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Month: December 2013

Christmas Sorting Activity for Kids

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A fun Christmas Sorting Activity for the kids was easy to set up one day.  The kids loved doing this sorting peppermint activity while we created a little Christmas craft.  The kids know that they can’t eat these candies because it’s a choking hazard, so if you do this activity at your house, please use extreme caution and supervise your kids during the entire activity.  This activity sure did smell good while we manipulated the two colors of peppermints and had a little fun with sorting!
 
Check out these Christmas Fine Motor Activities for more creative ways to work on fine motor skills and address development of skills this Christmas season. 

 Christmas Sorting Activity for Kids

We started with a pile of red and green peppermints in our Christmas sorting task.  The kids were very interested in helping (it is candy!) and we got to work.
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We pulled out the wooden baskets from our Melissa & Doug Food Groups toy for sorting bins.   I had the kids put red peppermints in one and green peppermints in the other.

So what did we do with these sorted mints once we were done?  We had a fun project planned!  Little Guy and Big Sister helped to place the peppermints on a piece of aluminum foil.  We made a little circle of peppermints with a design using the red and the green colors.  (Big Sister especially liked this part!)  I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees F and placed the foil on a cookie sheet.
Keep an eye on your peppermints in the oven, they will melt fast!  We kept the candies in the oven for about 10 minutes and pulled them out when they looked nice and melty.  I had sprayed the foil with non-sticking cooking spray before placing the peppermints in our design, but it turns out that step isn’t needed.  The candy will pull right off of the foil without difficulty and the non-sticking cooking spray only added a layer of grease that wasn’t needed.  (It wiped right off.)
We used our little candy plate to hold some almonds for a Christmas-y snack that afternoon.  It was a fun sorting activity and crafty experiment!

Christmas Pencil Control Activities for Kids DIY Workdsheets

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We did a few Christmas Themed Pencil Control Activities with DIY worksheets this week. 
 
This is so good for Little Guy (age 4) who needs a little practice with controlling the pencil when he’s writing letters.  He’s only just begun writing his name, so this is the perfect age to improve pencil control as a preparation for more letter formation and line awareness as he starts to write on lines in coming months and years.  New handwriters and kids who are not yet writing can do these easy (and fun) pencil control activities as a prep activity.  And better yet, these pencil control activities are beginning homemade worksheets with a fun Christmas Theme!
 


 

Pencil Control Activities with a Christmas Theme

Little Guy loved this candy cane activity.  I drew a quick candy cane on white paper with thin spaces on a diagonal.  I had Little guy use a red marker to draw lines inside the thin stripes.  We made a few of these candy canes because Little Guy wanted to keep going and make more! 
 
{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}
 
 
For a new pencil user, encourage your child to draw the lines from right to left (**not like in this picture, oops!**) and the child should rest their arm on the table surface.  Little Guy needs verbal and a physical cue to rest his hands on the table surface for better control.  This will improve pencil control when the child is attempting to draw a line in a certain area.
 
 

He kept his lines within the stripes very nicely, and did not often go over the edges of the candy cane.  This is a great activity for a new writer!

Our next activity was encouraging tripod grasp to manipulate pony beads.  I had Little Guy pick up the beads and place them onto the bulbs of a Christmas Tree.  You may have seen this picture on our Instagram feed or Facebook page.

Little Guy had to keep the beads on the circles and really concentrate on the lines.  To manage the beads and place them gently on the circles, encouraged a tripod grasp with extended wrist for improved pencil control.

 

This Christmas tree was another easy DIY pencil control worksheet to throw together.  Baby Girl (age 2) really liked this activity too.

I didn’t capture a picture of the next step, but I had Little Guy connect the bulbs with a  pencil.  I asked him to keep the pencil from going in the bulb, because it might break the light!  Connecting the dots and concentrating on the lines of the circles was a great way to work on pencil control.

 

More DIY Christmas Pencil Control Worksheets for Kids

Our last pencil control activity was a present themed one.  We started by making presents with some paper tubes shaped into a square.  We used our Spill Proof Paint Cups
to hold the paint and stamped some squares.

