Blogger / 27 July, 2026 / Nanny Anita

Fine Motor Skill Boxes

As our summer holidays are fast approaching, I thought it was time to start sorting out some busy bags to take with us.  First up are these fine motor skill boxes.  These boxes are hard cased photo boxes that you can get from Hobbycraft or Amazon.  I use a whole bunch of them at home.  None of them are actually used for holding photos in though.

Make sure you follow my busy bag board on Pinterest for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later.

Fine motor skills box 1

• A drain cover
• Feathers

Now you could use a small toy sand sieve that kids use in sand pits or at the beach, but I couldn’t find one small enough or one I liked.  Instead, I used a small metal drain cover.

The idea of this busy bag is for little ones to practice putting the feathers into the holes of the drain cover.  Be warned though, don’t use this one where there is a breeze or your feathers will fly off.

Fine Motor Skills Box 2

• Wooden clothes pegs

I spent a couple of hours over the weekend painting these clothes pegs.  Do you have to do this? Absolutely not.  I did toy with the idea of not painting them but decided I liked the idea of using rainbow colours.  On a side note, I did have my doctor tell me I needed to do more duvet days, as I always busy.  Well, painting things like this is as close to a duvet day as I will get.  Hopefully, my doctor won’t be too upset with that.

For this one, little ones are practicing putting pegs onto the side of the box and taking them off again.

Fine Motor Skills Box 3

• Mini Plus Plus

This one is very dependant on the age of your little one.  If your one still likes to put things in their mouths, give this one a skip and do something else instead.  Plus plus come in various sizes, the biggest ones are much more suited to smaller hands.  NC has a set of these at home, but this will be the first time I will be trying her out with the mini size ones.  She isn’t into the building objects with them; she simply likes to fit them together in a big sheet.  You could also use Hama beads instead.  I do have a set of Maxi Hama beads, but the frame they sit in is too big for this box.  They are in a slightly larger soft plastic container instead.

Fine Motor Skills Box 4

• Styrofoam
• Golf tees
• Pom poms

The idea behind this one is that your little one needs to push the golf tees into the Styrofoam and the balance the pom poms on top.  Again, you may have to watch out for any breezes that will blow the pom poms off and away.  For older ones, you could swap the pom poms out for marbles.  Just be aware of the choking hazard that marbles possess.

Fine Motor Skill Box 5

• Pipe cleaners
• Beads

I used pony beads for this as that is all I have in my supply of beads at the moment.  The younger the child, the bigger the beads need to be.  Alternatively, you could use shoelaces and wooden cotton reels.

Fine Motor Skills Box 6

• Index cards
• Washi tape
• Child friendly scissors
• Hole Punch
• Stickers

This is a bit of a mish mash of things.  Each of these could be their own box, but I added it all into one place.  You can also add crayons, pens, or pencils to this.

All these boxes aim to help children strengthen their hand muscles, increase their dexterity, and hand-eye coordination.  All of these are vital for tasks such as writing.  Fine motor skills are intricately linked to cognitive development such as planning, problem-solving, and sequencing.  If you have a little one who is about to start school these sorts of activities really help in building the foundations for being school ready.

If you enjoyed these fine motor skill boxes, be sure to check out my inside out stress balls, pasta structures, and calming lavender play dough.

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