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Month: September 2015

31 Days of Occupational Therapy with Free Materials

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Use these free and recycled items to work on occupational therapy goals

Coming up with fun ideas for occupational therapy activities for interventions can easily become nerve-wracking! It’s easy to fall into a routine and use the same old cookie cutter activities in OT treatment sessions. Here, you will find a challenge designed to change that recipe for burnout! Below is a strategy to use out-of-the-box occupational therapy activities using free materials, or items you probably already have! 

 

Occupational Therapy Activities

 

Below is a series I ran one October, in which I challenged myself to write 31 days of posts about my profession: Occupational Therapy!  You will find 31 days of Occupational Therapy with free materials provides treatment activities, tips, tools, and ideas for many developmental, sensory, fine motor, gross motor, and visual perceptual areas. 

I’ve bumped up the OT activities, though, to add more ideas to build fine motor skills or work on development, all with free items.

The best news is that these ideas are going to be creative fun that kids will love and (almost) all free.  The therapeutic modalities that I’ve outlined will provide you will a resource for frugal treatment of many Occupational Therapy goal areas.  

I strive to create crafts and activities that use mostly free items that are found around my home in the play and learning that we do here.  


Use these free and recycled items to work on occupational therapy goals

Occupational Therapy Activities with Free Materials

Scroll through the activities below for fun ways to work on development. But first, let’s discuss a few items you may want to have in your therapy toolbox. These are recycled items and household materials that can be used in various ways.

They are open-ended items to use in fine motor work, or in textured sensory play. Use the items to work on hand strength, scissor skills, motor planning, or other occupational therapy goal areas. 

Here are some free and recycled items to stock your therapy toolbox:

  • Cardboard
  • Cupcake liners
  • Sandpaper
  • Cardstock
  • Construction paper
  • Tissue paper
  • Index cards
  • Cookie cutters
  • Nuts and bolts
  • Plastic sandwich bags
  • Paper cups
  • Newspaper
  • Buttons
  • Tape
  • Craft sticks (popsicle sticks)
  • Craft pom poms or cotton balls
  • Recycled egg carton
  • Bread ties
  • String
  • Glue
  • Recycled bottle caps
  • Cardboard tubes
  • Rubber bands
  • Small containers
  • Crayons
  • Recycled bottles

occupational therapy items to add to your therapy bag

What would you add to this list?

Occupational Therapy treatment tips and tools for pediatrics and school-based therapy using mostly free or inexpensive materials and items you can find around the home. Great resource and many ideas here!
 
Affiliate links are included in this post.
 
You can see a previous activity challenge, based on learning in the 31 days of learning with mostly free items challenge. I’m hoping that this series is just as helpful!
 

If you’ve been to this blog before, you might know that I’m an Occupational Therapist by trade, and love sharing helpful tips, tools and strategies that meet a variety of needs. It’s my hope that this OT Challenge will be an idea-generator for you!

More Occupational Therapy Activities

A few more resources on the site may be helpful for you. Below are some of our free courses, printable packets, and email courses that can be used in your practice. Let me know if there is another topic you are looking for information on. I would love to help out!


This Visual Processing Lab is an email series that delivers tons of content and information right into your email inbox. Expect to learn tons on visual perception, visual motor integration, and what that looks like in our kiddos who struggle with handwriting and eye-hand coordination. This email series is totally free! Join the lab here.

This visual processing lab is a series for occupational therapists looking for occupational therapy activities based on visual processing needs.



This Executive Function Mini-Course is a free email course on everything executive functioning. You will learn about executive functioning skills, how they develop, and what executive functioning challenges look like in our kids at home and at school. You’ll gain helpful tips that can be implemented right away. It’s a goldmine for any parent, teacher, or occupational therapist!


Take the Executive Function Mini-Course here. 

This executive function course is a helpful tool for occupational therapists, parents, or teachers working with kids on executive functioning skills.

 

Occupational Therapy Activity Ideas



In this Occupational Therapy with free materials series, you will find many of my favorite occupational therapy treatment activities for many developmental difficulties in pediatrics, all using items that you probably already have at home.  

The nice thing about this series is that you don’t have to be receiving OT services or have a diagnosis of anything to benefit from these 31 days of tips and tools.  Many, MANY kids out there are working on shoe tying. Or writing on the lines.  Or many other developmental areas.  All of the activities will be low-cost and inexpensive.


Here is a little video that we created based on this series. It’s my hope that the activities below hit on the needs you have on your caseload!

It is my hope that you will find the ideas shared here in the next 31 days to be helpful and and a valuable resource.  AND, not only will the tricks and tips use mostly free or low-cost items, I will also have lists of my recommendations for toys and tools that can help with each area.  

