Since Christmas, we have so many extra boxes and I feel guilty just putting them in the recycle bin. We also have so many little cars (and trains, and little people…the list goes on and on) laying around. This is an easy renovation to an ugly cardboard box.
My 20 month old has taken a liking to this little box for some reason. He has been putting his cars and trains in it and carrying it around the house (and dumping them out everywhere!). Today while he was napping we gave it a little make-over.
This was a fun project for my 4 year old daughter to help with. She helped me hold the box, measure the contact paper, and cut along the lines.
Once we had it cut out (making sure there was about 2 inches to overlap into the box), we folded the sides in and cut slits along the side so it could be folded easily.
It was kind of like wrapping a package. It isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t need to be. Just a fun project to make something pretty.
Now doesn’t that look better than the old ugly box?
Little guy thought it was pretty too, and then he threw all the toys on the floor for the millionth time today. Oh what fun!
I have seen these Discovery Bottles all over the place. Do a search on Google images and you will find a ton of ideas and ways to make these. I knew the babies would love this and we had to try them…it was a success!
I super glued the lids shut for little ones who like to use their teeth to open bottles…
I know a few who do that in our house 🙂
Baby Girl was super excited when she saw these. She had a blast checking them all out.
So easy and lots of fun! Definitely try this one if you have toddlers/babies in your house. They will love it!
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Many years ago, we created this simple, but fun treasure map activity where children have the opportunity to develop important skills while creating their own unique treasure maps. All you need for this pirate activity is paper, markers or crayons, and optional decorations like stickers or glitter, for a creative activity that offers numerous benefits (fine motor skills and visual motor skills!)
Not only does using a map utilize spatial skills, there are so many ways to learn through play with this activity!
Treasure Map Activity
The treasure map activity we describe in this blog post is an old one, but it’s such a fun way to develop skills.
Occupational therapy practitioners often use treasure map activities in therapy sessions, including with sensory motor tasks like obstacle courses. You can move through an OT treasure map to different therapy worlds like a handwriting station, self-regulation area with deep breathing exercises, a gross motor task like a masking tape balance beam, or so many other tasks depending on the child’s specific needs!
Skills Developed with a Treasure Map Activity
Fine Motor- As children draw their treasure maps, they practice and refine their fine motor skills. Holding and controlling the markers or crayons helps strengthen their hand muscles and improve dexterity. The precise movements required for drawing lines, shapes, and symbols contribute to the development of their fine motor control and coordination.
Visual Motor- Creating a treasure map also supports the development of visual motor skills. The process of translating mental images and ideas onto paper involves coordinating hand movements with visual input. Children learn to align their movements with what they envision, improving their hand-eye coordination and visual tracking abilities.
Spatial Awareness- Playing with and drawing a treasure map promotes spatial awareness and understanding. Children need to consider proportions, distances, and scale as they depict landmarks, paths, and the overall layout of their map. This encourages them to think spatially and develop a sense of space and perspective.
Motor Planning- Using a treasure map to move around a given space involves motor planning. Children must plan and execute a sequence of actions to create their map, including deciding on the path, placing symbols, and adding decorative elements. This helps develop their ability to plan, organize, and execute tasks in a logical and sequential manner.
Body Awareness- Using a treasure map activity to navigate in the world around them offers kids the chance to incorporate body awareness into a real world scenario. They must navigate around objects and visualize how their body moves through a space. This is a great tool for building skills in this area.
Scissor Skills- The map activity we made made builds scissor skills, too. This is an open-ended craft that kids can make and work on cutting and snipping paper in a low pressure way.
How to make a treasure map with Preschoolers
This simple treasure map is a fun activity for preschool. Here’s what we did:
Today was a day of exploring and treasure map fun!
My kids have been loving Jake and the Never Land Pirates lately and today we decided to make our very own treasure map.
This was one my daughter had so much fun planning out what was going to be under each door.
We gathered up all the necessary things…
card stock
different colors of tissue paper
scissors
markers or a pen
some stickers
a roll of masking tape
This project included tons of fine motor skills, cutting, tearing paper, pinching, rolling, folding…the list goes on and on.
We cut the tissue paper into little squares, pulled out some masking tape and made little tape donut circles to tape the tissue paper to the construction paper.
Pulling and tearing the masking tape worked on her wrist stability. This is the strength and coordinated effort of the wrist in a neutral position with controlled movements required to keep one part of the body still while another part moves. (the hand and fingers).
The card stock was folded and different shapes cut out. I helped her cut out windows and doors for the different tissue papers to be hidden behind. Folding the paper and cutting was a great use of bilateral coordination.
Bilateral coordination is the efficient use of both hands during activities. One hand will manipulate while the other is the ‘helping hand.’ Bilateral coordination development will lead to hand dominance (right- or left-handed).
Each door got a beautiful sticker on it (they needed doorknobs- of course!)
And last but not least, we needed a treasure! This nickel was the perfect treasure.
I finished the map by drawing some lines to connect the windows and doors. This map will last for many a treasure hunt! “Yo-Ho-Ho!”
The perfect addition to a treasure map activity would be a pirate puppet or a kid-made pirate telescope craft, perfect for finding treasures!
Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.
Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:
Grasp Strengthening and Learning Colors With SNOW???
Some days, it is just HARD to get the kids dressed up in snowsuits/gloves/hats/boots/scarves…only to bring them back in 10 minutes later because the baby wants to follow the big kids, but can’t pick up her boots to walk through the snow that is up to her mid-calf…so she stands still in the yard until I pick her up…
Today was one of those days.
We needed an activity for after baby-nap-time and before dinner-making-time and this was just the one!
I had this idea in mind since right after Christmas when we got some snow, and I wanted to dye it using eye droppers. After looking everywhere around the house, I just can. not. find the eye droppers! So, on to another idea…
Turkey Baster
Spray Bottle
Scoops and Spoons.
These kids were so beyond excited to see me setting this up. They helped stir the food coloring into the bowls of water. (Get Dollar Store food coloring for projects like this! So cheap, and it will last you many, many projects…) But they could not guess what we were doing with it. Once I brought the snow in, there were cheers!
We did some mixing of colors on the snow…What does red and blue make? We had green in the spray bottle and it was fun to change the stream to get more color on the snow. They were pretty excited to get brown, of course 🙂
Squeezing the turkey baster bulb and the spray bottle nozzle is wonderful for grasp strengthening in hands.
The strength of the whole had is needed for so many fine motor work in play and school based activities.
This was the extent of the mess…not too bad! They kept the tray on the right pretty clean of color mostly since that was Baby Girl’s side and she was busy eating the snow 🙂
