Colleen Beck OTR/L

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:

Penguin Emotions Game

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Emotions game for social emotional development with a penguin theme

Today, I have a very fun virtual therapy slide deck to share. This emotions game is designed with a penguins theme, and can help kids identify emotions based on facial expressions, specifically the eyes. There is a lot of emotion in the eyes! Kids may or may not pick up on this emotional expression, depending on their development in social emotional learning. I created a penguins gross motor slide deck this week, and got a little carried away with the penguin theme…but how cute are these little guys, right? Use them for helping kids identify feelings and emotions based on expressions, and a few other skills that are addressed in therapy. Let’s break this activity down…

This emotions game has a penguins theme and helps kids learn about identifying emotions and feelings.

Teach Emotions with a Game

Ok, this therapy game is very fun to play, and it will be a huge hit, depending on the testers in my own home. But first, let’s break this down on the various skills that this emotions game addresses:

  • Identifying emotions
  • Naming feelings
  • Identifying facial expressions
  • Exploring emotional expression in the eyes
  • Social emotional learning

Then, there are the other skills that are addressed, because of the way that this therapy slide deck is presented and organized:

  • Visual discrimination
  • Visual scanning
  • Visual attention
  • Visual memory
  • Form constancy

This game is such a fun way to build skills in a variety of areas. Games for emotions and feelings are sometimes difficult to find, and so this free resource should be a great starting point for helping children with the areas listed above.

Emotion Matching Game

To play this emotional expression game, you’ll just need to load the slide deck onto your Google drive. Then, you can play in virtual therapy sessions with clients, or in home therapy programs, or even as a fun brain break in the distance learning classroom.

Kids can identify emotions and facial expressions in this emotions game using a penguin theme.

Next, ask children to complete the first slide in the deck. You’ll notice that there are text boxes on the slide where kids can identify the feelings or emotions based on the penguin’s expressions. Kids can type them into the box or they can say or write the feelings words.

On the next slides in the deck, kids can find the matching facial expressions for each penguin. Each slide has four penguins with different emotions expressed with their eyes. There are only penguins that match between the two circles.

This slide deck is so useful in helping kids work on visual perceptual skills, too. By visually scanning for the matching penguins, they are using visual discrimination, form constancy, visual attention, and visual memory. All of these skills are important not only in social emotional skills, but handwriting, reading, math, and other learning tasks as well.

Kids can move the ice cube to cover the matching penguins. The ice cube is an interactive piece on the Google slide deck. You will notice that there are two ice cubes. One is over top the other, so once you move the first ice cube to cover one of the penguins, the other ice cube is right below that. Kids can slide both ice cubes to cover the matching penguins.

I love this game for the emotions matching. It’s set up as an “I Spy” game for emotions and facial expressions, and kids will LOVE it!

More Emotional Learning Resources

This activity goes really well with some of the other emotions and feelings tools here on the website. These emotional learning tools can be used together:

  1. Identifying emotions can be hard for kids who are early in social emotional learning development. Try this identifying emotion faces worksheet. It’s another free resource, so you can print it and begin using the printable right away.

2. Kids respond well to the stories in children’s books. Pair social emotional learning with popular kids’ books and hands-on activities. Here is information on how to teach social emotional development with children’s’ books.

3. Emotions and empathy are very closely related. Use this hands-on activity to teach empathy.

4. What is social emotional learning? Here are resources and information to help.

5. Emotional development occurs through play. This blog post includes examples of social emotional development and strategies to help kids develop these essential skills. Check out the comments on that post for strategies that The OT Toolbox community uses to develop social emotional skills.

6. Emotional regulation and executive functioning skills go hand-in-hand. Here is information on executive functioning and emotional development. You’ll find information on these connections, the research involved, and strategies to help.

Emotions Game for Teletherapy

Want to add this emotions game to your therapy toolbox?

You can grab a copy of this Google slide deck and use it to work on specific skills.

Enter your email address below and you will receive a PDF containing a link to copy the slide deck onto your Google drive.

Google Slide Deck TIPS:

  1. Save the PDF file that you receive once you enter your email below, because you can come back to it again and again and send it to the kids on your caseload (or classroom) so they can make their own copy on their Google drive.
  2. You will be prompted to make a copy of the slide deck. Before clicking that, be sure that you are logged into your Google account.
  3. Make a copy for each student’s Google Drive. When you share it, make sure you enable edit capabilities for users.
  4. The pieces will be moveable in “edit” mode. If you click “present”, the movable ice cubes won’t work.
  5. Be sure to make a copy of this slide deck and not change the url to indicate “edit” at the end. When you make a copy of the slide deck onto your Google drive, you will end up with your own version that you are free to adjust in order to meet your student’s needs. By changing the url to “edit”, you can potentially mess up the original version that many other therapists and The OT Toolbox users are given.
  6. To easily start a new game- Once you’ve gone through all of the slides, go to “history” on the top of the Google dashboard. You will be able to revert the slide to it’s original state using the history option, so all of the ice cubes go back to their original place. The history option is located on the top dashboard by clicking the link that says, “last edit was…”. When you click on that, you will see a list of edits made on the right side of your screen. Click on the edit titled, “New Game (Revert slides to their original state)”. This should move all of the movable ice cubes back to their original location on the slide deck. The typed in emotions on the text boxes will disappear as well. Note that you can delete edits from that list, so if several students are using the slides, you can keep the organization simple and delete edit versions that you no longer need.

