Archives for January 2020

Valentine BINGO!

January 25, 2020 Leave a Comment

Have you introduced your little ones to BINGO yet? I enjoy using BINGO activities with my OT kiddos because it targets a variety of skills and can be adapted for many developmental levels. It works on several visual perceptual skills, fine and visual motor coordination, auditory processing and attention to name a few! My pre-kindergarten friends work on matching picture to picture. I use letter cards for my friends working on letter identification, numbers for my friends working on number identification and sight words for my pre-reading friends. For kids working on writing words, I often have them copy the sight words onto handwriting paper and cut them out to make the “calling cards.” It’s usually a motivating way to get some handwriting practice!

Of course my OT heart always likes to add in a fine motor/visual motor component, so I will have them use tongs to pick up and place their BINGO markers to cover the square. If I have a child that needs to work on these skills, but also needs to MOVE, I put the calling cards at one end of a tunnel/hopscotch/scooter board path, etc. and have the BINGO card at the opposite end. It’s usually a good challenge to have them look at the picture and try to remember it when they get to the other end. If that’s easy, I will have them try to remember multiple items/numbers/letters, etc.

You can certainly get creative on what to use to mark the BINGO cards.

Poms are always a great option, but you could also use raisins, conversation hearts or chocolate chips for an extra sweet treat!

Skills involved in BINGO: (and many more depending on how you play!)

visual scanning
visual memory
visual discrimination
language
auditory processing
letter/number identification
fine motor coordination
visual motor coordination
strengthening of intrinsic hand muscles (tongs)
attention to task

I typically find great, free, printable cards on Pinterest or for just a few dollars on the Teachers Pay Teachers website (I’m always happy to support them!).

Here are a few of my Valentine themed favorites:

What cards are your favorite?

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Mosaic Penguin Fine Motor Craft

January 18, 2020 Leave a Comment

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Mosaic Penguin

How cute is this mosaic penguin inspired by Mrs. Plemmons’ Kindgergarten ?!! This has been perfect for my therapy friends who are working on learning to snip paper with scissors. You may be surprised to know that snipping with scissors is a 25-26 month skill on developmental assessments. I take that with a grain of salt when I’m evaluating kiddos, because most parents don’t give their two year olds scissors! If your child is not there yet (chronologically or developmentally), remember that tearing paper with their fingers is a great pre-scissor skill!

Materials:

Paper – white, black, blue

Penguin template

Glue

Scissors (or just fingers if tearing)

Orange crayon or paper for the nose

Google eyes (optional)

Cotton balls (optional)

I printed the template on blue paper for visual contrast. I cut black and white paper into long strips and had my friends tear or snip the paper into smaller pieces. We glued the small paper pieces within the boundaries (looking at a visual model).

Next, we glued on the google eyes and the beak.

Lastly, we pulled apart cotton balls with our fingers to make “snow” to add to the scene. Pulling apart cotton balls is harder than you would think and great strengthening work for little hands!

This activity includes:

fine motor coordination (picking up small pieces of paper)
visual motor coordination (placing paper pieces onto glue and within a boundary, coloring within boundary, snipping paper with scissors)
tactile sensory processing (variety of textures- glue, cotton balls)
hand strengthening (pulling apart cotton balls)
bilateral coordination (tearing or cutting)

Of course you can draw your own, but you are welcome to use the template I drew here.

I hope you enjoy these little guys!

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Snowball Drop

January 13, 2020 Leave a Comment

Snowball Drop

Since the Jingle Bell Drop was such a hit with my friends, I decided to make a snowman version that would be super friendly for my early intervention kiddos. I used white pom poms for snow and an empty milk carton to make the snowman. You could easily draw the snowman’s face, but I decided to make body parts to velcro on for added fine motor work (pulling the pieces off and putting them on) as well as to work on orientation of the body parts. I laminated the pieces to make them more durable and easier to clean since I will be using this with several kiddos. The craft poms are a soft, fun texture to explore and the opening at the top of the milk jug is the perfect size to make it a good visual motor challenge.

With my little ones, I will start by showing them what the face looks like with all the pieces on, then take one off at a time and have them put it back on. When they have that down, I will take all the pieces off and see if they can place them appropriately. This is also a great opportunity to have them identify body parts on you and on themselves! I will show them how to place the poms into the opening and let them imitate. Once I’ve placed them in the milk carton, I will see how they go about trying to get them out and help as needed.

If putting them in the container is easy-peasy for them, I will introduce the bubble tongs, then increase to more challenging tongs from there. I always try to incorporate as much language as possible- eyes, nose, mouth, hat, in, out, shake, top, open, close, etc. You could also use a variety of colored poms to work on color identification. Unscrewing a top is actually a skill assessed on common developmental tests (expected around 24-26 months) and is usually a very motivating skill to work on for my little friends, so add that to the mix of motor skills offered with this activity!

For older kiddos, you can make this activity more challenging by using small poms and having them use smaller and more resistive tongs to place the “snowballs” into the container.

Fun and adaptable for multiple ages! Please share your snowman creations if you decide to try this one : )

Materials used for this snowman:

Recycled milk jug

Cardstock– white, black and orange

Velcro -sticky back

Pom Poms

Beanie

Laminator/Laminating pouches(optional)

Bubble Tongs (optional)

Tongs – not resistive (optional).

Resistive Tongs (optional). I also like the ones sold at Dollar Tree similar to these, however, they are not resistive like these. Just depends on how challenging you want it to be. Typically kids around 4 years or older will need the resistance for challenge/strengthening.

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Play-doh Snowman Kits

January 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

DIY Play-doh snowman!

I’m excited to break out all of my snowman themed activities for when I return to work after the holidays. We made play-doh snowman kits for my daughter’s classmates for Christmas last year and she and her friends really enjoyed them! (Don’t give me too much credit- she only has 10 kids in her class) Of course I had to bring some for my work kiddos too!

Making play-doh snowmen works on motor skills while helping children to understand many cognitive concepts. It’s a great way to teach them where body parts are in relation to other body parts. It’s also a great opportunity to introduce and/or reinforce the concepts of “big and small” as well as “top, middle and bottom” which are super important when they begin learning to write letters. Rolling the play-doh is great for little hands and placing all of those small little pieces in hard fine motor work. Pushing pieces into the play-doh also works on force grading because they will have to push hard enough to make them stay but not so hard that it falls over or gets lost in the snowman!

We used a basic play-doh recipe (no food coloring) and added glitter “snow” for extra pizzazz. I found tiny buttons and small black pony beads for “coals” at Michael’s. We used craft foam for the hat and carrot nose (I thought about orange pipe cleaner, but was worried it would poke my little people), google eyes, strips of felt for the scarves and sticks from the great outdoors.

There are so many things you could use to make these little guys. Be creative and let your kiddos brainstorm with you! I would love to see your version of a play-doh snowman if you give this one a try!