Valentine's Day Stamping Activity

This activity was in my session agenda this week for Valentine's Day- relatively easy to plan for and easy for younger kids to complete. You can find the free template for this activity at Tools to Grow under "free resources." If you are an OT, PT or SLP, Tools to Grow is a great way to access a ton of fantastic resources for your practice, I highly recommend getting yourself a paid subscription.  They do have a wonderful free resource library and a free trial membership for anyone to access, also.

Supplies that you need: 

• tempera paint- Valentine's Day colors- red, pink, purple
• empty cardboard paper towel or toilet paper roll 
• tape
• tree template (or make one of your own)

The template has the directions to follow on it, and you can find it here (under Free Resources or Holidays/Seasons/Themes and titled "Heart Stamp Painting"): Tools to Grow- Home Page

-cut the empty cardboard roll down and bend/form it into a heart shape. Use a piece of tape to secure the shape. Dip the end of the cardboard heart into tempera paint and stamp it on the tree template.

For the younger kids, focus on the process of the task vs. the outcome- have them dip the stamp into the paint and transfer it to the paper for active reaching and placing. You could also place the paper and the paint on the table to encourage crossing midline if that is something they need to work on.  Or just work on independence of completing a simple motor action/task. 

For early elementary kids, how they stamp the template can tell you a lot about their organization skills and ability to follow directions.

Easy Christmas Activities

      

It's almost Christmas!! The holidays are fast approaching, and everything is red, green, white and sparkling! Here's a quick list of some easy Christmas activity ideas:

Decorate gift bags- Paint stamping with sponges, cookie cutters, etc. You could also have the kids stamp butcher or poster paper to decorate gift wrap. We added bulbs to the tree with q-tips. It's a fun way to make gift giving from them personal! And so cute!

Tape contact paper to a vertical surface, sticky side out. Make a tree shape around it with green painters tape or cut a tree shape and stick it on a piece of green poster paper- have the kids stick pom poms on it to “decorate” the tree. Can be reused until no longer sticky.

Make a wrapping paper sensory table- add various pieces of Christmas paper for the kids to cut up with scissors, ribbon strands to snip, bows to peel and stick

Other sensory table fillers: Cut up craft foam and felt for sensory bins- green, red, and white pieces for Christmas, white for “snow” theme, shapes of brown for a hot cocoa theme, various blues and white for snow/cold theme. Add colored gems, jingle bells, plastic coffee cups and tongs to fill the cups with, and other items to correspond with the theme.

1:1 correspondence Christmas counting and fine/bilateral motor task- buy mini stockings from Walmart ($.96 for 4), unbreakable tiny ornaments (also found at Walmart), mini gifts (Hobby Lobby), and pom poms to sort into stockings. Make individual cards with the number of items/colors/shapes to put into each stocking. This si also good for motor planning/direction following/following a sequence.

Tiny stockings from Walmart

Tiny gift ornaments from Hobby Lobby

Small shatterproof ornaments from Walmart

Use Washi tape to decorate a Christmas tree shape or triangle tree. Draw lines on the trees for them to place the tape on, or let them be creative with how they decorate it. 

Use magnetic tiles to build a “gingerbread” house or a tree (with triangles)- have the kids decorate what they build with magnetic discs (bingo chips), metallic pipe cleaners, jingle bells, paper clips, round circle magnets

Decorate a large felt Christmas tree- there are inexpensive commercially made trees and ornaments that can be bought and hung up in the classroom (I found this one that I gifted to my great nephew on Amazon), the ornaments can be rearranged and changed. You could also easily make your own out of felt, or make small individual trees and ornaments.

Great nephew Ridge decorating his tree

Sugar/salt trays with Christmas sprinkles mixed in- have the kids make shapes, letters, numbers in the tray. Provide cards for kids to look at when forming them. 

Make an ornament out of a paper plate- make a foam or construction paper ornament top and a ribbon loop- have the kids add stickers or glue foam pieces on it to decorate

Here are links of previous activities from some older posts:

Holiday Craft Ideas

Ugly Christmas Sweater

Lego Freebie

This is a fun resource that I just became aware of, so I thought I'd share-

Who doesn't love Legos?? You can use Legos to address a lot of things with kids- fine motor skills, bilateral skills, motor planning, tactile and proprioceptive input, problem solving, sharing, creativity...

Lego offers a free magazine that is targeted for 5-9 year olds. The magazine includes activities, comics, and creative builds. The link offers a preview version and links to explore previous issues. You can even submit your child's creations to the magazine to possibly be featured in an upcoming issue.

You can have a free Lego Magazine sent to your home or classroom 5 times a year by signing up at the link below:

Free Lego Magazine

OT Evaluations

There are a number of evaluation tools that occupational therapists use to evaluate kids. Most settings use similar test measures, but it is important to consider that scores in one setting do not necessarily qualify a child for services in every setting. I work in a school setting, and we often have students on our caseload who also receive outpatient OT services in a clinic setting. There are also many kids who receive outside services that we don't see on our school caseload. So, why is this? It depends on where their deficits may be impacting their function.

