Differentiation

How to Build Hand Strength in the Art Room with Everyday Items

Lindsey McGinnis | December 19, 2024

Join pediatric occupational therapist, Dani Dermer, as she shares TONS of simple strategies and activity ideas to build hand strength in the art room for all ages. Use common, everyday items to increase fine motor skills like spray bottles, eye droppers, a variety of papers, tongs or tweezers, play dough, and hole punchers. If you’re able to provide modified tools, Dani shares options for scissors and hole punchers too! Incorporate these activities in short bursts in your existing art projects to give students opportunities to strengthen whole hand muscles. It will also make things like wedging or pinching clay, cutting thick paper with scissors, or squeezing paint bottles so much easier!

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Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lindsey McGinnis

Lindsey McGinnis is AOEU’s Media Content Manager and a former high school art educator. She is passionately equipping art teachers to be successful in their classrooms and firmly believes that art is the best place for students to explore and process the challenging topics and concepts around them.

How to Build Hand Strength in the Art Room with Everyday Items

Lindsey McGinnis

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