This time of year, a fun therapy theme is in order for building skills, and strawberry activities meet the mark! As the warm summer days draw near, it’s time to start thinking of ways to enjoy the season! What better way to do that than with some strawberry-themed activities? Whether you’re a kid, an adult, or somewhere in between, there’s something fun and inspiring that you can do with these juicy little red berries. Keep reading to find out more about all the strawberry activities you can try.
Strawberry Activities
Strawberry picking is a great springtime activity here in the south. We go every spring and fill our baskets to overflowing. But, what if you could use a few strawberry crafts and activities to build skills?
One of the most remarkable benefits of strawberry activities is the opportunity to get outdoors. When we get outside and explore, we can discover new things, breathe in the fresh air, and get active in ways that aren’t available indoors. We can observe nature in all its glory and appreciate the natural beauty of the world around us.
Below, you’ll find fun strawberry crafts, strawberry writing prompts, and fine motor ideas to use in therapy sessions, in the classroom or at home.
Strawberry picking is a great event to add to your strawberry themed activities. This post includes a free download of Strawberry Themed Activities to fill those endless summer days.
What do do with all of those strawberries?
strawberry snacks
There are so many benefits to cooking with kids, and washing and cutting strawberries to make strawberry snacks has double the benefits for children! Especially if kids are involved in the picking and washing process, they are gaining fine motor and sensory motor benefits.
Just like shrimp in Forrest Gump, there are some great things to do with strawberries. You can eat them whole, dip them in chocolate, there is strawberry ice cream, cheesecake, muffins, pancakes, freeze them for later, make popsicles, smoothies, milkshakes, or fruit salsa.
- Strawberry Pancakes is a good recipe to cook with children.
- Making fruit pizza is always fun for kids and has strawberries as a main ingredient.
- Frozen Fruit Kabobs has many sensory benefits including the alerting sensory input of frozen fruit.
- Strawberry smoothie- Freeze strawberries to make delicious popsicles, smoothies, and other frozen treats! Smoothies are a great form of heavy work for oral motor input.
- Another is Fruit Salsa Recipe
Fruit salsa is another strawberry themed activity you can do with your learners. It is an excellent treat to take for potluck dishes, packed lunches, or serve at a summer birthday party.
- 7 strawberries
- 1 granny smith apple
- 1 kiwi
Chop the apple first into small pieces. I use the Pampered Chef chopper. Don’t use a blender, it will be soupy (I made that mistake once). Then peel, chop, and add the kiwi. Lastly, chop and add the strawberries. Once it is all chopped tiny it will resemble salsa.
Serve with dipping sticks of graham crackers, cinnamon pita chips, or spread over ice cream.
Strawberry Crafts
Building fine motor skills, scissor skills, hand-eye coordination, and more happens in occupational therapy crafts. Here are some fun strawberry crafts to get you started:
- Strawberry stamps: Cut a strawberry in half and use it as a stamp to create fun strawberry-themed art.
- Strawberry paper plate craft: Use paper plates, paint, and green construction paper to make a strawberry paper plate craft. Here are more paper plate activities.
- Strawberry pom-pom craft: Use red and green pom-poms to create a cute strawberry craft.
- Strawberry thumbprint art: Use your thumb to make strawberry shapes on paper and decorate them with green paint for the stem and leaves. Here are all the benefits of fingerprint art.
- Strawberry sun catcher: Use tissue paper and contact paper to create a strawberry sun catcher.
- Strawberry paper lantern: Create a strawberry paper lantern with red paper, green pipe cleaners, and a battery-operated tea light.
- Strawberry painted rocks: Paint rocks to look like strawberries and decorate with green felt or paper for the leaves.
- Strawberry paper chain: Create a strawberry paper chain with red and green construction paper.
- Strawberry wreath: Use foam wreath forms, red and green ribbon, and faux strawberries to create a strawberry wreath.
- Strawberry paper bag puppet: Use a paper bag and construction paper to make a strawberry puppet.
- Strawberry party hats: Use red paper cups and green construction paper to create strawberry-themed party hats.
- Strawberry keychains: Create strawberry-shaped keychains with polymer clay.
- Strawberry t-shirts: Use fabric paint to create strawberry designs on t-shirts.
- Strawberry bookmarks: Create strawberry bookmarks with red and green cardstock.
- Strawberry bunting: Create a strawberry bunting with red and green fabric or paper.
- Strawberry garland: Use red and green felt to create a strawberry garland.
- Strawberry mobile: Create a strawberry mobile with felt or paper strawberries.
- Strawberry picture frames: Use foam frames and faux strawberries to create strawberry picture frames.
- Strawberry tote bag: Use fabric paint or iron-on transfer paper to create a strawberry design on a tote bag.
