Holiday Box Craft

This time of year we love incorporating holiday themed activities into fine motor work. See below for this fun popsicle stick box craft where you can choose to make either a Christmas tree or Hanukkah Menorah! Pushing the popsicle sticks into the corresponding slots is a great way for kids to work on fine motor strength and precision.

Materials Needed:

• Recycled Box (big enough for a sheet of computer paper)

• Knife

• FREE Holiday Box Craft Printable

• Clear Packing Tape

• Popsicle Sticks

• Hot Glue

• Pom-Poms

Step 1: Tape your box closed using clear packing tape. We added yellow painters tape around sides for extra color, but this step is optional.

Step 2: Tape FREE Holiday Box Printable sheet of choice to the top of the box covering with clear painters tape.

Step 3: Using hot glue, glue a pom-pom to the top of each popsicle stick. To help with this we used the knife to make a small cut in the bottom of the pom-pom (but be careful not to cut too deep or the pom-pom will unravel).

Step 4: Using knife cut small slit into picture and through the box in desired area (either on top of ornaments or where the candle flame will be).

Step 5: Have fun!! Work on putting popsicle sticks into slots to complete the picture. Such a fun way to challenge fine motor strength.

Pumpkin Gut Sensory Bag

This time of year there always seems to be tons of pumpkins around for carving, decor, or crafts! So why not use the pumpkin for a sensory activity?! This would be great to do along with pumpkin carving, or it is a fun stand alone activity.

Materials Needed:

• Pumpkin

• Knife

• Halloween themed pieces of choice (we decided to go with witch fingers)

• Ziplock Bag

Step 1: Cut the top of the pumpkin off using a knife. If carving this will be a small top cut, but if doing as a stand alone activity cut into more of a bowl shape with a large opening.

Step 2: Look at all those amazing pumpkin guts!! Scoop them away from the sides, add your halloween toys, and mix together.

*Therapy tip: For a really gooey sensory experience you can have your child help mix the toys in using their hands, or have them try to find the items by digging in pumpkin bowl for the toys.

Step 3: For a less messy sensory experience, scoop all the contents into a large ziplock bag. Have your child work to find the hidden pieces or try to move the pieces into a line or make a shape. Have Fun!

*Therapy tip: This is a great way to work on isolation of the pointer finger! Try using the pointer finger to move the seeds, search for objects, or line objects up.

Feed The Ghosts

We are huge fans of themed therapy activities for Halloween, and this ghost feeding one is so fun to get the kids involved in. This activity can help strengthen pincer grasp and finger isolation. You can also add clothes pins, tweezers, or tongs to pick up the pom-poms for grip strength. You even have the option to turn this into a color recognition game.

Materials Needed:

• Box (We used a recycled amazon box), but a shoe box would also work

• Ghost Printable (Click here to download for free)

• Box Cutter

• Scissors

• Tape

• Pom-Poms or Cotton Balls

• Markers/Crayons (optional)

Step 1: Print Halloween ghost printable for free! Using scissors cut out the mouths of all the ghosts.

Step 2: Tape one side of box closed to make a flat top. You will want to leave bottom open so you are able to get pom-poms out. Place ghost paper on top of box and trace where the holes will be. Using box cutter, carefully cut holes into the box.

Step 3: Tape the ghost paper on top of the box so that the mouths line up with the holes. Have your child work to pick up pom-poms or cotton balls and feed the ghosts by pushing them into the box.

*Therapy tip: Try making the holes in the box a bit smaller than your pom-poms so that your child has to isolate their index finger to push it inside the box.

Step 4: As an optional extra step have your child color the ghosts to match pom-poms. Then they can practice feeding the ghosts matching colored food! So “Boo-tiful”

Boo Bark Activity

Halloween is such a fun time of year, and we love combining our love of crafts with sweet treats during therapy! This year as many of our children continue to receive therapy virtually, our therapists have been getting creative with incorporating cooking into virtual sessions to take advantage of the home environment. Check out this fun “Boo Bark” activity that one of our OTs put together for a virtual session! Following step by step recipes is such a fun way for children increase independence with ADLs (activities of daily living) needed in the kitchen. We also love using following recipes as a tool to challenge task sequencing and problem solving skills. A great bonus about this activity is it can all be done using the microwave.

Materials Needed:

• Semi-Sweet Chocolate (we used chocolate candy coating from Good & Gather for easy melting)

• White Chocolate (we used vanilla candy coating from Good & Gather for easy melting)

• Sprinkles and toppings of choice (we decided on Halloween themed sprinkles with mini-M&Ms)

• 2 microwave safe bowls

• Parchment paper

Step 1: Break white and semi-sweet chocolate into pieces and place in separate microwave safe bowls.

*Therapy tip: Have your child help with breaking the chocolate to work on strengthening hands.

Step 2: Melt semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate in microwave. We did 20 seconds at a time stirring in between to help ensure that the chocolate did not burn.

*Therapy tip: Let your child practice independence with this step. Pressing buttons on the microwave can be great practice for isolation of pointer finger, and works on number recognition. Keeping track of timing and stirring steps is a great way to challenge task sequencing and attention. We always love stirring in a bowl to challenge bilateral upper extremity coordination by using one hand to stir and one hand to stabilize the bowl (just make sure to check that the temperature of the bowl is not too hot).

