Writing/ Fine Motor/ Sensory Groups in a Special Education Classroom

Writing & Fine Motor in Special EducationWriting is something that many of my students are NOT a fan of... so I had to be creative and find a way to get my students to practice writing and fine motor skills. After many changes over the years, I've finally found a system that is working for my students for writing/ fine motor groups.

Our writing/ fine motor lessons are done in small groups (2 students in a group with a teacher/ para) and are done daily for 15-20 minutes. We do two different activities during our writing/ fine motor time: writing portfolios and fine motor/ sensory tubs. We always do the writing portfolio FIRST and THEN do the sensory/ fine motor activity because most of my students are motivated by the sensory activity, so using the good ole Premack Principle is a great way to get our students to write!

Writing portfolios:
Our writing portfolios are very differentiated due to the variety of levels in my classroom. Some students are working on touching texturized letters, some are using a Brailler, some are tracing, and some are copying letters, shapes, etc. Each portfolio has a tab for every day of the week and we work on a different skill each day. On Monday, we work on writing names, on Tuesday we write letters, on Wednesday we write numbers, on Thursdays we write shapes/ pre-writing strokes and on Friday we have fun tracing activities. Having tabs for the days of the week is a great way to promote generalization of writing skills and to keep kids from getting bored.

Writing & Fine Motor in Special Education

Writing & Fine Motor in Special Education

Here area a few examples of our writing portfolios:

Writing & Fine Motor in Special Education
Writing portfolio with textures and Braille for students who have visual impairments and limited ability to hold writing utensils. 

Writing & Fine Motor in Special Education
Writing portfolio for students working on tracing and pre-writing strokes.

Writing & Fine Motor in Special Education
Higher level writing portfolio for students working on tracing and coping shapes, letters, etc.

Fine motor tubs:
After we do our writing portfolios, every student completes a fine motor/ sensory tub. The tubs are also differentiated and include simple sensory activities when students explore objects in sand, noodles, beans, etc., put-in tasks with sensory materials, sorting sensory activities, and much more!

Writing & Fine Motor in Special Education
We use name tags to label what tub each student will complete for the day.

Writing & Fine Motor in Special Education
Examples of our sensory/ fine motor tubs. 

If you want more fine motor/ sensory activity ideas, check out these posts:
Sensory/ Fine Motor Activities
Making Sensory Play Academic
Making Sensory Play Academic 2.0
Simple Fine Motor/ Sensory Activities 

How do you run writing/ fine motor groups in your classroom?