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:

Color Matching Lego Matching

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 Legos and Play Dough to Match Colors

This was a super easy and very fun fine motor activity we did one day.  Perfect for the littlest ones who find dinner-prep time is time for Mom to hold her while sautéing chicken
…cough, Baby Girl, cough…
Pull out one color of play dough and one matching color of Legos.  Baby Girl loves her mega blocks and we play with them daily.  This was perfect for her because she could press the blocks into the dough and see an imprint of squares and circles.  Great for language development, as well as color identification. 
She liked that she could press the little circle “buttons” (and this works those little muscles of the hand and index isolation). 





We’ll be pulling out the play dough and Lego blocks again, for sure!

Window No-Mess Sensory Spelling

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No-Mess Sensory Spelling:

 We’ve done the no-mess window painting a few times before (Seek-and-find, and Colored gel mixing to name a couple) and had a lot of fun with it.  This time we added a spelling component to add a few Kindergarten sight words to the fun.
This is so easy and Big Sister had fun moving the letters around in the paint to work on some fine motor skills, too.
Pour a little bit of paint into a sandwich baggie.  Add a few foam letters.  Seal the baggie closed.  Tape it to a window and start to play!  We had a really rainy day recently and this was a fun indoor learning activity.  (You can see the raindrops on the picture!)
You’ll also love our diagraph spelling word poem that helps children with learning commonly misspelled words.

Fine Motor Letter Learning

Moving the foam letters around in the baggie is resistive and a really great fine motor strengthening activity to work the fingers.  The child is able to isolate her index finger to move the letters around. 
Add a few extra letters to work on rhyming words.  This is also great for just placing right on the table surface and better for smaller kids that way, too.  Littler ones can just move the letters around and address letter identification and colors.

Family Reunion Lawn Games

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Games and Activities for Outdoor Family Fun!

 We had a big old fashioned family reunion this summer with lots of family, food, and fun!  Us Aunts were in charge of the kid’s games and activities and had a blast putting the activities together…and playing, of course!


We started out by researching the best outdoor lawn games from the best kid’s activity bloggers out there.  If you missed our round-up post, check it out and pin for next summer.  We’ve got SO many outdoor summer lawn games together in one place.
Outdoor Summer Lawn Games
We knew we would have a ton of kids aged newborn to high school age and were catering to the younger set.  Our plan included an obstacle course, ball lawn games, dress up, and bubbles.

Lawn Obstacle Course

This was so easy to set up.  We bought a pool noodle from the dollar store and raided our kid’s outdoor toy bin.  Add a couple of buckets from the sandbox for a hurdle.  They ran around the mini cones, jumped on the trampoline, dove through the hula hoop, and hurdled the pool noodle.  You’ve got your self a pretty nice little obstacle course!  This was a fun activity for the toddlers and preschoolers.  There was a lot of trampoline jumping going on, too 🙂


Family Reunion Lawn Games

We filled a bunch of water bottles with colored water…and have been playing with them in lots of fun ways…blog posts to come 😉 For the Family Reunion, we used them to bowl!  The kiddos had a blast with this. 
Another game we played was catching a ball with milk jugs.  We’ve done something like this before with our Halloween ghost catch game.  I taped the edges with duct tape and electrical tape so there were no sharp edges to catch little fingers on.

Outdoor Play Dress-Up Pretend Play

The dress up time was super cute.  We pulled a bunch of old clothes out that were ready for donation and laid them out for the kids to dress up as they pleased.  Add a few accessories like hats, scarves, and purses.  It was seriously the cutest thing to see the kids all dressed up!

 Family Reunion Lawn Play

The bubble station was a big bin of water and dish detergent bubbled up and bubble wands made from pipe cleaners.  A few of the kids really got into the bubbly fun and hung out here for a long time 🙂

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party details

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Little Guy celebrated his 4th birthday with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party.  He’s been loving all things Ninja turtles recently and asked for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party for months!

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle birthday party details

 

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Birthday

 
Little Guy and Big Sister celebrate their birthdays in the same month and we’ve been doing a combined party each year.  You may have seen our Tinkerbell Fairy party post for Big Sister’s theme.  These two kids try to challenge their mom on their birthday party theme!  I was able to combine the party themes going with the green connection between Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Tinkerbell 🙂

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party Food

 We had a few Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed food items.  Mountain Dew turned into Radio-active slime juice.  The chocolate covered oreos were easy to make into little ninja turtle faces using lime green chocolate melts from Joanne’s. (Add a coupon and this was a great deal!)  Little Guy’s cake was a turtle face.  The kids had frozen pizzas since the Ninja Turtles love their pizza!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party Decorations

The decorations for this party were pretty simple.  Streamers in the turtles colors were cut and snipped to give them a ruffled look.  I hung them behind the cake and around the ceiling.  More streamers were draped across the cake table to pull the colors in.  I made some fabric turtle masks (see below!) and tied them around four balloons to make turtle faces.  Add a scrap of paper behind the eye holes and you’ve got the Ninja Turtle faces!

