Fine Motor Activities
Pinching Skills
Rythm Shaker - Make a rythm shaker with a plastic egg and rice. Have your students use various fingers to pinch the rice from a bowl or plate and empty it into the egg. Seal well with a strong glue and use when teaching eigth notes.
Sprinkles on Cookies - Have frosted cutout cookies ready when your students arrive (can be cut out as music notes or clefs). Have a bowl or plate of sprinkles out and ask your students to use various fingers to pinch the sprinkles and drop them on the frosted cookies. Send them home to enjoy after their lesson.
Pecking Hen
- Learning finger names and exercises firm fingers have students pretent their thumb is a hen pecking seeds from each finger. Ex: say "peck from finger 2" the student would press the tips of finger 2s (index fingers) and his/her thumbs (finger 1s, the hens) firmly two times, then move on to finger 3, etc... Quiz by requesting finger numbers out of order.
- Check out Faber's many Hen/Rooster exercises at http://pianoadventures.com/guide/08-09_the_pecking_rooster_hen.html
Whole Hand/Individual Fingers Finger Plays
"Open Them Shut Them" - This is a great hand muscle exercise as well as opening activity to get students/groups focused and ready to begin a lesson. (See the first 19 seconds of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNUZBHlRH4Y).
"Where is Thumbkin?" - This finger play is great for developing dexterity and finger muscles. Change the thumbkin family names to "One Man," "Two Man," etc. to learn finger numbers. (Here's one example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLR98iCcYOI)
Simon Says - To exersice finger muscles and quiz finger number knowledge, play a game of Simon Says by asking them to shake, point, or bend fingers by number names.
Squeezing - Grab some PlayDoh to squish and mold or real dough to kneed and bake! These activities work your arms, wrists, hands, and fingers!
- Mini PayDoh containers make great gifts
- You can make a squishy-ball by filling a heavy duty balloon with PlayDoh for pre/post-practice hand muscle exercises.
Piano Finger Twister - I love this finger fun activity from Joy Morin - http://colorinmypiano.com/2012/02/20/just-added-piano-finger-twister-game/
Sprinkles on Cookies - Have frosted cutout cookies ready when your students arrive (can be cut out as music notes or clefs). Have a bowl or plate of sprinkles out and ask your students to use various fingers to pinch the sprinkles and drop them on the frosted cookies. Send them home to enjoy after their lesson.
Pecking Hen
- Learning finger names and exercises firm fingers have students pretent their thumb is a hen pecking seeds from each finger. Ex: say "peck from finger 2" the student would press the tips of finger 2s (index fingers) and his/her thumbs (finger 1s, the hens) firmly two times, then move on to finger 3, etc... Quiz by requesting finger numbers out of order.
- Check out Faber's many Hen/Rooster exercises at http://pianoadventures.com/guide/08-09_the_pecking_rooster_hen.html
Whole Hand/Individual Fingers Finger Plays
"Open Them Shut Them" - This is a great hand muscle exercise as well as opening activity to get students/groups focused and ready to begin a lesson. (See the first 19 seconds of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNUZBHlRH4Y).
"Where is Thumbkin?" - This finger play is great for developing dexterity and finger muscles. Change the thumbkin family names to "One Man," "Two Man," etc. to learn finger numbers. (Here's one example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLR98iCcYOI)
Simon Says - To exersice finger muscles and quiz finger number knowledge, play a game of Simon Says by asking them to shake, point, or bend fingers by number names.
Squeezing - Grab some PlayDoh to squish and mold or real dough to kneed and bake! These activities work your arms, wrists, hands, and fingers!
- Mini PayDoh containers make great gifts
- You can make a squishy-ball by filling a heavy duty balloon with PlayDoh for pre/post-practice hand muscle exercises.
Piano Finger Twister - I love this finger fun activity from Joy Morin - http://colorinmypiano.com/2012/02/20/just-added-piano-finger-twister-game/
Writing Utensils
Using pens, pencils, crayons, markers, paint brushes and other utensils help develop dexterity.
Writing activities can be as simple as completing theory assignments or as complex as hand-writing a research paper on a famous composer.
Drawing/Coloring can be as basic as filling in a design on a recital program (left) or as detailed as a student can create a design for the lyrics of a song he/she composed.
