Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter.
Read about Colleen's experience and career as an occupational therapist, including how The OT Toolbox began on our About The OT Toolbox page: https://www.theottoolbox.com/about-us/
Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids.
Check out Colleen's blog posts below:
This post on baking soda cornstarch dough was originally written January 22, 2014 and updated November 18, 2023.
Many years ago, we made this baking soda dough cornstarch recipe to make baking soda dough snowmen. It was a fun sensory play activity for Christmas, and one of the many Christmas occupational therapy activities that we love to do with kids to support tactile play and sensory touch. However, you could extend the play out to all of the winter months, along with our other Winter fine motor activities.
Today I have something fun to share: baking soda cornstarch dough! We tried a baking soda dough recipe and used it to make snowman in a way to help kids strengthen fine motor skills and hand strength.
If you’ve been a follower of this website for long, you know that we are big fans of play dough, salt dough, clay…any dough is tops in our house! It’s a great way to build fine motor skills with a fun sensory dough activity.
We’ve tried a lot of different recipes for different doughs and have our favorites, definitely. We wanted to make some snowmen one day and tried a new (to us) recipe…Baking Soda Dough!
Baking Soda Cornstarch Clay
Ingredients:
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup water
Instructions to make Baking Soda Cornstarch Clay:
In a medium-sized saucepan, whisk together the baking soda and cornstarch.
Gradually add the water to the dry ingredients, stirring continuously to avoid lumps.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and continue stirring the mixture. As it heats, the mixture will start to thicken.
Keep stirring until the mixture reaches a clay-like consistency. It should pull away from the sides of the pan and form a soft, pliable dough.
Once the desired consistency is reached, remove the saucepan from heat and allow the mixture to cool.
Once the baking soda clay is cool enough to handle, transfer it to a clean surface and knead it for a few minutes to make it smooth and more pliable.
Now, your baking soda clay is ready for sensory play! Children can use it to create shapes, textures, and engage in imaginative play. It’s a great way to promote fine motor skills and sensory exploration.
If you’re using this recipe in an educational or therapeutic setting, you might consider incorporating elements that align with child development principles. For example, you could guide children to create shapes related to their fine motor skill development or use the clay to explore different textures for sensory input.
Snowman bilateral coordination activities– Our baking soda dough snowmen make a great addition to the snowman themed bilateral coordination activities shared in a previous post. Rolling, pinching, and manipulating baking soda dough supports bilateral coordination development.
Snowman Fine Motor Craft– Add the baking soda snowmen to a fine motor theme when it comes to using snowmen in helping kids develop skills.
Baking Soda Dough is the neatest stuff to play with. This soda dough was soft and easy to mold into little snowmen. Rolling the balls of dough with the hands is a powerful way to help kids develop hand strength.
In fact, kids can improve intrinsic hand strength using dough by rolling small pieces with their fingertips. The kids loved playing and creating with our soda dough. It was easy to roll little snowmen bodies and so we made a bunch!
We were inspired to make soda dough before Christmas when we made thumbprint reindeer ornaments for Christmas gifts to grandparents. Jen over at Mama.Papa.Bubba. made these Baking Soda Clay Ornaments and we thought they were beyond adorable! They made perfect little gifts from the kids.
It was an easy recipe to follow and perfect for little hands to mold, roll, and smash!
We made these Soda Dough Snowmen one day when Little Nephew was over to play. The toddlers were big fans of this dough! They had so much fun making snowmen…we ended up making 12!
Pinching, rolling, stacking…this was great fine motor play here! Working the dough uses the small muscles of the hand (the intrinsic muscles) that are so important for small motor activities like button management and endurance in coloring and handwriting.
Once we had our family of snowmen, I put them on a cookie sheet and let them dry for two days. At the end of two days, they were still a little soft, so I then threw them into the oven set at 150 degrees F. I let them bake for about 2 hours and they seemed to be hardened up.
If you make snowmen like ours, keep an eye on them in the oven. It will probably take longer if you bake them from the onset.
Our snowmen were hardened and ready for play and pretending.
Want more ways to boost fine motor skills with a snowman theme or winter theme? The Winter Fine Motor Kit is on sale now!
This print-and-go winter fine motor kit includes no-prep fine motor activities to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, winter-themed, fine motor activities so you can help children develop strong fine motor skills in a digital world.
More than ever, kids need the tools to help them build essential fine motor skills so they develop strong and dexterous hands so they can learn, hold & write with a pencil, and play.
This 100 page no-prep packet includes everything you need to guide fine motor skills in face-to-face AND virtual learning. Includes winter themed activities for hand strength, pinch and grip, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, endurance, finger isolation, and more.
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.
If you have kids, you probably have heard of the dinosaur game on Google where a click of a button sends a T-Rex running across the screen. However, we have a dinosaur game that challenged active movement, balance, and gross motor skills. This dinosaur game is a huge hit among kids. It’s a movement-based dinosaur activity that kids of all ages love. If you are looking for creative dinosaur games to use in therapy, at home, or in the classroom, then be sure to add this dinosaur game for kids to your list!
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Dinosaur Game
The dinosaur game described below is an older blog post here on the website, but it’s a gross motor activity that is well-loved for many reasons.
There is just something about the stomping and roaring of a dinosaur game that takes me back to my own kids at their preschool ages! This is an older post here on The OT Toolbox, but one that is one of my absolute favorites.
We read the dinosaur book, Dinosaurumpus by Tony Mitton…and created a fun dino game that the kids loved! Our dinosaur movement game inspired tons of giggles and wiggles as we moved our way through this book with a gross motor activity!
The specific activities in the game allow kids to develop skills such as hopping, jumping, twisting, stomping, and other gross motor tasks.
How to Play the Dinosaur Game:
We’ve included Amazon affiliate links in this post for the book and items you’ll need to create the DIY Dinosaur game.
Have you read the book, Dinosaurumpus!? (affiliate link) This is a book that is sure to get the kids moving with it’s loud and active rhymes as the dinosaurs dance an irresistible romp.
Using this book and the game you’ll find here together is a great dinosaur game for toddlers and preschoolers to address listening skills, comprehension, and regulation through movement and play.
My kids couldn’t help but move and groove as I read them the story. We had to make a movement gross motor game to go along with the book!
We talked about the fact that dinosaurs have big feet and big bodies that sometimes move too fast in the space around them.
You’ll need just a few items to prepare the dino game for use in therapy or at home:
Dinosaur printable below
Cardstock or cardboard
Brad to attach the spinner
Mini dinosaur figures
To make the spinner for the dinosaur game:
Make this game easily using our free printable for the game board. We listed out the dinosaurs in the book and the actions they did.
These went onto a game spinner that I made on card stock. (affiliate link)
We used dinosaur figures for part of our movement game. These ones (affiliate link) are a great deal!
Dinosaur Game Printable
To play the dinosaur movement game:
This is a dinosaur movement activity for preschool and older aged kids. Use in in the classroom or home as part of a story and reading activity, or use it as a dinosaur brain break in the classroom.
First print out the free printable. You’ll also want the game rules for easy play and the spinner piece.
