Shark Fine Motor Activities

Rosey | Posted on September 17, 2020 |

Pinterest Facebook Twitter Messenger WhatsApp Email

These shark fine motor activities are fun for Shark Week or literacy centers. They help kids learn about the “sh” digraph and develop fine motor skills too!

Fine Motor Activities

The following shark fine motor activities are a fun addition to literacy centers in preschool, kindergarten or first grade.

Sh Digraph Highlight and Hole Punch

Kids LOVE using bingo daubers, hole punches and highlighters to develop their fine motor skills!

Preparation – Print one worksheet per child and grab a highlighter and one hole punch. These are usually available in craft stores. You’ll also need a bingo dauber, but if you don’t have one just use a highlighter instead.

How to Play – Start by highlighting the “sh” sound in shark. Then use a bingo dauber to dab all of the circles with “sh” on the shark. After that, highlight all of the “sh” digraphs at the bottom of the page and then punch the holes. Kids can also use crayons or pencils to color in their shark.

Shark Sentence Scramble Craft

I love using the following activity as a writing craft. Cutting the sentence strip and around the shark is great for developing the kid’s fine motor skills in the area of cutting!

Preparation – Print the worksheet and grab all of the relevant materials such as scissors, glue and crayons. For the craft component you’ll need some edicol dye or black water color paint. I made mine with water and a few drops of black food coloring that I had in the pantry.

How to Play – Color in the “sh” digraph, shark eyes and teeth with a crayon (oil pastels work well too). Then paint the shark and allow it to dry. Meanwhile get a blue sheet of paper and draw some waves. Put the words in the correct sentence order and paste them at the bottom of the paper. Once the shark is dry, cut it out and paste it on the water.

Shark Pencil Control Practice

Tracing lines is a great way to develop fine motor skills. The following activity can be used as a worksheet or a laminated work mat.
Preparation – Print the worksheet and grab some crayons, pencils or markers. Alternatively, print and laminate the worksheet so you can use it with erasable markers or loose parts such as buttons.

How to Play – Trace the line from left to right using a pencil, crayon or marker. Then color in the sharks. An alternative activity you could do is line up buttons along the line. Kids could even roll a long piece of playdough and bend it into the shapes on the mats.

Shark Cutting Practice

After many years of seeing some students struggle to develop their scissor skills, I discovered the magic of thick lines to help develop their confidence! The following fine motor activity helps kids learn to cut towards a target.

Preparation – Print the cutting practice worksheet and grab some scissors. Try to have the option of left handed scissors available for kids who need them. This activity is fun to print on colored paper for a bit of a treat!

How to Play – Start by showing the kids how to hold the scissors (thumb in the small handle and last three fingers through the larger handle). Then place the scissors at the bottom of the line and cut towards the shark and stop. I often sing the song “Open, shut them, give a little cut, cut, cut (or snip, snip, snip).

If you’re looking for more cutting practice activities with thick lines click here.