This is going to be a great month …but fun! Use these activities to guide interventions, using out-of-the-box ideas, while working on goal areas your clients need.


And now, without further ado:

31 Days of Occupational Therapy with Free Materials

 
 
https://www.theottoolbox.com/2015/10/visual-tracking-tips-and-tools-for.html  
 
 
 
 
 
Day 9 Sensory Letter Formation
 
Motor Planning Fine Motor Maze hand strengthening activity
 
 
 
 
Scooping and pouring fine motor and hand dominance with beads
 

Day 22 The Benefits of Coloring

Day 23 Clothes Pin Exercises and Pinch Grasp Types

Day 24 Homemade Pegboard Activities

Day 25 Creative Scissor Skills Practice

 
Neat Pincer Grasp Fine Motor Activity Buttoning Tips and Tricks
 
 

Day 30 Gross Grasp with Recycled Containers

Day 31 Finger Isolation Fingerprint Activities

 
Did you LOVE this series as much as I did?  Here are MORE ways to work on Occupational Therapy using mostly free or inexpensive materials:  
 
Try a few inexpensive treatment tools like kid-friendly tongs and tweezers.  They can be used in so many different ways.  A set of simple supplies can be tools for many different OT treatment goals.
 
 
 
 

 Sensory Processing and handwritinghttps://www.theottoolbox.com/2015/11/benefits-of-playing-with-stickers-occupational-therapy.html What is motor planning activity for kids
 
Sensory Processing and Handwriting
 
Benefits of Stickers in Occupational Therapy
 
What is Motor Planning? Activity for kids
 
 
 

 

   
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
Free letter building printables Sight word crayon rubbing activity
 
 
 
 

Even MORE great pages you where you will find tons of Occupational Therapy treatment ideas and info that can be incorporated into simple play at home, using frugal (mostly free) items that you already have:   Sensory Play IdeasVisual Perceptual SkillsFine Motor Skills

Occupational Therapy treatment tips and tools for pediatrics and school-based therapy using mostly free or inexpensive materials and items you can find around the home. Great resource and many ideas here!
Occupational Therapy treatment ideas using free materials

Love these ideas shared in this series?  Try some of these: 

Occupational Therapy Activities for Scissor Skills

There are many scissor skills resources on the website. Some of our favorite ways to support use of scissors include:

Occupational Therapy Activities for Fine Motor Skills

Building fine motor skills in occupational therapy sessions occur typically in each therapy session. Here are more fun ways to build these essential skills:

 

Occupational Therapy Activities for Handwriting

We have many handwriting strategies here on the website. Some of our favorite ways to develop handwriting skills in OT include:

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!

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.

Easy Vegetable Rice Recipe Kids will Eat

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Our Cooking With Kids series has been such a hit, both on the blog in in our home.  My daughter and I have created quality time together as we cook our way through the alphabet.  We’ve love trying new foods and sharing them with you and your families!  Today we’re sharing a go-to and easy recipe for any weeknight dinner.  This Easy Vegetable Rice dish is perfect as a side dish for families when you want to get some extra veggies into the kids.  The colorful rice dish can be a meal in itself, if you add your favorite meat. We made this dish together when a cousin was over for some playtime.  The two cousins had a blast in the kitchen and we got to eat the vegetable rice for dinner, making it a real treat to serve up food that we cooked together.  

Easy Vegetable rice recipe. This is an easy side dish or main meal if you add a protein. Kids love this and can help with cooking in this easy cooking with kids recipe.

Easy Vegetable rice recipe. This is an easy side dish or main meal if you add a protein. Kids love this and can help with cooking in this easy cooking with kids recipe.


Easy Vegetable Rice Recipe (for a main dish or side!)

(This post contains affiliate links.)
Start with 3-4 cups of cooked rice.  We used leftover rice, which we always seem to have when we eat any kind of dish with rice.  Save that leftover rice!  It’s totally yummy the next day. 

 (I cook my leftover rice in a saucepan with a layer of water at the bottom.  Stir occasionally and then when it’s started simmering, give it a good stir and cover with a lid.  Leftover rice has now become no-knows-it’s-leftover-rice!)

Back to our veggie dish.  Grab up any vegetables you’ve got on hand.  Frozen peas? Check.  Baby carrots? Yep. Peppers of any and all color? Yes please.  Other vegetables that make a great addition to this recipe: broccoli, cauliflower, onions, beans, cabbage, kale, spinach, celery, brussel sprouts, swiss chard, kidney beans, black beans, any beans…you get the picture.  
We made our vegetable rice dish with cooked onions, red and green peppers, peas, and carrots.  

Start by dicing the onion and sauteing in a small amount of olive oil.  You will need to cook any of the “tougher” veggies like broccoli or brussel sprouts.  While the onions are cooking, get the kids busy with chopping and dicing.  