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party Activities

This party had very little planned activities.  The kids could just run around and play and have fun doing their own thing.  Each child had a fabric Ninja Turtle mask in their treat bag.  These masks were so easy to make.  I found thin cotton fabric in the quilting section at Joannes
(on sale+coupon=jackpot!)
I purchased a half yard of each color and this was way more than enough (hence the costumed balloons in the party décor!)  I folded the half yard lengthwise and cut 2.5 inch wide strips.  The eye holes were cut 3/4 inch from the fold.  At the end of the mask, taper the end to a point, starting 8 inches from the end.
One play activity the kids could pretend and interact with, was our pizza shop play house.  You might have seen the post here.  Little Guy and Big Sister had fun helping me make this pizza shop in the week leading up to the party.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party Favors

The favor bags were green paper bags I found at Paper Mart and fit in with the green of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Tinkerbell Fairy themes.  I had a little help from one of the other Aunts while the cousins played one day, making these bags into turtle faces.  I hand drew the mask shape and cut circles with a hole punch.  We glued them on the bags with a scrap of white paper behind the holes for eyes.  Draw on a black circle for eyes, and done!  In the bags were our Ninja Turtle masks, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fruit snacks, and a handful of candy.  Easy!

Back to School Countdown Ideas

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back to school countdown

We love coming up with fun back to school ideas, and this back to school countdown is a great way to get back into the routine at the end of Summer before school starts. Kids will appreciate the visual schedule that gets them excited about a new school year!

Back to school countdown

Why Use Back to School Countdowns?

  1. Anticipation: A countdown can build excitement and anticipation for the start of a new school year. Children may enjoy counting down the days until they get to see their friends, meet their new teachers, and learn new things.
  2. Structure: Children often thrive on routine and structure, and a countdown can help them prepare for the upcoming changes to their daily routine. Having a specific date to look forward to can provide a sense of order and predictability.
  3. Control: Starting a new school year can be overwhelming for some children, as it often involves new schedules, expectations, and challenges. A countdown can provide children with a sense of control over the transition by allowing them to focus on the positive aspects of returning to school.
  4. Celebration: A countdown can be a fun way to celebrate the end of summer and the start of a new school year. Children may enjoy marking each day with a fun activity or treat, such as making a special breakfast or planning a back-to-school shopping trip.

A back-to-school countdown can be a positive and motivating end of summer activity for children, as long as it is presented in a fun and engaging way that is appropriate for their age and developmental level.

Back to School Countdown Ideas

These can actually be used to countdown days at the end-of-the school year, too! Use them along with our end of the school year occupational therapy activities for building fine motor skills, scissor skills, and more.

 

So this is the first time I am doing a back to school countdown with my kids to create a little anticipation and fun. Countdowns can be used with any grade and child but it’s especially great for kids who are not looking forward to school.

3 Back to School Countdown Ideas

1. Toilet Paper Roll countdown – This is what we are doing. I will use a post it note for each day and I will glue them onto 6 empty toilet paper rolls. Inside each roll I will place back to school supplies for them to find each day. 

2. Countdown Chain – All you need for this is to cut strips of paper and make a chain out of them. Each day have your child take a link down. We used a similar idea for our New Years countdown and the kids LOVED tearing off a ring to count down the event! You could also do this same concept with a string of paper clips. Remove one paper clip for each day.

3. Lunch Bag Countdown– This is great if you are wanting to give the kids something that’s too big to fit inside a toilet paper roll as mentioned in idea 1. This allows you to use bigger school supplies items and place them inside the bag. 

Here are more back to school ideas you will enjoy:

 

Back-to-School Motor Skills Kit

The Back to School Therapy Kit is designed for occupational therapy sessions and targets a wide range of skills. It’s great for establishing a baseline level after a long summer break and can be used with an entire caseload of children. However, this printable packet can be used at home or in the classroom, too. Print off the pages and build skills with a back-to-school theme! Get your copy 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.

Simple Play for Kids

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Our features for this week are Simple Play for Kids.  With summer winding down and school starting up soon, we are enjoying simple, easy, and fun play during these hot, humid, August days.  We decided to go with easy play for our features.  So grab an icy glass of lemonade and try some of these simple play activities for kids and enjoy the rest of the summer!


Baby Play: Mirror, Mirror by School Time Snippets
Paint With Water by Gift of Curiosity
Blueberry Picking Activities by Some of the Best the Best Things in Life are Mistakes
Milk Jug Toy Scoop by Crafty Journal
Shell Activities for Kids by Fantastic Fun and Learning

Pretend Play Pizza Shop

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This pretend play pizza shop was a huge hit back when my kids were younger. They loved pretending to cook pizza and serve it inside our pretend pizza store. We made a felt pizza to target fine motor skills, but the kids didn’t know that…they were just having fun!

Pretend Play Pizza Shop

 
 
 

felt pizza diy

We started by making a felt pizza DIY toy. This is something we used in our pretend kitchen set, and in our pretend pizza shop. It’s super easy to make. You’ll need just a few items to make the felt pizza. And, it’s all no-sew, so it’s a quick DIY felt food activity to pull together.