FREE Emotions Game -Penguin Theme!

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    Enjoy!

    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.

    Penguin Deep Breathing Exercise

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    This penguin deep breathing exercise is another coping tool that kids can use as a self-regulation strategy. It follows several others in our series of image-based deep breathing exercises. These were originally created here on The OT Toolbox and you’ll be seeing many more breathing exercise tools coming your way! I think you’ll love the recent polar bear self-regulation activity. It’s a deep breathing exercise, too. Scroll on to access this printable worksheet.

    Penguin deep breathing exercise for self-regulation or coping skills in kids.

    Penguin Deep Breathing Exercise

    I love this deep breathing activity for part of a penguin theme. This time of year, penguins are all the rage in preschool and younger elementary grades. This penguin-themed breathing activity is a powerful way to work on self-regulation using that theme.

    More penguin activities:

    Penguin yoga– This penguin yoga slide deck is another penguin activity that you can use along with the self-regulation tool.

    Penguin Activities– For more ways to use a penguin theme, check out this penguin activities post full of penguin crafts, movement activities, and sensory play ideas, and even snacks.

    Grab the Winter Fine Motor Kit, with 100 pages of done-for-you therapy activities, including penguin themes. There are lacing cards, crafts, pencil control strips, scissor skills activities, and much more. Grab it now before January 9th and you get a bonus of 3 fine motor slide deck activities.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE WINTER FINE MOTOR KIT.

    Want to grab this free printable? Enter your email in the form below. You’ll receive the deep breathing worksheet immediately in your email inbox.

    Free Penguin Theme Deep Breathing Exercise

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      winter fine motor kit

      Don’t forget your copy of the Winter 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.

      Penguin Yoga

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      Penguin Yoga slide deck for teletherapy

      Did you ever wonder if a penguin can do yoga? Well, today we’re not talking about penguins doing yoga…we are talking about penguin-themed yoga exercises! These are brain breaks for kids that are a great addition to a penguin theme in the classroom or home. Last week, we had a polar bear therapy slide deck full of yoga and gross motor activities for you. It goes well with this penguin yoga slide deck. Use it in virtual therapy, in home programs, or as a brain break in distance learning or therapy at home!

      Penguin Yoga gross motor slide deck for teletherapy or brain breaks.

      Penguin Yoga Exercises

      This slide deck is a fun way to get the kiddos moving along with the penguins. Like many of our other slide decks, you’ll find the movements include heavy work exercises for proprioceptive input that can be calming and centering.

      Other slides are vestibular activities that encourage movement in various planes.

      These slides can be part of a sensory diet for scheduled sensory activities throughout the day. Read more on how to start a sensory diet.

      Add these slides to brain breaks or other movement activities throughout the virtual classroom or teletherapy day.

      Yoga and Balance

      This slide deck has two options for each yoga movement. The nice thing about yoga exercises is that each movement can be modified to meet the needs of the individual while challenging abilities and strength at a “just right” level.

      You’ll notice that each slide has one penguin on it. As you progress through the slide deck, the penguin does a move, and then it does that same move on an iceberg or piece of ice. This can be a way to challenge kids and work on core strength, coordination, motor planning, and upper or lower body strength depending on the yoga position.

      Kids can use an object they have in the home and pretend they are a penguin posing on the slab of ice. Some ideas to use include:

      • Couch cushion
      • Folded towel
      • Washcloth or flat fabric
      • Paper plate
      • Hoola hoop
      • Any object in the home!

      Ask the child to complete the yoga move and then complete the yoga exercise concentrating on balance.

      This slide deck is not interactive. There are no moveable pieces on this particular slide deck.

      Penguin yoga exercises for brain breaks for kids

      Winter Activities for Kids

      Use the penguin yoga along with these winter activities for whole-body movement and development activities that are effective in building skills in kids:

      Winter Fine Motor Kit– Use this printable kit to help kids develop and strengthen fine motor skills. The 100 page kit includes penguin theme activities, polar bears, and other arctic activities, as well as all-things winter.

      Indoor winter activities for kids– Try these fun and effective ways to to incorporate movement during the winter months.

      Winter Brain Breaks– Just like our penguin brain breaks, these winter theme movement activities will get brains and bodies developing!

      Penguin themed snacks– These cute snacks are easy to make and get the kids developing skills in the kitchen.

      Get the Penguin Slide Deck for Teletherapy

      You can grab a copy of this Google slide deck and use it to work on specific skills.

      Enter your email address below and you will receive a PDF containing a link to copy the slide deck onto your Google drive. Next, save that PDF file, because you can come back to it again and again and send it to the kids on your caseload (or classroom) so they can make their own copy on their Google drive.

      Please use the copy of the slide deck and do not change the url.

      FREE Penguin Yoga Gross Motor Therapy Activities!

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        MORE VIRTUAL LEARNING SLIDE DECKS?

        Would you like more therapy slide decks? Grab the others to add to your therapy toolbox!

        Try this Polar Bear Gross Motor Slide Deck.

        Use this Holiday Cookies Activities to address working memory, visual perception, and direction following.

