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:

Caterpillar Math Craft

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You know we love a great craft made from recycled materials, right?  Recycled items seem to make a reoccurring appearance on our blog.  And, here’s a little secret:  I LOVE crafting and encouraging playful learning with recycled stuff because it’s re-purposing and environmentally cool, but it’s also FREE!  You have the materials already in your home, and are just going to be tossing them away (whether it’s into the garbage or the recycle bin…so why not learn and play first?)  We made this caterpillar craft from a recycled egg carton and added a math twist to add a little adding and 1:1 correspondence number counting to provide a multi-age learning tool for three of my kids, ages 3, 5, and 7.  (The baby just want to to pull the googly eyes off of the caterpillar.  Which is a sort of subtraction…)
Caterpillar craft made from a recycled egg carton. Use this for math concepts for preschool through grade school kids.

Math Caterpillar Craft (from a recycled egg carton!)


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We pulled a recycled egg carton from the recycle bin.  Cut one long section of carton.  Paint the sections to make the caterpillars body and head.  We love these paints for their bright colors.
Grab some yarn and have the kids snip little 2 inch pieces.  This is fabulous scissor practice.  Holding the wiggly yarn while snipping sections encourages bilateral hand coordination that is needed for managing paper and scissors while cutting shapes from paper and worksheets.
Caterpillar craft made from a recycled egg carton. Use this for math concepts for preschool through grade school kids.
Math concept:  Encourage your child to count the sections of yarn into groups of three.  
Tape the yarn legs onto the caterpillar’s body.

Glue on googly eyes and draw on a smile.
Caterpillar craft made from a recycled egg carton. Use this for math concepts for preschool through grade school kids.

Caterpillar math activity:


We played a few math games with the caterpillar.  
  • Count out craft pom poms, encouraging 1:1 correspondence.  Counting items is an important preschool math concept that is used in addition and subtraction in later grades.  My first grader often uses counting manipulates as a technique for adding multiple digit addition/subtraction problems and counting too quickly can lead to errors.  
  • Use the pom poms to feed the caterpillar.  Sort them into piles by color and patterns and make the caterpillar eat the pom poms by pushing them under the head.  Write out the math subtraction problems.  
Caterpillar craft made from a recycled egg carton. Use this for math concepts for preschool through grade school kids.

How cute is this little guy?  Make him and other fun recycled crafts for learning and play.

This post is part of the  natural parenting and earth month series at Allternative Learning.

How to make Stovetop Clean Mud Sensory Play

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Have you ever made clean mud?  This sensory dough is very cool.  We’ve made the standard version before (you know the clean mud sensory dough where you cook a bar of ivory soap in the microwave?).  This month in the 12 months of sensory dough series, we thought we would try a new version of clean mud.  We made a stovetop clan mud using body wash.  This sensory dough turned out to be a very cool messy play activity and we ended up doing a little birthday party pretend play, too!
How to make clean mud with body wash! For sensory play
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How to make stovetop clean mud:

 With a broken microwave, we were out of luck making the traditional recipe for clean mud.  Or were we??? Why not try a stove top version of clean mud for a different twist on the usual clean mud recipe.  Instead of a bar of Ivory soap, we used body wash. (This scent also had a pink tint to it and the body wash made for a great cherry/vanilla scent.)

 
We started by filling a pot with torn toilet paper.  (We used the same pot we used for melting crayons for our crayon play dough.  If you don’t have a cheap sauce pan for kitchen experiments, be sure to pick one up. We use ours all the time!) Usually we make a large batch of clean mud using a whole roll of toilet paper.  This time, we just made a small amount.
 
If there was ever a reason for two kids to be happy, it was being told by an adult to go ahead and shred toilet paper.  These two sisters were in heaven!



Next,  add one tablespoon of body wash and one tablespoon of water.  Stir everything together over heat on the stove.  Keep stirring until the clean mud reaches the consistency of mashed potatoes.  Remove from heat and continue to stir.


Dump the clean mud onto a clean surface and let cool to touch.  Knead the dough just a bit to add “fluff” to the sensory dough.  You want the clean mud to be squishy but not too soapy.  You can adjust the texture by adding more toilet paper or soap/water.

