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:

Tag Craft for Christmas

November 12, 2020November 10, 2020 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

This is a tag craft we made one year after making Christmas tree art with homemade stamps. I love these homemade gift tags that the kids made last year, and so did everyone on our Christmas shopping list! The process to make the personalized bag tags is super easy, and once the Christmas tree stamps are done, it’s an exercise in scissor skills, too. When the gift tags are made by kids, they are extra special. The fun part about these Christmas Tree Stamps are that you can use them for so many things besides gift tags: wrapping paper, Christmas art, or just for fun!

Tag Craft

This tag craft starts with Christmas tree stamps, and is one of a series of toilet paper art activities we did. First, we made the Christmas Tree toilet paper stamps as shown below. Then, once they dried, my kids cut out the Christmas trees and we turned them into holiday tags!

You’ll need just a few materials to make this tag craft.

This post contains affiliate links.

To make your gift tags, you’ll need a few supplies:

poster paints in green, brown, and red
Cardboard tube (toilet paper roll or paper towel roll)
scissors
glue
crafting paper (this stuff is great for wrapping gifts, as well!)
white paper
hole punch
cotton swabs
hole reinforcement stickers

When children make these Christmas tree name tags, they are also building fine motor skills.

Cute Christmas tree gift tags kids can make after making toilet paper roll Christmas tree stamp art.

Christmas Tree Name Tags

Toilet paper roll Christmas tree stamp art for kids

To start out, bend your paper tube into a triangle shape. Dip it into a plate of green poster paint. Stamp this onto the paper in rows.

Next, use the cotton swabs to stamp red paint onto the Christmas trees. You can dab ornaments onto the trees or paint garland with the red paint. …or color the whole tree red, like Little Guy did. It’s creative expression, here!

This is a great way to work on tripod grasp with the cotton swab. It’s also an exercise in separation of the sides of the hand, and eye-hand coordination.

Cut the cotton swab into a smaller piece to really work on hand strength and tripod grasp.

We used the brown paint to paint little trunks on each tree. This part of the craft is a great way to sneak in some fine motor skills. Work on pre-handwriting skills with the cotton swab by encouraging a tripod grasp, neutral or extended wrist, and pinkie and ring fingers tucked up into the palm for support. This is a fun way to encourage an appropriate grasp on writing utensils.

Make Christmas tree name tags using the tree stamps.

Next allow the Christmas tree stamps to dry overnight or for several hours. Admire the cuteness.

Cut tag shapes from the crafting paper. Punch a hole at the top and strengthen it with hole reinforcement stickers. Cut the Christmas trees from the white paper with a little edge. Glue onto tags. I threaded the tags onto ribbon with help from Big Sister. This part is a little difficult for younger kids, but older children can assist.

We used a variety of ribbon types to package up our gifts. The Gift tags made the presents!

Christmas tree name tags that kids can make for holiday gift giving

Let us know if you make these gift tags, or Christmas Tree stamps this season. We would love to see them!

More Christmas Crafts for Kids

Christmas Fine Motor Activities

Christmas Suncatcher Craft

Bear Christmas Ornament

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.

Thanksgiving treat for kids

October 20, 2024November 10, 2020 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Thanksgiving treats for kids can include turkey pretzel rod snacks, a thanksgiving dessert made by kids!

This pretzel rod snack is one of those Thanksgiving treats kids will love. By getting kids active in cooking, children can develop so many skills. So, why not combine the excitement of Thanksgiving cooking with the task of helping kids develop motor skills. These turkey pretzel rod snacks are kid-created and will be a Thanksgiving dessert kids will love this year!

We made these turkey pretzel rod treats with the kids one afternoon as a cooking with kids project to get us in the Thanksgiving mood. Thanksgiving treats kids make get the whole family involved in the cooking process, and make holiday cooking fun. An easy turkey themed snack like these turkey pretzel rod snacks are a thanksgiving dessert made by kids that also help them build fine motor skills, executive functioning, and other essential skills.

Here is more information on how cooking helps kids develop fine motor skills.

Here is a blog post describing how cooking helps kids with direction following.

Thanksgiving snack for kids to help with. Turkey peanut butter pretzel rod snack

Turkey Pretzel Snack for Kids

This post contains affiliate links. You can read our full disclosure here.

