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Fine motor exercise using newspaper

March 10, 2015 by Kate 6 Comments

Here is a simple and fun fine motor development exercise you can get your children to do at home or in the classroom. All you need is a single sheet of newspaper! It’s a fine motor exercise using newspaper! 

Fine motor activity using newspaper
As a classroom teacher of ten years, I’ve come across many children who need help in developing their fine motor skills. Of course fine motor skills, which is the coordination of those little hand muscles, are so very important. They help children in self care, such as threading buttons on a shirt, and holding a pencil so they can write. 

Fortunately there are a number of great fine motor activities available, but this one I used daily in my own classroom. I love it because it’s super quick to get kids to do and can be a warm up exercise to any other activity to be completed. 

All you need is a single piece of newspaper per child. Easy! 

Toddler fine motor activity and exercises using newspaper
The challenge is to get children to scrunch a piece of paper into the palm of a single hand. 

Simply ask your child to sit comfortably at a table and rest the wrist of their hand on the closest corner of an open sheet of newspaper. Using only their fingers, ask them to scrunch up the sheet of paper into the palm of their hand. Most importantly, their wrist MUST remain on the table throughout the exercise and their elbow and shoulder low and comfortable. See the image above.  

Developing fine motor skills using newspaper

There is absolutely no time frame for the child to complete this exercise and the focus should initially be on the child using the correct technique. Do they have their wrist resting on the corner or the newspaper at all times? Are they sitting comfortably with their elbow and shoulder low?

Variation: If this is too challenging for your child to initially complete, you may wish to use tissue paper as it won’t require as much strength in the fingers to scrunch. You could also cut the piece of paper so that it isn’t as large and there is less for the child to scrunch up into their hand. 

This exercise can easily be tailored to suit the needs of your child or children. Like I said, I loved that this fine motor exercise simply requires a sheet of newspaper on a table to complete and the rests you will clearly notice over time. It’s quite amazing! 

Would this be useful to you in the classroom or home? 

You might also want to check out my other fine motor activities – 
Fine motor activity in making velcro chains        Fairy Playdough using three ingredients    blending and mixing colours in dropper activities.

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Filed Under: 1 - 3 years, 3 - 5 years, 5 - 10 years, Fine Motor Tagged With: fine motor

Comments

  1. Julia says

    March 16, 2015 at 9:27 pm

    Fantastic and very simple idea. Every mum can do this with her baby or toddler. Many thanks!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      March 17, 2015 at 11:13 pm

      It’s so quick and easy, isn’t it Julia. I love that. All the best and thank you so kindly for taking the time to comment. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Emma says

    March 22, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    I love this simple idea. Is the idea to only do the scrunching with one hand only? My teacher told me that my 5 year old needs to do more of these sort of exercises to improve his fine motor skills. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      March 22, 2015 at 5:07 pm

      Hi Emma! Yes, the idea is to really only do it with one hand, but if your 5 year old is feeling that is too difficult then be sure to vary the type of paper and its size to make it achievable. Then you can build up to a full sized piece of newspaper. I always got incredible results with this simple exercise approach. Best wishes. 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 34 Creative Play Activities for Babies Under 1 Year says:
    September 22, 2015 at 9:09 pm

    […] 17. Newspaper Scrunch […]

    Reply
  2. 5 Ways to Have Fun with Newspaper Activities | Hands On As We Grow® says:
    September 1, 2021 at 9:00 am

    […] The Newspaper Scrunch is a fine motor activity from “Laughing Kids Learn” a wonderful site where Kate makes learning fun. […]

    Reply

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Hello and welcome!
My name is Kate and I am a mum to two little girls, Possum and Boo. We have lots of fun together learning with play at home and are pleased to share some of what we do with you.
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