 

We waited until the next day when our present squares were dry.

 
Baby Girl kind of took over this activity before Little Guy got a chance to practice his pencil control…

I showed Little Guy how to make crosses on the presents (over Baby Girl’s added decorations!) so he could practice simple copying.  He was to make the lines top to bottom and left to right to encourage improved pencil control in letter formation.  He did pretty well!

 
 

Kid Made Christmas Ornament Crafts

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The ornaments on the tree that mean the most are the Kid-made ones, right?  The ones that you keep year after year are so special!  We’ve started making more Christmas ornament crafts this year (so watch this space for a few more fun ideas, coming soon!) We wanted to put together this round-up of Christmas ornaments for kids feature from you fabulous bloggers who link up week after week, with amazing creativity and fun ideas.  If you’re looking for a few special Christmas keep-sakes for the tree this year, check out the links below! Get ready to get crafty with the kids, because these are some fun ornament making ideas!





Check out these Christmas Fine Motor Activities for more creative ways to work on fine motor skills and address development of skills this Christmas season. 

Christmas Ornament Crafts for Kids. Sugar Aunts
 
Note: This post contains affiliate links.

Christmas Ornament Crafts for Kids

Abstract Homemade Christmas Ornaments from Buggy and Buddy

CD Snowman Ornaments from Happy Hooligans

Egg Carton Jingle Bells Christmas Ornaments from Powerful Mothering

Handprint Ornaments from Sugar Aunts

Gingerbread Men, Christmas Tree, and Star Ornament Printables from Powerful Mothering

I Spy Christmas Ornament from Teach Beside Me

Craft Stick Stars Ornament from Powerful Mothering

Popsicle Stick Tree with Buttons Ornament from Crystal’s Tiny Treasures

Gingerbread Salt Dough Christmas Tree Garland from Sugar Aunts

Milk Carton Christmas Ornaments from Laughing Kids Learn

Christmas Tree Candle Lights from Peakle Pie

Pine Cone Christmas Tree Ornaments from Sugar Aunts

Egg Carton Bells from Crystal’s Tiny Treasures

Cheerios Bird Feeder Ornaments from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Scooping Words Activity

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This scooping words activity is a fun way to work on literacy and fluency with reading. Use this activity along with our ping pong bounce game for fine motor fun with reading! This is a multisensory learning activity kids love.

Scooping Words

Sight Words and decodable reading are something that we’ve been working on every day around here.  With Big Sister being in Kindergarten (and my oldest…so this is all new to me, too!) we’ve been going right along with the fast pace that reading, writing, and math brings home for homework every day. 
 
And not only that, I love to add fun and creative ways to supplement Big Sister’s work.  
 
This Sight Word Scooping Activity was a fun one for a little after school (and after homework) fun.  We used ping pong balls to practice a lot of her sight words but also some of her decodable words.  This activity was great for a new reader because it added in some fun while encouraging fine motor skills to the learning.   
 
 
You might have seen some of our other sight words activities that we’ve been doing recently (with string, with clothes pins, and with a scavenger hunt among the fun). 
 
Big Sister is doing so well with her new reading skills and it’s still hard for me to believe my little girl is reading!!
 

Why Use this Scooping Words Activity?

This scooping words idea builds skills in several areas:

 
 

Sight Word Scooping Activity to learn, match sight words with ping pong balls. By Sugar Aunts.

 
 
This post contains affiliate links.  
 
Sight Word Scooping Activity to learn, match sight words with ping pong balls. By Sugar Aunts.
 
We started with a set of ping pong balls, and a Mini Muffin Pan. 
 
I had written some words on the ping pong balls and had a few of them set into the mini muffin tin.  
 
Big Sister read the sentence and smiled.  She loves that she can decipher words into meaning, too!  Other ping pong balls were in a bowl ready for scooping.
 

 

Scooping Words Activity

Big Sister grabbed the Ice Cream Scoop and started scooping the ping pong balls into the muffin tin. 

