preschool Archives - Page 2 of 6

Activities, Craft, feeding, fine-motor, oral motor, OT, Paper, preschool, Sensory, toddler

Sensory Painting with Pasta and Edible Paint

When working with a sensory group with food aversions, I needed to make the activities fun as well as give exposure to some of the sensations that go along with food. I wanted to have the food textures, smells and tastes available while making…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, child, cooking, Edible play dough, feeding, fine-motor, hand strengthening, OT, play dough, preschool, Sensory, sensory dough, toddler

Sweet Potato Play Dough

This Summer, I was running a group with kids that avoid food, so we played with all kinds of foods to get some pleasant associations with the smells and tastes. I wanted to make every day food into a fun activity, and one of the things we did…

Activities, bimanual, elementary school age, fine-motor, hand strengthening, Munchy Ball, OT, preschool, tween - middle school

Fizzing Fine Motor Rocks

I have seen people playing with foaming dough, and decided it would be fun to see what would happen if Munchy Ball was foaming from the mouth. The foaming rock food is made simply by mixing baking soda and water into a paste and making little…

Activities, ADL, child, cooking, Craft, Edible play dough, elementary school age, feeding, fine-motor, Food, hand strengthening, OT, play dough, preschool, Sensory, sensory dough, toddler

Delicious Sensory Peanut Butter Play Dough

When working with kids who have food aversions, I work on having fun with food items. To make this delicious peanut butter play dough, I put the ingredients in a bowl and let the kids mix it all together. If you have a concern about peanut allergies,…

Activities, ADL, child, elementary school age, feeding, Munchy Ball, OT, preschool, Sensory

Taste Testing New Foods

When working with kids who are reluctant eaters, they often are afraid to even taste new foods. They may have had a negative experience at one point with a certain type or flavor of food, and so they avoid trying it again. I will often start…

accessibility, Activities, adult, child, Duck Tape, elementary school age, OT, pool noodle, preschool, Quick Tip, teenage, toddler, tween - middle school

OT Life Hacks: #OTtips

In Occupational Therapy, our whole job is centered on making life a little easier and making sure that people can be successful. Most of what I post about are activities to work on specific problem areas, but I have posted a few things that…

Activities, ADL, adult, bimanual, child, cooking, Craft, elementary school age, feeding, fine-motor, Nature, OT, preschool, Sensory, teenage, tween - middle school

Sensory Bird Feeders

A fun way to incorporate different sensory experiences, including food experiences, is to make pine cone bird feeders. I have three different types to make that each utilize a slightly different sensory experience. To start with, you…

Activities, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, Munchy Ball, OT, preschool, Recycled, visual perceptual

Munchy Ball's Adventures in Flight

Our Munchy Ball has been going on many adventures, and he is such a great toy to do so much different pretend play with. Recently, Munchy Ball wanted to go flying, which sounded like a great adventure and we just had to figure out how to make…

4th of july, Activities, activity printable, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Free Printable, Handwriting, holiday, in-hand manipulation, OT, Paper, pencil template, preschool, Printable, summer, tween - middle school

Fireworks Coloring to Practice Writing Lines

Fourth of July is this week, and what better way to practice writing different types of lines than drawing fireworks. You can make fireworks out of different colors, and make squiggly lines, straight lines, curly lines, circles, and spirals. You…

Activities, bimanual, child, fine-motor, games, hand strengthening, Motor Planning, Munchy Ball, OT, preschool, Sensory, tween - middle school

More Kinetic Sand Fun

I posted about Kinetic Sand last year after I saw it at the AOTA conference and fell in love with how fun it was (you can read that post here). I did not have any of my own at that time, and it was not available in many stores yet. Since…

Activities, bimanual, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, hand strengthening, in-hand manipulation, Munchy Ball, OT, preschool, Sensory, sensory motor, tween - middle school

