Today, I’ve got a great list of Spring crafts for occupational therapy sessions. These Spring crafts are developmentally appropriate ways to work on fine motor skill development, sensory experiences, and more, all with great Spring themes. Just one theme in our massive list of kids crafts, the fresh and festive craft ideas for March, April, and May will help kids develop skills. Add these Spring arts and crafts to your OT lesson plans this season!
Spring Crafts for OT
Historically, the occupational therapy profession is rooted in crafts! There is a reason why our professional founders used crafts as a modality to treat their patients.
Crafts support motor development, cognitive processes, social emotional skill advances, all with use of sensory textures.
Here on the website, we love to share creative and motivating ideas to help kids thrive, both in OT sessions, and in easily-replicated activities that can be done in the home. These are the very best occupational therapy craft ideas to support development of essential skills in kids.
So when it comes to Spring-themed crafts and activities, you’ll want to start here with this selection of Spring occupational therapy activities.
There are many different materials you can use to create crafts for the Spring season. But, there are many craft supplies that not only can be used to make easy crafts, they can also be readily found in your therapy supplies. This simple list of supplies can be used to create so many easy Spring crafts!
Gather a bin of these materials (or add them to an Easter basket!) and work on fine motor skill development during craft time:
- paper plates
- cardboard
- paints
- scissors
- glue
- feathers
- craft pom poms or cotton balls
- glitter
- pen
- fork (for painting tulips)
- ribbon
- tissue paper
- yarn
- paint brush
- toilet paper rolls
Spring Craft Ideas
Now that you have an idea of simple craft materials to gather, let’s get those creative minds ticking. Some Spring themes that can be created using materials include the inspiration listed below.
Some of these craft themes are already on our therapy website. You can check out these ideas and gather themed crafts to work on with kids. Most of these blog posts include the “why” behind why each craft is helpful to development of skills.
- Rainbow crafts and activities
- Insects and Bug crafts
- Easter crafts
- Frogs and Toads crafts
- Mother’s Day crafts
- Recycled Material crafts
- Butterfly crafts
- In Like a Lion out Like a Lamb craft
- Bees crafts
- Flower Crafts
- Cherry Blossom Crafts
- April showers bring May flowers crafts- think rain boots, umbrellas, rain clouds, and flowers
- Ant Crafts
- Sunshine crafts- Spring is the time for warmer weather. Think sun crafts, and clouds and suns!
- Rainy weather crafts
When it comes to easy peasy Spring ideas, the rain-filled sky is the limit!
Why Use Spring Crafts in Occupational Therapy
We mentioned above, the historical aspect of occupational therapy and crafting as a holistic model of care. Crafts support development of so many areas!
Fine Motor Skills– Developing strength, precision, pinch, coordination and dexterity through the use of crafts is inevitable. Crafting requires tool use such as scissors, glue bottles, hole punchers, and more.
Plus, when you are trying to target fine motor skills are through crafts, you can encourage use of small items like sequins, tearing paper, cutting with scissors, using googly eyes, picking up yarn, and so many craft steps.
Sensory Processing- With crafts, little hands get the opportunity to experience many different textures. From glue to finger paint, to tactile textures, the sensory input is endless.
Self-Awareness Skills- Plus, when kids are engaging in craft-making, they get the sense of accomplishment. There is a “buy in” to participate in the crafting project. Completing a task adds self-awareness, self-accomplishment, and confidence.
Executive Functioning Skills- Of course, the task of crafting is a goldmine for developing executive functioning skills. Planning out a project, staying on track, and completing a project addresses executive functioning skills such as planning, prioritization, time management, foresight, working memory, and task completion.
Spring Crafts to use in Occupational Therapy
So, let’s get on to the list of ideas! The rainy months of spring are the perfect time to craft and create! These are great ideas for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and school aged learners.
These are sure to become some of your favorite spring crafts…
Paper Plate Rainbow– Paper plates are great thicknesses for cutting and developing refined scissor skills. Draw a rainbow on the plate and cut the plate in half. Then, color in the bands of the rainbow. There are so many ways that this craft idea can be modified to meet the needs of individuals.