How to make clean mud on the stove top (not microwave)
This stuff was so neat to play with!  We pulled out a few measuring cups and spoons to scoop, measure, and pat out.
Clean Mud birthday party sensory and pretend play
 
We decided to make our clean mud into a birthday party celebration for no reason in particular.  Singing “Happy Birthday” to every stuffed animal in the house is always a fun way to spend an afternoon.
 
We used pink cupcake liners
and red coffee stirrers
to create cupcakes and candles.
birthday party clean mud sensory pretend play
Birthday Party pretend play with clean mud sensory play
This was a huge hit in our house and we will certainly be making Stovetop Clean Mud again!

Yarn Painting Art for Kids

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Did you ever explore different ways to paint with yarn?  Yarn painting is a creative art idea and an overall creative painting activity that you’ll want to try. What better way to create art with the kids, than with a skein of yarn?  Grab the paints and that unused yarn and get ready to paint!

activities for painting with yarn. Art for kids

Painting with yarn: art for kids



Yarn Pom Pom Painting from Crayon Box Chronicles.  Make yarn pom pom drumsticks and paint away!
Yarn Stamp Art from Fantastic Fun and Learning.  Wrap a block in yarn and stamp the paint into art.
Homemade Yarn Paint Brushes from Learn Play Imagine. Make homemade paint brushes using yarn.
Painting with Yarn from Fantastic Fun and Learning.  It doesn’t get much easier than this!

DIY Tambourine Craft

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Want to make a recycled tambourine? We’ve got you covered with our plate tambourine craft from years ago. We used recycled clear plates for a colorful tambourine that the kids loved!

We made these clear DIY tambourines as a baby sensory toy that was a big hit with all of the kids. The clear plastic plates made sensory play fun with a visual and auditory aspect.  Using recycled materials in craft and play is one of our favorite ways to create! We also recommend making a bottle xylophone for more colorful and beautiful music!


Clear tambourines for music and baby sensory play
 

Recycled Tambourine Craft

 
How to make DIY recycled tambourines for music and toddler sensory play…
 
You’ll need just a few items to make a plate tambourine:
  1. Clear recycled plates 
  2. Hot glue
  3. Items to add inside the tambourines. Ideas include dry beans, dry corn, dry split peas, dry rice, or cut up pieces of straws.
 
 
This is an easy DIY project that kids of all ages will love.  Use recycled clear plastic plates, a hot glue gun, and filler.  We used red beans and cut straws to fill our tambourines.  
 
I wanted bright and bold colors for our clear tambourines.  Other fillers might include: dried split peas, chick peas, black beans, or beads.

 

 
Fill one of the plates with the beans.  Little Sister loved helping with this part.

 

 
She helped me by cutting colorful straws into small pieces.  She loved watching the bits of straws shoot across the table as she snipped each one.  What a great scissor activity for preschoolers!

 

 
These brightly colored straws make great tambourine filler.

 

 
 
Use the hot glue gun to spread glue along the whole edge of the lip of one plate.  Be sure to put the hot glue on the plate that is filled with filler.  Then place the empty plate on top of the hot glue.  Don’t try to flip the full plate onto the empty plate.  You’ll end up with spilled beans and hot glue burns.  Don’t ask how I know this 😉
 
Firmly press the whole outside edges together until the glue hardens.

 

 
Baby loves these clear tambourines for shaking sensory play!
 
 

Other DIY instruments that we loved include:

Lowercase Letter Formation Baked Cotton Swabs

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Have you ever made baked cotton balls?  Today we’re sharing one of our newest creative play ideas with baked cotton swabs!  These are a colorful manipulative for learning and fine motor play.  Today we’re sharing how we made baked cotton swabs and using them in a Kindergarten Preparation busy bag to build letters.  This is something you definitely need to make.  You and the kids will love it!
Building letters with baked cotton swabs

How to make baked cotton swabs for sensory play:

 
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Start with a batch of Cotton Swabs and food coloring.  Just like making baked cotton balls, you want to mix together flour and water in a 1:1 ratio.  I scooped a bit of the flour/water mixture into a water bottle ice cube tray.
Add a few drops of food coloring to each section.  
Dip the cotton swabs into the mixture and place on a sheet of aluminum foil.  Continue to dip all of the cotton swabs.  Position the aluminum foil on a baking sheet and place in the oven.
Baked Cotton swabs for sensory play, learning, and loose part play
 
Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.  Keep a close eye on the cotton swabs.  You’ll want to make sure the stick part of the swabs don’t start to turn brown.  Pull the cookie sheet out of the oven and let cool.
 