- Strawberry cupcake liner craft: Use a red cupcake liner and green paper to cut out a strawberry shape. Glue the green paper on top for a stem. Then add seeds using a black marker.
Fine motor Strawberry Themed Activities
Looking for ways to build fine motor skills with strawberries? Try these ideas…
- Strawberry picking: Take your kids to a local strawberry farm and let them pick their own strawberries. This is a great way to teach them about where their food comes from and to enjoy the outdoors.
- Strawberry art: Use strawberries as a stamp to create fun and colorful artwork. Simply cut a strawberry in half and use it to stamp onto paper or fabric.
- Strawberry science: Conduct a science experiment with strawberries to learn about acid and bases. Dip a strawberry in baking soda and watch it fizz, then dip it in vinegar and observe the reaction.
- Strawberry math: Use strawberries as a fun way to teach math skills, such as counting, sorting, and measuring. Have your kids count how many strawberries they picked, sort them by size or color, or measure them with a ruler.
As promised, this post includes several PDF files of strawberry worksheets. They are versatile, and can be used in different ways, to meet several goals and objectives. Traditionally, learners will color and cut the strawberries, roll a dice to count the number of berries to add into their basket. They can write some sentences about strawberries, or their berry picking adventure.
Other ways to use this strawberry activity pack:
- Lowest level learners can dictate what they would like written
- Middle level learners can write one or two words about strawberries, or copy from a model
- Higher level learners can write a journal entry about strawberry picking, or search for recipes to make with their berries, creating a recipe page. This turns into a multilevel activity to use during many sessions. They can also draw about their ideas.
- Laminate the page for reusability. This saves on resources, and many learners love to write with markers! Note: some children love to use dry erase markers, while others become upset if they can not take their work with them.
- Make this part of a larger lesson plan including gross motor, sensory, social, executive function, or other fine motor skills
- Pre-cut the shapes for entry level learners to glue onto their basket
- Talk about the strawberries, name other berries, make the fruit salsa recipe
- Project this page onto a smart board for students to come to the board and drag the strawberries into the basket or write in large letters.
- More or less prompting may be needed to grade the activity to make it easier or harder.
- Drippy wet glue is messy, and not as convenient as glue stick, however it is superior for different reasons. The added benefit is the sensory input from touching the wet glue, as well as fine motor strengthening from squeezing the bottle
- Pre-cut and laminate all of the pieces ahead of time, if your emphasis is on playing the game
- More advanced learners can work on social skills by teaching beginners to play
- Work in pairs or in a small group to address problem solving, turn taking, and negotiation skills.
- Velcro the back of the pieces for a fine motor resistance task
- Add glitter! Glitter makes everything wonderful
The strawberry worksheets target several skill areas:
- Hand strength and dexterity – staying on the lines builds hand muscles and develops muscle control
- Visual motor skills –Combining what is seen visually and what is written motorically. This takes coordination to be able to translate information from visual input to motor output. Coloring, drawing, counting, cutting, and tracing are some visual motor skills.
- Scissor skills – Cutting on the lines can be challenging. You may need to highlight the lines or make them thicker for beginning learners
- Proprioception – pressure on paper, grip on pencil
- Counting/Learning Numbers – Count the strawberries to understand number concepts in addition to coloring and cutting
- Social/Executive Function – Following directions, turn taking, task completion, orienting to details, neatness, multi-tasking, attending to task, and impulse control can be addressed using this Strawberry Themed Activity Pack
- Handwriting: Letter formation – correctly forming the letters top to bottom. Letter sizing – correctly fitting the letters into the size boxes. Spacing, line placement, directionality, and spelling are also addressed
- Copying – copying words from a model, transferring the letters from one place to another
- Strength – core strength, shoulder and wrist stability, head control, balance, and hand strength are all needed for upright sitting posture and writing tasks
During the summer, learners have more unstructured time. While it may not be necessary to document the “how” and “why” they are working on these strawberry themed activities, it is important to understand the benefits.
Summer reading list
For some reason, young learners do not like reading. Finding a way to tie reading into fun activities, or your summer theme, will help motivate even the most stubborn learners.
In this classic, The Little Mouse, the Big Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Hungry Bear, (affiliate link) Little Mouse loves strawberries, but so does the big hungry bear. . . How will Little Mouse stop the bear from eating his freshly picked, red ripe strawberry? This classic story is beloved for its humor, expressive illustrations, and surprise ending.
Searching Amazon for Strawberry Themed books (affiliate link) returned over 9,000 options! Remember Strawberry Shortcake? She is still around. There are literary award winners, chapter books, and fun read aloud choices.
Are you hungry for strawberries yet?
Me too. Luckily we filled our basket to overflow capacity this year. Here comes fruit salsa, smoothies, homemade ice cream (don’t forget to add chocolate chips), and strawberry pancakes. Creating thematic activities may take work up front, but the rewards will be worth it.
Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.