Teaching art has so many benefits for children. It helps them cultivate their creativity, sharpen their ability to problem solve, strengthen their ability to focus, and develop kids’ fine motor skills.
I’ve spent years observing how young students learn art, and in my experience I’ve seen how sensory art projects and art-making actions can help students achieve better control of their fine motor skills. When I teach my own classes or go into Montessori classrooms, I often teach clay play modeling and sensory painting, I’ve found that these types of activities—as well as others—can help students develop their skills quickly over a short period of time.
Importance of Fine Motor Skills for Kids
It’s important to understand how fine motor development plays a role in a child’s daily life, both inside and outside of school.
They give kids the strength to press, push, pull, and squeeze so they can learn and be able to dress themselves, tie their own shoes, eat without assistance, and play outdoors safely. In the classroom, this translates to holding a pencil to write, using scissors safely, handling papers, opening lunch and supply boxes, and using art supplies (like glue) without a mess.
Fine motor development also helps with healthy cognitive processing at early ages.
Increasingly, over the years, preschoolers and kindergarteners are coming to my classes and workshops with little to no finger or hand-strength capabilities. Many Montessori teachers have also shared with me that students are entering their classrooms without the capabilities of completing simple tasks.
Because these basic skills are lacking, it’s slowing down student progression in the classrooms.
I’ve discovered, when working with upper elementary students who lack art making experience, 1 out of 5 of those students usually has sensory issues that prevent them from successfully manipulating art materials. They’re also deficient in spatial experience knowledge, which affects their ability to imagine conceptual ideas for planning. In other words, if a child has not physically built or created something using their own sensory system, they cannot understand how ideas come together and resist taking risks in exploring their creativity.
There hasn’t been any official research or studies into the causes of this decrease in motor development, but there are a number of reasons why it might be happening. For instance, students are spending more time indoors on tablet screens; infants are encouraged to lie on their backs more, rather than on their tummies to help lower the risk of SIDS, and parents simply doing more for their toddlers because they worry about safety or messes.
Using Art to Develop Fine Motor Skills
Whatever the reasons, art activities are an excellent way to build those small fine motor muscles. Introducing art to students at a young age leads to healthy cognitive sensory development and developed fine motor muscles that they can use and create with as they age.
Some teachers might be worried that their students aren’t mature enough for independent art activities, like using scissors safely and painting, but there are several ways to help students strengthen their muscles without mess or injury.
Typically, I start my students out with clay modeling, paint brush stroking, and safety scissor activities which all help develop fine motor strength quickly.
Here are some great art projects that can be adapted for early childhood, lower elementary, and upper elementary students. These types of art making activities will help students develop fine motor control and small muscles in their fingers and hands.
Fine Motor Art Projects:
- Beading and stringing
- Beeswax forming
- Bubble wrap stamping
- Clay cookie cutter shapes
- Clay modeling
- Clay pressing sculptures
- Crafting with string
- Crayon rubbing
- Cutting foam fabric
- Dropper painting
- Glue bottle art
- Gluing sticks and recycled paper scraps
- Lego building
- Origami
- Painting
- Paper airplane making
- Paper crafting
- Popsicle structures
- Potato stamping
- Printmaking
- Snowflake paper cutting
- Sponge painting
- Sponge stamping
- Squeeze bottle painting
- Stamping
- Sticker collaging
If you would like to learn more about my natural art teaching methods, register for my FREE mini digital course, Phases of Art Development Video.
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