Now you are ready to play!

Getting Ready for Kindergarten: Writing Letters

 
So how can you use your baked cotton swabs in play and learning?  We used them to build letters, numbers, shapes, and pictures.  Kids can match and identify colors.  Use the cotton swabs to count, sort, and pattern.  Work on visual memory by coping shapes and asking your child to recreate letters, numbers, and shapes.  
 
All of these activities are a great way to prepare children for Kindergarten.  When a child goes off to kindergarten, they are often times presented with handwriting and letter formation for the first time.  You can work on a little Kindergarten prep work with making letters at home in a fun way.  Use the cotton swabs to make letters with your child, and then have them create letters on their own.  
 

Letter formation Busy Bag

letter-building-letter-formation-free-printable



We created a free printable for you to use as a busy bag activity using the baked cotton swabs.  Children can copy and build letters with the cotton swabs using an upper case and lower case letter form.  

 Build letters with cotton swabs, dyed lollipop sticks, play dough, pipe cleaners, string, or other manipulatives.
Just for our newsletter subscribers, we’re offering our FREE upper case and lower case letter builder printable.  

Use these printables to work on letter formation with your little ones.  An adult can write the letter on the left side and kids can trace the letter.  Use manipulatives to build the letters.  Print off the sheets as many times as you need: one for each letter or laminate the sheets and use them over and over again for all of the letters.  (If you laminate the sheets, you can use a white board marker to work on writing letters over and over again.  

Freight Train Preschool Book Snack Idea

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 We joined the Preschool Book Club in another round of connecting a fantastic preschool book with crafts, activities, and (this time) a Snack!  Freight Train is an eye-catching book, with it’s bright colors.  We used those colors to create a Preschool (or any age) snack based on the book.  Hosting a playdate? Reading Freight Train at preschool or in a homeschool co-op?  This Freight Train inspired train snack is healthy and fun!

Try these train themed sensory activity ideas for more ways to play and explore the senses using a train theme.

Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.

 

Freight Train Snack Idea 

 
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Have you read Freight Train by Donald Crews?  This book caught our attention right away with the colors and names of the trains.  My kids were mesmerized by the simple text of the book and loved the bright colors.  This is definitely a book you will want to add to your home or school library!
To make our Freight Train inspired snack, we started with a few simple ingredients:

club crackers

red cherry tomatos.
orange and yellow sweet peppers
cucmebers (sliced)
blueberries (ours were frozen, but fresh would work, too)
grape jelly
black olives
cream cheese

Read through the book and line up your crackers and ingredients.  We matched up the train car names to the colors of the fruits and vegetables.
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
Dice the peppers and slice the olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives.
 
We used cream cheese to get some of the train cars “colors” to stick.  Spread a little cream cheese on the cracker and then place the fruit or veggies in place.  
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
My Little Guy (age 5) had fun placing the colors into place on the crackers as he said the names of the train cars.
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
Once all of the train cars are built, we placed our Freight Train on a bridge that we drew on paper.  This would be a fun way to serve this healthy snack at preschool play dates or a train-themed party.
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
Time to eat! Little Guy decided he wanted to start with the orange tank car.
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
 
You can find all of the books we’ve covered in the Preschool Book Club with all the posts from each member:
Stop by to see what the rest of the Preschool Book Club bloggers have created to go along with Freight Train: 
Stamp Painted Train Craft- Inspired by Freight Train by Donald Crews~ BuggyandBuddy.comFreight Train Block Building - exploring books through play with Preschool Book Club
Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Math Game
Buggy and Buddy  Sponge Train Art
Homegrown Friends Block Building
Mama Papa Bubba Train play Mat

hands-on activities to explore social emotional development through children's books.

Love exploring books with hands-on play?  

Grab our NEW book, Exploring Books Through Play: 50 Activities based on Books About Friendship, Acceptance, and Empathy, that explores friendship, acceptance, and empathy through popular (and amazing) children’s books!  It’s 50 hands-on activities that use math, fine motor skills, movement, art, crafts, and creativity to support social emotional development.

Strawberry Whole Wheat Pancakes Milk-free Egg-free

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We’re back for another week of our Cooking with kids A-Z series and today we bring you Strawberry whole wheat pancakes made milk-free and egg-free.  While this cooking with kids recipe is one that builds many skills, it’s a great addition to a strawberries activity theme, too.

Strawberry Pancakes Recipe

This week, we are on the letter “F” for flour in our cooking series.  We decided to try our hand at whole wheat pancakes with strawberries for a fun Monday morning breakfast.  These no-milk and no-egg pancakes are perfect for those with allergies and despite being made without a few usual ingredients, are very fluffy and moist.  My daughter even asked for another batch for dinner!
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!

 
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Fluffy Strawberry Pancake Recipe
This recipe is an easy one to throw together.  It can be made during the morning rush of a weekday while you still get everyone out the door on time.  We used my favorite white whole wheat flour.  White whole wheat is milled from white kernels and provides just as much nutrition as typical whole wheat flour, but with a milder taste and a lighter color.  It doesn’t seem to bake as dry as regular whole wheat flour does, either.  

Strawberry No-Milk, No-Egg Whole Wheat Pancake Recipe

 
To make the pancakes, you’ll need a few ingredients:
4 Tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 cups water 
1 and half Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup chopped strawberries
Mix the dry ingredients together.  We use my Kitchen Aid Mixer bowl every time we make pancakes.  The size is perfect for double batches of pancakes to feed a big crew.
 
Add the remaining ingredients except the strawberries, and stir well with a spoon.  
Chop the strawberries and and place in a bowl.  My little strawberry chopper sneaked a few strawberries while chopping.
Fluffy pancakes require a simple trick:  Let the batter rest for a few minutes after mixing.  You can sometimes see bubbles popping on the surface of the dough right in the mixer bowl.  I like to heat the pan with butter while the batter is resting.  Use a 1/4 measuring cup to drop batter onto the hot grill.  These pancakes are thick and fluffy!


 Milk-Free, Egg-Free Fluffy Pancake recipe

We made a few pancakes without strawberries, too.  They were just as buttery and moist.  These pancakes are so good with real maple syrup.  Sprinkle a bit of confectioners sugar on the strawberry pancakes, or go all out with maple syrup.  Either way, they are delicious and the perfect way to start your day!
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!
White whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!
This post is part of the Cooking with Kids ABC series.  You can see all of the F is for Flour recipes here:
 
 
Be sure to try our other cooking with kids recipes:
A is for Apple Dumplings Recipe
B is for Banana Cheesecake Bites
C is for Carrot Veggie Puffs Recipe
D is for Dough recipe
E is for Egg Strata Recipe

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

Healthy recipes for kids

Great quote for parents of young kids

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Sometimes a quote is all you need to know you are not alone!  I love this quote about my home.  It’s just about perfectly describes the mess, the noise, and the fingerprints (they are seriously EVERYWHERE!)  It also describes what really matters.  That is the part of motherhood and parenting small children that is sometimes difficult to remember during the noise and the mess.  You are not alone, mama!  The love in your home will be there today and in twenty years.
I love the Mr. Rogers quote about play just as much as the one below. It’s so true!


Quote for busy moms of small children. My home is filled with toys, has fingerprints on everything, and is never quiet...

Check out our quote for parents of small children on you tube:

Robot Activities and Crafts for Kids

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This week on Share It Saturday we’re featuring Robot crafts and activities for kids!  We loved the Robot Memory Game linked up from Brain Power Boy last week and had to feature it, so off we went to find more fun ways to build robots, create robots, and make robots with kids!





robot activities and crafts for kids

Build-a-Robot activities and crafts for kids

Super cute robot activities from around the web:
Robot Books from All Done Monkey
Magnetic Robot Art from Fun-A-Day
Recycled Robot Craft from Kids Activities Blog
Balancing Robot from Buggy and Buddy
CD Robot craft from Love and Lollipop
Cupcake Liner Robot craft from Glued to My Crafts
Shrinky Dink Jointed Robot from LalyMom
Build and Stack Robots from Handmade Kids Art
Robot Pencil Holder from Plaid Online