Alphabet Beads for Fine Motor Skills

This activity is a great way to combine phonics practice with fine motor skills. An alphabet puzzle can also be used as a frame to fill with small objects. Small beads are the perfect size to use as a filler. Alternatively, you could use grains of rice.

Picking up the beads and transferring them into an alphabet puzzle is a good fine motor activity.

For this activity:

Transfer each bead into the space where a letter would be by using a pincher grip with two fingers.
When a letter is filled with beads talk about the sound it makes. Think of words that start with that letter sound.
If your child has advanced past initial sounds, try to think of words that end or contain that sound. Write them down and make a list.
For variations on this activity, try to fill in the letters to spell out a word. For example, fill in the letters ‘c’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ to practise common words.