Easy Vegetable rice recipe. This is an easy side dish or main meal if you add a protein. Kids love this and can help with cooking in this easy cooking with kids recipe.

These two cousins used kid-friendly knifes
to slice and dice peppers.  I’ve found that slicing the peppers into strips and then having the kids chop them into chunks works well with the preschool age.  

Easy Vegetable rice recipe. This is an easy side dish or main meal if you add a protein. Kids love this and can help with cooking in this easy cooking with kids recipe.

This little one had fun watching all of the cooking action…while enjoying a (large) red pepper snack.  Just kidding.  She only nibbled on the pepper.

Easy Vegetable rice recipe. This is an easy side dish or main meal if you add a protein. Kids love this and can help with cooking in this easy cooking with kids recipe.

After you’ve got all of your vegetables chopped, add them to the onions.  Sprinkle in salt and pepper to taste.  At this point, we added a dash of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon dried parsley.  Allow the vegetables to cook for 2-3 minutes.  Stir in the cooked rice and heat for 1-2 minutes.  You want all of the flavors to combine.

Easy Vegetable rice recipe. This is an easy side dish or main meal if you add a protein. Kids love this and can help with cooking in this easy cooking with kids recipe.
Serve hot as a side dish the whole family will love.  If you want to make this a meal, cut up chicken breasts or strip steak and cook on the side.  Then add to the rice at the end. 

Easy Vegetable rice recipe. This is an easy side dish or main meal if you add a protein. Kids love this and can help with cooking in this easy cooking with kids recipe.
Enjoy!



Easy Vegetable rice recipe. This is an easy side dish or main meal if you add a protein. Kids love this and can help with cooking in this easy cooking with kids recipe.

                                                 

      Easy Vegetable rice recipe. This is an easy side dish or main meal if you add a protein. Kids love this and can help with cooking in this easy cooking with kids recipe.
Looking for more rice recipes?  Try some of these by the Cooking With Kids A-Z blogging team:


Steak Fried Rice from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails


More Cooking with Kids ideas that you will love to make with your family:

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe   Honey Nut Popcorn  Antipasto Skewers
M is for Mushrooms: Veggie Quesadilla Recipe | N is for Nuts: Honey Roasted Nuts Popcorn | O is for Olives: Antipasto Skewer Kabobs | P is for Peppers: Asian Chicken

Want to cook healthy foods for your family?  Grab Yum! Deliciously Healthy Meals for Kids, a cookbook for busy families that want healthy meal ideas. 

Healthy recipes for kids

Nickel and Dime Skip Counting Math

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Second grade math.  It can be a complicated thing for kids.  Second grade math moves along fast.  We’re in our third week of school and my second grader is moving right along!  We made this nickel and dime coin activity for our Second Grade Math series.  This week’s theme is money and we used coins in conjunction with the skip counting that my second grader is doing at school this week.  It was fun to show her how skip counting by 5’s and 10’s is used in real-world applications like counting coins.  
Nickel and Dime money math skip counting to count money. This is second grade skip counting math activity is a fun way to practice addition and teach money.


Nickel and Dime Skip Counting by 5’s and 10’s Math Activity

This post contains affiliate links.  Counting and playing with coins is an excellent fine motor activity.  We’ve shared a coin activity for kids before.  For this skip counting activity, we used our Play Money Set only because we had it.  You can do this math activity using real coins.

Nickel and Dime money math skip counting to count money. This is second grade skip counting math activity is a fun way to practice addition and teach money.

To start, we practiced naming and sorting coins.  I had my second grader sort the nickels and dimes for this activity.  She is working on skip counting by 5’s and 10’s (both forward and backward) to and from 1,000.  So, skip counting out our nickel and dime coins was a great way for her to see how skip counting is used in real life.
Nickel and Dime money math skip counting to count money. This is second grade skip counting math activity is a fun way to practice addition and teach money.


Second Grade Math Money Activity

To practice skip counting the coins, I created this Coin Skip Count printable sheet.  You can get the printable worksheet for FREE here.  Next, use small post-it notes to write different amounts of change.  Stick the notes along the left side of the worksheet.  You could also write directly on the sheet, but I wanted to save on ink and only print one page for many coin-counting trials.

Nickel and Dime money math skip counting to count money. This is second grade skip counting math activity is a fun way to practice addition and teach money.
 
Show your child how nickels add up in increments of 5 and practice skip counting by 5’s to reach the amount on the page.  Then, add up dimes and practice skip counting by 10’s to reach the numbers.  
 
Alternate activities:
  • Practice skip counting down from 100 by subtracting coins to reach the number listed.
  • Add quarters to the activity to practice adding to dollars.
  • Add up coins to beyond one dollar.
Looking for more second grade activities?  Follow our Second Grade Learning Pinterest board.
 