She would tell me the words on the pin pong balls as she scooped.  Baby Girl had to get involved in this activity when she saw the scooping fun! 

Scooping and pouring (and scooping words) is a great fine motor activity for toddlers, so this was not only fun for her…it was also a great developmental activity!

For Big Sister, scooping the ping pong balls while making sure the words were showing was good for her fine motor work.

 
I added a handful of Mini Muffin Cupcake Liners with the same words written out on them.  They were in a random order for Big Sister to match words. 
 
She plopped a ping pong ball with the matching word into the cupcake liner.
 
 
She decided that we needed some water in the bowl to make scooping a little more fun.  She was right.  It was more fun! 
 
(Especially for Baby Girl.  She was in scooping heaven, here!)
 
 

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:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

Fine Motor Egg Carton Tree Activity

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Egg carton tree for a fine motor Christmas craft
 

We are in full Christmas craft mode around here with tons of Christmas fine motor activities…and this egg carton tree was a fine motor hit! We’re excited to share more Christmas crafts and activities that develop motor skills, like this festive egg carton craft.

For now, we’ve got a fun fine motor activity that the kids will love!  This Fine Motor Christmas Tree activity and craft was a favorite of Little Guys’.  He loved sticking the egg carton pieces through the skewer and seeing his Christmas tree grow!  We do so many fine motor activities in our house and this one was just right for the Christmas season!



Fine Motor Christmas Egg carton Tree 

fine motor christmas tree craft made with egg cartons
 
This post contains affiliate links.
 
 
We started with a recycled egg carton and some Washable Green Tempera Paint, a paint brush, and our Spill Proof Paint Cup. (We love these things!  Never have spilled paint and the snug lids keep the paint from drying up between uses. Perfect for little artists!)
 
Paint the egg carton green.  Let dry.
 
 

After the paint dried, I cut out each section of the egg carton.  Now we were ready for the fun part!

 
Little Guy LOVED this!  He used a Bamboo Skewer to poke through each of the egg carton sections.  He slid each section down the length of the skewer.  This is pure concentration, here!  (I would suggest putting a wooden cutting board under the skewer if you do this one at home.  Our table was fine, but I wouldn’t want any skewer holes in your dining room table!)
 
 
Once all of the egg carton pieces were on the skewer, we slid them down to fill out the whole tree.  For the next part, I didn’t get any pictures, but it was really easy. 
 
We put a lump of play dough in a little red Christmas-y cup and stuck the skewer into the dough.  Little Guy and I used glue to put little dots all over the egg cartons. 
 
Now, this was Baby Girl’s favorite part…She loved sticking the red Sequins onto the glue dots.  This is such a great fine motor activity using a neat pincer grasp to hold the sequins and place them on the tree. 
 
When the skewer is positioned upright in the play dough, the child’s wrist is positioned in an extended position.  This is just right for pre-handwriting and for improving tripod grasp when writing. 
 
This Christmas tree activity and craft was fun for all ages!  If you make one at home, let us know! We love to see your versions of our ideas!!
 
 
 

More Fine Motor Christmas Tree Activities

For more fine motor Christmas activities that develop precision and dexterity skills, try this fine motor Christmas card that kids can make and give to family and friends.
 
This clothes pin Christmas tree builds hand strength, bilateral coordination, and eye-hand coordination skills.
 
Be sure to check out all of our Christmas fine motor activities here.
 
And, for holiday fun with fine motor skill-building, you’ll love the convenience of our Christmas Fine Motor Kit:
 

Looking for done-for you therapy activities this holiday season?

This print-and-go Christmas Therapy Kit includes no-prep, fine motor, gross motor, self-regulation, visual perceptual activities…and much more… to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, Christmas-themed, motor activities so you can help children develop the skills they need.

This 100 page no-prep packet includes everything you need to guide fine motor skills in face-to-face AND virtual learning. You’ll find Christmas-themed activities for hand strength, pinch and grip, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, endurance, finger isolation, and more. 

Click here to grab the Christmas Therapy Kit.

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

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