Print your printable on card stock (affiliate link) OR you can use regular printer paper for the game board, but the arrow won’t spin as well. You may want to print the game spinner on paper and then glue to cardboard for more sturdiness during (active) play. Make your game board and ensure the arrow spins using a brass fastener (affiliate link).
One player hides the dinosaur figures (affiliate link) around the room or outdoor play area.
The first player spins the arrow and reads the action. He or she then races off to find one of the hidden dinosaurs.
When she finds a dinosaur, she races back and performs the action.
There will be shakes, stomps, jumps, and TONS of giggles with this gross motor activity!
We loved this game activity for it’s gross motor action. It would be a great activity for rainy day fun or indoor play when the kids need to get the wiggles out. Racing off and remembering the action they must perform requires a child to recall auditory and visual information necessary for so many functional skills.
We hid the dinosaurs in all sorts of fun spaces in the house.
Spin the wheel on the dinosaur game to support fine motor skill development, too.
The dinosaurs in the book, Dinosaurumpus! (affiliate link) move a lot! Get ready for stomping, shaking, diving, dancing, running, jumping, twisting, and spinning!
My kids love any kind of scavenger hunt game and this one, with its movement portion, was a HUGE hit!
Gross motor skills are important to develop through play. It’s essential for attention and focus to build core body strength.
More Gross Motor Games
Looking for more ways to work on gross motor skills like core strength and proximal stability for improved attention and distal mobility?
Some more of our favorite gross motor activities that you will love:
If you are looking for more dinosaur activities for kids, be sure to check out our Dinosaur Jacks activity to promote more motor skills, and our Dinosaur visual perception worksheet to work on visual perceptual skills.
dinosaur gross motor activities
Want to use our dinosaur games in your therapy sessions with a dinosaur theme? We’ve pulled together a few dinosaur gross motor activities that you can use to target gross motor skills and development of skills.
Here are some dinosaur-themed gross motor activities that kids will love…In The Member’s Club, you’ll find a dinosaur therapy theme, with printable handouts, worksheets, crafts, and writing pages. Use them along with these ideas!
Dinosaur Stomp: Have children pretend to be dinosaurs and stomp around like mighty T-rexes or long-necked sauropods. They can make dinosaur noises and use their arms and legs to imitate the movements of different types of dinosaurs.
Dino Obstacle Course: Set up an obstacle course with dinosaur-themed challenges. Children can crawl under “dinosaur caves” (tables or chairs), jump over “lava pits” (hula hoops or cushions), and navigate through “swamps” (pools of pillows or cushions).
Fossil Hunt: Hide dinosaur-themed toys or fossil replicas around a designated area. Children can search for the fossils, using their gross motor skills to move around, crawl, and reach for hidden treasures.
Dino Dance Party: Play lively dinosaur-themed music and encourage children to dance and move their bodies like dinosaurs. They can stomp, sway, and wiggle to the rhythm, pretending to be different types of dinosaurs.
Dino Relay Race: Divide children into teams and set up a relay race. Each team member can carry a toy dinosaur or a picture of a dinosaur as they run or hop from one point to another, passing the dinosaur to the next teammate.
Dinosaur Yoga: Incorporate dinosaur-themed yoga poses into a session. Children can try poses like “T-rex stretch” (standing with arms extended out like T-rex arms), “Dino Egg” (curling up into a ball on the floor), or “Stegosaurus Balance” (standing on one foot with arms extended out for balance).
Dino Limbo: Set up a limbo stick or a dinosaur-themed rope and have children take turns bending backward to go under it, pretending to be dinosaurs crouching or ducking under obstacles.
Dino Footprints: Place large cutouts or drawings of dinosaur footprints on the floor. Children can follow the footprints, jumping from one to another, and imitating the movements of different types of dinosaurs.
Dino Toss: Set up targets with dinosaur pictures or cutouts and have children throw soft dinosaur toys or bean bags at the targets, aiming for accuracy and coordination.
Dino Parade: Lead a dinosaur parade where children can march or walk around, following a designated path, while carrying or wearing dinosaur-themed props or costumes.
We wanted to touch on the skills that you can develop by playing a version of this dinosaur game, depending on the individual needs of the child you are working with in therapy sessions, or at home.
Dinosaurs have captivated the imagination of children and adults alike for generations…and many kids are fascinated by dinos of all types! That’s what makes this dinosaur therapy game a hit. You can develop specific skills with a fun dinosaur activity.
Let’s take a look at how you can target enhancement of gross motor skills, balance, visual scanning, endurance, and coordination.
Our featured dinosaur game provides an immersive experience that not only thrills young players but also becomes a valuable tool in the hands of therapists. Let’s delve into the therapeutic benefits it brings to the table.
Dinosarur game Gross Motor Skills
In the world of dinosaurs, movement is key. Players are prompted to engage in activities that encourage reaching, stretching, and crawling, promoting the development of essential gross motor skills.
These movements are fundamental for a child’s overall physical development, making the game a dynamic tool for therapists targeting this aspect.
Mastering Balance
Surviving in the dinosaur era requires a keen sense of balance, right? Kids can play this dinosaur game and challenge skills like balancing on one foot, staying in one position, freeze dancing, and balancing on their tip toes.
The game incorporates elements that challenge players to maintain equilibrium, fostering the improvement of balance skills.
Therapists can leverage these challenges to enhance a child’s ability to control their body’s position, a skill crucial for everyday activities.
Work on grading skills and challenging balance development by targeting more difficult tasks like:
Single Leg Stance:
Description: Standing on one foot.
Purpose: Enhances static balance and weight-bearing control.
Tree Pose:
Description: A yoga pose involving standing on one leg with the other foot resting on the inner thigh of the supporting leg.
Purpose: Challenges static balance and encourages weight shifting and offers proprioceptive input.
Tip-Toe Standing:
Description: Rising onto the balls of the feet.
Purpose: Strengthens the muscles in the lower extremities and promotes ankle stability during daily activities.
Half Kneel Position:
Description: Kneeling on one knee while keeping the other foot flat on the ground.
Purpose: Improves dynamic stability and challenges core strength during functional tasks.
Squats:
Description: Bending the knees and lowering the body as if sitting back into a chair.
Purpose: Targets lower body strength and stability to build base of support and stability during functional mobility.
These activities are tailored to address different aspects of balance and can be adapted based on individual needs and progress. When implementing these exercises, it’s crucial to consider the client’s abilities and gradually progress the difficulty of the activities as their balance improves.
Enhance Visual Scanning
Dinosaurs are not always easy to spot when it comes to pre-historic land! But dinos aren’t the only ones that need to scan their environment.
Visual scanning skills impact learning, reading, social and emotional skills, and practically everything we do throughout our day.
This dinosaur activity supports the development of visual scanning skills as players to search for items, dinosaurs, or clues.
This element contributes significantly to the development of visual attention and scanning skills, addressing therapeutic goals for children with specific needs in this area.
Endurance Skills with Dinosaur theme
Roaming the prehistoric landscape demands stamina just like a T-Rex or Brontosaurus. Certain activities within the game encourage continuous physical activity, contributing to the development of endurance.