Or, if you are looking for more second grade money activities, see what the others on the Second Grade Bloggers team have come up with this week: 

Here are some other great Money activities for your 2nd graders!

Chemical Reactions with Pennies from Creative Family Fun 

Money Activities for Second Grade from Look! We’re Learning! 

Money Math Problems for 1st-3rd Grade from Planet Smarty Pants 

Counting Coins Scavenger Hunt from School Time Snippets 

Nickel and Dime money math skip counting to count money. This is second grade skip counting math activity is a fun way to practice addition and teach money.
Love this post?  Share it on Facebook and Tweet: Teach kids how to count money with this nickel and dime skip counting math activity: http://ctt.ec/E9gwN+ it!
 
More math activities you will love:
Commutative Property of Addition  How to Add with Regrouping  Use play dough in math  Bottle caps in first grade math

Quinoa Lettuce Wraps Recipe

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Quinoa lettuce wraps
Kids can be hesitant to try new foods.  Foods that look different or are a different texture than what they are used to.  Sometimes, getting the kids active in the cooking process can help ease anxieties about trying that new food sitting on their dinner plate.  
Cooking with Kids is one of our favorite ways to spend time together.  So much learning happens in the kitchen and involving kids in the cooking process is quality time with talking and creating.  We made this Quinoa Lettuce Wrap recipe as part of our Cooking With Kids A-Z series (We’re already up to letter Q!).  You can see all of the recipes here.  Be sure to try this quinoa recipe if your kids are a little hesitant to try the small seed known as quinoa.  It’s packed with protein, has a mild flavor, and is gluten-free.  With the crunch of a leafy lettuce wrap, this Quinoa Recipe is one you want to try!
Quinoa Lettuce Wrap Recipe. This is a delicious way to eat quinoa and fun for kids. They will love this kids in the kitchen cooking with kids recipe! Loaded with vegetables and healthy foods, this quinoa recipe will be a hit at dinner with the family.
 

Quinoa Lettuce Wrap Recipe

This post contains affiliate links. 
 
To make the Quinoa Lettuce Wrap, you’ll need the following ingredients:
1 cup quinoa, dry and cooked according to the package directions
1 carrot, shredded
1 can black beans 
1 tomato, diced
1 head iceberg lettuce or romaine lettuce
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
Quinoa Lettuce Wrap Recipe. This is a delicious way to eat quinoa and fun for kids. They will love this kids in the kitchen cooking with kids recipe! Loaded with vegetables and healthy foods, this quinoa recipe will be a hit at dinner with the family.
To make the quinoa, first measure out the dry quinoa and water as indicated on the packaging.  Measuring dry and wet ingredients is a great learning opportunity for kids.  
Amazon affiliate links included:
We love our measuring set for easy measuring with big numbers and clear glass for easily seeing the level of ingredients.
Quinoa Lettuce Wrap Recipe. This is a delicious way to eat quinoa and fun for kids. They will love this kids in the kitchen cooking with kids recipe! Loaded with vegetables and healthy foods, this quinoa recipe will be a hit at dinner with the family.
 
While the quinoa is cooking in the water, show your child how to slice and dice a tomato using a child-friendly knife.  Shred the carrot using a 

vegetable grater(This one is awesome for kids!).  

Show your child how to open the can of beans, being careful with sharp edges of the can. This safety can opener is great for kids. Using a colander, drain the beans and rinse with water.  


Add the tomatoes, carrots, and beans to the quinoa and stir.  Continue to cook for 10 minutes.  Add the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and stir.  Cover and allow the mixture to sit while you separate the leaves of the lettuce.

Quinoa Lettuce Wrap Recipe. This is a delicious way to eat quinoa and fun for kids. They will love this kids in the kitchen cooking with kids recipe! Loaded with vegetables and healthy foods, this quinoa recipe will be a hit at dinner with the family.
 
Kids can gently remove leaves from the head of lettuce one at a time.  To more easily remove the leaves, cut off the base of the head.  
Show your child how to carefully peel the lettuce leaves from the head and place them on a plate. 
 
Now you can fill the leaves with the quinoa mixture.  Scoop quinoa into the lettuce and add grated Parmesan cheese and salt/pepper to taste. 
 
Carefully wrap the lettuce leaf around the quinoa and enjoy!
Quinoa Lettuce Wrap Recipe. This is a delicious way to eat quinoa and fun for kids. They will love this kids in the kitchen cooking with kids recipe! Loaded with vegetables and healthy foods, this quinoa recipe will be a hit at dinner with the family.
Quinoa Lettuce Wrap Recipe. This is a delicious way to eat quinoa and fun for kids. They will love this kids in the kitchen cooking with kids recipe! Loaded with vegetables and healthy foods, this quinoa recipe will be a hit at dinner with the family.
 