Mother’s Day Card- Fold a piece of paper in half (Great for eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, motor planning, and finger isolation!) And then draw or paint on the card. This is an open-ended craft idea that has all the benefits of process art. Here is one Mother’s Day card idea that kids will love.
Paper Plate Butterfly– Similar to the rainbow idea above, a paper plate can be used to make the wings of a butterfly. Just fold the paper plate in half, or cut directly down the middle. Cut curves on the edges of the plate and glue them together with a body cut from construction paper. Draw, color, or paint on decorations. Then add facial features and a pipe cleaner antenna.
Bee Clothes Pin Craft– Bees are buzzing during the Spring months. Work on fine motor strength and manipulation skills by using pipe cleaners and clothes pins to make bees that can be pinched onto paper, bins, or baskets to double down on the fine motor skills.
Spring Nature Hunt Collage Flowers– Head outside and collect flowers and other signs of Spring. Then use them in a nature hunt collage.
Bluebird Fine Motor Painting Craft-This is a great Spring craft for toddlers and preschoolers. It’s a fun way to incorporate learning colors, fine motor skills, and crafting!
Rainbow Binoculars– Make this rainbow binocular craft for St. Patrick’s Day or for a rainbow theme. All you need is a couple of toilet paper tubes and sometime for fine motor fun.
Rainbow Egg Carton– Continuing with the rainbow theme is this rainbow egg carton. This is a fun craft idea for toddlers and preschoolers because they can use a paintbrush to build tool use skills and then work on color matching.
Rainbow Toilet Paper Tube– This craft works on scissor skills and fine motor development.
Pot Of Gold Door Wreath-A wreath craft for the front door with a rainbow theme? This craft supports bilateral coordination skills and motor planning.
Dollar Store Spring Garland– This dollar store spring craft uses pre-cut Spring themed items (in our case, tulips). But you can use any form and clip them onto along ribbon or strand of yarn and create a Spring garland that can hang from the home or therapy clinic. Plus, the bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, and pinch strengthening that occurs with this craft idea is bonus!
5 Earth Day Crafts– Earth day is a fun time to use recycled materials in crafting…and sensory play!
Cherry Blossom Craft– This cherry blossom craft is a great way to develop fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, and eye-hand coordination skills.
Cherry Blossom Tree Craft– Add the cherry blossom branch craft to this cherry blossom tree craft and work on a variety of different motor skills.
Cupcake Liner Flowers– This simple craft is a fantastic way to develop scissor skills, especially graded scissor control as the student uses refined grasp to stop the scissors from cutting the whole way through the cupcake liner.
Caterpillar Craft-During the Spring months, you begin to see caterpillars. Why not make one and work on fine motor skills, too.
Robin Egg Carton Craft-All you need is an egg carton and paint to create these cute robin crafts. Plus, add some pipe cleaner earth worms to really hone in on the fine motor skills.
Spring Chick Craft– Use craft sticks and feathers to make these cute sensory chick crafts!
Lion and Lamb Craft– March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, but this craft is great any time of year because it’s a good way to talk about self-regulation.
Easter Snack Cups– These Easter snack cups are a fun craft that kids can make and then help to cook to use them at snack time. What a great way to build executive functioning skills.
Easter Bunny Cotton ball Manipulatives for learning and play– This bunny craft doubles as a fine motor tool AND and oral motor activity. It’s great for occupational therapy sessions during the Spring months! Use them in calming oral sensory input.
Spring Time Egg Carton Tulip Craft– This tulip craft is a process art craft that is great for toddlers and preschoolers…and kids of older kids too.
Create a Recycled Materials Craft Bin-These recycled materials crafts are perfect for developing fine motor skills around Earth Day.
Earth Day Recycle Bin Flower Craft– This flower craft is a great way to work on scissor skills.
Coffee Filter Butterfly Garland– Use a coffee filter to create butterflies. Add clothes pins for a hand strengthening activity. This butterfly garland would look great in a therapy room, and clipping the butterflies on to the string could be a great activity for all of the kids on your therapy caseload.
More Spring OT Crafts and Activities
In the Spring Fine Motor Kit, you’ll find crafts like crumble art templates, scissor skills activities and many more tools to develop fine motor development.
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.
