Fine Motor Skills: Engaging Activities for EYFS and Early Years

If you are wondering why you keep hearing Fine Motor Skills mentioned and why it matters so much, then get ready for a good read!

Developing fine motor skills in early years is essential for helping children build independence, prepare for writing, and develop confidence in everyday tasks. These small muscle movements in the hands and fingers allow children to button coats, hold pencils, and use tools effectively. Without strong fine motor control, children can quickly feel frustrated and avoid activities that require precision. Is this making you think about one or two in your cohort right now? The ones that will do anything to avoid holding a pencil?

The good news? There are numerous ways that Fine motor skills can be strengthened through fun, hands-on activities both indoors and outdoors.

In this blog, we’ll explore a variety of fine motor skills activities for EYFS and Key Stage 1 settings and classrooms, from playdough fun to mud kitchen magic.

Indoor Fine Motor Skills Activities

Role Play Areas

Role play provides a natural opportunity to practise fine motor control. Stock your role play corners with dressing-up clothes, dolls’ outfits, and fabrics that feature buttons, zips, and fastenings. Encouraging children to dress up dolls or themselves builds the finger strength needed for independence.

Craft and Creative Corners

• Tape and Masking Tape: Peeling, tearing, and sticking tape develops grip and dexterity. Masking tape is especially versatile as it can be drawn on, making it perfect for mark-making activities.

• Playdough Fine Motor Activities: Adding small items such as googly eyes, matchsticks, or beads to your Play-Doh area makes play more challenging. Children practise pinching and placing, all while creating imaginative characters. This type of Play-Doh activity for fine motor skills is both fun and developmental.

Outdoor Fine Motor Skills in Continuous Provision

Mud Kitchens for Fine Motor Skills

Mud kitchens are brilliant and children love them but did you realise that they also provide a huge amount of opportunities to strengthen hand and finger muscles.

One way to start, is to make sure that you equip your mud kitchen with:

• Tongs and Potato Mashers for squeezing and pressing.

• Child-safe Scissors for cutting natural materials.

• Strainers and Tea Presses to inspire curiosity.

• Seed Packets or Herbs for pinching and sprinkling actions.

• Cornflour and Water Mixtures for messy play that strengthens finger muscles while feeling exciting and novel.

Tools and Utensils

Provide a mix of big and small tools to support different movements:

• Large saucepans (think of the type that restaurants use), big spoons and ladles  for stirring and mixing.

• Teaspoons and smallers spoons for more delicate actions.

• Pestle and mortar for grinding and squeezing to encourage the picking actions - sprinkling like seasoning.

With supervision, children can also practise with real tools like screwdrivers and soft wood, which develops coordination and gives them responsibility in a safe environment.

Weaving and Busy Boards

• Weaving Frames, Fences and Trellis: Perfect for weaving natural materials, sticks, or ribbons. This not only strengthens fine motor control but if you can source a trellis with square frames this also supports maths and pattern activities in EYFS such as tens frames and shape exercises.

• Busy Boards: Using padlocks, chains, and keys might look like simple tinkering, but they challenge children’s coordination and spark imaginative role play. A busy board can become a portal, a treasure chest, or a magical key—supporting both motor skills and creativity.

Dough Disco: Daily Fine Motor Fun

A Dough Disco routine is a brilliantly effective but also enjoyable idea that over time and if practised consistently, will build strong finger muscles. All you need is playdough and some lively music. Guide children through simple hand actions such as:

• Rolling dough backwards and forwards

• Kneading with knuckles

• Pinching between thumb and finger

• Flattening with palms

• Poking (“playing the piano”)

• Squeezing with fists

• Sprinkling by rubbing fingertips together

Changing the music tempo keeps the activity fresh, while inviting children to invent and make up names for their own moves, adds excitement and ownership. Just 5 minutes a day can make a visible difference to handwriting readiness!

Why Fine Motor Skills Matter in EYFS

Strong fine motor development in EYFS supports more than handwriting—it underpins independence, problem-solving, and resilience. By embedding activities like mud kitchen play, weaving, busy boards, and Dough Disco into your daily and continuous provision, you create an environment where children develop skills naturally through play.

These fine motor activities for early years are low-cost, engaging, and incredibly effective. Best of all, they allow children to learn while having fun.

Explore EYFS resources.