You can also eat the filling right in a bowl.  This is one of our favorite quinoa recipes.  Loaded with veggies and protein, it could be a meal in itself!

Looking for more Cooking With Kids recipes?  Try a few of our most recent culinary fun:

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe   Honey Nut Popcorn  Antipasto Skewers
M is for Mushrooms: Veggie Quesadilla Recipe | N is for Nuts: Honey Roasted Nuts Popcorn | O is for Olives: Antipasto Skewer Kabobs | P is for Peppers: Asian Chicken

Alphabet Discovery Bottle

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 Sometimes learning letters can be tricky for preschoolers and kindergarteners.  Remembering all of those letters (26 is a lot!) is frustrating and difficult and kids just aren’t into identifying the letters of the alphabet.  Many times you have a child who picks up on letters right away.  You can see posts on Facebook where proud parents are touting their two year old who knows all of the letters and the sounds they make.  They are proud mamas and papas and deserve to share their excitement with all of their friends on social media!  But sometimes, you have kids who just aren’t into learning letters.  As much as you try to introduce the ABC’s, some kids just have more trouble recognizing the way a letter looks, recalling the letter name, and identifying the letter’s sound.  Creative and multi-sensory teaching techniques can help with kids who are resistant in trying yet another letter learning activity.  We made this ABC letter identification discovery bottle to practice letter recognition. Have you made a sensory bottle yet?  These are very cool calming sensory tools in learning and play!


Alphabet letter recognition discovery bottle for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. This discovery bottle is fun for creative learning and sensory play with letter identification and recognition in kids.


Alphabet Letter Recognition Discovery Bottle

My three year old is always up for an interesting activity.  She is my little helper when it comes to our cooking with kids recipes.  Whenever I have an activity set up, she is always game to play!  This sensory bottle was just for her as we practiced naming the letters of the alphabet.  She helped me make our letter discovery bottle and that was part of the fun! (I’m including affiliate links in this post.)
Alphabet letter recognition discovery bottle for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. This discovery bottle is fun for creative learning and sensory play with letter identification and recognition in kids.
To make a sensory discovery bottle based on letters, you’ll need just two items:

Foam Alphabet Puzzle
(This is not the type of puzzle we used in our bottle. We found ours at a garage sale long ago. However, these foam letters would work in your discovery bottle. And if you find a puzzle like ours at a yard sale, grab it up!)

Scented bath salts
Alphabet letter recognition discovery bottle for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. This discovery bottle is fun for creative learning and sensory play with letter identification and recognition in kids.
So making this scented scenory letter activity is beyond easy.  First, dump out half of the salts into a large bowl.  Add in your foam letters.  Kids will LOVE doing this part of the activity.  Ask them to help you name the letters as you drop them in one by one.  Then, when you’ve got all the letters (or as many as your bottle can handle), start scooping in the remaining bath salts.  This is such a great sensory activity for kids.  The sense of scent (or olfactory sense) is one linked to recall.  How many times do you recognize a scent form your past and recall memories associated with that smell?  Invite your child to sniff the air as you scoop the salts back into the container.

**NOTE** Be sure to stay with your child as you do this part, and any parts of this activity.  Children should not taste the bath salts and if your child may put items into their mouth, refrain from allowing them to scoop the bath salts.  As with any activity on this blog, be sure to use your best judgement with your child’s needs and abilities and provide direct supervision.

You may want to glue the lid shut at this point, before allowing your child to play with the discovery bottle.
Alphabet letter recognition discovery bottle for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. This discovery bottle is fun for creative learning and sensory play with letter identification and recognition in kids.
Next, start playing!  Allow your child to shake, roll, shake some more with the discovery bottle.  Invite them to shake until they find and can identify the letters in the bottle.  Shaking the bottle has weight and provides proprioceptive input to kids.  Depending on the size of your bath salts bottle, it can be on the heavy side.  Use this activity as a warm up to fine motor tasks such as handwriting or drawing.  
Alphabet letter recognition discovery bottle for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. This discovery bottle is fun for creative learning and sensory play with letter identification and recognition in kids.

Alphabet letter recognition discovery bottle for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. This discovery bottle is fun for creative learning and sensory play with letter identification and recognition in kids.
Alphabet letter recognition discovery bottle for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. This discovery bottle is fun for creative learning and sensory play with letter identification and recognition in kids.