Turkey themed snack. This Thanksgiving dessert that kids can make is perfect treat for kids this Thanksgiving.

To make these cute turkey snacks, you’ll need a few essentials.

Pretzel rods
Peanut butter (Melted chocolate would work too.)
Brown sprinkles or Fall sprinkles
candy eyes
candy corn
yellow m&ms
Twizzler licorice stick
Chocolate (melted)

Use peanut butter to make quick thanksgiving treats kids will love.

Start by covering one half of a pretzel rod with peanut butter.

The kids loved doing this part. It was very messy, but very fun. Lots of giggles happened. Lots of hand wiping, but lots of smiles 🙂 We used a knife from our plastic cutlery set for kids for spreading the peanut butter.

Kids can roll the pretzel rods in sprinkles to make these pretzel rod turkeys.

Roll the peanut butter in sprinkles. You’ll need to pour more sprinkles over the pretzel rods to get all of the peanut butter coated in brown. Watch for sneaky fingers stealing sprinkles. It happens.

Sprinkles for a turkey pretzel rod snack for kids.

“Glue” on the candy eyes with a bit of peanut butter. You can use melted chocolate in these turkey snacks need to be transported.

Cooking offers kids a chance for fine motor work.

Cute Thanksgiving Treat

Take the cute Thanksgiving treat factor up a notch with the details.

Press a yellow m&m into the peanut butter between the candy eyes. Asking children to gently press the treats into the pretzel rod snack is an opportunity to work on precision, dexterity, pincer grasp, and proprioception.

Snip a small sliver of the Twizzler for the turkey’s gobbler. Use a pair of child friendly scissors and ask the kiddos to cut the licorice for a scissor skills activity they will get a kick out of. The kids thought this part was genius! “It looks just right, mom!”

Use the melted chocolate to stick the candy corn feathers into place on the back of the turkey. We just stuck the candy corns into the peanut butter since we were letting the snacks sit out until later to try them. But, you’ll want to definitely use the chocolate “glue” to keep the candy corn feathers in place.

Cute turkey snack for kids made from pretzel rods.

Enjoy!

More turkey activities you will love:

Easy Turkey Crafts

Cardboard Tube Turkey Craft

Free Turkey Theme Therapy Slide Deck

Turkey and Thanksgiving Fine Motor Activities

Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit, on sale now.

Turkey Activities

October 26, 2022November 10, 2020 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Turkey Activities are the theme here today, and boy, do I have some fun turkey themed ways to play and help kids build skills! Check out the Thanksgiving occupational therapy activities and different ideas listed below for fun Turkey activities to keep the kiddos occupied up through Thanksgiving! Some of these may be just the craft or activity you are looking for to help children develop fine motor skills or visual motor skills. Need a turkey craft for a play date or preschool party? How about an easy little activity on Thanksgiving while the dinner is cooking? So many options here for turkey inspired fun!

Turkey Activities

Be sure to stop by the following pages first, and fill your toolbox with turkey themed activities:

If you are looking for quick turkey crafts to use in teletherapy or in the classroom or home, check out these quick and easy turkey crafts.

You’ll also love this turkey slide deck for teletherapy or distance learning. It’s a free interactive slide deck with a Thanksgiving theme.

And, this turkey mindfulness activity is a free printable that you can use with kids to help them discover the benefits of deep breathing as a coping mechanism for self-regulation.

Plus, recently added to The OT Toolbox shop is this Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit. It’s loaded with fine motor activities, scissor skills activities, handwriting activities, pencil control cards, lacing cards, glue activities, and much more…all with a turkey and Thanksgiving theme.

Turkey Activities for Kids

Turkey activities that help kids develop motor skills. Use these for the Thanksgiving kids table crafts.

1. Fine Motor Turkey for Tots from Twodaloo (website no longer exists) Work on fine motor skills including pincer grasp and an extended wrist to create bead feathers. Try this turkey activity with play dough, spaghetti noodles, and beads.

2. Turkey Felt Board Matching from Teach Beside Me helps with visual discrimination, scanning, and eye-hand coordination.

