Binoculars

Camp Splish Splosh has begun! While this year’s approach is very modified to allow for safety, we're still having a lot of fun!

Yesterday we made binoculars to take with us on a nature hunt! We first read a book about forest animals and then we made predictions on which animals we would see and which we wouldn’t. Although all the children predicted we would see a bear, luckily we did not! Once we got to the park we worked on recall to discuss the animals we might see and then we used our binoculars to play I Spy.

To make the binoculars you’ll need two empty toilet paper rolls (or one paper towel roll cut in two), scissors, construction paper (cut in half length wise), a hole puncher, 2 paper clips, tape, yarn/string, and then crayons or stickers to decorate your binoculars.

First I put the empty paper towel rolls together and used the paper clips to secure them. Next we decorated our paper, using the stickers and crayons) and then wrapped the paper around the two empty paper towel rolls and secured it with tape. Then we used the hole puncher to punch two holes in either side of the binoculars and we threaded the yarn through the holes and tied them. And there you go, you now have homemade binoculars that you can take with you on your nature walks with your kids!

This activity works to promote fine motor manipulation, hand strength, prediction, and short term recall. A great fine motor and language based activity for your Kindergartners and First Graders!

Stay safe and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we’re making Acrostic poems. This is a great way to work on handwriting, sustained attention to a task, and thought creation.

Before I ever get started with a handwriting task, I always review the handwriting rules with my clients. This can vary from client to client, but for the most part we’re looking for spaces between words, letter placement on the line, proper casing, proper orientation of the letter (reversals), and punctuation. This ensures that the client and I are on the same page with what the expectations are.

With this task, I had the child write out their name in a vertical pattern. Then, depending on the age/grade, they either wrote one word that starts with each letter, a word that describes them, or a short phrase that describes something they like to do.

This is a great way to work on sustained attention and overall thought creation. For best results, I had each child do some movement/heavy work beforehand to make sure that they were ready to sit and focus.

Stay safe and healthy and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we were having some fun reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar book. Once we read all about this caterpillar and how hungry he is, we turned our hole punchers into caterpillars!

This activity can definitely be filed under Fine Motor Friday, there was so much that we were able to target with this craft!

First, we read the book, which focused on listening and attending. After that we colored in the food using crayons (works the hand muscles more than markers). This targeted fine motor control by working on coloring in the lines. Once the food was colored, we used our scissors to cut the rows of food out. This was a great way to work on bilateral coordination and using both hands effectively to cut along a line. After all that it was time to be a caterpillar! Using a hole puncher is a great way to work on hand strength and endurance.

All in all this was a super fun activity and one that is perfect for your Preschoolers and Kindergartners!

Link for the free printable!

https://booksandgiggles.com/hungry-caterpillar-activity-free-printable/

Stay safe and healthy and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

As with clinic based OT, I find that children attend to telehealth sessions best with a little movement first and then incorporated throughout the session. I mean, it’s tough for me to sit and stare at a screen for longer than 30 minutes without taking a break so I can only imagine how these kiddos feel!

This activity is similar to games I’ve created in the past, but it offers new ideas for those that are looking:). These activities provide both vestibular and proprioceptive input (two forms of input that can have a positive affect on your child’s overall regulation and attention). After the big movement, it’s always best to do some form stretching/deep breathing to help the child settle and to better transition into the next activity.

To play this particular dice game all you’ll need is space to move, dice, and a pile of pillows. Stay safe and healthy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Have you ever played Thin Ice? If you haven’t, it’s a super fun game and I would highly recommend playing with your elementary aged children. If you’re interested, you can either buy the game or use these simple instructions to make the game at home!

A small (but doable) challenge with telehealth is making sure that the activities can be done together, but separately (virtually). With this game, the family just needed to gather a cup, tissue (toilet paper or paper towel can also work), tongs (kitchen tongs will work!), water, marbles (stones, coins, small rocks from outside), and a rubber band (or hair tie).

To set up, I pulled the tissue apart so it was one ply (and an opportunity to play this game twice using only one tissue!) and placed it on the cup. I took the rubber band and secured the tissue around the mouth of the cup using the rubber band. I then filled a bowl with water and placed my stones in the water. The idea is to use the tongs to carefully place the wet stones on top of the tissue before the tissue breaks from the water and weight. We played to see how many we could get on top, but you can make this a win/lose game if that’s more motivating! Bonus-easy clean up, all the stones fall into the cup! While I used one ply of a tissue, if your child has a harder time, you can always play with a full tissue/paper towel.

