Fine motor activities
& early learning
Program, resources, workshops & OT services
my Fantastic Fingers®
Fantastic Fingers® Program Videos
The Fantastic Fingers® Fine Motor & Early Learning Program has 100 hands-on developmental activities to improve children's posture, fine motor & prewriting skills, develop attention, pre-reading, early numeracy skills & more.
If you haven't bought this product with the book, music & video access, you can view several free song & activity videos plus two short Fine Motor 101 training videos.
-
Watch the videos in order below following the developmental progression as outlined the book.
-
You can also watch by topic by selecting from these boxes.
-
Not sure what activity videos to start with? Use my free fine motor skills & ability readiness check & see the fine motor milestones for ages 2 to 6 years.
Introduction to the Fantastic Fingers® Program - Ingrid explains the need for this program in schools & homes. She mentions some of the benefits for children today.
Fine Motor 101 Part 1 - How do children's fine motor skills develop from ages birth to six? This will alert you to when children's fine motor skills are delayed. It will help you to understand the need for a developmental approach.
Fine Motor 101 Part 2 - How can we help children have the foundations for good handwriting? This videos explains how the Fantastic Fingers® program covers important foundations or components for writing.
Parachute Pretend Track 1 - In this fun original song using a parachute (or sheet or tubes) the children really work the muscles in their shoulder region while they pretend to be snakes, dinosaurs, elephants & eagles.
This is followed by activities to develop core & upper body strength as well as counting.
See pages 16-19 & 88.
Ribbon Dance Track 2 - This song using ribbons is popular with children. While developing strength in their shoulder region, they learn about position in space concepts e.g. up & down & side to side. The activities which follow include games with balls & balloons. Use with pages 20-23 & 89-95 for the worksheets of the numeracy & literacy extension activities.
Wrist Rhymes Track 3 - This easy to teach action song builds strength in children's wrist muscles as they pretend to be different animals. Strong wrist extensor muscles provide stability for the hand. After the song effective fine motor activities are demonstrated. See pp 24-27 of the book. Use the animal character worksheets on pp 96-100 & also choose from pp 160-186.
Alphabet Fishing Track 4 - While the ABC song plays, the children strengthen their wrist muscles by fishing for letters or words as they wind in a string. Use with pp 28-31 & the worksheets specified for the extension activities which develop motor skills & teach numeral name & order, initial sounds, blending & simple addition.
Clever Caterpillar Track 5 - This is an original, well loved song about the life cycle of a caterpillar & develops very specific finger movements needed for good pencil control. The activities that follow on pp 32-35 increase strength in the fingers & improve cutting with scissors. Use the worksheets specified & see pp 72-74 for tips on making cutting easier.
Our Hands Track 6 - This song to the catchy tune of 'The Wheels on the Bus' uses actions in shaving foam or other media. While improving tactile sensory processing, children learn about early literacy concepts such top to bottom & left to right. Refer to pp 36-39 of the book for more including the extension learning activities.
Finger Song Track 7 - This song develops isolated finger movements important for manipulating a pencil & counting on the fingers during the early stages of addition & subtraction. The Fantastic Fingers® characters of Tricky Thumb & friends are introduced. Other activities are also demonstrated. See pp 40-41 & 38-39.
Five Fingers Track 8 - This song teachers children about their left & right hands. It's developmentally more advanced than the finger play from Track 7. The activity with the play dough is really simple to do & gives good sensory input while increasing finger strength. See pp 42-23 & pp 38-39 for the program sheet & extension activities.
Let's Go Track 9 - This little story introduces the Fantastic Fingers® characters Tricky Thumb, Patty Pointer, Mickey Middle, Roly Ring & Lulu Little. It teaches the finger names for holding the pencil in a good grip. Use this video with my free illustrated story called Let's Go - Learn Good Pencil Grip. See pp 44-45 & pp 75-76 for pencil grip tips.
I Love Popcorn Track 10 - You might know this song but the actions are new. Children who can touch their thumb to each finger tip in sequence are ready to control a pencil & start learning to write letters & numbers. See pp 46-49 of my book. There are some very important activities here & they should be repeated often until well mastered. Use the specified worksheets..
Five in the Bed Track 11 - Certain muscles in the forearm need to be strong. This is important for positioning the hand & wrist in the best position for writing & typing. The associated activities are fun to do. See pp 50-53 of the book. Activities teach counting, sequencing, subtraction, sentence making & final sounds while developing strength & the correct movement pattern.
Finger Drum Track 12 - This song develops isolated finger movements important for manipulating a pencil & counting on the fingers during the early stages of addition & subtraction. The Fantastic Fingers® characters of Tricky Thumb & friends are introduced. Other activities are also demonstrated. See pp 40-41 & 38-39.
Fantastic Fingers Track 13 - This video contains important activities for developing a dynamic pencil grip which means that the writing tool is controlled by small bending & stretching of the first three fingers (as opposed to the wrist or shoulder joint movement). The result is neat & speedy writing! See pp 58-59 & 56-57. Use the relevant worksheets provided.
Finger Tricks Track 14 - This is a good prewriting warm-up & it will take some practice to get all the actions. This song & the activities develop in-hand manipulation skills which are important for controlling the writing tool. Refer to pp 60-63 to teach the actions, associated games & extension activities (not shown in this video).
Writing Ready Track 15 - This action song teaches children how to sit correctly, has finger warm-ups & reminders on how to hold their pencil & position their page for writing. Use before writing activities. See the gross motor activities which develop strength in the core muscles. See pp 64-67 of the book for the complete instructions & the extension learning activities (not shown on this video).
Tip-Top Track 16 - Children need lots of practice working from top to bottom & left to right. This lively action song links the concept of top to bottom to the rain falling & is followed by pencil & paper games to reinforce this & other prewriting skills. See pp 68-70 & the worksheets on pp 156-187 of the book.
Let's Drive the Pencil Car - Song words:
Tricky Thumb & Patty Pointer play 'I Spy'
Jump on the Pencil Car, ready to fly
Mickey Middle slips behind for a ride
While Ring & Little Rascals go & hide
Ring & Little Rascals go & hide
One, two, three, let's drive the Pencil Car
Let's drive it nice & far, let's go, let's go, let's go