April is OT Month!

April is Occupational Therapy Month!

"Occupational therapy is the only profession that helps people across the lifespan to do the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of daily activities (occupations). Occupational therapy practitioners enable people of all ages to live life to its fullest by helping them promote health, and prevent—or live better with—injury, illness, or disability.

Common occupational therapy interventions include helping children with disabilities to participate fully in school and social situations, helping people recovering from injury to regain skills, and providing supports for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes."  -AOTA website

Here are some free OT month activities and ideas to help you celebrate OT with your students:
https://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/2019/04/01/occupational-therapy-activity-packet-2/

https://www.toolstogrowot.com/search (create an account to access free OT month printables, or get a yearly subscription like I did to access a ton of awesome resources all year through!)

Wondering about School Based vs. Private Based OT?  Here is a link to a previous post from this blog:
https://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2013/05/school-based-vs-private-based-ot.html

March Madness Activities

Sometimes I make activity themes for my intervention plans for the week/month. I usually relate it to the season, month, upcoming holiday or an awareness week.  March is lion/lamb, St. Patrick's Day, and... March Madness! I am not a huge college basketball fan, but I figure I might as well join in on the fun. So, here are some links for some basketball theme activities...

You can download some basketball theme activities as a ZIP from this blog- the file contains a bunch of activities- fine motor, visual motor, sorting, sequencing, etc. You can pick and choose...I printed and laminated a sorting task, a clip match task and some visual motor mazes.
https://ateachingmommy.com/free-basketball-preschool-unit/

Count the basketballs and clip to the correct number.

Sort by basketball size

Here's an easy fine motor/art activity using a coffee filter:
https://www.lookwerelearning.com/coffee-filter-basketball-craft/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=tailwind_tribes&utm_content=tribes&utm_term=621078280_23828564_156074

Of course you can use a basketball for some catching/throwing, shooting, dribbling...or how about these super cute brain break basketball cards from Pink Oatmeal? You can also find them on Teachers Pay Teachers ($3.50).
https://shop.pinkoatmeal.com/product/basketball-brain-breaks/