Fine motor math is more than just a fine motor activity with math concepts. Here, we are covering specifically, the topic of how fine motor skills and math skills are connected. Increasing research is showing the connection between math and fine motor skills. In this activity, we’re looking at how these two seemingly different areas are closely connected.

In young learners, we see fine motor and math more often than with older students. The ability to problem solve (an early math building block) and fine motor go hand in hand. But it doesn’t stop there. We see in early learning the use of counters to support one-to-one correspondence.

Other early math skills that utilize fine motor skills include shapes, spatial concepts, math patterns, same and different skills, number identification, and counting objects. These early mathematical concepts support numerical skills and more abstract thinking further on. The development of early mathematical skills builds upon itself.

For this activity, we incorporated our Desert Cities theme into the developmental domain of mathematics to help our little ones practice these fine motor skills. Initially, they were directed to clap and count to 31 with their teacher. Following this, they were instructed to trace the number 31 with their finger. Thirty-one was our number of the week, so everyone had lots of practice learning about this big number! Thirdly, students were given 31 cactus cut-outs to place onto the numeral of thirty-one. Counting is fun when we do it together!