        Here is a Community Helpers Theme Slide Deck.

        Here is a Football Theme Slide Deck.

        Here is a slide deck for a Social Story for Wearing a Mask.

        Here is a Space Theme Therapy Slide Deck.

        Here is a Therapy Planning Interactive Slide Deck.

        Here is a Back to School Writing Activity Slide Deck.

        Here is an Alphabet Exercises Slide Deck.

        Here is a Self-Awareness Activities Slide Deck.

        Bear Brain Breaks

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        bear brain breaks

        These bear brain breaks are perfect for winter time movement, or using in a bear theme in school or in therapy. Sometimes, brain breaks are the perfect tool to can help with movement or sensory needs in the classroom.  We used a favorite childhood book to come up with bear themed brain breaks that can be used alongside the book in a movement and learning activity or in a bear-themed classroom activities.  Not long ago, we shared more brain break ideas that you might like to add to your classroom.

        Use these bear brain breaks along with ideas from our hibernation activities for more winter fun!

         

        bear brain breaks

        Bear Brain Breaks

        Looking for brain break videos for the classroom or home? Here are the best brain break videos on YouTube.
         
        Bear brain breaks for movement and learning in the classroom setting with a bear theme

        This post contains affiliate links.

        Have you read the book, “Time for Sleep” by Denise Fleming? My kids loved to hear about all of the animals as they prepared for sleep over the winter.  We decided to try a few bear gross motor moves based on the book.

        Bear Theme Brain Breaks

        Stretches and whole-body movements that happen in a calm manner are a great way to prepare for sleep, so these activities went along nicely with the bear in the book as well as the getting ready for sleep theme.

        If fidgeting, wiggling, or just a break from screens is needed, try these movement breaks to help. 

        We created these themed brain breaks to go along with the book, Time to Sleep, but they are perfect for any day (or when paired with other bear books)!

        If you are looking for resources for sleep or bedtime relaxation stretches, we shared some based on another children’s book.

        Time for Sleep by Denise Fleming and bear themed brain breaks for a bear activity.
         
        This is such a fun book to read with kids.  It would go along perfectly with a bear theme in your classroom.  Try adding some gross motor movement activities based on the book.
         
        Kids can then use the bear themed brain breaks throughout their day when it seems the classroom or individual students need a movement break. 
         
                                                
         
        Below, you can enter your email to access the free brain break printable that would go along perfectly for teaching the classroom about these bear brain breaks.  They can be cut up and laminated for the children to pull out of a cup.  Or, add them to a key ring for bear themed movement activities.
          
        Try these Squirrel Themed Brain Breaks too.
         
        Using these bear brain breaks, kids can stretch, roll, reach, climb, and crawl like a bear.  There are eight bear themed movement activities included that allow kids to move with a bear theme.  
         
        Read the book Time for Sleep and try the movement activities!
         
        Bear brain break ideas for kids
         

        Bear Activities

        Looking for more bear themed activities?  Try these hands-on ways to play with a bear theme based on bear books like “Time for Sleep”.

        Polar Bear Gross Motor Ideas

        Bear Craft

        Fun and Therapeutic Polar bear Activities

        Polar Bear Therapy Slide Deck– Free! Perfect for virtual therapy sessions

        Polar Bear Self-Regulation Deep Breathing Activity

        Bear Says Thanks Fine Motor Activity

        Bear Oral Motor Exercise

        LiTERACY BEAR THEMED ACTIVITIES

        NUMERACY BEAR THEMED ACTIVITIES

        BEAR THEMED RECIPES

        BEAR CRAFTS AND IDEAS FOR PLAY

        Get these free bear brain break activities

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          These brain breaks would be a great addition to our Winter Fine Motor Kit, loaded with winter theme and bear activities! It’s got all things fine motor in print-and-go activities. You’ll find lacing cards, modified handwriting sheets, pencil control strips, cutting activities, crafts, coloring exercises, and MUCH MORE!

          Get the Winter Fine Motor Kit HERE.

          winter fine motor kit

          Polar Bear Sensory Bin

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          Use a polar bear sensory bin for occupational therapy interventions

          This polar bear sensory bin is an old one from The OT Toolbox site archives. This tactile sensory activity is a fun way to challenge sensory exploration with a variety of textures and materials. But more than that, this polar bear activity can be used in a therapy theme to address skills. The next part of the polar bear gross motor activity included a Our Polar Bear Sensory bin was cotton batting, tinsel, a stuffed polar bear, and a seal toy.  This is a Winter Sensory bin that can go along with an arctic animals theme.

          Polar bear sensory bin

          Polar Bear Sensory Bin Materials

          There are many ways to set up this sensory bin. Use items you have in your home or therapy space. Use some of the materials listed below. You DO NOT need all of these items. The nice thing about creating a themed sensory bin is that you can use what you have on hand. Some ideas for the sensory bin include:

          • Container or bin
          • Teddy bear
          • Tinsel
          • Cotton balls
          • Cotton batting
          • Tissue paper
          • Rice
          • Dry beans
          • Blue or white construction paper
          • Tape
          • Wax paper
          • Clear cellophane
          • Aluminum foil
          • Arctic animal figures
          Make a polar bear sensory bin with figures, and sensory materials.