3. Thanksgiving Wreath Kids Craft from Alamo City Moms Blog is a fine motor craft that would look great on the door.

4. Pine Cone Turkey Place Cards from Homegrown Friends can help kids with tactile sensory exploration and direction following.

use these turkey activities in occupational therapy interventions to help kids with fine motor skills.

5. Turkey Tissue Paper By Number Craft by Crayon Box Chronicles (website no longer exists)- Crumble tissue paper to work on fine motor skills and hand strength.

6. Thanksgiving Turkey Play Dough from Fantastic Fun and Learning uses play dough to build hand strength and fine motor endurance, as well as precision and tripod grasp.

7. Fine Motor Turkey Craft is a great way to work on scissor skills, pincer grasp, tripod grasp, and eye-hand coordination.

8. Feather Color Sorting and Fine Motor Activity from Fantastic Fun and Learning can help kids with visual discrimination, scanning, figure ground, visual attention, and more.

Turkey activities that help kids develop motor skills.

9. Our printable Thankful Turkey Templates are turkey crafts you can modify based on the individual’s skills and abilities. Plus, it includes a thankful turkey craft, too to help with handwriting.

10. Handmade Turkey Puzzle from KCEdventures is a fun way to work on visual discrimination, visual memory, and other visual perceptual skills.

11. Recycled Paper Roll Turkey Stamp Craft is one of our favorite turkey crafts that doubles as turkey art! Work on eye-hand coordination with a preschool turkey craft the kiddos will love.

12. Turkey Print Crafts from House of Burke is another fun preschool turkey art activity that is great for the younger age range.

13. Turkey Cardboard Tube Juicebox Cover is one of our favorite ways to work on fine motor skill, oral motor skills, and oral sensory processing. Use proprioception as a calming and organizing tool for kids with this cute turkey activity.

14. Soda Bottle Turkey from Stir The Wonder helps children develop fine motor skills and bilateral coordination as well as eye-hand coordination with turkey fun.

15. Let’s Talk Turkey and Pilgrims and Indians from Mrs. Karen’s Preschool Ideas uses turkey activities to promote learning with these fun Thanksgiving ideas.

16. Clothespin Feathers Turkey from Stir The Wonder develops hand strength arch development, separation of the sides of the hand, and more.

More turkey activities and Thanksgiving activities that help kids develop motor skills.

17. Turkey Fine Motor Craft and Activity from Fantastic Fun and Learning is a fine motor powerhouse with cute results in this Thanksgiving activity that would look great at the kids Thanksgiving table!

19. Thanksgiving Turkey Silverware Napkin Ring is my personal favorite for a turkey activity that helps kids build fine motor skills, including precision, tripod grasp, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, and more.

For even MORE turkey activities

Grab the new Thanksgiving fine motor kit. It’s a huge resource for occupational therapists, parents, and teachers looking to help kids develop fine motor skills, work on handwriting, scissor skills, cursive writing, letter formation, and so much more.

This 40 page digital file includes everything you need to help kids develop fine motor skills. The printable sheets are designed to work on themed Thanksgiving fine motor activities and can be used over and over again. Print off all of them or just the pages you need. With this Thanksgiving theme fine motor kit, children can develop the following areas:

Pencil control
Scissor skills
Hand strength
Pinch strength
Bilateral coordination
Eye-hand coordination
Visual motor skills
Handwriting and letter formation
Precision and dexterity
Separation of the sides of the hand
Coloring accuracy and endurance
Pre-writing line accuracy
Precision and dexterity
Pincer grasp

This festive Fall packet is designed to cover a variety of areas and skills. Toddlers can use the coloring and shape pages. Preschool children can work on pre-writing lines, cutting strips, coloring pages, I Spy activity, counting, fine motor pinch activities, lacing cards, and more. Kindergarten children can work on letter formation and copying skills along with the other fine motor activities. Elementary aged students can use all of the fine motor activities as well as the handwriting activities and lined writing pages.

Grab the Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit here.

Click here to grab the Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit!