Step 3: Pour semi-sweet chocolate onto large piece of parchment paper. Spread chocolate out into a large rectangle shape.

*Therapy tip: Pouring is such an important everyday skill to learn. Pouring not only takes strength and bilateral upper extremity use to lift the bowl, but children also have to use hand/eye coordination and visual/spatial awareness in order to hit desired target. It is so important to let children practice pouring independently! If the bowl is too big for them at this point then try giving them a small cup so they can help scoop and pour.

Step 4: Drizzle white chocolate across the top of your semi-sweet chocolate rectangle. For extra flare you can use a toothpick to make swirls mixing the white and semi-sweet chocolate together.

*Therapy tip: Swirling is an excellent chance to work on that pincer grip strength. For children who are unable to grip a toothpick try giving them a thicker object to swirl with like a straw or small spoon.

Step 5: Sprinkle desired toppings across top of chocolate. Let cool at room temperature until hardened. Break into pieces and enjoy!!

Milk Experiment

We love incorporating hands on experiments with learning and fine motor development! This milk and food coloring experiment is always a big hit with kiddos, and can be used to target so many different goals.

Recently one of our OTs incorporated this activity into a session to challenge the child’s fine motor skills working on strength and stability with pouring, squeezing the food coloring dropper, and grasping the Q-tip. It is also a great activity to work on task sequencing, memory, and following directions. You can even try putting soap on fingers instead of Q-tips to get some sensory involvement as well.

Right now this experiment can have the added visualization of the importance of hand washing in relation to coronavirus. You can use the food coloring to represent germs and watch how the soap pushes the germs away. Plus, science experiments are always a fun way to spark natural curiosity!

Supplies Needed:

• Small bowl or dish

• Milk

• Food Coloring

• Dish Soap

• Q-tips

  Step 1: Fill small bowl or dish with milk. For an extra fine motor challenge let your child fill the bowl by scooping milk in with a spoon, or using an eye dropper.

  Step 2: Add one drop of food coloring to the center of the milk, being careful not to mix.

Step 3: Dip Q-tip into dish soap

Step 4: Dip soap coated Q-tip into the center of the food coloring and watch what happens!

Step 5: Repeat experiment in a different bowl with another color, or try adding more than one color at a time. For an extra challenge have your child try to remember the direction steps after the first trial to work on memory and task sequencing.

How does this work? Great question! Milk contains fat molecules, and the food coloring floats on top of the fat. The oil found in the dish soap breaks the bonds within the fat causing the molecules to separate, and moves the color away. Because of the roll fat plays in this experiment whole milk and 2% milk work best. Happy Experimenting!!!

Tactile Pipe Cleaner ABC trace

We love practicing handwriting and letter recognition skills with our kiddos during therapy. We also love a hands-on and sensory approach when it comes to learning, so these tactile tracing letters are perfect! Kids can practice tracing along the letters while receiving sensory feedback from the pipe cleaners. This extra input can help with learning, and the tracing is a great prep for writing skills.

Supples needed:

• Cardboard

• Scissors

• Pipe Cleaners

• Hot Glue

• Marker

Step 1: Cut cardboard into rectangles (the number you cut depends on the number of letter cards you are going to make). We recommend starting with the letters in your child’s name and then building from there.

Step 2: Using your marker, draw an uppercase and lowercase letter onto cardboard

Step 3: Place pipe cleaners over drawn letters and cut down to the size needed.

Step 4: Cut pipe cleaners and glue down on top of your drawn letters.

Step 5: Using our ABC Tracing Packet as a guide, add numbers and arrows so your child can practice tracing using correct letter formation.

Step 6: Have Fun!! Let your child explore the letters and get sensory/tactile feedback to help with learning. Practice saying the sounds along with each letter, or coming up with words that start with that letter.

Lego Building Match

There are several reasons that we love incorporating building with blocks into therapy, classroom, and home routines. Block play is such an important foundation of early childhood learning, and can target so many developmental goals. Plus, who doesn’t love to knock over the tower when you are done building….classic fun times!

Here are some of the many benefits of block play:

• Strengthens motor skills and hand/eye coordination

• Strengthens fine motor manipulation skills

• Strengthens pincer grasp

• Builds graded precision of movements

• Builds spatial reasoning

• Helps children learn to balance objects in space

• Helps with motor planning skills

• Encourages imaginative play

• Foundation for early mathematical concepts (size, shape, counting)

• Provides a means for appropriate destructive play (great outlet for those sensory seekers)

• Encourages teamwork

• Builds problem solving skills

• Strengthens visual perceptual skills

• Introduces the concept of gravity

• Encourages speech production

• Can be used to help with following directions

Honestly, we could go on and on about blocks….they are the coolest! While we think open-ended free play with blocks is AMAZING, we also love to incorporate structured block play into our therapy sessions. One of our favorite activities is to build a tower, and have the child build a matching tower. We often start small with only 2 blocks at a time, and work up to more complicated towers. We also love giving the child a turn to build a tower that we have to copy to make it even more fun. This is a great game to incorporate into home learning routines! Our amazing Occupational Therapy Team put together a fun free printable based on matching block towers. The great thing about this is it is also a coloring page, so if you don’t have blocks available at home right now kids can also work on matching the correct colors. Click here for the FREE block worksheet, and happy building!!