What is Funky Fingers?

Funky Fingers a series of fun activities for children to build up their upper body strength (gross motor skills) and finger/hand strength and control (fine motor skills). There are a wealth of activities that you can do with your child to improve these skills and get them ready to write. I can recommend visiting the website ‘Therapy Street for Kids’ which has a lot of information on the different skills to develop as well as lots of great ideas.

On this page there are:

• Pre-writing and early writing activity ideas to get you started
• Videos with demonstrations of pre-writing activities and guidance
• Examples of warm ups children can do before picking up their pencil
• A video to demonstrate the ‘dynamic tripod’ grip
• The letter families to help you practice at home

Pre-writing activities to get you started:

• Complete activities whilst lying on their tummy, taking the weight through their elbows.    E.g. watching TV, reading a book, puzzles.
• Climbing, seesaw, tug of war and swing activities with the child holding onto ropes.
• Craft activities – cutting, scrunching, gluing and ripping paper and bending pipe cleaners.
• Toy tools such as sawing, drilling, hammering, screws and bolts.
• Games involving flicking small objects e.g. flicking balls of paper of a table into a ‘goal’.
• Place a firm elastic band around tips of fingers and thumb. Open and close it 10 times with each hand.
• Dough gym – pinching, pressing, rolling, squeezing
• Holding a handful of items in hand and posting them into a jar one by one (buttons, coins)
• Picking up items with pegs, tongs, tweezers.
• Swimming
• Ribbon dancing
• Threading beads, straws etc.
• Walking fingers e.g. along tape placed on the table. Ring and little finger curled out of the way.
• Pop bubble wrap
• Turn keys in padlocks
• Tying knots into string and linking paper clips
• Posting items into the ‘hungry guy’ (tennis ball with slit in the top)
• Picking up sequins off a table or stickers off a sticker sheet
• Interlocking construction

Early writing activities:

• Tracing and stencil activities
• Colouring in activities, staying inside the lines.
• Dot to dots
• Drawing letter shapes in the air to music
• Copying over letter shapes
• Drawing letters in sand or shaving foam spread thinly on a table.
• Write with chalk, crayons, finger paints, pencils, pens etc.
• Write letters in the air with eyes shut.
• Recognition of letters through touch (stick letters, magnetic letters, fuzzy felt, sand paper letters).
• Drawing or writing on vertical surfaces (chalkboard, whiteboard, tiles at bath time with bath pens).
• Drawing or writing with chalks on the ground or pavement
• Water painting on outdoor walls with paintbrush.

Letter family groups:

Long ladder letters:

l, i, t, u, j, y

One arm robot letters:

r, b, n, h, m, k, p

Curly caterpillar letters:

c, a, d, o, s, g, q, e, f

Zig-zag monster letters:

z, v, w, x