          Other materials that you may want to add to the polar bear sensory bin to encourage fine motor skills and coordination skills:

          • Tweezers to pick up and manipulate materials
          • Small bowls
          • Tongs
          • Spoons or scoops
          • Chopsticks
          • Pickle picker
          • Containers
          • Counting cards (try the winter themed ones in the Winter Fine Motor Kit)

          Fine Motor Skills in a Sensory Bin

          Using the materials and tools above, students can work on fine motor skills to manipulate and explore the items in the sensory bin. Some ways to work on fine motor skills include:

          Address in-hand manipulation by sorting items in the hands into containers or cups.

          Work on hand strength and arch development by moving items with tongs, tweezers, or pickle picker.

          Work on open thumb web space by pinching and pulling cotton balls.

          Work on finger isolation by moving materials and items around in the bin.

          Work on grasp and precision by picking up small items such as tinsel, mini-erasers, crumbled paper or tissue paper, etc.

          Use a Sensory Bin for Visual Perception

          This polar bear sensory bin can be used to address a variety of visual perceptual skills: visual discrimination, visual memory, visual attention, figure ground, and visual closure.

          Ask children to locate specific items by color or texture. They can also recall items that they found in the sensory bin. Ask kids to locate items that are partially hidden by other objects or sensory bin filler materials. These are all ways to work on visual perceptual skills with this polar bear sensory bin.

          Use a Sensory Bin for Eye-Hand Coordination

          A sensory bin like this polar bear theme can be used in so many ways to address eye-hand coordination:

          • Pouring materials
          • Scooping materials like beans or rice
          • Using tongs or tweezers to pick up and move items like mini erasers
          • Sorting sensory bin items into piles or containers
          • Picking up and exploring various sensory bin items

          Polar Bear Imagination Play

          My kids had fun just imagining stories for the items in the sensory bin. We used the stuffed bear as a polar bear and a seal figure who was trying to escape into the ocean…Imagination play!  

          Polar bear sensory bin with tinsel and arctic animal figures.

          Little Guy glued some waxed paper to blue construction paper to make an ocean covered with ice.  We had a striped Christmas pencil for our “North Pole”. 

          Baby Girl did NOT like the texture or “feel” of the tinsel. It got stuck to her hands and she would try to pull it off…The seal is another story.  She carried that thing around all day 🙂  

          Kids of all ages can use the materials in the sensory bin to work on tactile sensory exploration, fine motor skills, and visual perception.

          Looking for more Polar Bear play ideas??  We had fun with our first Polar Bear Theme activities day!   We should have more ideas up tomorrow to go along with the Polar Bear theme. 

          You’ll also love all of the items in our Winter Fine Motor Kit. It’s loaded with coloring sheets, handwriting pages, puzzles, and crafts with a polar bear theme. There are sensory bin materials, polar bear finger puppets, lacing cards, and so much more.

          winter fine motor kit

          Click here to grab the Winter Fine Motor Kit.

          Polar Bear Game

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          polar bear math game

          Today, I have a hands on learning activity for second grade using a polar bear game. This number line games for 2nd grade could actually be used in any age or grade level math, however, the polar bear craft that we used for a second grade math game turned out to be a fun way to work on base ten operations and adding 10’s and 100’s to two and three digit numbers. In second grade, adding two digits is a big deal! This polar bear activity is a fun two digit addition games for 2nd grade (and other grades).

          If polar bear crafts and activities are right up your ally this winter, try some of these other polar bear activities, including a polar bear slide deck for distance learning or virtual therapy brain breaks, and this cute polar bear self-regulation activity.

          polar bear math game for teaching second grade place value and two digit addition with hands on learning.

          Polar Bear Craft

          You’ll need a few materials for the polar bear craft. Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

          White crafting pom poms
          (1 inch) White crafting pom poms
          (1/4 inch) Black crafting pom pom
          (1/8 inch) Mini googly eyes
          Crafting glue

          Polar bear craft

          To make the polar bear craft, glue the small white crafting pom poms to the white pom pom. These will become the polar bear’s ears.  Glue the black pom pom to the bear’s face. This will become the nose.  Add the googly eyes and your polar bear craft is done.

          There are a lot of fine motor skills being addressed in the making of this polar bear craft: pincer grasp, eye-hand coordination, in-hand manipulation, bilateral coordination, and separation of the sides of the hand.

          Polar bear craft made with pom poms or cotton balls.

          This polar bear craft would pair nicely with our snowball math activity, designed to inspire hands-on learning with gross motor skills. The polar bear math activity described here would also go well with our Winter Fine Motor Kit, which is loaded with polar bear themed fine motor activities and crafts designed to target and strengthen specific fine motor skills.

          Polar bear math game for second grade base ten operations concepts like adding 10s and 100s to two and three digit numbers for hands on fun and creative learning with a fun polar bear craft!

          Polar Bear Game

          We played a polar bear game to boost second grade math skills by working on adding 10’s and 100’s to numbers along the number line.  I showed my daughter how to use a straw to blow the craft pom pom polar bear craft across the table and along the number line.  

          We started the bear at zero and tried to see how far she could get the bear to go down the number line.  I then asked her a few questions that I had written out on cards:

          • What is your digit?
          • Is your digit even or odd?
          • What is 10 more?
          • What is 10 less?
          • What is 100 more?

          We played a few times and then tried a few different extension ideas for this activity.

          • Starting at where the polar bear lands, count on by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 100’s.
          • Start out by saying “We’ll add 100 to the number where your bear lands.” Then, practice counting backwards by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 100’s.
          • Use two polar bear crafts to practice single and double digit adding and subtracting.
          Make a polar bear craft with craft pom poms and use it in a polar bear game in therapy interventions or the classroom.

          This polar bear game would be a great way to work on aspects of numbers with a hands-on approach to learning. Use it along with this Snowman Math-Composing and Decomposing Numbers activity.

          Polar Bear Sensory Activity

          This activity doubles as a polar bear sensory activity as it offers oral motor skills work. By blowing the straw to move the craft pom poms, children experience proprioceptive input through their mouth and cheeks. This sensory input is calming and can be a regulating tool to help kids focus following the heavy work through their mouth.

          Using the straw to blow the polar bear across the table requires some “oomph” because of the weight of the crafting pom poms.  Blowing through a straw is a great way to provide proprioception through a winter-themed oral motor activity. This is a fun activity for sensory seekers, kids who seek out oral motor input, and children who tend to fidget during learning or homework.  

          Check out our January Occupational Therapy calendar for more winter-themed sensory activities. 

          Challenge oral motor skills with proprioceptive input through the mouth using this straw and cotton ball polar bear craft.

          Polar Bear Therapy Activities

          If blowing the straw requires too much effort for your child, or you would like to try a fine motor activity, practice flicking the polar bear across the table. Keeping the bear on the table requires precision of fine motor skills, making it another way to use the polar bear craft in therapy and hands-on learning.

          Additional polar bear therapy ideas include:

          Use this polar bear gross motor activity to work on balance, motor planning, movement changes, and strengthening.

          This polar bear science activity challenges fine motor skills.

          Use polar bear crafts, pencil control sheets, scissor skills challenges, and more in the Winter Fine Motor Kit.

          This Polar Bear Food Chains activity focuses on handwriting.

          This Polar Animals Facts Game and this Polar Animals True or False? activity challenges executive functioning skills and scissor skills. 

          This Polar Bear Footprint Multiplication activity builds hand strength, arch development, grasp, and coordination.

          This Polar Animal Pattern Activity for First Grade focuses on visual perceptual skills. 

          This Arctic Animals Sight Words Game develops visual perceptual skills.

          For some penguin fun, this Penguin Art Project inspires fine motor development with a penguin craft. This Penguin Addition to 100 with Hundreds Chart builds eye hand coordination and fine motor skills.

          Grab the Winter Fine Motor Kit, with 100 pages of done-for-you therapy activities, including polar bear themes. Grab it now before January 9th and you get a bonus of 3 fine motor slide deck activities.

          CLICK HERE TO GET THE WINTER FINE MOTOR KIT.

          winter fine motor kit

          These reproducible activity pages include: pencil control strips, scissor skills strips, simple and complex cutting shapes, lacing cards, toothpick precision art, crumble hand strengthening crafts, memory cards, coloring activities, and so much more.

          Play Dough Roll Mats- Use the 6 play dough mats to develop fine motor skills and hand strength needed for tasks like coloring with endurance, manipulating small items, and holding a pencil. Kids can roll small balls of play dough with just their fingertips to strengthen the intrinsic muscles.

          Pinch and Grip Strength Activities- Challenge fine motor skills with polar bear and winter themed glue skills page, tong/tweezer activities, lacing cards, finger puppets, 1-10 counting clip cards, 10 toothpick art pages, find & color page, 5 crumble art pages. 

          Pencil Control Worksheets- Connect the arctic animals or winter items and stay on the pencil path lines while mastering pencil control.

          Arctic Animal Cutting Strips and Scissor Skills Sheets- Work on scissor skills to cut along lines to reach the arctic animal friends or snowflakes, snowmen, and mittens. This is a great way to strengthen the motor and visual skills needed for cutting with scissors.  

          Handwriting Sensory Bin Materials- You and the kiddos will love these A-Z uppercase and lowercase tracing cards with directional arrows, 1-10 tracing cards with directional arrows, 1-10 counting cards. 

          “I Spy” Modified Paper- Includes: Color and find objects in two themes: winter items and arctic animals; 3 styles of modified paper for each theme: single rule bold lines, double rule bold lines, highlighted double rule. 

          Fine Motor Handwriting Sheets- Try the 4 Find/Color/Copy pages in different styles of modified paper, rainbow writing pages in 3 styles of modified paper.

          Write the Room Activities- Using a winter theme, these Write the Room cards includes: 5 lowercase copy cards, 5 uppercase copy cards, 5 lowercase tracing cards, 5 uppercase copy cards, 6 cursive writing copy cards, 2 styles of writing pages.

          Get the Winter Fine Motor Kit Here.

          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.

          Polar Bear Gross Motor Activities

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          polar bear gross motor activities

           We are continuing with our Polar Bear Theme with all kinds of play ideas.  Check out the polar bear gross motor activities listed here and challenge kids to move, and develop coordination, balance, direction changes, movement patterns, core strength, stability, and more. These polar bear activities go well with our polar bear gross motor virtual therapy slide deck, too, so you’ll want to check that out as well. Add gross motor play to your winter line-up!

          polar bear gross motor activities

          Polar Bear Gross Motor Activity

          For this gross motor activity, you’ll need masking tape, some couch cushions, and other small items (cotton batting, polar bear figures, or other materials can be used).