Messy Play and Fine Motor with Munchy Ball

Now that I have the new vinyl Munchy Balls, I was eager to use them in messy play. I started simple with water beads, which are the perfect size to feed to the Munchy Ball. It was fun to fill the ball up all the way and then have the ball…

Activities, adult, bimanual, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, hand strengthening, Munchy Ball, OT, preschool, Product Review, teenage, toddler, tween - middle school

New Vinyl Munchy Ball for Fine Motor

I am excited that the vinyl Munchy Balls are in the shop and they have great resistance to work on fine motor skills and hand strengthening. The great thing about them being vinyl balls is that they are washable, which is important when working…

Activities, adult, child, Clothespin Activities, elementary school age, featured guest, fine-motor, games, hand strengthening, Handwriting, OT, preschool, teenage, tween - middle school

Guess Who Clothespin Game

This is a guest post by Donna Abramson, OTR Opening and closing clothespins is a wonderful way for children to develop strength in the muscles of their hand, particularly the webspace - which helps them to hold the pencil with a correct tripod…

Activities, adult, child, elementary school age, favorite toys, fine-motor, hand strengthening, OT, preschool, season, Sponges, summer, teenage, toddler, tween - middle school, visual perceptual

Favorite Summer Toy: Six Water Play Tools for Fine Motor Skills

A group of therapist bloggers have gotten together to share what our favorite summer toys or activities are. This post is about my favorite summer toy, which is playing with water via squirt guns and other water tools. In order to see all…

Activities, bimanual, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Fun Foam, games, hand strengthening, Handwriting, Materials, Munchy Ball, OT, preschool

Fine Motor and Letters With Munchy Ball

I wanted to use the Munchy Ball in a new game with letters so that we could practice writing and build fine motor skills and hand strength at the same time. I started with just cutting foam squares from different colors and writing letters…

Activities, adult, child, elementary school age, hand strengthening, OT, preschool, teenage, tween - middle school

Latex Free washable Munchy Ball

I searched and searched, and cut open a lot of balls to find one that would have a good resistance when squeezing it. I wanted the ball to be not too difficult, but also not too easy. I finally found one through a web store that sells printed…

Activities, ADL, child, elementary school age, equipment, feeding, oral motor, OT, preschool, Product Review, teenage, toddler, tween - middle school

The WOW Cup is Really Cool

You see infomercials, and can’t believe all of the claims they have, so when I saw the WOW cup, I got it to test it out and see if it really did work. I have to say, the Wow Cup works, and it is really cool. It does not spill at all,…

Activities, ADL, child, elementary school age, feeding, oral motor, OT, preschool, toddler

Honey Bear Cup

In some therapy circles, the honey bear is an obvious adaptation that is used to help kids learn to drink from a straw. I was unaware of this great use of a honey bear for many many years, and it was kind of a “duh” moment when I learned…

Activities, ADL, adult, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, OT, preschool, Product Review, Resources, teenage, tween - middle school, tying, visual perceptual

Greeper Laces Never Come Untied

Tying shoes is an important skill to learn, and there are many tricks that can be used, which I have posted about before. At some point, you may decide that the process of tying is no longer the goal, but just having your shoes tied is the important…

Activities, bimanual, child, Craft, Crossing Midline, Duck Tape, fine-motor, hand strengthening, Motor Planning, OT, preschool, Reach and grasp, Recycled, Shapes, toddler, visual perceptual

Color matching velcro block fine motor toy

I love all of the recycling activities that the Recycling OT does, but I am not as good at saving items to recycle. I used an empty tennis ball can, and put colored duct tape stripes on it in the colors of the items that I wanted to attach…

Activities, child, Clothespin Activities, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, Handwriting, OT, preschool, Printable, season, winter

Snow Man and Hot Cocoa Fine Motor Activities

I live in sunny Southern California, so we have to pretend that we have snow. We can still enjoy some hot cocoa even though the temperatures are in the 70s. (I even wear a sweatshirt in the mornings). The rest of the country has lots of snow,…