Toilet Paper Roll Turkey

December 5, 2022November 9, 2020 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

These toilet paper roll turkey stamps are a fun turkey craft that doubles as a fine motor activity and eye-hand coordination activity for kids. Use a recycled cardboard tube like a toilet paper roll or a paper towel roll to make a turkey stamp craft that kids will love. This toilet paper roll turkey craft becomes turkey art that is a different take on the typical toilet paper roll crafts that you normally see. This one uses a recycled cardboard tube to make a stamp!

Cute toilet paper turkey craft! This is such a fun preschool turkey craft for young children.

Toilet Paper Roll Turkeys

This craft used a Recycled Toilet Paper Roll. We used a toilet paper roll, but a paper towel roll cut in half would work just as well. This craft started with a little prep work from mom, but nothing requiring too much work.

Paper towel roll turkey craft for kids to make with a recycled cardboard tube.

Paper Towel Roll Stamp Craft

You can use either a recycled toilet paper roll or a paper towel roll to make this turkey art. If you use a paper towel roll, you will need to cut it in half for easier stamping for children.

I started by bending on cardboard roll into a turkey body shape. The other roll was made into the feather stamp by cutting down the tube an inch and then snipping feathers.

Stamp art for children, using paint to make this cute toilet paper roll turkey craft.

Add a little paint into a tray and the craft is ready for creating!

Use toilet paper rolls to make this turkey craft.

Use the paper roll stamps to press into the paint and then stamp onto the paper. Big Sister first stamped the turkey bodies on the page and then added the feathers.

This Thanksgiving craft is not a typical toilet paper roll craft! Use a recycled cardboard tube to make a fun toilet paper roll turkey.

The red, orange, and yellow colors mixed together to make pretty turkey feathers!

Toilet paper tube craft that is a stamp art for children.

Smoosh those colors together for pretty turkey wings!

How cute is this turkey art? Use a toilet paper tube to make this turkey painting craft for kids.

We let our turkeys dry (loads of thick paint to let dry…) We love artwork loaded down with paint in our house 🙂

All they need are little beaks and eyes!

Turkey art for kids using a recycled toilet paper tube.

And done! Our Turkey Stamps are ready for Thanksgiving! Did you miss our other Paper Roll stamping crafts? Check them out:

Paper Roll Apple Stamps

Paper Roll Pumpkin Stamps

Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit…on sale now!

CARDBOARD TURKEY CRAFT

November 9, 2020November 9, 2020 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Turkey crafts are all around this time of year! This fun cardboard turkey is a great Thanksgiving activity that doubles as a therapy tool for kids. It is a juicebox cover, making it a fun way for kids to use their little cardboard turkey, but it also is a fine motor craft AND a way to help kids regulate by adding proprioceptive input through oral motor sensory input. We’ll get into more on this below.

Cardboard Turkey

While taking the time to run out and purchase craft materials can be difficult this time of year, and adding that extra expense isn’t always a possibility, using materials that you have on hand for kids crafts is the way to go. This cardboard turkey is a cardboard tube craft. We used a cut paper towel roll for the turkey craft and had some of the other materials in our craft closet.

For this cardboard turkey craft you’ll need just a few materials:

Amazon affiliate links included below.

Cardboard roll (paper towel roll)
Feathers (these are available at the dollar store, or on Amazon, but you could substitute these with paper cut feathers, too.)
Red and orange paper (or draw them on with a marker)
Googly eyes
Glue
Tape
Juice box

Love this cardboard turkey craft. It's a Thanksgiving Turkey Juicebox Cover that kids will love to use.

Glue those details onto the cardboard roll and this turkey is ready to make someone smile!

Cute cardboard turkey craft, a Thanksgiving Turkey Juicebox Cover for kids.

Colored feathers and googly eyes, along with a couple of little crafting scraps made a simple cardboard tube into a party-friendly turkey… just in time for Thanksgiving dinner!

If you are just making a cardboard turkey craft and skipping the juice box cover portion of this Thanksgiving craft, you could definitely use a recycled toilet paper roll to make a cute toilet paper roll turkey craft. But, if you are going to make this into a juicebox cover, I would go with using a paper towel roll instead.

So, let’s discuss the benefits to making this turkey craft into a Thanksgiving juice box cover…

Turkey Juice Box Cover

This cardboard turkey would work without the juice box part, but we added that as an oral sensory input opportunity to allow children to get a little calming sensory input through the straw. Plus, it’s a great way for children to see their handiwork in action right on the juice box.