This aspect is particularly beneficial for children undergoing endurance training, aligning the game with therapeutic goals for enhanced stamina and managing deferent surfaces.
Try adding an unstable surface during the dinosaur game tasks:
Navigating the dinosaur world requires precision. The game’s mechanics challenge players with obstacles and control requirements, promoting precise movements and coordination.
Therapists can use these aspects to target coordination skills, crucial for a child’s ability to execute controlled and purposeful movements.
In conclusion, our dinosaur game transcends the realms of entertainment to become a valuable therapeutic tool. By incorporating elements that support the development of gross motor skills, balance, visual scanning, endurance, and coordination, therapists can harness the excitement of dinosaurs to achieve therapeutic goals.
Free Dinosaur Game Printable
Want to play this dino game with kids you work with in therapy or in the classroom? Print off the game pieces using the free printable. Simply enter your email address into the form below to access.
Want to add this resource to your therapy toolbox so you can help kids thrive? Enter your email into the form below to access this printable tool.
This resource is just one of the many tools available in The OT Toolbox Member’s Club. Each month, members get instant access to downloadable activities, handouts, worksheets, and printable tools to support development. Members can log into their dashboard and access all of our free downloads in one place. Plus, you’ll find exclusive materials and premium level materials.
Level 1 members gain instant access to all of the downloads available on the site, without enter your email each time PLUS exclusive new resources each month.
Level 2 members get access to all of our downloads, exclusive new resources each month, PLUS additional, premium content each month: therapy kits, screening tools, games, therapy packets, and much more. AND, level 2 members get ad-free content across the entire OT Toolbox website.
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.
This holiday season, why not incorporate no sew felt crafts with a set of felt Christmas cookies? Many years ago, we created these felt Christmas cookies as a holiday dramatic play activity with pretend Christmas cookies. Not only is this a fun Christmas dramatic play idea, it’s also a way to build skills this time of year…making it a fun Christmas activity for occupational therapy!
Felt Christmas Cookies
In this blog post, we will explore the world of no-sew felt crafts, delve into the realm of Christmas cookie dramatic play, and understand how these activities contribute to the development of essential skills in children, including fine motor, bilateral coordination, and eye-hand coordination.
There are so many dramatic play benefits, and these felt Christmas cookies fit the bill!
No Sew Felt Craft
No-sew felt crafts like the felt Christmas cookies that we made are a tool for creating imaginative and interactive projects. Felt is a great tool because it is a soft and pliable fabric, and wonderful for fine motor skill work.
For parents, educators, and occupational therapists alike, no-sew felt crafts offer a chance to engage children in a hands-on, mess-free activity that stimulates creativity and fine motor skills.
Christmas Cookie Dramatic Play
These felt holiday cookies are perfect for a Christmas cookie dramatic play, where children get to experience the magic of the holiday season through imaginative scenarios.
This pretend play activity involves crafting felt cookies that look remarkably real, providing a multisensory experience for children. From rolling out felt dough to “baking” and decorating cookies, this activity fosters creativity, social skills, and cognitive development.
We love this activity because it builds skills through play.
Engaging in felt Christmas cookie activities is more than just play; it’s a learning experience that targets key developmental areas in children.
Fine Motor Skills: The intricate nature of crafting felt cookies requires children to use their fingers with precision. Cutting, shaping, and decorating felt pieces contribute to the refinement of fine motor skills, essential for tasks such as writing, buttoning, and tying shoelaces.
Manipulating felt pieces during play can contribute to the refinement of fine motor skills. Studies have indicated that engaging in fine motor activities positively impacts hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity in children.
2. Bilateral Coordination: Rolling out felt dough, cutting shapes, and assembling cookies involve the use of both hands in a coordinated manner. This promotes bilateral coordination, crucial for activities like tying shoelaces, using scissors, and participating in sports.
3. Eye-Hand Coordination: The process of crafting felt Christmas cookies encourages children to visually guide their hands as they manipulate the felt pieces. This enhances eye-hand coordination, a fundamental skill for tasks such as handwriting, drawing, and playing musical instruments.
4. Social and Emotional Skill Development: Collaborative felt play, where children work together on projects, can contribute to social and emotional development. Research suggests that cooperative play helps children develop interpersonal skills, including communication, negotiation, and teamwork (Guralnick, 2011).
Incorporating felt Christmas cookies into your child’s playtime not only adds a festive touch to the holiday season but also promotes skill development in a fun and engaging manner. Through no-sew felt crafts and Christmas cookie dramatic play, children can explore their creativity, refine motor skills, and lay the foundation for future cognitive and social success.
How to make Felt Christmas Cookies
This was the play invitation I had set up for Big Sister today. It was so easy to make these No-Sew Felt cookies…15 minutes tops. And, with an hour+ of imaginative play time, I think it was a good investment!
I had the felt here at the house, but I’ve seen packs of multi-colored (Amazon affiliate link) felt sheets at the dollar store. You could make a bunch of these little cookies for less than a buck.
I don’t have any pictures of the process of making the cookies, because it seriously was so easy to make…
1. Trace the (Amazon affiliate link) cookie cutters onto the felt sheet.
2. Cut the shape just inside of your pen mark.
3. Trace another of the same shape on the “icing” color.
4. Cut the “icing” color about 1/2 inch smaller than your pen mark.
Done!
Add some of your (Amazon affiliate links) whisk, spatula, cookie sheet, oven mitt, and get ready for some cheers in your house 🙂
Mixing up a little gingerbread dough with the whisk requires bilateral hand coordination to hold the bowl and stir the whisk.
After mixing, you cut out the shapes with the cookie cutters.
Then, “spread” on the icing!
These cookies were perfect for pretend play, multi-step direction following, child-led play, bilateral hand coordination, and imagination.
Big Sister had so much fun making cookies for Baby Girl and me…adding sprinkles, matching the icing shape to the cookie shape. It’s a new addition to the play kitchen food. I’m ready for lots of yummy fuzzy cookies 😉
UPDATE to this post: We’ve been playing with these felt cookies all year long and they are still staples in the kitchen pretend play. We’ve been enjoying fuzzy cookies all year long!
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.
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.
A Thanksgiving tree is a creative and interactive way to express gratitude and celebrate the spirit of Thanksgiving. It typically involves a visual representation of a tree where individuals can attach leaves or notes expressing what they are thankful for.
The Thanksgiving tree serves as a visual representation of collective gratitude, creating a positive and uplifting atmosphere within the classroom or therapy clinic…and it’s an occupational therapy craft that builds skills, too.
A Thanksgiving tree can be set up in the home, school classroom, or public space such as a therapy clinic. This is a great way to build skills with OT, ST, or PT clients with a group activity.
In a therapy clinic setting, a Thanksgiving tree can be a meaningful and therapeutic activity because all clients and therapy employees can help to decorate the Thanksgiving tree with their own thoughts of gratitude.