  • Brown felt (any fabric would work, really)
  • White felt
  • Red felt
  • Green felt
  • Grey felt

To make the felt pizza DIY food, grab a pizza pan from your kitchen. You’ll use that as a template to size the pizza correctly. 

  1. Place the brown fabric or felt on the pizza pan. Cut the fabric into a circle. This will be the crust for your pizza. You want it to be slightly smaller than the pizza pan.
  2. Next, place the brown felt circle on the red fabric. Cut a slightly smaller circle from the red felt. You want the red fabric, which will be the pretend pizza sauce to sit on top of the brown crust. 
  3. Repeat that step using the white felt. Place the  red felt circle on the white fabric. Cut a slightly smaller circle from the white felt. You want the white fabric, which will be the pretend pizza cheese to sit on top of the red sauce.
  4. Next, cut small circles from the red fabric. This will be the pretend pepperoni. 
  5. Cut small curved pieces from the green felt. This will be the pretend peppers.
  6. Last, cut mushroom shapes from the grey felt. 

That’s it! Now, you can layer the felt pieces to create your DIY felt pizza!

Turn a little Tyke Playhouse into a pretend Pizza Shop

Next is the fun part of our pretend pizza shop. We turned our outdoor plastic play house into a pretend pizza shop for dramatic play! You could use a little tyke playhouse, or use any type of outdoor play space.

 
We added a cardboard sheet and painted a little more for a pizza shop feel on another side of the play house. 
We’ve been playing Pizza shop all week!
 
And what is a pizza shop without Pizza?!?!
 
We’ve made felt food in the past (fuzzy cookies, anyone?)
…and so it was easy to snip up a pizza to go along with our pizza shop.
 
felt pizza DIY
 
Big Sister and Little Guy have been busy taking orders.
(On their hand phone.  Literally. They say, “Mom, your hand phone is ringing!” LOVE their imagination!!)
Everything we used in our pizza shop, was already in the house. 
 
Boxes were otherwise going to be recycled, paint was left over from other projects, fabric and felt all in my craft supplies.  We added the kid’s toy cash register and a few kitchen tools for added pretend play.
 
 
And I’ve been placing maaaany Pizza orders in their little shop!
 
 
And we’ve had LOTS of Pizza faces 🙂
 
Our little Pizza shop has been pretty active with so much imagination play, creativity, and art work…And of course just fun!

String Beads Upside Down

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Do you have a preschooler or kindergarten aged child who loves fine motor activities with beads?  We have evidence of our little bead lover all over the house:  beaded necklaces, bracelets, and bent beaded pipe cleaners can be found in almost every room!  We’ve beaded noodles, cereal, plastic beads, small glass beads…every type and option there is has been strung on string of all sizes and types. 

String Beads under the table

So, once you’ve done it all with an activity or means, what else is there to do? 
Change it up a little bit!



I taped a string to the underside of our dining room table and put out some beads for Big Sister.  She loved this!  The slight variation in the beading activity gave her something to really concentrate on.  She had to hold the string in a way that the beads wouldn’t slide down off of the string while she went to grab and thread additional beads. 
This type of variation on a typical activity really makes the brain work.  Have you ever tried writing with your non-dominant hand?  Your pace of writing really slows as your brain tries to right and then compensate for the variation.  In the young child, there are so many brain connections being made with novel tasks every day.  Beading this string was a real brain work-out for her!
Managing the string with both hands allows the child to use both hands together in a coordinated manner. 
Bilateral coordination is an important skill children need for many tasks.  While handwriting, they mush hold the paper with their non-dominant hand while writing with their dominant hand. 
Together, both arms must work together to move the paper while writing and erasing.  Other examples of bilateral coordination in functional skills of the child is cutting with scissors, tying shoes, and zippering a coat. 
Beading is such a wonderful tool for fine motor development.  Holding the bead requires precise tip-to-tip grasp and ability to manipulate the beads within the hand.  A small object like a bead can be transferred from the finger tips to the palm without use of the other hand, working on in-hand manipulation skills.  When a bead is held in the fingertips, the arches of the hands are strengthened. 
If you see a child managing beads with a closed space between the thumb and index finger, they are compensating for weakness and attempting to stabilize their thumb against their index finger.  They may fumble with the beads and give up quickly into the activity as the small muscles of their hands become fatigued.  This child most likely, will have sloppy handwriting and an inefficient pencil grasp when writing.
We had fun with our new variation to beading.  Try it, and let us know how it goes for you!

Summer Sensory Play

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Check out these fun Summer Sensory Play ideas and get a little messy.  Do it now while you can hose off in the yard and before the leaves start falling 🙂

Our Features:
 
There’s Magic Out There shares a messy chalk activity.  We’ve played with wet chalk a few times, and this one is fun!
There’s Just One Mommy combined water beads and shaving cream. Sensory-tastic!
B-Inspired Mama got busy with kids in the kitchen and made a “mud” pie!  Messy kitchen=yummy fun 🙂
Stir The Wonder used the water table to explore color, texture, temperature.  And it’s all outside!
Happy Hooligans shares 10 backyard balancing activities exploring the kinesthetic sense.
More Summer Sensory activities you may enjoy: