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:

Winter Letter Play Activity in Snow

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It’s pretty darn cold outside this time of year.  We had fun during our last snow day and took a handful of letters into the snow to play and learn with letters in a different sensory experience….the snow!  This

Winter Letter Activity

Winter Play Activity was great for Letter Play, learning and identifying letters, and just having fun!  Children of different ages can enjoy this outdoor learning activity. 
Toddlers enjoy locating letters hidden in the snow while they can begin to identify letter names and colors. 
Preschoolers can work on letter identification as they search for and find letters in the snow. 
Older children in kindergarten and above can spell words as they find letters.  This was the perfect letter learning activity for us, as it covered all of the kid’s age ranges.

Winter Letter Play Activity with Snow

Affiliate links below.

We used our magnetic letters in a small patch of snow.  Mom hid the letters and the kids went busy finding them.  If it’s too cold where you live, it would be easy to modify this activity. 

Grab a plastic bin and fill it with snow.  Bring the bin indoors and play right on the floor with a towel underneath.  Keep warm indoors while the kids scoop snow, find letters, and have fun with playful learning!

Letters in Snow

For more letter learning fun, It was fun to press the letters into the snow (flip them around so they show in the right direction!) 

I had Little Guy name the letters as they were pressed into the snow.  We then matched the impression letter with the plastic letter by pressing the magnetic letter into the impression in the snow. 

We didn’t worry about flipping the letter around.  We just pressed the letter right into the snow so that it faced the correct direction and Little Guy could match up the letters.

Finding the letters in the snow was such a fun sensory experience! 
If we played indoors with snow and our letters, we would pull out some scoops, spoons, and work on a little fine motor skills at the same time…maybe a good idea for next time when it IS too cold to get outside!

SO if you’re in a warmer climate, how could you modify this activity?  Using shredded paper to simulate snow like we did with our Snowy Farm Sensory Bin, or create your own Sensory Snow for indoor play!

Small World Pretend Play Cardboard Box

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 We do tons of play, crafts, and activities with recycled materials.  Cardboard boxes are a bit hit in our house!  We are very excited to join the Project Recycle & Create series each month this year as we create, explore, and play using recycled materials.  This month is all about creating with cardboard.  I don’t know about you, but since Christmas, we are well stocked on the cardboard supply!  This activity was made with a simple cardboard box and inspired so much creative play and fun.  We made a small world zoo that encouraged pretend play, fine motor skills, imagination, language development…and FUN!  Pretend Play is something we love and have done before with many themes and senses.  This zoo themed small world stayed out for a while and was a huge hit with the cousins.


Small World Pretend Play Card Board Box
 
{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}
Baby Girl is a big fan of Little People.  We pull out the Little People Learning Zoo Playset almost daily.  The animals were definitely needed for our cardboard zoo.
Small World Pretend Play Card Board Box

Using a large piece of cardboard, I drew a pathway and a few areas for the animals.  Little Guy provided great input about what we needed in our zoo.  He said we needed a few cages for the animals and an igloo for the polar bear.  He set all of the animals around the zoo and gave everyone a home.

We added a few Little People from the Fun Park
set to walk through our zoo.
This DIY zoo play mat sat out in our dining room all day and once the Toddlers were up from their nap, they were excited to get in on the play too!  What a great way to encourage pretend play and language!

We had so much fun with our pretend play zoo.  And, it doesn’t get much easier to set up a small world for hours and hours (days…) of imagination and pretend play!  How many small worlds can you create with just a few sheets of cardboard?

We’re joining these creative bloggers in the Project: Recycle & Create series this month for cardboard crafts and activities:


P is for Preschooler


Powerful Mothering


Afterschool for Smarty Pants


Still Playing School


Lemon Lime Adventures


Creative World of Varya


Mama Miss


There’s Just One Mommy


Little Bins for Little Hands


Peakle Pie


Teach Me Mommy


Danya Banya

 

Winter Books Crafts and Activities for Kids

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We are excited to join the girls in the All Things Kids bloggers with our first series!  During the month of January, we will be hosting a link up related to Winter Themed Books with Crafts and Activities related to those books.  We are huge fans of creating crafts and activities to go along with our favorite books, so this series was right up our ally!  Starting tomorrow, we will share the links to some of our favorite bloggers Winter Book and Craft.  By the end of the series, we’ll have a great collection of crafts to go along with 7 different Winter books.  Not only that, but a link up will be available for other bloggers to share their favorite winter themed kids books. 

Winter Books Crafts and Activities for Kids

These fabulous bloggers are joining up to create a year of 12 different series’ in 2014:
January 6- Fun-A-Day~ DIY Snowman Kit

January 7th- All Done Monkey~ Snowmen at Work Snowball Painting and Train Play

January 8th- House of Burke~ The Mitten Cookie Cutter Stamping

January 9th- Crayon Box Chronicles~ Geraldine’s Big Snow Snowy Paper Bag Tree

January 10th- Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails~ Just Snowman Winter Books Craft and Activity

January 11th-Mamas Like Me

January 12th- Sugar Aunts

We would love for you to join us in the All Things Kids community on Google+ for inspiration, ideas, or just a place to communicate with other parents about ALL things kids!   We are also pinning to the All Things Kids Pinterest board and would love to have you join us there.

All Things Kids Community

 

Join us on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

 

DIY Kid Friendly Projects

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We’re back for Share It Saturday after a mini blogging break over Christmas and New Year’s.  We had a fabulous two weeks with family, friends, and lots of fun.  The little break was much needed.  We’re glad to be back and excited about all that the new year has in store for us!  We’re beginning it with a fantastic Share It Saturday line-up of featured bloggers this week!  It is always so much fun to look through the links each week and pick out a few of our favorites.  This week’s picks feature DIY Kid-Friendly Projects.  We love a great DIY project for the home or for creative play with the kids so this was a fun post to put together.  A busy mom needs a simple project and these great DIY’s are just that!  The links below will share tutorials on easy recipes, activities, and even gifts that are sure to satisfy the creative need in a busy mom! 

DIY Kid Friendly Projects for Busy Moms


{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}

DIY Kid-Friendly Projects for the Busy Mom


SO want to try these Toddler Made Cheese Crackers from Craftulate!

The perfect home décor kid craft and project…DIY Mod Podge and Solstice Lanterns from Crafting Connections.

An easy DIY activity to keep the kids occupied with indoor play is this Cardboard Box Miniature Golf Course from Reading Confetti.

Ok, so this Candy Cane Hot Cocoa from We Made That sounds completely fabulous for when mom needs a little break!

Have a light table? I love these DIY Color Blocks from And Next Comes L! Life with Moore Babies made them too: DIY Color Window Blocks and they would be perfect for some sensory and learning fun with the kids.

Snowed in? Make a few of these easy No Sew Sock Puppets from Happy Hooligans.

Christmas Chex Mix from My Joy Filled Life sounds like a great DIY treat after a busy morning of play time.

Thinking ahead to Valentine’s Day? These DIY Heart Shaped Tea Bags from A Pearl and Her Pilot would be a great project to create with the kids.

A few of our favorite DIY projects for busy moms:

Snow Maze Outdoor Kids Activity

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A few weeks back we had a nice snowfall.  It was great snow for making snowmen and rolling snow.  When we rolled the snow it rolled all the way down to the grass!  We ended up with a nice path in the snow and decided to make it a little more interesting.  Our Snow Maze was born!  This was the perfect outdoor activity for the kids as we made a maze all the way up to the base of our snowman.  Finishing the final touches on our snowman required a bit more navigating, to gather up the scarf, sticks, carrot, and rock…but it sure was fun!  Little Guy had a lot of fun making his way through the maze.  He’s a big fan of mazes on paper, so this life-size backyard maze was even better!  There were even a few “bad guys” to negotiate around, too.  We’ve had fun with Snowball Experiments in the past and LOVE getting outdoors with snow activities for the kids, so our snow maze was no exception!


Snow Maze Outdoor Activity for Kids

 

Snow Maze: Outdoor Activity for Kids

Mazes are such a great activity for visual motor integration skills when done on paper.  Scanning with the eyes and coordinating the hand to make the correct and accurate motions can be very difficult for a child with visual perception problems.  When a life-size model is introduced, the visual perceptual skills multiply as the child needs to negotiate whole body movements.  Also, they need to scan the scene from inside the maze unlike looking down at a maze on paper.
{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}


Plus, negotiating “bad guys” tends to up the difficulty of any maze 😉

We enjoyed our snowy day and our snowy maze.  If you make a snow maze this winter, be sure to share with us.  We love to see what you’ve been doing!