How to Make a Thanksgiving Tree
You’ll want to start by creating the tree, and this can be a group activity , or you can set up the tree base and then students and clients can decorate the tree. You can do this in several different ways:
Use a branch collected from outside (this is how we made our Thanksgiving tree shown in the images below). You can tape paper leaves right to the branch.
Use posterboard or construction paper to create a tree outline on the wall. With this option, you can use sticky tack to attach gratitude leaves to the wall.
Use a Christmas tree that isn’t yet decorated for the Christmas holiday. Attach paper leaves using string.
Gratitude Leaves
Next, create the gratitude leaves, made from construction paper. Or, you could use the gratitude leaf template we have inside the OT Toolbox Membership club under Thanksgiving Therapy Theme.
Provide cut-out leaves or paper shapes for individuals to write or draw their expressions of gratitude. Or, you can ask the students to cut out their leaf shapes if you are working on scissor skills.
Students can write a word or sentence right onto the paper.
Add lines using a (Amazon affiliate link) LegiLiner.
The leaves can be made from colorful construction paper to embrace the Thanksgiving season by incorporating autumn colors. Or, just use markers to write on printer paper.
You can even use the same leaves to create a gratitude leaf garland to show thankfulness this time of year.
Classroom Gratitude Tree
This could be a great classroom activity for all of the students in a classroom to do as a group. The paper leaves can be used as a handwriting prompt for older students or a Thanksgiving handwriting center for younger students.
Students can hang their own leaf on the tree as part of the exercise.
This can include things like personal achievements, positive experiences, or the support they’ve received.
Thanksgiving Group Activity:
Make the classroom Thanksgiving tree a group activity where students and even other classrooms can collaboratively contribute to the Thanksgiving tree. This fosters a sense of community and shared positivity.
In the therapy setting, a thanksgiving tree can support therapeutic goals, too. Connect the activity to therapeutic goals. For example, it can be linked to building positive affirmations, reinforcing coping strategies, or acknowledging personal growth.
Thanksgiving Tree Mindfulness Activity
You can use a Thanksgiving tree as a Thanksgiving mindfulness exercise, too. The activity allows students to engage in a mindful moment as they focus on what they are thankful for. This can be particularly beneficial in promoting a growth mindset.
We know the benefits of mindfulness and how expressing gratitude can support students in the classroom or kiddos receiving therapy services.
To extend the activity, pair the gratitude leaves with a Thanksgiving mindfulness activity, our deep breathing turkey visual prompt.
Simple Thanksgiving Tree
We have a tradition of making a Thanksgiving Tree this time of year. It is one of my favorite things about this season.
We started the tradition of making a Thanksgiving Tree three years ago. The kids and I will pick a stick from out in the yard and bring it in for a centerpiece on our dining room table.
One of the kids or I will cut leaves from construction paper and they will tell me all of the things that they are thankful for.
I love to hear the things that they are thankful for.
I have been saving the leaves from each year in an envelope labeled with the year and keep it in a storage bin in our attic, along with the rest of our fall decor.
It was so much fun this year to read the leaves along with the kids. They loved hearing what they said last year and the year before. We had quite a few leaves dedicated to various stuffed animals, a leaf expressing Big Brother’s thankfulness for our neighbor’s dog, and a leaf that commemorates Big Sister’s fondness for Miss. Hannigan from Annie. There are the sweet ones that say “my little brother”, “my baby sister”, “Grandparents”, “my sippy cup”, and “Mommy and Daddy”.
Thanksgiving Tree
Planes and Fuzzballs got some thanks in this house last year….
…And Zebras, Phones, and Annie the year before 🙂
We tape the leaves on the stick and prop it up in a centerpiece to enjoy all season long. They love to look at it during meals and say “What does that brown one say, Mom”, or “Does this one say cousins?”
In previous years, I would start them out and say “I am thankful for…” and write my own leaf. Big Sister did a pretty god job the first year of coming up with her own ideas. Last year Big Brother was 2 and was able to identify some things on his own (“my silky blanket”).
This year, Big Sister helped to write them in her upper case letter, new-writer handwriting… and I know I am going to look back at them years from now and LOVE reading them!
They love this centerpiece on the table during meals…and this year, big sister is able to read some of the words herself. Little Guy will ask her what they say and she’ll tell him “It says HOME”.
Some of the cute ones this year…“God and Jesus”, “the mall”, “mac and cheese”, and Little Guy was sure to express his gratitude for “mustard”.
And of course, where would Big Sister’s rock collection be without the dresser???
Have you done a Thankful tree before? I would love to hear about it!
If you are looking for more Thanksgiving activities to do along with your Thanksgiving tree, be sure to grab a copy of the Thanksgiving Fine Motor 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.
If Christmas mindfulness is something you would like to achieve this holiday season, we’ve got a seasonal strategy for you. This deep breaths Christmas tree is a deep breathing exercise that is sure to be a go-to Christmas season mindfulness activity that supports self-regulation needs for kids and families. Use this holiday sensory tool along with our breathing star.
Christmas Mindfulness
This time of year, most of us knee deep in holiday planning, prep work, and to-do lists! Having a few mindfulness for kids tools up your sleeve is a good idea this time of year. Today, I wanted to provide some tips on mindfulness during the holidays.
For our kids with self-regulation needs or emotional regulation challenges that impact learning, emotions, anxiety, or worries, the holiday season can be a time of even more concern.
Over the holidays, school and routines are off. There may be late nights at holiday parties, parents out for work events, unfamiliar family and friends visiting, new sights and sounds. All of this sensory input and environmental input can put a regulation system on overdrive.
Then, in the school environment, there may be school parties, special events, and special themed days. The classroom Christmas party (or winter party) can be cause for sensory overload for some kids. Picture a classroom full of excited children at the end of a semester. The noises, sights, and environmental input can be just too much.
In the community, there is holiday music, crowds, and a sense of excitement in the air. This can be a reason all its own for Christmas mindfulness tools.
Then imagine the child with regulation needs at a family party with unfamiliar guests, a scratchy sweater, strange smells, and lots of noise. A Christmas mindfulness tool that the child can pull out and use to ease worries or stressors can be a great strategy for this time of year.
Kids are barraged by schedule changes, anticipation of holiday events, later bedtimes, holiday travel, parent/teacher stress, increased sugar…and more. They feel these big feelings and can “lose it”, seemingly at the drop of a hat. Children can melt down in front of our eyes. This time of year perhaps especially, there is SO much going on inside those little bodies and minds. Focusing on mindfulness and coping strategies can help.
I mean, think about it this way: We as adults are totally stressed out by deadlines, shopping lists, travel, extended family, holiday budgets, and the never-ending to-do lists.
Think about our kiddos with sensory struggles. They are bombarded by lights and music, hustle and bustle in the grocery store, shopping mall, and even by the neighborhood lights. The later bedtimes and influx of sensory input is a challenge to process for them. It’s overwhelming and exhausting.
Think about our students with praxis or motor issues. There are crowds to navigate, auditorium stages to maneuver and they need to do it FAST. There are schedules to maintain and growing to-do lists!