- Introduce new students with my "What Do You Need to Play the Piano?" drawing worksheet at http://pianosoup.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/2/4/15240846/what_do_you_need_to_play_a_piano.pdf
- Creating Crazy Os is a fun activity for students young and old! Simply give your students a writing utensil to use with different finger-thumb combinations with each hand. Have them draw Os as falling snow on a winter sky, Easter eggs on a spring background, or notes on the staff. It's fun to experience the ease and difficulties of various trials.
Painting and fingerpainting can offer just as much and more fun...if you have the time and space!
Writing activities can be as simple as completing theory assignments or as complex as hand-writing a research paper on a famous composer.
Drawing/Coloring can be as basic as filling in a design on a recital program (left) or as detailed as a student can create a design for the lyrics of a song he/she composed.
- Introduce new students with my "What Do You Need to Play the Piano?" drawing worksheet at http://pianosoup.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/2/4/15240846/what_do_you_need_to_play_a_piano.pdf
- Creating Crazy Os is a fun activity for students young and old! Simply give your students a writing utensil to use with different finger-thumb combinations with each hand. Have them draw Os as falling snow on a winter sky, Easter eggs on a spring background, or notes on the staff. It's fun to experience the ease and difficulties of various trials.
Painting and fingerpainting can offer just as much and more fun...if you have the time and space!
So many other fun things to do!
Origami - Origmai uses fine motor skills and lots of brain power! Paper can be folded into so many animals and shapes, even pianos! Check out the istructions at http://www.ptg.org/userfiles/file/learningCenter/Fold_A_Vertical_Piano1.pdf or search the web for 100s of other patterns to fold.
Legos - Putting together small Lego brick sets are great for building fine motor skills, following directions, spatial-reasoning… The LEGO Friends Andrea's Stage (3932) gives an added bonus for young pianists of a Lego figure, Andrea, who is a pianist herself, with her piano and stage. Great for children to use with their imaginations and build confidence and interest in their own piano performances.
Sewing/Lacing Cards - Sewing cards are great for dexterity and make a wonderful recycled craft. Just rip or cut the front of a greeting card, have your students use a hole punch (hand muscles) to punch holes around the border of the card, and hand them some ribbon or yarn to weave in and out of the holes. You can get many additional ideas (including cookes!) and printable patterns from http://pinterest.com/bonkaperry/crafts-sewing-cards-for-kids/
More about Legos...
“Not only do Legos stimulate creativity and lateral thinking, they also help build dexterity and developing math and pattern skills. By interlocking matching colors and styles children learn the use of patterns which develops key math skills. With the color choices, and how they interlock, children learn important problem solving skills. On their website, Lego.com, you can find some educational materials that will help parents and educators alike. There are many other useful articles on their site which help develop learning skills with their product. The website contains complete educational videos, articles and even training for working with Legos.” From http://EzineArticles.com/2640132
Lego Parents - http://parents.lego.com/en-us/ChildDevelopment/default.aspx
Lego Educators - http://www.legoeducation.us/
Legos - Putting together small Lego brick sets are great for building fine motor skills, following directions, spatial-reasoning… The LEGO Friends Andrea's Stage (3932) gives an added bonus for young pianists of a Lego figure, Andrea, who is a pianist herself, with her piano and stage. Great for children to use with their imaginations and build confidence and interest in their own piano performances.
Sewing/Lacing Cards - Sewing cards are great for dexterity and make a wonderful recycled craft. Just rip or cut the front of a greeting card, have your students use a hole punch (hand muscles) to punch holes around the border of the card, and hand them some ribbon or yarn to weave in and out of the holes. You can get many additional ideas (including cookes!) and printable patterns from http://pinterest.com/bonkaperry/crafts-sewing-cards-for-kids/
More about Legos...
“Not only do Legos stimulate creativity and lateral thinking, they also help build dexterity and developing math and pattern skills. By interlocking matching colors and styles children learn the use of patterns which develops key math skills. With the color choices, and how they interlock, children learn important problem solving skills. On their website, Lego.com, you can find some educational materials that will help parents and educators alike. There are many other useful articles on their site which help develop learning skills with their product. The website contains complete educational videos, articles and even training for working with Legos.” From http://EzineArticles.com/2640132
Lego Parents - http://parents.lego.com/en-us/ChildDevelopment/default.aspx
Lego Educators - http://www.legoeducation.us/