Fine motor exercise using newspaper

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! 

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! 

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.  

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 – 
            

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