And that’s just the beginning. All of our kids…no matter what their strengths or needs be…struggle with the change in routines, the adult stress, anticipation, holiday projects, gift giving issues, that extra sugar from holiday sweets, itchy holiday sweaters and scratchy tights, or mom’s stress from holiday traffic.
That “iceberg” of underlying issues and concerns is a holiday version that leads to emotional breakdowns, poor coping skills, and sensory meltdowns.
Now, think about the kiddo with executive functioning challenges. They can’t plan ahead or prioritize tasks when they have a holiday letter to write, a classroom sing-along to practice for, and Grandma’s house to visit next weekend. It’s hard for them to function when their routine is off kilter and anticipation is high.
There are so many benefits to mindfulness, and supporting kids in this way makes a huge impact. Having a few Christmas themed mindfulness strategies on hand could make all the difference when it comes to experiencing all that this season has to offer.
When we think about the holidays from the perspective of a child. Having a set of mindfulness activities for kids is a great way to fill their toolbox with strategies they can use each day.
Essentially, the post urges us to be mindful of the child’s thought process, emotions, and coping strategies this time of year.
Holiday Mindfulness
Below, you’ll find a printable Deep breathing Christmas tree printable that kids can use to support regulation needs. It offers relaxation breathing as a sensory tool.
Print off the sheet and trace along the arrows as the user breathes deeply in and out. This calm and centering visual tracking paired with deep breathing can help the user to focus with mindful breathing.
Mindful breathing is helpful in calming heart rate, easing anxious thoughts, and helping the user to focus on one thought rather than the many thoughts that may be running through their head.
You can even pair the visual Christmas mindfulness breathing tool with visualizations.
Ask the user to visualize a calm space with a lit Christmas tree in a dimly lit room.
Ask the user to visualize a calm space rather than the hustle and bustle that may be happening around them.
Invite the user to imagine deeply breathing in the scent of a Christmas tree and breathing out the same scent as they empty their lungs.
Invite the user to picture the worry and anxiety slowly releasing from their body as they move down the slopes of the Christmas tree.
Pair the deep breathing with thoughts of things that remind you of peace and love (for example) for with each breath.
For each layer of the tree, kids can concentrate on one thing, person, or aspect of the holidays that they are grateful for. Thinking about whatever it is that you are grateful for is a simple way to pair the benefits of slow deep breaths with intentional thoughts.
Then, show the user how to carry over this Christmas mindfulness strategy using a real Christmas tree.
After using the printable Christmas tree deep breathing exercise, they can look at a real Christmas tree and trace the lines of the tree’s sides with their eyes as they breathe in and breathe out.
Ask them to trace an imaginary Christmas tree, or triangle shape on the palm of their hand using the pointer finger of their other hand.
This becomes a Christmas mindfulness tool that they can use any where and any time even without the printable exercise.
Christmas COping Tools
This holiday season, I wanted to fill your toolbox with the tools your little one (or client/student) needs to thrive.
These are the strategies and tips we can use to slow down, take a deep breath, and recognize the underlying issues going on behind behaviors, meltdowns, and frustrations.
Because when you have the tools in place, you have a blueprint for success in the child.
Here are some holiday tools that can help both YOU and a CHILD struggling with all that this time of year brings…
Christmas Mindfulness
This is a coloring page. Use it as a handout or home program. Kids can color it in and work on fine motor skills, too!
Use the Christmas mindfulness handout with kids as a group or individually. You can set this up in several ways. Ask them fist to list out some things they are grateful for. Then, quietly say an item with each breath break.
As a mindfulness group activity, use the Christmas tree graphic and explain that they will be pairing deep breathing with a focus on love or peace. Come up with a list of things the group loves about the holidays. As you work through he deep breathing exercise, the children in the group can focus on things that brings them peace personally.
Or, you could invite the child to think in their head about some things that remind them of the holidays and then with each breath in, they intentionally concentrate on that thing/person/idea.
More Christmas Mindfulness Strategies
Here are more coping tools for kids that focus on addressing underlying needs so that kids can function. Use these strategies as part of a sensory diet or within the day.
The thing about mindfulness is that the tools that support needs will differ for every individual. During the holiday season, there are ways to support mindful needs with the holidays in mind:
All of these are self-regulation strategies with a holiday theme and can be a powerful tool when it comes to supporting emotional and sensory needs during the holidays.
Mindful Christmas
Having a mindful Christmas can mean being aware of stressors or things that add a sense of dysregulation.
During the holiday season, the connection between mindfulness and self-regulation becomes even more crucial, especially for children and therapy providers navigating the potential stress, anxiety, and worries associated with this time. Mindfulness practices offer a valuable toolkit for managing these challenges:
Stress Reduction: The holiday season can bring added stress, but mindfulness provides a means to cultivate a calm and centered state, helping both children and therapy providers navigate and mitigate holiday-related stressors.
Emotional Regulation: Mindfulness practices, tailored for children and therapy providers, become essential tools for recognizing and regulating emotions heightened by holiday-related pressures. This contributes to a more emotionally balanced experience.
Anxiety Management: Mindfulness techniques, such as mindful breathing or guided imagery, can be powerful allies in managing anxiety. They provide a practical and accessible way for children and therapy providers to alleviate anxiety during the holiday hustle.
Worry Coping Strategies: The mindfulness approach of observing thoughts without judgment is particularly helpful in addressing worries. Children and therapy providers can utilize mindfulness to create a mental space to acknowledge concerns and develop effective coping strategies.
Enhanced Focus and Presence: Mindfulness helps maintain focus on the present moment, preventing holiday-related worries from overwhelming the joy of the season. This is especially beneficial for therapy providers supporting children, ensuring they are fully present during sessions.
Cultivating Resilience: Mindfulness fosters resilience by promoting adaptability and acceptance. This quality becomes crucial during the holiday season, where unexpected changes or challenges may arise for both children and therapy providers.
Empathy and Connection: Mindfulness practices that emphasize compassion and empathy contribute to a sense of connection. Therapy providers can incorporate these practices to create a supportive and understanding environment for children navigating holiday stressors.
By integrating mindfulness into therapeutic approaches, therapy providers can empower children with valuable self-regulation tools, fostering a positive and mindful experience during the holiday season. The practices not only address immediate stressors but also contribute to building resilience and coping skills for the long term.
Free printable Christmas Mindfulness Printable
Want to grab our Christmas tree mindfulness deep breathing exercise? Enter your email address into the form below. This printable is also available inside The OT Toolbox Member’s Club. Members can log in and head over to our Mindfulness Toolbox where we have this and other Christmas mindfulness printable exercises.
Print off this Christmas breathing activity and start supporting skills. This Christmas coping skills activity can be used on the go while out and about this holiday season, at a family get together, or during school assemblies for the holiday season.
Wishing you a thriving, stress-free, and functional holiday season for you and those kiddos you serve!
You will also want to grab a copy of our breathing star, which can be paired with our Christmas mindfulness tool.
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.
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.
This hole punch Christmas tree craft was originally published 11-19-2015 and was updated 11-8-2023.
