Plastic Egg Boats with Oral Motor Sensory Input

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:
These plastic Easter egg boats is a Spring occupational therapy activity to add to your line-up this year. If you’ve got a few plastic Easter eggs on hand and some play dough, you are ready to go for Easter STEM that challenges kids to explore fine motor skills in STEM activities AND incorporates wind power with calming oral motor sensorimotor input and got our boats moving, sensory style!  
 
Hey now, there’s an idea: There’s STEM for science, technology, engineering, and math, right?  And there’s STEAM with the added component of art…what if we added a sensory component to the STEM/STEAM mix?? It could be called STEMS or STEAMS!  I think it’s what the world needs: bring the science/math/art/technology, etc full circle with whole body movements and the underlying systems of sensory processing for integrated learning through the senses.  Genius I tell ya!
 
STEMS: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and SENSORY 
STEAMS: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math, and SENSORY
 
You heard it here first!
 
Back to our world-changing egg boats.
 
 

 

Plastic egg boats with an oral sensory motor component for proprioception input to the mouth.
 

Plastic Easter Egg Boats

Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
 
This is an easy activity to throw together:  Grab some plastic eggs, straws (every childhood needs brightly colored straws), card stock, tape, and play dough.  Fill one half of the plastic egg with play dough.  Stick a piece of straw into the play dough.  Tape a triangle of card stock to the straw.  Done.
 
Plastic egg boats with an oral sensory motor component for proprioception input to the mouth.
 
NOW:  Here’s the fun part.  Fill a bin with water and see if they will float.  If you and the kids have filled the plastic eggs
to the brim with play dough, they will not. Alas, you’ve got some capsized eggs.  However, with some help from your STEM noggin, you can remove some of the play dough so it’s just a bit at the bottom of the egg.  See how they float now.  
 
Move the play dough up the sides of the egg a bit more and see if you can get the boats to stay upright.  Now we’re talkin’!
 
Plastic egg boats with an oral sensory motor component for proprioception input to the mouth.
 

Oral Motor Sensory Activity Wind Boats

So.  You’re wondering how this might be a state-of-the-art sensory-tastic STEMS activity (see, it just rolls off the tounge, right??!!)
 
Here’s what we did to add a sensory oral motor component to this activity.  Use one of those bright and colorful straws
to add a bit of wind power to your egg boats.  See how much breath it takes to move the boats across the water while providing proprioception to the mouth.  The heavy work of the lips is an effort that is calming to kiddos who seek out sensory input through chewing or biting.  
 
Here is more information on the development of oral motor skills. Oral motor skills play a role in calming regulatory sensory input and also can be an issue in feeding.
 
Have a few boat races with friends as you both blow the boats across a large bin of water. 
 
Looking for more propriocetive input to the mouth?  Try a smaller straw or this top-secret Occupational Therapist trick:  pinch the straw so it’s flat the whole length of the straw.  Now you’ve got a power proprioception tool for oral sensory motor input! 

 

Plastic egg boats with an oral sensory motor component for proprioception input to the mouth.
 
Plastic egg boats with an oral sensory motor component for proprioception input to the mouth.
 
 

What are your favorite ways to address oral motor sensory needs?  Let us know if you try these WORLD-CHANGING plastic Easter egg boats!  

Spring Fine Motor Kit

Score Fine Motor Tools and resources and help kids build the skills they need to thrive!

Developing hand strength, dexterity, dexterity, precision skills, and eye-hand coordination skills that kids need for holding and writing with a pencil, coloring, and manipulating small objects in every day task doesn’t need to be difficult. The Spring Fine Motor Kit includes 100 pages of fine motor activities, worksheets, crafts, and more:

Spring fine motor kit set of printable fine motor skills worksheets for kids.
  • Lacing cards
  • Sensory bin cards
  • Hole punch activities
  • Pencil control worksheets
  • Play dough mats
  • Write the Room cards
  • Modified paper
  • Sticker activities
  • MUCH MORE

Click here to add this resource set to your therapy toolbox.

Spring Fine Motor Kit
Spring Fine Motor Kit: TONS of resources and tools to build stronger hands.

Grab your copy of the Spring Fine Motor Kit and build coordination, strength, and endurance in fun and creative activities. Click here to add this resource set to your therapy toolbox.

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.

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  1. Pingback: Easter Activities - The OT Toolbox
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Easter activity with plastic easter eggs

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