This was a game that I played with my elementary aged children during telehealth and this is a great way to work on fine motor strength/endurance and using slow, controlled movements. The same skills necessary for writing. This is a great game to play before writing tasks to warm up those hand muscles. This is also a great game to play on it’s own if that’s more preferred!

Stay safe and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

This is a little gross motor game we created called, Slam Dunk Challenge! The whole point to this game is to slam dunk the balls into the basket (watch out, the balls may bounce and knock over lamps). What makes it silly is that each time you go, you have to think of a new way to move over the cups (if you don’t have cups, you can use cans, small figurines, anything small). The rules are simple, your legs have to straddle these cups at all times and no part of your body can touch the cups.

During today’s telehealth sessions, we enjoyed bear walking, crab walking, standing and walking, walking backwards, frog hopping, bunny hopping, marching, and skipping. While this was what we did, I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to move! The point value for a slam dunk is 10 points, however if any cups were touched, that’s minus 1 point. Each person is in charge of writing their numbers, adding, and subtracting.

This was a fun game for older preschoolers, Kindergartners, and First Graders. While the children are having fun they’re not realizing the motor planning, body awareness, gross motor, and fine motor work they’re doing. All in all, a great OT activity for telehealth or just at home with your kids!

Stay safe and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we’re playing our home Telehealth version of the electronic hand held game of “Simon Says”.

To play, each player must have a game sheet. I created a game sheet to send to my clients virtually (I did the squares and stuff, they had to color in-great fine motor control practice). Once the game sheets are ready, then so are we! I went first and, like the game, started out by touching one color first. As the client was able to imitate and copy my movements accurately, I increased the colors I touched to 2, 3, and so on. Once there was a slip up we switched who was the lead! What’s great about this version is you can go as slow, or as fast, as you would like! This definitely opens up the door to the ages and abilities that can play:).

This is a great way to work on sustained attention, short term memory recall, and sequencing. This game can be modified to have animals (cars, trains, trolls, Pokemon, etc.) rather than colors and you can practice with kiddos as young as 4 or 5. This was a game that I played with a few kiddos who were in Second Grade and it went really well.

Have fun and stay safe!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we’re rescuing animals! I opted for animals, because these are the first two smallish toys I pulled from Max’s toy box, if your child is motivated by other items (cars, figurines, etc.) feel free to use those!

We’re using paper for the little ones (3-4 years old) to practice cutting with scissors and we’re using rubber bands for the older ones (5-6 years old) to work on fine motor manipulation and hand strength.

For the older kiddos this is also a great problem solving activity because you have to pull the rubber bands off in order! Once the older kiddos have rescued their animals you can always have them trace the outline and write the animal’s name above for some added handwriting practice!

Don’t have rubber bands? Try using hair ties!

Either way, have fun freeing the animals!

OT FUN at Home

Today we’re switching back to all things Max and what I’m doing to entertain my 15 month old during the quarantine. To help during the hours between afternoon nap and dinner time, I’ve started doing “surprise bags”. Honestly I’m hoping to switch to outside play and exploration soon, but the weather just doesn’t want to always cooperate. So for the time being, we’re inside, using “surprise bags”.

Now these don’t need to be fancy, just find a small bag of any kind (could even be a lunch bag) and fill it with a fine motor or visual motor activity that they can play. For Max, he loves his truck and shapes. Ordinarily he might play with this for a few minutes and move on but when you’re pulling shapes out of a bag (or dumping them) suddenly it adds a little more fun and is more engaging:).

There are some great early skills that are at work here. By holding the bag with one hand and reaching into it and pulling out a shape with the other, Max is practicing some nice bilateral coordination. Placing the shapes in the correct hole (something he definitely needs more help with) is a great way to practice visual motor and fine motor skills (he’s got great finger isolation as he uses his index finger to push in shapes that I’ve placed partially in the hole).

Other ideas:

1. markers and then have your child color on large paper that you have spread out on the floor or table.

