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Fine Motor Skills Game – Eat the Cheese (FREE Printable)

This fine motor skills game, Eat the Cheese, is super adorable and fun to get little fingers ready to pick up small objects.  You can download it for free at the end of this post!

This fine motor skills game, Eat the Cheese, is super adorable and fun to get little fingers ready to pick up small objects. You can download it for free at the end of this post!

How to Play the Fine Motor Skills Game

Eat the Cheese requires very little preparation and the directions are simple. You could also modify the game as needed depending on the skill level of the child.

Preparation

Download and print out the one-page color printable. An adult or the child can cut out the cat and the mouse. An adult will probably have to cut out the two circles in each animal.

The child can cut out the 12 pieces of cheese. Encourage the child to use their thumb, index and middle fingers to crinkle each piece of cheese. These are the three active fingers when holding a pencil and other small objects.

If you have two players, choose one player to be the cat and the other one is the mouse.

This fine motor skills game, Eat the Cheese, is super adorable and fun to get little fingers ready to pick up small objects.  You can download it for free at the end of this post!

Ready to Play

When you are ready to play the fine motor skills game, put your index finger and thumb through the holes. Flip a coin. If the coin lands on heads, pick up two pieces of cheese. If the coin lands on tails, pick up one piece of cheese.

When all the cheese is gone, the winner is the player with the most pieces of cheese!

Other Ideas

If you have more than two players, just make extra copies of the free printable fine motor skills game.

If you have only one player, just try picking up the pieces of cheese and transferring them to a bowl. Time the player and see how fast he or she can pick up the pieces of cheese.

Use the cat and mouse for other activities to encourage the child to tuck the middle, ring finger and pinky finger into the palm while they use the thumb and index finger. If the child has difficulties with this, try putting a cotton ball or pom-pom in the palm for them to hold onto with the ring and pinky fingers.

Are you in search of other fine motor games and activities?

Flip and Snip scissor game is a fun and creative way to practice scissor skills.  Add some variety to simple cutting skills with this differentiated scissor game.

Hair Cutting Sticks are simple cutting projects so children can have fun while practicing scissor skills! This download includes 35 “hair cutting” sticks to create (4-6 hair cutting image per page). Just print out the black and white pages, color and style the hair using scissors. Toss on a craft stick and create a puppet show too!

Visual Perceptual Clothes Pin Games – This digital download includes 4 games to print and play to encourage hand strengthening, visual discrimination, form constancy, visual motor and math skills.  Match up the dinosaur shadows, move along the number clothesline, hang up the patterned socks or give the spiders 8 legs. 

The Basics of Fine Motor Skills is a comprehensive overview of fine motor development that includes age-appropriate fine motor activity suggestions for kids of all ages.  Written by Heather Greutman, COTA, the Basics of Fine Motor Skills explain which skills are important for fine motor development and what fine motor development looks like in children at all age levels.

Watch the Video of the Fine Motor Skills Game in Action

Download your FREE Printable Fine Motor Skills Game

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This fine motor skills game, Eat the Cheese, is super adorable and fun to get little fingers ready to pick up small objects.  You can download it for free at the end of this post!