To make the cardboard turkey into a juice box cover, cut the paper tube with one cut strait down. Wrap the cardboard tube around the juice box and secure with clear tape. Gather your colorful feathers and tape in place on the back of the juice box.

Kids can make this cardboard turkey craft and gain organizing oral sensory benefits from drinking from a small straw.

Tape feathers to the back of a juice box to make a turkey craft for kids at Thanksgiving dinner table.

Oral sensory input with a straw

Sucking is a form of calming sensory input through the mouth, and it’s a way to offer children organizing sensory input in situations when they might have trouble regulating their sensory systems.

Sucking through a small straw like a coffee stirrer can be calming and provide organizing input, a juice box straw is an easily accessible sensory tool that might be overlooked.

When kids such through that small straw, they are getting heavy work, or proprioception through the mouth and jaw. This is very organizing for children as it allows them to become aware of proprioception (even if they don’t realize it). This deep pressure allows for resistive work in the mouth. It takes effort to suck in through a small straw, and that offers a quick way to add calming input.

Sucking in through a small straw is a way to offer sensory input for sensory seekers, but it’s also a way to support a child’s sensory needs by offering calming and resistive oral motor input.

Now, the parents reading this are probably thinking the same thing that I immediately think of when I see a small child with a juice box. What happens as soon as that child has a juice box in their hand? They squeeze it and juice streams out of the straw all over the place, right?

Here’s the thing about juice boxes- there is a contradiction on it’s benefits and detriments. The oral sensory input when a child sucks on a juice box straw is perfect for helping kids with sensory needs, and to help them develop oral motor control. However, that squeezable little cardboard box is so easy to squeeze the juice right into a toddler’s mouth.

So, using a juice box cover that invites children to gently hold the juice box, rather than squeezing it in a death grip of streaming, sticky juice is so powerful! Children can use the turkey juice cover we made and either not use their hands to squeeze the juice box OR, they can gently hold the turkey craft and use their mouth to suck the juice. They can gaining oral sensory input and oral motor skills. What a win-win!

Here is more information on oral motor skills development.

Read here to understand the connection between oral motor skills and problem eating.

This is a great resource on pediatric feeding and the differences between sensory issues and oral motor issues.

This oral motor exercise is another way to add proprioceptive input through the mouth as a calming and organizing sensory tool.

Wouldn’t this little guy be perfect for a preschool party or on the kid table at Thanksgiving dinner?

Looking for a few more cardboard turkey crafts?

Try these:

Recycled Paper Roll Turkey Stamp Craft

Fine Motor Turkey Craft

Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit…on sale now!

Turkey Theme Therapy Slide Deck

November 8, 2020 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Turkey theme slide deck for occupational therapy

Whether you are looking for turkey activities for teletherapy, or some added ways to make occupational therapy sessions fun this time of year, our latest free therapy slide deck is for you. Below, you can access a free turkey theme therapy slide deck to use as an outline for occupational therapy interventions or to add motor skills to help kids thrive.

Turkey Theme Therapy Slide Deck

Today’s turkey theme slide deck is just one more in the series of free interactive slide decks for occupational therapy. You can access all of the free slides at the bottom of this blog post.

For more occupational therapy teletherapy activities, check out this blog post.

This turkey theme therapy slide deck covers a variety of areas:

Gross motor warm up
Fine motor skills
Handwriting
Visual perceptual skills and visual motor skills
Self-regulation

Turkey theme gross motor slide deck for occupational therapy interventions

Turkey theme gross motor activity

Use the gross motor warm up to challenge motor planning, core strength, and bilateral coordination. Use this warm up activity for whole-body movement to get ready for working on other areas in therapy.

Turkey theme fine motor slide deck for occupational therapy interventions

Turkey theme Fine Motor Activities

The fine motor portion of this free slide deck uses sign language as a way to get fingers and hands moving. Kids can follow along with the slide deck to spell out “TURKEY” while copying images and practicing the American Sign Language.

These activities help kids with visual motor skills, separation of the sides of the hand, finger isolation, arch development, and more.

