten kids. I'm Karen Cox, a Pre-K teacher in Georgia. I have taught 4-5 year olds for 20+ years! Read More…

Get Free Updates!

Before Footer

WE BELIEVE IN HANDS-ON, ACTIVE, & PLAYFUL LEARNING TO INSPIRE YOUNG MINDS

Serving Pre-K teachers, parents, & kids worldwide since 2000

Get Our Free Weekly Newsletter

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Contact
  • Free Updates
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · PreKinders.com

Welcome!
Would you like free weekly email updates?
Join 85,000+ subscribers!
We collect, use, and process your data according to our Privacy Policy.
Don't worry - we never sell or share email addresses!
Welcome!
Would you like to join my FREE weekly update newsletter? Join 85,000+ subscribers!
We collect, use, and process your data according to our Privacy Policy.
Don't worry - we never sell or share email addresses!