You already juggle so much, you don’t need one more thing to plan and prep to make sure your preschoolers are working on key developmental skills. That’s why I love board games- you can target communication, language, social emotional, and fine motor skills, all with zero extra prep.

Our Occupational Therapist and Speech Language Pathologist (that’s me!) put together this approved list of “board games” for you to play with the 3 - 5 year olds in your class. When looking for games to play with your class that work on fine motor skills, look for ones with tongs, require picking up and manipulating small pieces, or fitting pieces in. These types of games are building hand strength, coordination, object manipulation, and bilateral coordination (using two hands together) which support later drawing, writing skills, and self help skills.

Crocodile Dentist- In order to press each tooth, the child must isolate their pointer finger which strengthens control needed for pointing and even holding a pencil correctly.

2. Shelby Snack Shack- Shelby the dog is actually tweezers which work on strength and eye hand coordination as children use Shelby to pick up the bones and drop them in their bowl. They also have to flick the spinner, working on strength, coordination, and finger isolation

3. Ants in pants the game- This game involves pressing on the ants so they pop up and into the pants. That requires the child to isolate their pointer finger and builds strength, both support future handwriting and self-help skills like buttoning.

4. Trouble- Children need strength to push down the bubble that rolls the dice, pincer grasp to pick up the game pieces and coordination to place the pieces in the correct hole.

5. Sneaky Snacky Squirrel- By picking up and placing the small acorns with the squirrel tweezers into a small hole, children are building strength and hand–eye coordination.

6. Hi-Ho! Cherry-O- Picking up the small fruits works on pincer grasp and eye hand coordination as they have to drop fruits into the small basket.

7. Hoppy Floppy Happy Hunt- The bunny is tweezers so children are building strength and eye hand coordination as they drop carrots into a basket.

8. Honey bee tree- To set up the game they need to use eye hand coordination to put the thin sticks into small holes building eye hand coordination. To play the game they need to grasp and remove the sticks and pick up any bees that fell.

9. Pop Up Pirate- inserting the swords into slots works on eye hand coordination, manipulating objects in their hand, and bilateral coordination as the child has to use their hands in two different ways- one holds the barrel and the other puts the sword in.

10. Zingo- Sliding the tile dispenser requires bilateral coordination as one hand stabilizes and the other pulls. Then they have to pick up and match tiles to pictures which works on object manipulation.

11. Diggin Doggies- Children press on the Mama dog which builds strength and then use their puppy to pick up bones and move them to their dog house which works on eye hand coordination.

12. Count your chickens- Moving small chicks into the coop requires pincer grasp and coordination while moving the Mama hen requires eye hand coordination.

Approved CEUs Training

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Approved CEUs Training 〰️

Want to learn more ways to support fine motor skills with your prek class? Join a training and earn your hours to maintain your child care license!