Turkey theme handwriting slide deck for occupational therapy interventions

Turkey theme Handwriting Activity

This slide is open-ended and designed to meet the needs of a variety of ages and levels of children. Kids can write a list of the clothing words to dress the turkey. Other kids might write a sentence using certain clothing names as they disguise a turkey. Still other children might write a paragraph.

The slide can also be used as a visual discrimination or visual memory activity. Ask students to look at the slide and then switch it out. Can they remember all of the clothing items on the disguise the turkey activity?

turkey theme visual perception slide deck for occupational therapy interventions

Turkey theme Visual Perception Activity

Next, ask students to move the interactive turkey through the maze as they work on a variety of visual perceptual skills and eye-hand coordination.

turkey theme self regulation slide deck for occupational therapy interventions

Turkey theme Self Regulation Activity

Finally, students can fill in the self-regulation checklist as they take a self assessment of their feelings, emotions, and behaviors. This is a good time to end the therapy session and come up with some strategies or coping tools to address any self-regulation needs.

Want to get your hands on this turkey therapy theme? Enter your email address below and the file will be delivered directly to your email inbox.

Enjoy and have fun!

More interactive therapy slide decks you will enjoy:

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.

Here is a Strait Line Letters Slide Deck.

Here is a “Scribble theme” Handwriting Slide Deck.

Teach Letters with an interactive Letter Formation Slide Deck.

Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit…on sale now!

Turkey Crafts for Kids

October 26, 2022November 6, 2020 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

turkey craft for kids that are great crafts for teletherapy

Looking for easy turkey crafts for therapy, the classroom, or at home? These turkey crafts for kids are ones that are not only fun ways to celebrate Thanksgiving with kids, they are also super simple Thanksgiving ideas for virtual therapy or hybrid lessons. This time of year, turkey crafts are the way to go when it comes to facilitating fine motor skills, executive functioning, motor planning, and direction following in occupational therapy interventions. The teachers who follow this site for developmental crafts and activities, love to find crafts that build skills. Parents might look a fun art project to create and want easy crafts that kids can make on their own. These easy turkey crafts are great crafts for teletherapy, too. Start with our thankful turkey templates and go from there.

These turkey crafts are quick and easy and perfect for busy mamas and papas.

Here are more Thanksgiving activities for kids to add to your therapy toolbox.

Turkey Crafts for Kids

I wanted to share super simple turkey crafts for kids that can be used in occupational therapy teletherapy sessions for the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Many of these turkey crafts use just a few materials, making them easy turkey crafts!

This turkey craft uses colored construction paper to make a turkey wreath. Children can cut the feathers and practice scissor accuracy.

Use a paper cup and construction paper to make a paper cup turkey. It’s perfect for working on fine motor skills with children.

Use a straw and cup to encourage oral motor skills or for proprioceptive input through the mouth. Better yet, add this turkey craft to the cup for a Thanksgiving craft idea!

To continue with the calming proprioceptive input using a straw, make a turkey craft juice box cover using a recycled paper towel tube. It’s a turkey craft that kids will get a kick out of, while working on fine motor skills.

Make a clothes pin turkey with the turkey cut-outs in this Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit. You’ll love how easy it is to work on fine motor skills using the 12 number cards.

Using a recycled paper towel tube, kids can work on fine motor skills to make this fun cardboard tube turkey craft.

Still another cardboard tube craft is this turkey stamp craft idea.

SUPER easy Turkey Crafts

For those of us looking for super easy turkey crafts to use in teletherapy or when a quick craft is needed, these easy craft ideas are perfect:

Turkey Coloring Page- Print off these Thanksgiving mindfulness exercises and use the turkey coloring page as a craft that supports self-regulation.

Paper Towel Feather Turkey- This easy turkey feathers craft uses only paper towels, markers, and water to make watercolor turkey craft. This would be a great turkey craft for therapy, working on pre-writing lines, and cutting a simple shape.

Handprint Turkey- Sometimes the classic craft is best! Work on bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, motor skills, and more by tracing the hand and then decorating. Take the fine motor skills up a notch and ask children to color in the turkey and then cut it out.

Paper Plate Turkey Craft- Use a regular paper plate and cut along the edges to make feathers. Children can then draw a turkey right on the plate. try this paper plate turkey craft to work on scissor skills by cutting along the curved edge of the paper plate.