Alternate ways to play with this letter sensory bottle:
  • Look and search for letters.  As you find one, name it with your child.  Ask them to shake the bottle and search until they find that letter again.
  • Shake and roll the bottle and ask your child to name the first letter they see.  Have them shake and roll until they find letters in alphabetical order.
  • Ask your child to find a letter that starts the word “apple, ant…”.  Name words for each letter and ask your child to find those letters in the sensory bottle.
  • When your child finds a letter, ask them to name words that start with that letter’s sound.
  • Use the empty puzzle.  Point to a letter spot and ask your child to name that letter and then find it in the discovery bottle.
  • Ask your child to shake the discovery bottle and find a letter.  Ask them to point to that letter’s spot in the empty puzzle.
  • Ask your child to find a letter in the discovery bottle.  When they do, ask them to use the discovery bottle like a pointer and draw that letter in the air, using both hands on the bottle.  Provide hand-over-hand assistance, if needed.
  • Look around the room and play “I Spy”.  Say to your child, “I Spy  something that starts with the letter B.”  Have them guess the item in the room, then shake the sensory bottle and find the letter “B” in the discovery bottle.

Alphabet letter recognition discovery bottle for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. This discovery bottle is fun for creative learning and sensory play with letter identification and recognition in kids.

Alphabet letter recognition discovery bottle for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. This discovery bottle is fun for creative learning and sensory play with letter identification and recognition in kids.



Looking for more discovery bottle ideas using dry materials?  The bloggers in the Discovery Bottles Blog Hop Team have created discovery bottles using dry materials this month.  You know: rice, corn, paper, seeds…how many dry materials can you think of to use in a discovery bottle?  See what the bloggers have made: 

Candy Corn Discovery Bottle | Preschool Inspirations
Easy Halloween I Spy Bottle  | One Time Through

More creative letter learning ideas that your child will love:

Name Soup Writing Your Name | Building Letters Cotton Swabs | Fizzy Dough Letters | Handwriting Cookie Cutters

Paper Football Sight Words

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What do you do when your Kindergarten student would rather play paper football than practice sight words?  You combine his love of flicking folded paper across the table with introducing new words!  This Paper Football Sight Word game will get the most resistant student excited about scoring sight word touchdowns!


Sight word paper football game for Kindergarten students and beginner readers.


Paper Football Sight Word Game

This post contains affiliate links.  This sight word activity is really easy to throw together.  I used Jenga game pieces and a sheet of Green Cardstock to make the football field pretty easily.  To make the goal posts, tape the pieces into a goal post shape using little “donuts” of tape.  Stick more tape to the bottom piece to keep the goal post in place.  Here’s a hint that we shared about the Jenga pieces over on our Instagram page.  Grab up a Jenga game at your dollar store or $5 store for cheap play.  we use these blocks for all kinds of creative play and learning.   (Follow us on Instagram so you can see our daily fun!)
How to make a paper football.

Next you’ll make a paper football.  We used a strip of brown paper bag for a nice brown football.  

How to fold a paper football:

Now, I know that many of you, my lovely readers were note-passing-in-grade-school-on-up-through-high-school-who-passed-so-many-notes-your-locker-was-filled-a-third-of-the-way-with-folded-triangle-notes KNOW how to fold a triangle shaped paper note (I mean football).

This was you, too…right?

But.  Just in case you didn’t fill your locker with paper triangles of notes from friends, here is how you fold a paper football:

Cut a small paper bag in half, long-ways.  Then, cut down the sides so you have a long strip of paper that makes up both sides of the paper bag.  

Starting at one side of the strip, fold over a triangle.  Continue to fold the triangle over and over down the length of the strip of paper.  When you get to the end of the strip, tuck the remaining paper into the folds of the triangle.  Add a bit of tape to keep your football’s shape as you play paper football.

Sight word paper football game for Kindergarten students and beginner readers.
Then, on your Green Cardstock, draw lines for each of the 10 yard lines.  You can add numbers in for the lines.  (Practice counting off by tens with your child while doing this!)

Sight word paper football game for Kindergarten students and beginner readers.

To practice sight words, write a sight word on each yard line.  Start playing paper football. When the point of the football falls close to a word, have your child read the sight word. 

Looking for more Kindergarten sight word activities?  Try these:
   
                                    

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Pirate Puppet Craft

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Argh!  September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day and we’ve joined a handful of bloggers from all over the world in Pirate crafts and activities for kids.  We made this Pirate Puppet craft using a cupcake liner and are ready for Pirate fun.  So, Yo Ho Ho! Let’s make Pirate Puppets!
Pirate Puppet Craft for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (or any day!) Perfect for a Pirate theme party or lesson plan.