A child may have motor skills concerns in the school setting that impact his/her ability to use a pencil, cut with a scissors, learn to write, etc. Their motor skills may also be impacting their function at home with getting dressed, play skills (manipulating toys), using utensils, etc. This child may likely have school based OT services as well as outpatient OT services. Their function is being impacted in both the school and the home settings.

Conversely, a child may have handwriting, fine and visual motor concerns at school but have adequate function for daily living at home. This child may require OT services at school, but not outside of school. His/her function is being impacted mainly in the school setting, and impacts his/her ability to participate in their school curriculum.

A child may have sensory concerns at home that impact their ability to transition outside of the home, or that impacts their food preferences or their hygiene routine, possibly their sleep routine. But at school, they can function with a structured routine and general accommodations that are not significantly different from their peers. This child may require outpatient OT services, but not require them in the school setting.

These scenarios vary and each situation is different, but the basic gist is that just because a child may benefit from direct OT services in an outpatient clinic, it does not necessarily mean that they require school based OT services.

In the school setting, Occupational Therapy is a related service. The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction has the following statement in their related service guidelines:

"A child may be eligible for additional services ("related services") if the services are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education. Although a child may benefit from a related service, the child will not be eligible to receive that service if the child can perform educationally without it."

The following link is a list of common OT assessments along with descriptions of each that can be given in any pediatric setting by a qualified professional:

14 Popular OT Assessments

 

Holiday Craft Ideas/Techniques

A couple of Christmas craft ideas (after the fact, I know...) that the kids loved and that turned out so cute!

These craft techniques/ideas can be used for any holiday- bubble wrap print or glue torn painted paper on a heart for Valentine's Day, a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day, an Easter egg for Easter, etc. It's a fun way for kids to be creative, and no two turn out the same! At the same time, they are working on fine and visual motor skills, bilateral skills, motor planning, organization, getting tactile feedback, etc.

Painted Paper Tearing/Cutting:

tempera paint

glitter

construction paper

aluminum

glue

scissors

The kids chose their tempera paint colors, and painted a sheet of white construction paper. Some chose to also sprinkle glitter on it while still wet. We let them dry, and in a 2nd session, did a project with the painted paper. 

Some did paper tearing and glued the pieces into an ornament shape. For the other activity, the kids cut strips of different lengths of the painted paper and arranged them by length to make a Christmas tree. We added an aluminum foil star for the top of the tree or a square for the ornament top.

Bubble Wrap Printing:

tempera paint

bubble wrap 

poster board/construction paper

scissors

The kids chose their tempera paint colors, painted on bubble wrap, and pressed the painted bubble wrap onto a triangle Christmas tree shape that they cut out of construction paper. 

I did have some students who had a hard time with painting on the bubble wrap, as they wanted to pop the bubbles vs. paint on them! 

Earth Day!

So important to encourage kids to take care of our planet! Check out some of the resources and links below to help commemorate Earth Day with your kids/students!

You can find the above q-tip painting free printable here: Natasha's Crafts- Crafty Teacher Link

Earth Day Sensory Bin Ideas from Fun-A-Day: 

Sensory Bin- literacy

Sensory Bin-Math

Lots of free Earth Day activities from Teachers Pay Teachers to browse:

TPT Free Earth Day Activities

Spring Outdoor Activities

It's been a year since my last post????? I have really been a slacker... spring is finally here (sort of), and so I thought I'd post a little bit about doing some fun outside activities. These types of activities can address a number of skills: fine and visual motor skills, motor planning, tactile and visual sensory input, direction following, etc., all while having fun outdoors!

• bucket of water and some paint brushes- paint with the water on the side walk or brick building, practice numbers and letters, draw
• paint sidewalks with homemade chalk paint- use in spray bottles, squirt with a condiment bottle, paint with a brush Chalk Paint Recipe
• sidewalk chalk- buy some or make your own (see link below for recipe and activities from Fun-A-Day)

• blow bubbles, play with a bubble gun or bubble machine  Make your own bubble solution:

2 cups warm water

1/3 cup dish soap

1/4 cup corn syrup

• hula hoop, jump rope, ankle skip ball, Chinese jump rope
• make pinwheels and take outside in the wind DIY pinwheels
• side walk chalk: hop scotch, maze, activity/sensory path

• scavenger hunt/I spy: give everyone a clip board- circle the items found on a worksheet, print the word of the item once found 
• fly a kite- DIY link: DIY Garbage Bag kite

Fun-A-Day has a lot of activity ideas for side walk chalk and paint use, recipes, etc. that you can access here: Fun-A-Day Chalk Activities