Coffee Filter Turkey- Cut along the edge of the coffee filter, add color with a marker, and draw a turkey face on the front. Try this coffee filter turkey to work on scissor skills and fine motor skills.

Paper Bag Turkey- Use a paper bag to make a turkey puppet craft. Use the materials you have on hand and really work on fine motor skills.

Leaf Turkey- Grab some leaves from outside and make a leaf turkey craft. This is another fantastic fine motor craft for kids.

Draw a Turkey- Using a guided tutorial is a nice way to work on visual motor skills and only requires a pencil, paper, and crayons. This turkey drawing guided tutorial is easy and fun.

Shape Turkeys- Work on scissor skills and cutting easy shapes by making these shape turkeys. Such a great turkey craft for preschoolers!

Need More Turkey Crafts?

The Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit is ON SALE now! This 40 page printable kit has everything you need to work on all aspects of fine motor skills. The kit includes handwriting pages, pencil control exercises, scissor skill exercises, lacing cards, clothes pin/paper clip counting cards, coloring exercises, visual motor activities, and so much more.

Grab your copy of the Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit now and start working on these areas:

Pencil control
Scissor skills
Hand strength
Pinch strength
Bilateral coordination
Eye-hand coordination
Visual motor skills
Handwriting and letter formation
Precision and dexterity
Separation of the sides of the hand
Coloring accuracy and endurance
Pre-writing line accuracy
Precision and dexterity
Pincer grasp

Get your copy of the Thanksgiving Fine Motor Kit here.

Mindfulness WorkSheet Football Theme

November 2, 2020 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

free mindfulness worksheet with a football theme

This mindfulness worksheet has a football theme, making it a fun mindfulness exercise for kids, especially those who love all things football. You will find a lot of these mindfulness worksheets here on the website, as well as mindfulness activities. All of these printable mindfulness handouts are designed as tools for deep breathing as a coping strategy for kids. Today’s coping tool fits in perfectly with our recent football activities and football therapy slide deck. Be sure to add this mindfulness activity to these other football theme ideas for themed therapy activities.

Mindfulness Worksheet

There are many benefits of mindfulness that support the needs of children in a therapeutic sense for addressing behavioral needs, sensory needs, emotional needs so they can function and complete daily tasks. There are also benefits of mindfulness worksheets and strategies to cope with feelings, emotions, and responses to the world around us.

This fun mindfulness activity is a simple worksheet designed around a football theme.

It provides a visual grounding exercise to allow children to move as they use deep breathing strategies to self-reflect and become more aware of their body and how it’s responding in any given moment.

This football themed worksheet actually can be printed off and used as a coping tool at home, at school, or in the therapy clinic.

What’s nice about this mindfulness exercise is that children who love football and all things sports can picture the football and the deep breathing actions during situations even if they don’t have the mindfulness worksheet in front of them.

The ideal process would be to show students how they can take deep breaths in difficult siduations by using the football worksheet as a visual cue. Then, students can work toward imagingin the visual during times when they experience big feelings or emotions. This way, they can become more independent in using deep breathing as a coping strategy any time!

Free Football Theme Mindfulness Worksheet

Want to print off this mindfulness worksheet and use it with children on your therapy caseload?

Want to grab this free printable and use with your own child at home?

Want to use this football themed mindfulness worksheet in your classroom?

Enter your email address below. The worksheet will then be sent directly to your email inbox. If you are already a newsletter subscriber, simply head to the free subscriber-only library and enter the password.

More mindfulness worksheets you will love:

Click the images below to access each free mindfulness worksheet.

mindfulness exercise for kids with a spider theme

Use this Christmas mindfulness activity as a coping strategy for kids during the holidays.

mindfulness-for-kids-christmas-coloring-page

Thanksgiving mindfulness activity with deep breathing exercise to use as a coping strategy with kids.

deep breathing mindfulness activity for halloween

Football Theme Therapy Slides

June 14, 2021November 1, 2020 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Football theme activities slide deck for therapy

Here it is… another free therapy slide deck, this time with a football theme! Recently, I shared a football activities blog post here on the website. It’s perfect for your football-loving therapy clients that need to build motor skill development in OT sessions. Today’s free occupational therapy slide deck with a football theme therapy slide deck that is just one more football themed set of activities that you can add to your pediatric occupational therapy intervention toolbox!

Football Theme Therapy Slide Deck

This slide deck is another free resource that you can use in teletherapy interventions using an interactive slide deck designed to boost skills in fine motor, gross motor, vision, mindfulness, self-regulation, and more.

Use these slides to run a whole therapy session, based on the individual needs of your clients…OR, use just a slide or two to work on specific skills.

The nice thing about using a football theme is that you can pair the occupational therapy theme of the week (football activities in this case), with lots of different hands-on activities that build specific skills in the areas of motor planning, bilateral coordination, sensory input, regulation, and more.

Kids can work through the interactive slides and move the movable parts of the slides to practice various occupational therapy interventions. The slides are designed to build skills in the following developmental areas:

Fine Motor Skills: In-hand manipulation, separation of the sides of the hand, precision
Gross Motor Skills: core strength, stability, strengthening, proximal stability
Visual Perceptual Skills: Visual discrimination, visual discrimination
Mindfulness: awareness, deep breathing, focus, attention

Below, you’ll find a form to enter your email to grab this free interactive slide. But first, I wanted to explain how this slide deck works.

Football theme activity for occupational therapy interventions to work on mindfulness with kids.

Mindfulness Activity- Move the interactive football piece along the arrow to the field goal as students breathe a deep breath in and a deep breath out in a football themed mindfulness activity. This mindful breathing can act as a coping tool and a strategy to help kids with focused breathing so they are more aware off breath as a strategy for awareness, worries, or stress. Moving the football along the arrow line is also a good exercise in eye-hand coordination.

Football Fine Motor Activity– with this slide, you are prompted to move the interactive football pieces over the football goal post. Then, students can follow the instructions on the slides to complete a hands-on activity with small pieces of paper. This fine motor activity works a variety of areas and gets those little hands moving.

Here’s another football fine motor activity that you can pair with this slide deck.

Football theme slide deck to work on visual perception with kids.

Visual Perception Activity- Count the number of each type of football. Then, type the number that is found into the text box. This is a great way to work on a variety of visual perceptual skills with a football theme.

Football theme slide deck to help kids work on handwriting.

Football Theme Writing Prompts- Students can choose one writing prompt and write out their response on paper. They can do a mini-self assessment for accuracy of letter formation, letter and word spacing, and line use.

Football theme gross motor activities for kids

Football Gross Motor Activities- There are several different core body stretches and movements. Students can use a real football or pretend to use one as they go through each pose. Some students can benefit from going through this section of the slide deck several times.

Football activity to work on self regulation with kids.

Self-Regulation Check-In- Finally, students can move the interactive piece to slide the football marker to describe their feelings, emotions, and behaviors. This is a good chance to talk about coping tools they have available to help with self-regulation.

Handwriting: Use writing prompts to practice letter formation, spacing, sizing, and legibility with football theme writing prompts

FREE Football Theme SLIDE DECK

Here’s how you can get the interactive slide deck to work on occupational therapy goals with a football theme:

Enter your email address in the form below. Check your email and click on the button to grab your resource. Save that page so you can access these slide decks again.

Sign into your Google account. Click on the big button in that PDF that you just accessed. It will prompt you to make a copy of the slide deck. That will be your master copy of this slide deck.

Now the slide deck is on your Google account.

Share the slide deck with students. You can make a copy for each student and upload it to their Google classroom or use it in Zoom. Here is a post on FAQ for troubleshooting any issues you might run across with using or accessing the slide deck.

Football Theme Therapy Activities Delivered to your Inbox

One resource we love is our $5 therapy kit…the Plastic Egg Therapy Kit! It has 27 printable pages of activities with an Easter egg theme. In the kit, you’ll find fine motor activities, handwriting prompts, letter formation pages, pencil control sheets, plastic egg activities, matching cards, graphing activities, STEM fine motor task cards, and more. There are several pages of differentiated lines to meet a variety of needs. This therapy kit has everything done for you.

Get your copy of the Easter Egg Therapy Kit here.

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