20 + Small Manipulatives for Fine Motor
When looking in my therapy bag, there are a few things that I always have with me. For higher level fine motor work, I always like to have small little manipulatives and some Training Chopsticks
You can use almost any item as a small manipulative, and can use any tool in place of the chopsticks (as well as just using the fingers on their own).
Manipulative ideas:
- Squinkies
- Zinkies
- Pom poms
- Erasers
- Rocks
- Blocks
- Legos
- Counting bears
- Play dough
- Cut up straws
- Pieces of pipe cleaner
- Cereal
- M & M s
- q-tips
- cotton balls
- buttons
- decorative glass marbles
- marbles
- beads
- dry pasta
- fun foam shapes magnet
- balls
I like to use the training chopsticks with kids that need to work on higher level fine motor skills, but with kids that don’t need that added level of difficulty, they could use their fingers with the manipulatives, or use another tool.
Tools to use with the manipulatives:
- Chopsticks
- Tweezers
- Strawberry huller
- Finger tongs
- Clothespins
- Spoon
You can use many containers to place the manipulatives into, such as recycled butter tubs.
Containers for manipulatives:
- Butter tub
- Sour cream tub
- Coffee creamer container
- Muffin tin
- Muffin cups
- Parmesan cheese container
- Ice cube tray
- Bowl
- Munchy Ball
(tennis ball head)
- Egg carton
Check out more posts about chopsticks and tongs
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