This Christmas Tree Hole Punch activity is an OLD fine motor activity on our site, but it’s one you’ll want to add to your Christmas occupational therapy activity line up. Why? Because the simple Christmas tree activity is easy to set up and builds many skills all at once: fine motor, bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, hand strength, and much more are all developed with one fun activity. All of this skill-building makes it a Christmas craft for kids that is a must this time of year!
There are many benefits to doing hole punch activities with kids and this Christmas tree counting task has big benefits.
Christmas Tree Hole Punch for Therapy
This Christmas Tree Fine Motor Activity is a Christmas themed busy bag that will hopefully help some of that hectic holiday craze that happens this time of year. Give the kiddos this proprioception powerhouse punching activity and be assured that the kids will be learning, getting out a little holiday wiggles, and you, Mama, can cross off an item from that post-it note.
Or grab a cup of coffee and just relax for a second. Both are equally important.
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.
This activity is perfect for an Occupational Therapist‘s treatment bag in the days leading up to Christmas. Kids get a little bit excited (right?) and the wiggles and giggles may end up leading to sensory overload. A proprioception activity like punching holes is perfect to provide heavy work input to the hands and add calming input.
Using a hole punch provides a gross hand grasp strengthening work to the hands. This activity is perfect for a Christmas themed warm-up activity before handwriting this season.
A busy bag is intended to keep little hands busy, while learning, exploring, and getting stronger through fine motor play! And, what does a mom need on occasion for little ones, but busy activities for quiet time.
Enjoy this time as your kiddo counts, hole punches, and works on so many skills. And rest assured that they will be doing a productive activity…and not adding more to that to-do list!
As mentioned above, this Christmas hole punch task covers a variety of skills, but we should go into more detail on the hand strengthening component when using a hole punch to create holes in each Christmas tree.
Squeezing a hole puncher challenges a grasp pattern with an open thumb web space to strengthen grip strength.
Finger strength is developed by squeezing a hole puncher. Plus, when the hole punch is held, wrist stability is needed to hold the hole punch in an optimal position to squeeze it completely.
Then, when you have the holes punched in the trees, you can use them to create a hole punch Christmas tree craft!
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.
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.
This blog post on the sensory benefits of oobleck was originally published 9-12-2015 and updated on 11-8-2023.
There are many sensory benefits of oobleck and playing with this sensory material is a powerful therapy tool! In this blog post, we’re sharing why we love to use oobleck as a sensory tool for building skills. Plus, you can see how we used a marble run for a sensory play activity with oobleck. This is just one of our favorite oobleck activities that support occupational therapy goals.
Sensory benefits of oobleck
We covered a bit about the sensory benefits of oobleck and other sensory materials in our blog post on goop painting. The thing is that kids LOVE these messy sensory activities…but they may not realize all of the therapeutic benefits of the messy play experience.
Oobleck can be a tool to support sensory needs. Let’s look at this a bit closer…
Sensory play with a material like oobleck gets the hands very messy and dirty, and this can be a way to support skill development.
Oobleck has a consistency that is partially solid and liquid at the same time. This means that it might lead to messy hands and a challenge for sensory touch.
For kids that are tactile defensive, they might demonstrate an exaggerated or aversive response to tactile (touch) sensory input. People with tactile defensiveness may be hypersensitive to various textures, temperatures, or sensations on their skin, and they may react with discomfort, avoidance, or distress when exposed to certain touch stimuli.
This can look like:
Being selective about the fabrics of clothing they wear.
Displaying strong reactions to messy play or activities involving substances like glue, paint, sand, or mud.
Food texture issues, or avoiding certain foods due to texture sensitivities.
Experiencing heightened emotional responses to tactile sensations, such as anxiety or frustration.
Avoiding physical contact, such as hugging or handshakes.
Expressing discomfort or irritation when clothing tags or seams touch their skin.
Oobleck offers numerous benefits for children’s development:
Sensory Exploration: It provides a rich sensory experience, allowing children to explore different textures, temperatures, and consistencies, which can enhance their sensory processing skills.
Fine Motor Development: Manipulating and squishing messy materials like mud, clay, or finger paints helps strengthen hand muscles and improve fine motor skills.
Creativity and Imagination: Messy play encourages creative thinking and imaginative play as children use their hands to mold, shape, and create.
Emotional Expression: Children can express emotions, reduce stress, and release tension through messy play, helping with emotional regulation.
Problem-Solving: Figuring out how to mold, shape, or mix messy materials involves problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Language and Communication: Discussing the textures, colors, and sensations during messy play supports language development and communication.
Social Interaction: Messy play can be a social activity, promoting collaboration, sharing, and turn-taking among children.
Body Awareness: Playing with messy materials increases children’s awareness of their bodies and the sensory feedback they receive, contributing to better self-regulation.
Relaxation: Engaging in messy play can be soothing and calming for some children, reducing anxiety and promoting relaxation.
Therapeutic Benefits: Occupational therapists often use messy sensory play to work on specific sensory processing or fine motor goals, making it a valuable tool for therapy.
Oobleck Self Regulation Tool
In addition to the benefits listed above, oobleck can be a great sensory coping tool for kids. Just like the power of fidget toys or a calm down corner, oobleck has a calming and relaxing component…for the right individual. For some individuals, the messy tactile nature of oobleck’s consistency may be too much and lead to a dysregulated state. For this reason, it’s important to individualize sensory input based on the needs of the individual.
can be a helpful tool for supporting self-regulation needs, especially for individuals who benefit from sensory-based calming techniques.
Heavy Work Input: Oobleck provides a unique resistive sensory experience with its variable viscosity that adds heavy work to the fingers. Resistive sensory input can help individuals self-regulate by engaging their proprioceptive sensory system. You can modify the oobleck to have the desired texture (thicker or runnier) to suit the individual’s preferences.
Plus, oobleck can offer deep pressure input when squeezed or molded. The resistive feedback through the hands can be calming for individuals who have sensory regulation needs. Encourage them to manipulate the oobleck with their hands, providing proprioceptive input.
Mindful Play: Encourage the individual to engage in mindful play with oobleck. Focus on the sensations, textures, and movements. Mindfulness activities like playing in a sensory bin or a container of oobleck can help reduce anxiety and promote self-regulation.
Breathing Exercises: Combine oobleck play with deep breathing exercises. Inhale deeply as you squeeze or lift the oobleck, and exhale slowly as you release it. This synchronized breathing can promote relaxation breathing for regulation.
Sensory Breaks: Integrate oobleck play into sensory breaks, or a sensory diet, throughout the day, especially in educational or therapeutic settings. These breaks can help individuals reset and improve focus.
It’s essential to tailor the use of oobleck to the individual’s specific sensory needs and preferences. Always be attentive to their comfort and boundaries, and encourage them to communicate their experiences and feelings during the activity. Oobleck can be a versatile and enjoyable tool for promoting self-regulation and sensory well-being.
Incorporating messy sensory play into a child’s routine offers a holistic approach to learning and development, addressing physical, sensory, emotional, and cognitive aspects in an enjoyable and engaging way.