Looking for more fun ideas?  We’ve got tons of fun activities, crafts, and more planned for this winter.  Be sure to follow along on our social media outlets: on Facebook, Google+ Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

 

New Year Goals Quote

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New years goals quote

Looking for a New Year Goals quote? I love this as a no-prep New Years activity for preschool and any age! Simply ask your child about their goals, or what matters most to them!

New Years Goals Quote

As occupational therapists and OT assistants, we talk a lot about goals! We also focus on what matters most to the client, student, or patient that we are working with.

Occupational therapy focuses on meaningful occupations or the things we do that occupy our time. The goals we work on in therapy are the things that matter most to the clients we serve.

Then, we take those goals and work on breaking down goals into step-by-step action tasks.

So when it comes to setting goals, we can talk about meaningful goals with children we can talk about what matters to them, and what they would like to get better at or achieve.

With a new year upon us, we wish you and your family the happiest and healthiest of new years full of Dreams and Goals!  We are looking forward to the new year and all that it brings in meeting our dreams with this community.  Thank you so much for joining and supporting us as we work slowly toward our goals.  May you set another goal and dream another dream!

Set another goal and dream another dream
 
 
 
 


 
 
 

Best Fine Motor Play Ideas for Kids

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Fine motor play is so important to us and in the activities that we play.  As an occupational therapist, my kids are exposed to fine motor activities from a very young age…it’s part of being an OT, I guess 😉  This past year, we’ve had so much fun with play.  We’ve been loving looking back over this year’s favorite activities.  We went through our favorite fine motor activities from 2013 and pulled out the MOST popular according to you guys!  We’ve put together Fine Motor Activity posts together in the past, but this one is the best of this past year’s play and fun.  Our little blog has been live on the internet for our first full year now and WOW, we’ve had so much fun, growth, and knowledge!  We love having a place to look back over our year and remember the fun, learning, and joy we’ve had with our kids as they play and grow!
Best Fine Motor Activities for Kids

Top Fine Motor Play Activities for Kids

{Note: This post contains affiliate links.  In other words, this blog will receive monetary compensation when any purchases are made through the links in this post.  Our opinions and ideas are in no way affected.  As always, we thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.}
In-Hand manipulation play for fine motor skills: We had so much fun with water beads.  This post shares two ideas for improving in-hand manipulation skills which are so important for dexterity in self-care, handwriting, coin manipulation…and so much more!
Our Fine Motor Play using Pipe Cleaners post was great for Toddlers.  Two of the cousins had a blast with this one, while working on their fine motor dexterity, eye-hand coordination, tip-to-tip grasp, and tripod grasp…all with a recycled box and a handful of pipe cleaners. 
Fine Motor Play with Tissue Paper was a fan favorite of the toddlers, preschoolers, and their Occupational Therapist Mom!  This was such an easy activity to set up and really worked on development of the arches of their hands, finger isolation, and even had an auditory feedback component.  This one will be making a come-back in our daily play, soon!
This Fine Motor and Auditory Fire Works activity required very little set-up or clean-up.  Not only did it work on fine motor skills with a Fourth of July fireworks theme…it was really fun, too!  We are big fans of bubble wrap, so this post definitely makes our Best Of list!
 
Fine Motor Table-Top Play came about one morning when a bunch of the cousins were picking on each other.  A roll of masking tape saved the day…and prevented any more fights!   This activity was appropriate for all stages…toddlers, preschool, and kindergarten age.
Finger isolation, tripod grasp, eye-hand coordination, bilateral hand coordination…Fine Motor Play with Crafting Pom Poms has got it all!  We even worked on color identification and sorting with this easy fine motor play activity.
We love creating crafts and activities from recycled and re-pourposed materials.  This DIY Lacing Cards from Carry Out Containers post definitely makes our Best Of post for fine motor skills.  Lacing is such a great way to develop and refine many beginner dexterity skills.  Tripod grasp, bilateral hand coordination, eye-hand coordination, and visual-motor skills are all addressed!
Baby Girl was only 16 months old when she played with this Pipe Cleaner Fun activity.  (Looking back at all of these posts from 2013 is really making me tear up, here! They grow tooooo fast!)  She loved manipulating pipe cleaners into a plastic bottle while working on eye-hand coordination, grasp and dexterity, with a little auditory feed back from the empty plastic bottle.  Older children can work on colors and sorting with an activity like this one.
This Fine Motor Strengthening Color Match activity was a fun fine motor activity and really worked on the intrinsic muscle strength of little hands.  We added a little handwriting and color sorting in this activity too, perfect for multi-level learning!
 
