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Topic “Motor Skills”
Motor skills such as the skills required to manipulate a pencil.
Note that the original QCA P-Scales did not use this or a similar category. For level descriptions that relate to this area, see for example "Connecting Steps" from BSquared.
Fine motor skills to support writing skills
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Link Cubes Linkable cubes | Play games linking these together and pulling them apart. Who can build the biggest tower? | Have fun with the activities in this area. The activities are designed to build up both skill and strength with thumb and forefinger as a precursor to writing. . |
| Tweezers and clothes pegs Puppets Cotton wool Containers Tweezers Small things to pick up | Can the child put pegs on the puppet's hand/nose/arm etc? Can the child rescue the puppet from the clothes peg monster which has covered the puppet in pegs? Can the child be the clothes peg monster and cover the puppet in pegs? Can the child use tweezers to pull off bits of cotton wool and hide them/put them into a container/give them to a hungry puppet? Can the child feed a teddy small bits of paper balls/sponge etc using tweezers held in finger and thumb? | |
| Card Threading Lace and card with holes | Can the child follow a line to thread the lace through the pre-cut holes? Can the child undo the threading to start again? | |
| Necklaces Beads Threading lace | ||
| Toy nuts and bolts on a board. | ||
| Pegboard and pegs | ||
| Silly putty and small objects to hide | ||
| Stress balls | ||
| Bubble wrap | ||
| Shape sorter |
Improve pencil control and use a tripod grip
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Developing pencil control Graffiti Wall Large piece of paper Crayon or chalk | Stick a large piece of paper onto an open wall. Allow the child (or works well as a group activity as children will imitate each other) to go up to the wall and freely scribble onto the paper. | A vertical surface to draw on will build the child's arm and shoulder strength. |
| Rubbing Wax crayon Coins Letter stencils | ||
| Hand tracing Paper short piece of crayon or chalk | ||
| Colouring with a short crayon Simple pictures to colour in Short pieces of chalk or crayon | It is important that a short piece of chalk or crayon is used because it requires the child to use the fingertips correctly. |
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