Oobleck in the marble run for sensory play, Oh Yes! Oobleck is such a cool sensory material. What is Oobleck? It’s a non-Newtonian material that has characteristics of liquids and solids. We made a batch of Oobleck and played with in in our marble run set. We have tried sensory play with our marble run before and knew that we had to try oobleck in the marble run for messy, sensory mesmerizing play. This was FUN!
Oobleck for Sensory Play
(This post contains affiliate links.) We used a typical Oobleck recipe , using a little less cornstarch to make a runnier version. To make oobleck, you’ll need a few ingredients:
1 cup water
1.5 to 2 cups (Amazon affiliate link) Corn Starch (We used a little more than 1 and a 1/4 cup to get a liquidy oobleck material)
A few drops of liquid food coloring
Mix the water and (Amazon affiliate link) Corn Starch together with your hands. Don’t be afraid to get messy. This is a sensory experience! You can make the oobleck material in a large shallow bin like (Amazon affiliate link) this one.
If you are worried about the mess with this activity, play outside or lay down a sheet or tablecloth before playing. It will get messy!
Oobleck is a fun activity on it’s own (and don’t forget to read Dr. Seuss’ Bartholomew and the Oobleck!) (Amazon affiliate link)
This stuff looks pretty cool, right??
Now, you can play with the Oobleck in many ways (draw letters on the bottom of the bin, squish and drop the liquid-solid, get messy…but even more fun, is adding a (Amazon affiliate link) Marble Run to the sensory play!
Start by building your marble run on the table and NOT in the bin of oobleck. Then, carefully transport the marble run into the bin. Add spoons or scoops, and get ready to get messy!
Transfer, scoop, and pour the oobleck as you watch it slide down the run. It is mesmerizing and calming to watch! I was surprised to see that the kids scooped and poured very carefully as they watched the oobleck slowly slide down the marble run. This is one activity that we will be doing again soon!
Next up is using the marble run in a big sink of soapy bubbles. (Not joking! Watch for that post from us, soon!)
Using materials like oobleck or messy painting in a controlled and supportive environment can help individuals with tactile defensiveness gradually desensitize their sensitivity to tactile sensations and develop a more positive relationship with touch.
There are certain tips that support these challenges, however.
Some things you’ll want to consider about using a sensory material like oobleck to support sensory needs include:
Offer Gradual Exposure: Start with brief and controlled exposure to the material. Allow the individual to observe, touch, or interact with the material at their own pace.
This includes desensitization.Encourage the individual to touch the material with their fingertips or a paintbrush. Gradually progress to using their hands or fingers to explore and manipulate the substance. When you offer the oobleck or other sensory material in this way, you give the child control over their sensory input.
When they have a sense of control in the sensory experience, it can help to reduce anxiety and resistance.
One powerful strategy is to make the activity meaningful and motivating. This means to present the oobleck experience as play or an experiment rather than a sensory therapy exercise. Make it enjoyable and fun to reduce anxiety.
Short Sessions: Keep the sessions short initially to prevent overwhelming the individual. Gradually increase the duration as their comfort level grows.
Offer tools like brushes, sponges, or plastic utensils to interact with the material. These tools can act as intermediaries to reduce direct skin contact.
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.
Today we’re covering oobleck activities as a fun sensory material to challenge tactile sensory input and inspire messy sensory play. Oobleck is the non-Newtonian fluid that shifts from liquid to solid and back again, all at a person’s fingertips, just by the pressure applied to it, and it’s a great sensory material! Let’s cover some oobleck sensory play!
What is Oobleck
Have you ever whipped up a batch of Oobleck, the goo that defies all rules? This magical substance goes by many names – Oobleck, goop, glop, goo, slime, or even magic mud – and it’s the ultimate fascinating substance for kids and adults alike.
This captivating mixture that most people call Oobleck, is one that children simply can’t keep their hands off of when presented with it. And do you want to know the best part? It only takes a few ingredients to conjure up this magical hands-on glop.
Recipe for Oobleck
Oobleck recipes are a great multi-step direction activity for kids to problem solve and use in direction following tasks. It’s a great visual motor task for pouring and scooping as well.
To make oobleck, all you need is 2 cups of cornstarch and 1 cup of water. This means, it’s a great simple sensory recipe that kids can get help to mix.
To add some vibrant colors, simply just mix in a few drops of food coloring, and viola, you’ve got colorful Oobleck!
If you’re out of cornstarch, some folks have successfully experimented with substitutes like baby powder, tapioca, and arrowroot instead (although I haven’t personally tested these options), but they say it works great!
Ingredients to make the simple oobleck recipe:
2 cups cornstarch
1 cup water
Food coloring or approx. 3 Tbsp. of tempera paint (optional) – use the amount you desire based on how much color you want the Oobleck to have – less is lighter, more is darker.
Instructions:
Initially mix the cornstarch, water and food coloring or tempera paint in bowl with a spoon.
Next, get your hands in it and begin mixing and scrunching together. Add more cornstarch or water as needed. Note: You may need to use more cornstarch at higher altitudes. The right consistency is when it reaches the feel of honey, but will rip as you pull your fingers across the surface.
Place the Oobleck in a play tray or in a bin for kids to explore. Hint: You can use a plastic shower curtain or plastic tablecloth underneath it to make clean up a little bit easier.
To store the Oobleck, use a container that has a good closing lid. When using the Oobleck again, if the cornstarch and water have separated just squish and mix together again.
This is important – safety always comes first! Adults should always supervise children using Oobleck to prevent accidental ingestion and keep the little ones safe while playing.
Oobleck Recipes
You can also change the oobleck recipe a bit with an alternative to cornstarch. For even more sensory fun, explore alternative Oobleck recipes that target scents, sounds, textures, or colors.
Oobleck recipe with baby powder:
1 cup water
2 cups baby powder
Oobleck recipe with baking soda:
½ cup baking soda
½ cup water
Note: A little extra stirring with this recipe is required to thoroughly mix it together.
Oobleck recipe with chocolate:
¼ cup cocoa
2 cups cornstarch
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. water
Oobleck recipe with Kool-Aid:
3 cups of water
9 cups of cornstarch
2 packages of Kool-Aid
food coloring (if a more vibrant color is desired)
Oobleck Recipe with lemonade:
1 cup of cornstarch
1/2 cup of water
2 Tbsp. of powdered lemonade mix
Jello Oobleck Recipe:
1 cup of water
2 cups of cornstarch
1 packet of Jell-O (your choice of the color and/or flavor)
Oobleck recipe with tapioca:
2 ¼ cups of tapioca flour
1 cup of water
Oobleck Activities
Make the Oobleck recipe of your choice and then think about the following senses to add a unique sensory addition to create oobleck activities that also build skills.
Tactile- You can also add in different materials to make the oobleck more interesting and to vary the sensory experience. Make it more tactilely interesting by adding either sand, glitter, or sequins as the sensory add-ins can add a unique feel to your Oobleck mixture.
You can also let the kiddos experiment with creating their own fun and unique tactile Oobleck – just make everything available and let them go!