We played with this Fine Motor Pincer Grasp Color Match activity with play dough and beads to match.  The toddler cousins LOVED this activity.  And I loved it because it not only kept them busy, it really worked those fine motor skills.  They worked on their fine motor skills and color matching at the same time.
 
 

Best Sensory Play Activities for Kids 2013

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We LOVE sensory play!  So much learning, creativity, exploration, language development, and so much more happens with sensory play.  These are our favorites (and our reader’s favorites!) of our sensory play posts from 2013.  We had so much fun with these activities!  If you missed any of these fun sensory play activities, be sure to check ’em out! 

The Best Sensory Play Activities for Kids

((We chose these BEST sensory activities for kids according to popularity based on page views and our own favorite memories when playing.  This is such a joy to document our days on this blog and we are SO happy you are along for the ride to join us and support us!))
This post contains affiliate links.  This means if you purchase products through our link, we earn a percentage.  As always, thank you for your support and community here at Sugar Aunts.

Sensory Handwriting Letter Practice This sensory play activity was a great mess-free way to address letter formation (and especially those easy-to-reverse tricky letters like b and d) given a little sensory input.

Egg Carton Craft and Sensory Bin We had fun with this fall sensory bin after making egg carton pumpkins (and getting some fun fine motor play in, too!).  This was a great way to explore textures and the season all in one fall sensory bin.

Relaxing Lavender Water Bin  We spent a few weeks this summer on a great water bin series and ended up with some awesome water bin activities.  These were great for all ages of the cousins…from toddlers to kindergarten age.  We especially loved cooling off and relaxing with our lavender water bin.

I Spy Sight Word Sensory Bottle  This sight word sensory bottle was a hit with all of the cousins!  Us Aunts loved it because we were able to inspire age appropriate learning for every age!

Textured Paint Sensory Play A painting experiment turned into sensory fun with our textured paint play.  This sensory paint was big time fun to play with and a great texture for getting messy with!  Our textured paint play was so much fun, that I think it will be making an appearance in 2014!

Make Your Own Colored Sand  We used our colored sand in many play activities.  Making was a breeze, and the sensory experience of play was big time fun this summer.

Color Matching Water Bin with Letters  Another one of the water bins from our water bin series, this color matching water bin sensory play activity was a huge hit when the cousins got together one day this summer!  There was learning, fine motor play, sensory play, and a LOT of splashing each other!

3 Rainbow Sensory Bins  A favorite of mine and the kids, these colorful rainbow sensory bins were easy to put together, but big fun.  We explored colors, textures, and shapes all while working on fine motor skills through sensory exploration.

Snowy Farm Sensory Bin  A new paper shredder lent a hand in this snowy farm sensory bin!  And what fun we had, with pretend play in a huge bin of shredded paper. This is another activity that we will definitely be doing again soon…just as soon as we have enough shredded paper on hand!

Red, White, and Blue Goopy Dough  This goopy dough was a combination of goop and dough (hence the name!).  It was the neatest stuff to explore and play with!  A few drops of food coloring made our goopy dough the perfect Independence Day play activity.  It’s still on our list of things to make!

 

Snow and Ice Play for Kids

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With the cold, freezing temps we’ve been having this week, we’ve got snow and ice on the brain (and on the gloves, and on the boots, and tracked into the house…)!  Our features for this week’s Share It Saturday are ice and snow inspired!  Stay warm and cozy indoors while playing with fake snow, making snowmen, experimenting with polar bear and snowball science, and creating ice art.  The features this week are sure to keep you busy while enjoying the season!

Friends, we will be taking off the week next week while we enjoy Christmas cozied up with our families.  You can still link up to Share It Saturday with all of your latest posts.  The linky will be open for two weeks so you can share your ideas with us.  We wish you and your families a warm, happy, and joyous Christmas!


Snow and Ice Play Ideas for Kids

Polar Bear 

Indoor Snow Play by There’s Just One Mommy

Snowflake Party by Sugar Aunts

Indoor Play Snowy Toy Car Ramp by Buggy and Buddy

Snowball Experiments