          Start by creating a path with the masking tape. We made a zig zag path across the room, but the options are limitless here.

          The masking tape path is perfect for polar bear crawls, toe walking, walking backwards, and knee walking. 

          indoor obstacle course ideas with masking tape obstacle course

          Masking Tape Balance Beam Ideas

          Once the masking tape is positioned on the floor, there are so many ways to use this in therapy in a classroom, hallway, clinic, or therapy at home activity.

          I put a couple of pillows at the end to make a “snow pile” for the polar bears.  Your kids can jump or hop into the pillows, or use them as balance challenges.

          We put some cotton batting along the path that the kids had to bend and stoop to grasp using one hand or the other. Then, they had to transport the “snow” to the other end of the path.

          Polar bear gross motor obstacle course

          A balance beam is so great for gross motor skills including coordination and balance.  You can start with normal toe to heel steps, and then increase the balance and coordination needed by asking your child to take bigger steps, side steps, backward steps, tip toe, go fast/slow.

          Polar bear gross motor activity for therapy at home or in a clinic.

          Kids can hold an object and transport it from one end of the path to the other. Ask them to hold the item in their hands, on their head, on their toes, or on their back as they bear walk. Objects can be large or small, heavy or light.

          Use couch pillows as pretend ice blocks for the polar bears.

          Use tongs and a small plastic ice cube to incorporate fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination skills. You can place buckets or bins along the path for obstacles to place the small objects in while challenging core strength, motor planning, and movement changes.

          Add buckets or cones along the path for children to step over or hop over. If cones aren’t available, just use couch throw cushions as an obstacle.

          Add a big duvet blanket or other large blanket at one end or both ends as a DIY crash pad for heavy work and proprioceptive input. Crawling into and under the heavy blanket offers heavy work, and that blanket makes a great “igloo” for your little polar bear.

          Advance the motor planning and core development by asking kids to stand along the path as they try to catch/toss a ball, navigate turns, curves, hop…There is so much you can do with the masking tape balance beam!  Add more fine motor skill work by using paper snowflakes along the balance beam.

          Challenge kids in a masking tape obstacle course with a polar bear theme.

          Use a polar bear sensory bin along the path to challenge kids to transport items from one end of the path and to place them into the sensory bin. This is a fantastic occupational therapy or physical therapy intervention that challenges so many skills.

          Use masking tape to make an obstacle course in the living room, with a polar bear theme or other animal walks.
           

           

          For more polar bear gross motor activities, (and fine motor work), grab the Winter Fine Motor Kit, with 100 pages of done-for-you therapy activities, including polar bear themes. There are sensory bin materials, crafts, and activities designed to boost fine motor skills. These would be great additions to a polar bear gross motor theme in therapy sessions.

          Grab it now before January 9th and you get a bonus of 3 fine motor slide deck activities.

          CLICK HERE TO GET THE WINTER FINE MOTOR KIT.

          winter 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.

          Snowman Crafts and Activities

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          snowman activities

          Looking for a snowman craft to help kids develop fine motor skills during the winter months? These snowman activities and snowman crafts are perfect for using in occupational therapy interventions or to build skills! Here you will find snowman activities for fine motor, gross motor, sensory tolerance, pencil grasp, handwriting, math, scissor skills, sensory experiences, and other learning/school tasks. Use the snowman crafts and sensory activities to make winter fun a skill-building moment! For wintery fun, browse the ideas below.

          Add this snowman theme to your weekly therapy theme list for themed therapy activities that are done for you.

          snowman activities and snowman crafts for kids to develop skills in therapy and at home.

          Snowman Crafts

          Let’s start with snowman crafts that build fine motor skills. We know that kids crafts have a powerful benefit when it comes to developing fine motor precision, hand strength, functional use of craft tools like glue bottles, scissors, crafting materials. When kids use these craft items to create, they are using the occupation of crafting to develop skills for that specific task, but also to carryover to other functional tasks. When it comes to occupational therapy, crafts are a means and a technique to functional skill development!

          These snowman crafts are just one theme in the selection of winter craft ideas that we have on the website.

          Check out the selection of snowman themed crafts below. From the paper snowman, to toilet paper snowman crafts, these creative snowman craft ideas will have you covered on fun ways to help kids build motor skills and executive functioning skills this winter.

          These snowman crafts cover a variety of materials and skills. Choose the ones that work for your needs, and available materials. Kids can improve areas including: pinch, grasp, precision, cutting, glue use, bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, and more.

          Snowman Glitter Craft

          There is just something about kids and glitter! But did you know the fine motor benefits of a glitter snowman craft? Use stamp art to make a snowman but with a sparkly paint when you mix glitter into paint to create this textured snowman. Work on precision, fine motor skills, texture tolerance, and address eye-hand coordination with this stamp glitter snowman craft.

          Kids will also love to paint real snow. Here’s how to paint snow using spray bottles to double down on the fine motor skills.

          This glittery snowman is a fun craft idea that works on boosting important fine motor skills that are needed for pencil grasp, fastener manipulation, and the opening and closing of containers and food products!  All of these are essential skills needed for a child to become more independent in their daily task performance.

