As the new school year kicks off, establishing strong routines right from the start is key to a smooth transition! One of the best ways to keep your brand-new kinders engaged during morning work is with these back to school fine motor activities for morning tubs. These hands-on activities not only help develop essential fine motor skills but also provide meaningful practice with early math and literacy concepts—perfect for morning tubs, centers, or early finishers! Plus, they give you, the teacher, a few precious moments to manage all those busy morning responsibilities!

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Literacy Back to School Fine Motor Activities

These literacy back to school fine motor activities are not only perfect for morning tubs, but they are also great for centers and early finishers!

Best of all, they’re easy to prep with supplies you likely already have in your classroom!

Packing up the ABCs

For this first morning tub activity, the students will match the uppercase and lowercase letters and link each pair together.

Play Dough Letters

To practice both uppercase and lowercase letter formation, the students will use play dough to form each letter.

Bus Route Paths

Strengthen those small muscles in the hands and fingers with this pre-writing activity. Students grab a dry erase marker and trace the various types of lines.

Sticky Syllables

For this morning tub, the students roll three balls of play dough and place one ball inside each glue dot. Then, they smash one ball for each syllable they hear in the word.

Alphabet Builder

Pattern blocks are a must-have math manipulative, and your students will love using them to build both uppercase and lowercase letters… all while strengthening fine motor skills and letter recognition.

Lunch Box Letters

The students will use clothespins to clip the correct letters as shown on the lunch box for this letter recognition activity.

Bus Stop Rhymes

Keep those clothespins handy for this rhyming activity. The students will use a clothespin to mark whether the pair of pictures rhyme or do not rhyme.

ABC Book Order

To work on alphabetical order, the students will use chain links to connect the books in ABC order.

Beginning Sound Easels

For this beginning sound activity, the students will clip the correct alphabet clothespin to the top of each easel.

Magnifying Matches

The students will cover the correct letters with bingo chips or pom poms for this letter recognition activity.

Back to School Builders

The students will work on building vocabulary, as they use snap cubes, to build each back to school design.

Math Back to School Fine Motor Activities

Although the students always enjoy the literacy back to school fine motor activities, we can’t forget to sneak in some fine motor math activities! Here’s a little peek inside:

Colorful Crayons

For this fine motor activity, the students will sort the colored clothespins to the correct crayon box.

School Bus Numbers

To practice number formation, the students will use play dough to form each school bus number.

Number Builder

Similar to the “Alphabet Builder” activity, the students will use pattern blocks to build each number 1-10.

Number Puzzle Pencils

First, the students will strengthen their scissor cutting skills as they cut the pencil into parts. Next, they will assemble the pencil in numerical order.

Measuring Markers

The students will work on nonstandard measurement, as they measure the length of each marker using linking cubes.

Notebook Numbers

The students will practice 1:1 counting by using chain links to show each number.

Shape Schools

To recognize 2D shapes, the students will clip a clothespin to the correct shape.

Count the Passengers

For this math activity, the students will use pom poms, mini erasers, or any other manipulative to show the number of passengers.

Schoolhouse Sorting

Students will sort the pony beads by color and slide them onto the pipe cleaners to match the correct colored schoolhouse.

School Bus Patterns

The students will create an extend each pattern using pom poms.

Are There Enough?

First, the students will count the items. Then, they will use a clothespin to show if the number of items are equal.

Tools for Back to School Fine Motor Activities

Here is a complete list of tools the students will need to complete these back to school fine motor activities:

• Chain Links
• Play Dough
• Dry Erase Markers
• Pattern Blocks
• Clothespins
• Colored Clothespins
• Bingo Chips
• Pom Poms
• Snap Cubes
• Linking Cubes
• Pony Beads
• Pipe Cleaners
• Clothespins with Letters

Back to School Fine Motor Activities

Grab all 20 math and literacy back to school fine motor activities, including two bonus activities here!

More Back to School Activities

If you love these back to school fine motor activities, you will love these back to school centers!

For a full list of back to school activities, crafts, and games, checkout this post!

You might also love these name activities and crafts for back to school!

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