Handwriting Archives - Therapy Fun Zone

Activities, bimanual, child, Craft, Craft, elementary school age, fine-motor, hand strengthening, Handwriting, in-hand manipulation, Motor Planning, OT, Paper, scissor cutting, Shapes, visual perceptual

Coloring and Cutting Shapes for a Picture

For this activity, we are incorporating very simple coloring and cutting of easy shapes. Then you can put those shapes together to make a pretty picture to take home. Two simple designs to choose from are a flower or a butterfly. With…

Activities, child, Chopstick activities, elementary school age, equipment, fine-motor, hand strengthening, Handwriting, in-hand manipulation, Motor Planning, OT, preschool

Chopsticks

Mature and refined grasp patterns, as well as in hand manipulation, require use of the small finger muscles, and they use the two sides of the hands separately. It can be challenging learning how to coordinate the pinky finger side of the hand…

Activities, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Free Printable, Handwriting, OT, pencil template, Printable, visual perceptual

Stuck in The Mud Letter Sizes

School is just starting in my neck of the woods, so with the beginning of the school year, it's time to start my therapy kids off by making sure that they are on target with their letter sizes. I love using mud paper, and have several different…

Activities, activity printable, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Free Printable, Handwriting, Home Program, in-hand manipulation, OT, Paper, pencil template, Printable

In hand manipulation skills using broken crayons

In order to work on in-hand manipulation skills with some kids, I decided to use little pieces of broken off crayon. I had them hold two crayons at the same time, one in their palm, and one in their fingers. Then I had them draw a shape…

Activities, activity printable, child, christmas, Craft, Craft, elementary school age, fine-motor, Free Printable, Handwriting, holiday, Motor Planning, OT, Printable, scissor cutting, Scissor Cutting, season, visual perceptual, winter

Snow Man Dressing

I saw a cute little snow man mentioned on a teacher’s site, and I thought it would be perfect to use in therapy. The original source of the picture was from here, but I have made my own to cut out, color, and dress your snowman. There…

Handwriting, OT

Cursive Handwriting's Link to The Leaning Tower of Literacy

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” (Frederick Douglass) One of my favorite quotes is from an article in the Journal of Education Psychology, titled "The Role of Mechanics in Composing of Elementary School…

Activities, activity printable, child, Dice Game, elementary school age, fine-motor, Free Printable, games, Handwriting, holiday, OT, Printable, Scissor Cutting, Scooter board activities, season, sensory motor, spring, st. patricks day, Trunk strengthening, upper extremity strengthening, visual perceptual

Rainbow Puzzle game

I made a fun little game for spring with rainbows and words. I call it the rainbow puzzle game, and you can download it for free (you can also find it in the shops). You have to roll 3 dice first, a number dice, a color dice, and a word…

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,…

Activities, equipment, fine-motor, Handwriting, OT, Product Review

Pencil Grips–Pros and Cons

Most kids do not need to use a pencil grip. I rarely recommend having a student use a special grip, and when I do recommend it, it means that the grip really does help. What are the determining factors for needing a pencil grip? The student…

Activities, App Review, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Handwriting, iPad, OT, preschool, Product Review, Technology, visual perceptual

Writing Wizard App review

I have tried out several apps that work on letter writing, but many of them are too "baby" like for the kids I am working with. Your Therapy Source suggested the Writing Wizard App, and I thought I would try it out. I had already downloaded…

Activities, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Handwriting, OT, preschool

Ways to Encourage a Mature Grasp

When writing, the most efficient way to hold a pencil is using three fingers (index, middle, and thumb) on the pencil, and move just the fingers to make the letters (this is called a dynamic tripod grasp). There are many other ways to grasp…

Activities, activity printable, adult, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Free Printable, games, Handwriting, OT, pencil template, Printable, teenage, tween - middle school, visual perceptual

Using Paper Battleship to Work on Pencil Control

Last week I posted about regular (and mini) battleship games to work on fine motor skills and visual scanning, but have you ever played paper battleship to work on fine motor and writing skills? Paper battleship is played the same way as regular…

Activities, Handwriting, OT, Trunk strengthening, upper extremity strengthening, visual perceptual

Handwriting depends upon a solid base of support!

This is a guest post by Katherine Collmer from Handwriting With Katherine. Did you know that efficient handwriting skills are first cousins to efficient postural skills? And were you aware that good postural skills are close relatives…

Activities, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, hand strengthening, Handwriting, OT, Sensory, Therapy techniques

Making a Comfortable Weighted Pencil

Let's talk about weighted pencils. Abby has a nice post about making weighted pencils. I have used weighted pencil kits to add weight onto a regular pencil, and I have seen the do it yourself pencil weights using hex nuts, but there are…

Activities, activity printable, child, Clothespin Activities, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, hand strengthening, Handwriting, OT, Printable, summer, tween - middle school

Ice Cream Sundae Clothespin Game

When I was making my Clothespin Tower Games, one of the games is a game about building an ice cream sundae. The game easily translates into a flat game without the tower, so I thought that at times I would prefer to use it that way. It is…

Activities, activity printable, bimanual, child, Clothespin Activities, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, hand strengthening, Handwriting, Motor Planning, OT, Printable, tween - middle school, visual perceptual

New Awesome Clothespin Tower Games

When I am looking at the basic clothespin game that has been used through the ages, most of them are simple matching games on the side of a can. I wanted to take the concept of my flat clothespin games, and merge it with the concept of the can…

Activities, activity printable, child, Clothespin Activities, Craft, Craft, elementary school age, fine-motor, Free Printable, games, Handwriting, Materials, OT, Paper, Printable, visual perceptual

Catch a Cloud and Pin it Down: Cloud Activities

I found this book called Cloudination at the AOTA conference, and it was such a simple and unique idea that would work well in some therapy situations. The book has pictures of clouds, and you draw what you see in the clouds with a dry erase…

Activities, adult, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, Handwriting, Motor Planning, OT, teenage, tween - middle school, visual perceptual

Jenga Blocks Writing Game

At Christmas, I got my kids a generic Jenga game for really cheap, and I got myself an extra one because I knew that I would want to make a therapy game out of it. I didn’t give it much thought until I was brainstorming new game ideas and…

Activities, activity printable, Animals, bimanual, child, Craft, Craft, elementary school age, fine-motor, Free Printable, hand strengthening, Handwriting, Materials, Motor Planning, OT, Paper, Printable, scissor cutting, Scissor Cutting, Shapes, tween - middle school, valentines, visual perceptual, winter

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