2. window markers and then use a squirt bottle to wipe down the mess afterwards (great for building hand strength!)

3. books that you’re child can look at and turn the pages to

4. empty spice container filled with a favorite food (they have to untwist to get the food)

I hope you have fun with your surprise bag! Stay safe and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Looking for a quick way to show your child where their fingers go on the pencil? Or are you looking for a way to provide more of a base at the tip of your child’s pencil for a better grip?

In either case, if you have a rubber band (or a hair tie) then you’re in luck! Just take the rubber band and wrap it around the tip of the pencil (or favorite writing utensil) and it can act as a visual for where to hold onto the pencil or a wider base for your child to hold on to as they write/color.

Of course you can also use pencil grips or even stickers if you have them:).

Stay safe and healthy and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

Today I’ve moved away from my telehealth sessions and I’ve moved back to some things I’m doing with my 15 month old son. The age gap between the two is swift, but “OT FUN at home” can be done no matter what the age!

Here we have a cooking tray with his coveted cups taped on using painter’s tape. What Max doesn’t know as he’s sleeping soundly during nap, is that this is going to be a great way to work on early fine motor skills and bilateral coordination while rescuing his cups!

If you’re choosing to do this activity, I would suggest using a toy that your child really likes in order to spark that initial interest. From there, your child gets to work on those fine motor skills (pincer grasp, finger/hand strength), bilateral coordination skills (using two hands together), and the sensory experience of the sticky tape.

If you don’t have painter’s tape, any tape will work, it’s just that painter’s tape is easier to pull up during any clean up.

Stay safe and healthy and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we’re moving away from our typical therapy putty exercises to strengthen our hands and we’ve moved on to rubber bands!

Before any type of writing task I like to give hands a “warm up”, today’s warm up was wrapping rubber bands around a paper towel roll or a wine cork (things I’m sure most families will have, at least the paper towel roll if not the wine cork). This is a great hand strengthening activity which in turn will support your child’s ability to write!

For the older kiddos (Second Grade and up, I had them using the wine cork since it’s smaller and you have to wrap the rubber band around a few times.

For the younger kiddos (Kindergarteners and First Graders) I used the paper towel roll since it’s larger and most of the rubber bands fit right on.

Either way, we counted out the rubber bands (or in some cases hair ties), I typically asked the child to get as many as their age and then plus one-for good luck. This is another great fine motor and counting activity:).

So go find those rubber bands (or hair ties), paper towel rolls, and wine corks and get wrapping!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we made a Mother’s Day card, because apparently Mother’s Day is on Sunday? I mean, at this point, all the days are blending and I honestly forgot all about it until my morning news program mentioned it ha.

For any telehealth session, I typically like to send my plan ahead of time so that everything can be gathered and ready to go. What I’m finding is that the gathering is mostly done by the parents, and why wouldn’t it be, I mean I am sending THEM the email. But what the child is missing out on is that executive functioning work of thought organization and execution. So today, I waited until the session started before I gave my plan. This allowed for the children to think about what they would need to make a Mother’s Day card and then gather these items themselves. This was a FANTASTIC way to work on some higher level skills and each child did amazing with it. This will definitely be something I continue to incorporate into my sessions.

As far as the actual making of the card, this is a great way to hone in on those visual motor and fine motor skills. First the child has to fold the paper and this is a great visual motor activity. Once the paper is folded, the child can write or draw whatever they would like (fine motor/handwriting).

Stay safe and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Does anyone out there have the games “Tell Tale” or “story cubes”? If the answer is no, then no need to worry, you can make your own! All you need is a magazine (in my case, I used my Martha Stewart Living) and a pair of scissors and you too can make writing fun.

With either Tell Tale or story cubes, the idea is to pick some pictures at random and then come up with a story. The story can be absolutely ridiculous, or it can be more serious. Either way, it sets up a nice invitation to write a short story.

To play with magazine cut outs, simply turn all the pictures over and mix them up so your child doesn’t know what’s what. Then you can either come up with a number together, or roll dice, and turn over the corresponding pictures to the number. Now you can write a crazy story incorporating all the pictures!

Stay safe and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we’re making shape puzzles with yarn and filling them in with items we find around the house. In this case, I’m using Max’s toys and a tape measure (because we’re ordering blackout shades ASAP so this kid can fall asleep at night and stop waking up at 5:30am😴).