Pirate Puppet Craft

This post contains affiliate links.  We started with a few materials for our Pirate Puppet craft:
Poster Paint
(in Black, White, and Yellow) 
Red cupcake liner 
A Jumbo Craft Stick
Black Permanent Marker 
Tape
Glue
Cardstock
(or construction paper) for the Pirate’s face
Pirate Puppet Craft for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (or any day!) Perfect for a Pirate theme party or lesson plan.
Start by painting most of the craft stick with poster paint.  We love THIS BRAND for it’s bold colors that dry brightly.  Add a yellow strip or triangle-ish shape tot the top of the craft stick.  The nice thing about this craft is that it doesn’t have to be exact, let your child’s imagination run wild with their Pirate’s clothes and painting!
Pirate Puppet Craft for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (or any day!) Perfect for a Pirate theme party or lesson plan.
Allow the paint to dry while you create the puppet’s head.  Cut the Red cupcake liner in half to create the Pirate’s hat.  Cut the cardstock in half and glue the cupcake liner to the edge of the face.
Pirate Puppet Craft for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (or any day!) Perfect for a Pirate theme party or lesson plan.
Add block dots with the marker.  You can also use washable markers!  My 8 year old has a new-found love for permanent markers, though and was happy to make the dots with hers. 
 
Add a Pirate-y smirk or angry face if you like.
We decided to add an eye patch, too.
 
Finally, tape the dry craft stick to the Pirate puppet’s head.  You will have to allow a couple of hours for the paint to dry, but then be sure to pretend play Pirate stories and Pirate jokes!  Let us know did you make this craft.  
 
Stop by and see what the other bloggers in our Pirate blog hop have created:
Click on the button below to see them all in one place over on Peakle Pie:
 
Make Your Own Pirate Treasure – The Gingerbread House
Set Sail with this DIY Pirate Boat – The Resourceful Mama
It’s a Pirate’s Life for Me – Study at Home Mama
Pirate Colouring Pages – In The Playroom
Pirate Books for Kids of All Ages – Superheroes and Teacups
Treasure Chest Craft – Messy Little Monster
Pirate Sensory Bin – Life with Moore Babies
Pirate Preschool Printable – Living Life and Learning
Pirate Perler Bead Patterns – Brain Power Boy
Going on a Pirate Treasure Hunt – Play & Learn Everyday
Treasure Alphabet Match – The Kindergarten Connection
Make Your Own Pirate Map – My Little Poppies
Non Scary Pirate Books and Movies – Edventures with Kids
Fizzing Pirate Treasure Adventure – Preschool Powol Packets
 
More crafts you will love:
 
   
Circus Tent Craft | Jack Be Nimble Nursery Rhyme Craft | There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe Craft | Sun Catcher Crafts

Diagraph Spelling Word Poems

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This week the theme in our Second Grade Learning series is Poetry.  We are well into the swing of our school year and second grade Spelling words do need a lot of practice at home.  We decided to create poems using our -CH and -TCH Digraphs Spelling Word list.  This was a lot of fun for my second grader and I.  She really got into creating rhyming lines of our poetry.  This is one spelling practice technique, we’ll definitely be using throughout the year as we practice spelling words and words that sound similar this school year.


Diagraph activity for spelling words. This activity is for second graders and involves writing spelling word poetry, but these diagraph spelling words can be done with all ages.


Second Grade English Language Arts: Poetry with Spelling Words

(Affiliate links are included in this post.) We started out with our Spelling list for the week, which were words containing the similarly sounding -CH and -TCH ending diagraphs.  These words can be tricky for students to learn because the sound is so alike.  We needed a little extra practice before the week’s test, so this poem building exercise was perfect.
Diagraph activity for spelling words. This activity is for second graders and involves writing spelling word poetry, but these diagraph spelling words can be done with all ages.
 
We started off by cutting out rectangles of cardstock.  I wrote out each word from the spelling list, adding in a few that contain the -CH and -TCH ending diagraphs.  
Diagraph activity for spelling words. This activity is for second graders and involves writing spelling word poetry, but these diagraph spelling words can be done with all ages.
 
We started by sorting all of the words in the pile.  This activity was a good way to review the words and recognize that words with -CH or -TCH rhyme.  We identified several rhyming pairs.
Diagraph activity for spelling words. This activity is for second graders and involves writing spelling word poetry, but these diagraph spelling words can be done with all ages.
Next, we used the rhyming pairs to create rhyming lines of poetry.  We built a poem by piecing in the rhyming lines.  To do this, we pulled out a pair of rhyming word cards and placed them on our paper.  We wrote lines of the poem around the spelling words, using the spelling word as the ending of the line of poetry.  It was fun for my daughter to come up with lines that used both words of the pair in a way that made sense.  She liked the puzzle of building lines of her poem and wanted to create more.  
 
