Homemade Puff Paint Activity

We made some homemade puff paint for a group activity- it's super easy.  To make it, you will need these ingredients/items:

• self rising flour
• salt
• water
• food coloring
• poster board
• q-tips or paint brush

Mix together 1 tbsp. self rising flour, 1 tbsp. salt, food coloring to desired color, and enough water to make it yogurt consistency.  You can trace something on the poster board to paint (we did a flower for spring), or have the kids paint whatever they would like.  We applied the paint with q-tips, but you could use a brush, too.

                                                   

When finished painting, put it in the microwave for 30 seconds.  The paint will puff up!  The poster board will be a bit warm when you remove it from the microwave.

This activity addresses fine motor skills, visual motor skills, sequencing the steps to a task, motor planning, choice making, and it has a sensory component.  The kids will love to see the finished product when it is removed from the microwave~

Fine Motor Skills for Kindergarten

Unrefined grasp pattern, poor shoulder stability- child is not resting his forearm on the desk top.

In the past few years, the number of kindergarten referrals that the OTs in my department and I have received has dramatically increased.  The majority (if not all) of the kids who are referred have unrefined grasp patterns for holding a marker, crayon or pencil, and a good amount of them have never really even held a scissors.  In addition, they often are not resting their forearms on the table top during paper/pencil tasks, they exhibit poor posture at their desks, and they have upper extremity/hand weakness.  Why?  Kids just aren't getting the outside play time or the chance to develop the motor skills that are needed to have good fine motor skills.  The following article talks about how kids are entering school without the necessary fine motor skills that they need:

http://lancasteronline.com/features/trending/losing-our-grip-more-students-entering-school-without-fine-motor/article_c0f235d0-7ba2-11e5-bf0d-5745f74f9717.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share

Here are some tasks that can improve the skills needed for fine motor skills in the kindergarten classroom:

First and foremost:

• increase core stability (strengthen core muscles)-  kids need strong core muscles for stability for sitting in a chair and and for giving their arm/hand the stability it needs for distal work (using their hands and fingers, such as for coloring and printing)
• increase stability in the shoulder girdle/shoulder joint-  have kids do lots of weight bearing through and resistive activity with their upper extremities.  Crawling, pulling, pushing, activities on hands and knees, climbing and pulling themselves up on playground equipment, laying on their tummy on the floor while coloring so that they are propped up on and weight bearing through elbows
• increase upper extremity and hand strength- resistive activities as mentioned above, playdough/theraputty  http://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2013/10/weak-little-hands.html
• http://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2013/06/postural-control-and-shoulder-stability.html  Check out the above activities for core and shoulder strengthening from a previous post

Kids need a GOOD foundation of the above so that their fine motor skills can progress.

Work toward improving the following skills:

• in hand manipulation skills- here are some activities from a previous post  http://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2013/10/in-hand-manipulation-skills.html
• wrist stability and developing hand arches- check out this previous post for task ideas http://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2013/06/wrist-stability-and-hand-arches.html
• thumb opposition and separation of function of the 2 sides of the hand-  http://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2013/07/thumb-oppositionopen-webspace-and.html
• grasp patterns/finger tip prehension skills-  reaching and placing tasks (various size peg tasks), stringing various size beads, playing with manipulatives picking up items with different tongs/tweezers, drawing and printing with a small piece of chalk or short/broken crayons to encourage a refined grasp pattern

Earth Day Activity

In celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd, here is a fun Earth Day Activity you can do using paper plates and shaving cream~   To make, you will need the following:

• paper plates
• shaving cream
• blue and green tempera paint
• craft sticks
• a ruler or another straight edge for scraping

  1.  To start, spread shaving cream on a surface- we used a baking sheet.

2.  Add drops of tempera paint to the shaving cream, and gently stir the colors into the shaving cream with a craft stick, making swirls of color.  Be sure not to mix the colors too much.

3.  Press a paper plate onto the shaving cream, and let it sit for a few seconds before taking off.  Be sure to press the whole surface of the paper plate into the shaving cream so the whole thing gets paint on it.

4.  Let the shaving cream sit on the paper plate for several seconds, and then using a straight edge (I used a plastic ruler), scrape the excess shaving cream off of the plate.  The colors will have absorbed into the plate, resembling Earth~

No two will be the same, and the kids really loved how different they all turned out!

Here are 11 facts about Earth Day that you can also share with your students along with this activity:  www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-earth-day

Rainbow Snacks

We made rainbow snacks for a group project- some of the kids in the group needed to work on some independent skills, such as spreading with a knife and sequencing the steps to a task.  To make these snacks, you need the following:

• graham crackers
• blue frosting
• Air Heads Xtremes candy
• miniature marshmallows

1. Give each child a graham cracker square (half of the graham cracker rectangle)
2. Spread blue frosting on the graham cracker for the sky
3. Make an arch for the rainbow in the middle of the graham cracker with the Air Heads Xtremes 
4. Add a few marshmallows to each side of the rainbow/cracker

How cute is this??