This is a great fine motor and visual motor activity for your preschoolers. You can use things other than yarn, if you have wikki stix at home those would work equally as well.

First the child builds the shape (this targets both fine motor and visual motor skills) and then you have to find items small or large enough to fill in the empty space (targets visual motor skills). The trick is to fill in as much of the space as possible, leaving little floor to be seen. This activity can be done inside or taken outside:).

While I made a circle and used mostly circle items as my filler, you do not have to restrict any filler shapes, however this would be an added challenge if you did!

Stay safe and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we did some yoga poses but with a fun OT twist. Instead of just showing the cards, we had to describe the cards to each other. This was a great way to work on executive functioning and sequencing. Once we got our bodies into the correct position, we took 2-3 deep breaths. This was a great way to settle our bodies and get ourselves ready to write.

If you’re doing movement during a telehealth session, we suggest giving high fives to the screen to get the kids back to their chair and ready to move on to the next task!

If you have yoga cards of your own, you can use those, we found these free printable ones and are sharing them here:

https://childhood101.com/making-body-shapes-with-printable-body-shape-cards/

Stay safe and healthy and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we’re working on writing and building those important foundational fine motor skills all in one! We’re doing sticker letters!

If you have paper, pencil (marker/crayon/highlighter), and stickers then you have all you need to not only work on letter formation and handwriting but also fine motor manipulation skills. By working on the foundational fine motor skills you will help your child’s natural ability to write!

To play this game, first you write the letter, or word, you’re going to cover. If you just want to focus on the fine motor manipulation skills you can write the word/letter for your child. If you want to work on both letter formation and fine motor manipulation skills, have your child do both parts! Once the letter/word is written, you can start covering it with stickers.

Stay safe and healthy and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Do you have pillows, blankets, or both? Great, then you too can play “The Floor is Lava”. This is a super fun actual game that I have at the office. Since I’m not currently at the office, I decided the pillows and boppy will have to do. Yes, Sophie is also pictured but only because I forgot to move her and am too lazy to take another picture.

How to play!

1. lay out your “rocks” using whatever you don’t mind your children standing on and have a “base” on either side. In this case the base is the couch on either side.

2. find a dice from another game, preferably one with numbers, and use this to determine how many steps need to be taken to go from one base to another.

3. then your kids can take turns rolling and making their path from one base to the next.

This could be tricky if you only have 4-5 “rocks” but your child has rolled a “6”-they have to find a way to take 6 steps before they make it back to base. Same with a “1”, and please use safe judgement!

Pro-tip! If you wanted to add some math to this, you can roll two dice and add the amounts together to see how many spaces to move.

This game can be played however you would like, just again, please use safe judgment. This is a great way to work on motor planning/executive functioning skills and to get some movement to those little bodies!

Stay safe and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Today we’re playing Kings:). And no, this is not the college game you’re used to, this is the OT version of Kings, full of movement and fine motor fun!

I find that most families have a deck of cards, so that’s always a great start in any telehealth session, the rest you can either make up yourself, with the child, or you can steal my ideas! This is a great way to work on turn taking, fine motor manipulation (card manipulation), writing, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, honestly anything goes!

To play you can have the cards facedown in a circle or a line, it doesn’t matter! And then take turns drawing cards and having some fun:).

Stay safe and enjoy!

OT FUN at Home

OT FUN at Home

Happy Earth Day!

To celebrate, we’re taking our recycle and making some building blocks! While most of you are not lucky enough to have in-laws who save their toilet paper and paper towel rolls for your crafts at work (thanks Tim and Pegi!), I’m sure you have plenty of these laying around since we’re all going through toilet paper and paper towels like crazy. Grab some of those empty rolls, cut some slits in them (I did 4 on each side) and your children can put those beautiful fine motor and visual motor skills to work!

If you want to really work on their visual motor skills you can build a tower that they have to copy!

If you have other recycle lying around, you can always make “litter bugs” (take whatever recycle or trash you have and use glue to build a bug!) which is another great fine motor activity as I’m sure you’ll be using glue, scissors, or some type of fine motor manipulative! This would also be a great executive functioning activity!

Stay safe and healthy and enjoy!