To make this a collaboration between the two of us, we took turns creating lines of the poem.  What a fun way to write and create together.  While we wrote, we talked about the rhythm of the lines of our poem.  We discussed the beat of the lines and how that added to our poetry.
Diagraph activity for spelling words. This activity is for second graders and involves writing spelling word poetry, but these diagraph spelling words can be done with all ages.
Diagraph activity for spelling words. This activity is for second graders and involves writing spelling word poetry, but these diagraph spelling words can be done with all ages.
What are your favorite ways to learn and practice diapgraphs?  Here are a few fun ways that we discovered by doing this activity together:
  • Write a diagraph poem.  Try it.  It’s fun!
  • Sort words by diagraph.
  • Match pairs of rhyming words.  Notice how the matching words (like arch and march) contain many of the same letters.  
  • Use flashcards to do a scavenger hunt.
  • Practice diagraph words with balloons.
  • Make a sensory bin with diagraph words.
  • Use ping pong balls in learning diagraphs.
Stop by and see what the Second Grade Blogger Team have done with Poetry this week:
Classic Poetry for 2nd Graders – from Look! We’re Learning 

9 Poetry Books your child might enjoy – Planet Smarty Pants 

Hand print Poetry – Creative Family Fun 



Autumn Fires Copywork – Sallie Borrink Learning 

Cinquain Poetry for Kids – Still Playing School 

Solar System Poetry – Rainy Day Mum

Germ Craft to Teach Kids About Germs

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With kids, germs and illness happen.  We found this fun germ book at our library recently and had so much fun reading and learning about how germs spread, that we had to make a Germ Craft to go along with the book.  Get ready to teach kids about germs and get crafty!

Germ craft based on a kids book, Germs by Ross Collins. This is great for teaching kids how germs are spread.
This book about germs is a fun addition to a fine motor germ craft!

Make these!  So cute.  Not like real germs.
 


Germ craft to show how germs are spread:

Did you know we do a lot of crafts and activities based on books?  This one had to be added to “read and create about it” list.  It really is a gem of a germ book. Because fuzzy germs are cute.  And we sure do love our craft time.
This post contains affiliate links.
This time of year especially, it’s important to teach kids how germs and sickness are spread from person to person. Germs, by Ross Collins is such a cute book that shows in detail how a germ gets into a person and is fought off by white blood cells.  The pictures in this book are detailed and fun.  My kids giggled at the pictures of the germs and were mesmerized by the silly story.  We decided to make a germ of our own that was just as fun and silly!
 


Germ craft for kids

Germ craft based on a kids book, Germs by Ross Collins. This is great for teaching kids how germs are spread.
For your germ craft, you’ll need just a few materials:

Embroidery Floss
(We received ours from www.craftprojectideas.com.) 
Googly Eyes 
Glue 
Fork
Scissors

Germ craft based on a kids book, Germs by Ross Collins. This is great for teaching kids how germs are spread.

This is such a fun and addicting craft to make.  First, chose the colors of Embroidery Floss you want to use for your germs.  Next, create puff balls from the thread.  Simply use a fork to wrap the thread around and around the edges. Tie the thread to one prong of the fork or just hold it in place with your thumb. Then, wrap the thread around the prongs of the fork and until you have a a large puff. Feel free to use a whole length of the thread. 

This germ craft is a great way to work on bilateral coordination, motor planning, dexterity, and eye-hand coordination.

Germ craft based on a kids book, Germs by Ross Collins. This is great for teaching kids how germs are spread.
 Tie a small piece of floss around the middle in a knot.  Slide the floss from the fork and snip the looped edges.  Fluff out your puff ball by lightly pulling at the threads.  Careful! The threads will pull right out of the pom pom if you pull too hard.  With scissors, snip any stray threads.
Germ craft based on a kids book, Germs by Ross Collins. This is great for teaching kids how germs are spread.
 
Next, Glue on the Googly Eyes.  How cute are these germs? 
 

Germ Book and Germ Activities 

First, read the book, Germs. Then, make a few germ crafts for the kiddos. Use these cute germs in showing kids how the icky germs are spread.  Practice blowing them from your child’s hand and they can see how a cough or sneeze will make the puffball germs (and real germs!) fly.
Set them on a table surface and notice how a little breeze or breath will make them move. Use a tissue and cover the child’s nose. They can hold the tissue in place and try to blow the germ crafts. Do they blow as far or move at all? Teach kids about germs and how they move when a tissue is used. 
Place the germ craft on the floow and use a straw to blow the germs. See how far they spread on a hard floor.
How many other ways can you think of to use these pretty little friendly germs spread just like bad, illness inducing germs?
This craft can be a helpful addition to teaching kids to blow their own nose.
Use this germ book and germ craft to teach kids about how germs spread.
Have fun making germs of your own (And only cute fuzzy germs like this.  Stay Healthy!) 
How can you make this germ craft cuter?  Try adding glitter, gems, yarn, or other embellishments.  
Looking for more fun kids’ crafts?  Try these:
   
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