          Making a textured snowman is fun with the Disguise a Snowman activity in the Snowman Therapy Kit. Add sequins, glitter, and puffy paint, or other fine motor items like beads, string, and more to disguise a snowman!

          Paper snowman Craft-

          There are many ways to make a paper snowman, and when kids cut and paste, they are building fine motor skills with basic, everyday craft materials. Plus, there are tons of fun and creative ways to make a paper snowman, too, so this is a wintery craft idea that can be extended while working on motor skill development. Try some of these paper snowman craft ideas:

          • Use junk mail to make a paper snowman collage.
          • Cut and paste a Snowman countdown craft to make a paper chain snowman.
          • Make a snowman suncatcher and build fine motor skills.
          • Create a sensory tolerance activity with this shredded paper snowman.
          • Work on letter identification with this snowman letter craft.
          • Cut round circles and glue them together to build a snowman from paper.
          • Build a paper snowman using the templates in the Snowman Therapy Kit. The materials are all there for you. Kids can color the objects and cut them out while working on scissor skills. The paper snowman templates are large, so this is a great gross motor task for building or attaching to a bulletin board or magnetic wall to work on core strength and working on a vertical, too.

          Egg carton snowman-

          Egg cartons are a great therapy tool, but when you make an egg carton snowman, you get many fine motor benefits too. Work on in-hand manipulation and eye-hand coordination skills with this cute egg carton snowman!

          For another way to use egg cartons to make a snow friend, try this Egg Carton Snowman. It’s a another fun craft idea that children will love and it works on important fine motor hand skills to include a tripod grasp, intrinsic hand strength, arch development, and an open web space. How? By implementing the use of scissors, bottle glue, marker, and skewers. Easy to create, but so effective in skill development and children will have so much fun doing it!

          Toilet paper Snowman Craft-

          Grab a toilet paper tube or a paper towel roll and start painting it white. Then, cut the paper tube into sections. These make great tacking tubes to work on fine motor skills and bilateral coordination. Add a few snowman details like a scarf, black dots for buttons, and coal. Draw on a carrot and you’ve got a fine motor toilet paper snowman!

          Stacking toilet paper snowmen is really cute way to work on fine motor skills while building snowman towers!  That’s right, towers of toilet paper snowmen in which a child uses tongs (or hands) to pick up and sort snowmen into towers by stacking them on top of each other.  Sort, build the tallest tower, or simply just stack! This activity easily works on fine motor control, strengthening and endurance, and grading of movement. 

          Sticker Snowman Craft-

          We used paper reinforcement stickers to create a snowman craft with big fine motor benefits. This is a great way to work on precision and dexterity with this fine motor snowman craft. Kids can peel off the small paper reinforcements and place then precisely on paper using neat pincer grasp, eye-hand coordination, and separation of the sides of the hand in order to make the sticker snowman. Plus, kids love using paper reinforcement stickers!

          Cotton Ball Snowman Craft

          Using cotton balls or craft pom poms to make a snowman is a fun way to build fine motor skills, too. We used craft pom poms to make this clothespin snowman but cotton balls would work, too.

          For more cotton ball snowmen, try these ideas:

          • Stamp and paint to make this snowman art activity using materials in your home.
          • Dab a cotton ball into glue (pincer grasp) and then press it onto paper or a textured background (arch development and hand strength) to build a 3D snowman.

          Paper Plate Snowman Craft-

          Emotion Snowmen Paper Plates is an easy to create paper plate activity that works on facial emotion identification and awareness with the theme of snowmen. Kids can make their own emotional faces or they can be premade to work on social emotional skills. Make duplicate plates and create a matching game as a way to work on visual memory too!

          For another paper plate snowman idea use the snowball templates in the Snowman Therapy Kit. Kids can cut out the large snowball circles and glue them to paper plates. Then, build a snowman using the paper plates. Kids can then decorate their snowman and work on fine motor skills.

          Snowman Activities

          Below, you’ll find more snowman fun. I’ve broken these snowman activities and therapy ideas into areas designed to help kids develop specific skills. You’ll find snowman activities for fine motor development, gross motor skills, and motor planning. You’ll love the craft ideas that challenge visual perceptual skills and sensory tolerance. Each activity can also build on several skill areas.

          Deep Breathing Snowman is a fun mindfulness, deep breathing printable to use as a sensory coping strategy with kids throughout the winter season. Simply print and teach children to follow the visual prompts on the snowman to trace and pause at each white dot and hold their breath to achieve a calming effect.

          Snowman Brain Breaks- Kids love the self-regulation strategies using whole body movements with a snowman theme. These exercises get kids moving, and are a great way to add mindful movement during the winter months when it can be a challenge to get outdoors. You can find these snowman brain breaks in the Snowman Therapy Kit.

          Snowman Executive Functioning Activity (Make a Snowman Treat)- Cooking in the kitchen is a powerful way to develop fine motor skills and executive functioning skills. Use cucumbers and vegetables to make this snowman snack. Click here for the snowman snack directions.

          Pin the Nose on a Snowman- This gross motor snowman activity is a great way to develop specific gross motor skills like hopping, skipping, squatting, and balance. The coordination tasks are on the snowman noses and when kids pin the nose on the snowman, they get a gross motor movement break, too. You’ll find this winter activity in the Snowman Therapy Kit.