Visual- Make the Oobleck more visually appealing by adding colorful items or change the color of the Oobleck with a glow-in-the dark pigment, food coloring, glittery craft beads, confetti, gems, or sequins. Again, let the kiddos experiment with colorful items that make the Oobleck more visually engaging to them.
Auditory- Boost the sound experience during Oobleck play by using various objects that create sound when interacting with Oobleck such as bells, plastic necklaces, sound-producing objects inside plastic eggs, squeaky toys, and musical instrument toys. By integrating these fun sound elements, it will add a multisensory experience coupled with any other sensory element you have chosen, be it texture, visual, or olfactory.
Olfactory- Enhance the Oobleck sensory experience by adding a few drops of scented essential oils such peppermint, lavender, mint, citrus, or cinnamon. It will create a delightful aroma as children play with it and considering a scent to match the season can provide a festive approach.
Movement- Give the Oobleck exciting and dynamic movement by adding the use of scoops, containers, or washable toys. You can also add some kitchen tools like spoons, strainers, forks, cookie cutters, a whisk or a potato masher.
One way to work on these skills is by using plastic gloves on the hands. Grade the activity by cutting out just the fingertips of the gloves. Then, work on touching the oobleck with just a fingertip.
Another oobleck activity to target sensory motor skills is with goop painting. We created a thinner oobleck consistency and painted with the messy material.
Utensil use- For those who have goals to improve independence with utensil use, you can incorporate a spoon to scoop and stir the materials.
Oobleck Activities for each season
The use of Oobleck during therapy and at home is abundant and included below are some fun and creative ideas for Oobleck recipes or designs for each holiday and season to help give you a little bit of inspiration and motivation to create your own version of Oobleck fun!
Pair these oobleck activities with therapy themes for skill-building.
*Just remember that adding other elements to Oobleck may change the recipe amounts and you may need to adjust the amount of cornstarch and water accordingly to maintain the consistency that you desire for play.
Oobleck Tips
Caring for your Oobleck and knowing when it’s time to part ways and be tossed out is important. Here are some key points to consider:
To clean up Oobleck, warm water works wonders, but be cautious about letting excessive amounts go down the sink drain, as it can potentially clog your pipes.
The easiest way to cleanup is to let Oobleck dry out, which transforms it into a powder that can be safely tossed into the trash.
Emphasize always having clean hands when playing with Oobleck, and for added safety, check it before each play session to ensure there is no sign of mold growing.
While you can store Oobleck in the fridge and freezer, remember not to store in the refrigerator for more than one week or in the freezer for longer than 3 months.
Always clearly label the Oobleck when storing it so there is not a chance of it being mistaken for actual food.
*Note: Emphasizing again, adult supervision should always be provided when children are working with Oobleck in any form or with any materials as it can be very dangerous if consumed or in some cases, deadly depending on the substances used. The best practice is to simply not allow children to consume any type of Oobleck even if it is consumable as it can be confused as edible when it is not! Additionally, small objects in the Oobleck can pose a choking hazard.
Regina Parsons-Allen is a school-based certified occupational therapy assistant. She has a pediatrics practice area of emphasis from the NBCOT. She graduated from the OTA program at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute in Hudson, North Carolina with an A.A.S degree in occupational therapy assistant. She has been practicing occupational therapy in the same school district for 20 years. She loves her children, husband, OT, working with children and teaching Sunday school. She is passionate about engaging, empowering, and enabling children to reach their maximum potential in ALL of their occupations as well assuring them that God loves them!
This blog on sensory goop painting was originally published 1-23-14 and updated 11-8-23.
This goop painting activity is a creative painting idea that uses messy sensory play to build skills in a creative way. Pair this goop activity with one of our oobleck activities for more ways to foster skill-building through messy play.
When you use goop painting as a therapy tool, you can support a variety of needs. Whether you are focusing on the tactile benefits listed above, or using the goop paint activity as a calming or alerting sensory medium, you can support regulation needs.
How to make Goop Paint
The goop paint that we used in the activity below actually used left over moon sand that we made using cornstarch and lotion.
The cool thing about “goop” is that as a sensory material, you can basically mix up any ingredients to get a messy sensory material.
To make this type of goop paint, use these ingredients:
2 cups cornstarch (or baking soda or flour would work as well)
1 cup water
1/4 cup glue
food coloring
To make the goop paint, mix all of the ingredients together. Use a spoon or craft stick to stir until they are combined.
You will need to adjust the ingredients, depending on the type of glue used and the type of dry material. You’ll want the goop mixture to be liquidly, but not too runny.
Then, you are ready to paint!
Paint with Goop
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. We don’t normally do holiday crafts and activities this far ahead, but our Valentine’s Day Goop Painting came about from a previous material…and it was so much fun, that I was excited to share, haha! This Valentine’s Day activity is perfect to add to occupational therapy plans this time of year.
Sensory Play is so much fun. We do a ton of sensory activities, crafts, and play every day.
Whether the kids are messing around in the sink, exploring textures in a bin of toys and “stuff”, or crawling under blankets and cushions…sensory play happens ALL the time in a child’s daily play. Inviting a child to try new experiences like with this goopy Valentine’s day play activity is just another way to learn through play.
Valentine’s Day Goop Painting
You may have seen our Candy Cane Scented Moon Dough post back around Christmas-time. That post turned into this Valentine’s Day Goop activity (and sensory-tastic painting fun!). When we finished up that activity back in December, I saved the red and white (turned pink once we were done playing!) moon dough in a gallon sized baggie. This was the perfect shade of pink for a Valentine’s’ Day themed sensory activity!
Note: This post contains affiliate links.
Valentine’s Day Sensory Activity
The powdered left-overs from our Candy Cane Moon Dough and a little water were all that we needed to make this goopy fun.
We had about 2 cups of the powdered material…Check out the post here to see how we made it. I added a half cup of water and got a nice goopy, messy, sensory texture to play with. The peppermint scent was still really strong and when we were playing, Baby Girl said it “smells like candy canes, Mom”!
I threw in a few (Amazon affiliate link) heart cookie cutters and Baby Girl got to playing. She liked to have a wet washcloth right next to her to wipe her hands off every once in a while. This was some messy stuff!
We had paper and a felly roll pan next to the bin of goop and did some goop painting by stamping the cookie cutters onto the paper. It was so meant to paint like this! Baby Girl sat there for a LONG time stamping, and stamping, and stamping some more.
(seriously…we had 14 pages filled with hearts!!)
Messy, sensory, goopy fun!
The goop made the heart stamps a big lumpy texture. So much fun to stamp! I joined Baby Girl and stamped a bunch of hearts too…
When the hearts dried, they were a pretty stamp. However, this is not something that can be saved to decorate cards or hung on the wall. The hearts flaked away if you touched them. Maybe a little glue added would help to preserve these pretty hearts? We’ll try that next time!
Let us know if you try this activity. We would love to see your play in action!
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.
at the dollar store. You could make a bunch of these little cookies for less than a buck.
onto the felt sheet.
, 
, cookie sheet, oven mitt, and get ready for some cheers in your house 🙂
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!) (Amazon affiliate link)
to the sensory play!
