A fine motor activity that focuses on hand strength using rubber bands.
I called this activity a game to my boys. They were super excited to play the game and wanted to know what it was called.
Here’s the thing: I didn’t have a name.
Fun Rubber Band Passing Fine Motor Game
Henry used that later in the game when he wasn’t doing part of it “right.” He said it didn’t really matter because it’s just a game I made up.
Oh goodness boy…
So, this is my made-up, “doesn’t really matter,” rubber band passing game.
To set up your own rubber band passing fine motor game, you’ll need:
- rubber bands
- small objects – we used golf tees
Building Hand Strength Through Play
I really wanted to work in a way to build hand strength. The entire object of this activity is to use the rubber band around their fingers so that when they open their hand up to grab something, it creates resistance.
So I first had to show the boys how to put the rubber band on and hold it on their hand so that this would happen.
George didn’t have any problem with this at all. He stuck it on, it stayed right in place and he went about the game as normal.
Henry’s rubber band kept slipping back because he’d open his hand up too far. This is why he said it didn’t really matter because my game was just made up anyway.
After they figured out the rubber band situation, I set them up with two cups. One empty. One full of golf tees.
Any small object would work for this. This is just what I had plenty of on hand.
The point of the game was for George to pick up and pass all the golf tees to Henry, who would then put them into the empty cup.
They loved it. So simple.
But because it was a “game” to them, it was more exciting than if I were to call it an exercise for their hands. Even though that’s exactly what it was!
Fine Motor Fun & Cooperative Play
In addition to it being a fine motor activity, it was also an activity for them to cooperate together.
Henry would ask George to get it another tee, or George would wait for Henry to be ready for another one. I loved seeing them work together.
I’m such a strong believer in fine motor skills that I teamed up with No Time for Flash Cards, Teach Preschool, and The Imagination Tree to chat about exactly this! We all shared different ways to build these critical skills in young children.
I loved talking to these incredible experts, discovering even more ways to work on fine motor skills with my boys!