          Snowman Self-Regulation Activity– This deep breathing activity can be a coping tool or a sensory strategy to help with self-regulation skills. Included is a free printable deep breathing worksheet. Click here for a snowman deep breathing activity.

          Snowman Puzzles- There are so many reasons why I love these snowman puzzles. Kids can trace the snowman, color in the picture, and then cut out the paper puzzles. Plus, they can build the puzzle and work on visual perceptual skills, too. In the Snowman Therapy Kit, you’ll find simple and complex snowman puzzles and a variety of puzzle tasks for this winter theme.

          Snowman Sensory Activity– Use this baking soda dough recipe to make a sensory and fine motor material that kids can use to build skills. The baking soda dough provides a resistant material for strengthening hands. Click here to for the snowman baking soda dough directions.

          Snowman Gross Motor (slide deck)– Incorporate bilateral coordination, motor planning, crossing midline, and other gross motor skill areas with this snowman activity. Kids can follow along to the slide images. This makes a great brain break activity, too. This is a free Google slide deck. Click here for the snowman bilateral coordination activities.

          Snowman Fine Motor Activity– This counting/adding/subtracting activity builds eye-hand coordination, and fine motor skills. Make snowmen from recycled egg cartons. This is a great activity for breaking down numbers. Click here for this snowman math activity.

          Another great fine motor snowman activity is the bead copying cards in the Snowman Therapy Kit. Kids can cut out the bead cards and then copy the patterns to make a string of beads while developing fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and visual motor skills.

          Snowman Eye-Hand Coordination Activity- We’ve made a ton of virtual therapy Slide decks for occupational therapy services, and this snowman themed task is one more. Use this build a snowman activity in virtual lessons or teletherapy to work on eye-hand coordination, visual scanning, handwriting, or typing.

          Graph a Snowman- For kids working on executive functioning skills like metacognition, organization, task completion, prioritization, and planning, a “graph a snowman” task is a great activity. You’ll find this printable resource in our Snowman Therapy Kit.

          More Snowman Crafts and Activities for Therapy

          Kids are loving our latest therapy kit! The Snowman Therapy Kit covers all aspects of therapy skill areas: gross motor, fine motor, self-regulation, visual perception, executive function, handwriting, scissor skills, and more! Read all about the Snowman Therapy Kit here.

          Snowman Therapy Activity 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.

          Polar Bear Self-Regulation Activity

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          Polar bear theme deep breathing exercise for kids

          Back by popular demand, this polar bear themed self-regulation activity is designed to be used with other polar bear activities here on The OT Toolbox. Add this deep breathing activity to others in your toolkit and work on self-regulation skills with deep breathing exercises. You can print this free resource off and use it all winter long as a self regulation strategy.

          Be sure to check out our other deep breathing exercises as well as our Winter Fine Motor Kit for more polar bear activities and other arctic animal themes.

          Polar bear self regulation activity has a polar bear theme deep breathing exercise for kids

          Polar Bear Self Regulation Activity

          This deep breathing activity is an idea originally created on this website, (and you’ll now find copies on other sites, unfortunately without giving credit for their replications). At any rate, this is a fun way to offer self-regulation strategies to cope with big emotions, sensory needs, and calming strategies through deep breaths in and out. We explain a lot about how this works in our blog post on the Zones of Regulation.

          Deep breathing adds heavy work through the mouth and nose, adding calming proprioceptive input that can calm.

          Holding a deep breath in full lungs or empty lungs offers an opportunity to integrate interoception and talk about how the body feels with that deep breathing.

          These are mindfulness strategies at work! There are many benefits of mindfulness work and deep breathing exercises are one way to incorporate those techniques.

          Here are additional winter mindfulness activities.

          More polar bear activities

          Try these hands-on activities with a polar bear theme:

          Polar bear math activity– This doubles as a polar bear craft with fine motor benefits. We used the polar bear crafts as math manipulatives, combining fine motor and math.

          Polar bear science– This is an OLD activity here on the website, but a classic! Learn about how polar bears stay warm in the arctic temperatures. You’ll love the polar bear craft here, too.

          Polar Bear Gross Motor Activity– This is an indoor gross motor activity that challenges balance, coordination, strength, and mobility. All you need is some space and a few blankets.

          Polar Bear Activities– Here you’ll find polar bear books, a polar bear themed snack, and much more. Fun stuff to add to your polar bear theme!

          Polar Bear Sensory Craft– We made homemade puffy paint and turned it into a polar bear craft with tactile sensory benefits.

          Grab the Winter Fine Motor Kit, with 100 pages of done-for-you therapy activities, including polar bear themes. Grab it now before January 9th and you get a bonus of 3 fine motor slide deck activities.

          Click here to get the Winter Fine Motor Kit.

          winter fine motor kit

          Polar Bear Deep Breathing Exercise

          Use this polar bear deep breathing exercise in print out version or use on a tablet screen while working on these deep breathing exercises. It’s a great way to use the strategies while on the go as well.

          Want to grab your copy of this printable deep breathing activity to add to your therapy toolbox? Enter your email address below and grab the printable.

          Free Polar Bear Theme Deep Breathing Exercise

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            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.