bilateral coordination

Intrinsic Hand Muscle Strengthening with Tongs

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Handwriting legibility and hand strength are closely tied.  You might say they go hand-in-hand.  (I had to go there!)  

 
This easy fine motor tong activity is designed to build some of the muscles needed for managing a pencil.  The intrinsic muscles are the muscles in the hand that define the arches of the hands, bend the knuckles, and oppose with the thumbs.  


Among these muscles are a group called the lumbricals.  The lumbrical muscles have a job to bend (flex) the MCP joints and extend (straighten) the PIP and DIP joints.  When the lumbricals are in action, the hand might look like it is holding a plate with the big knuckles bent and the fingers extended.  


 
Use kitchen tongs to work on the lumbrical intrinsic muscles of the hands to build strength in handwriting, using tongs for this color search and hand eye coordination activity for kids.


Lumbrical Muscles of the Hands and Handwriting 

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The lumbrical muscles of the hands are important in handwriting.  They are used to hold the pencil in a functional grasp.  Advancing the pencil in an upward motion using the joints of the fingers require strength and endurance of the lumbrical muscles.  Forming letters like upstrokes in cursive letters and the re-trace of letters like a, d, g, h, m, n, p, q, r, u, v, and w require upward pencil strokes.


Hand strength can be developed through many creative, hands-on activities, like blocks and rubber bands or rolling balls of play dough.  This kitchen tong activity is another fun way to work on important skills. 
 
Use kitchen tongs to work on the lumbrical intrinsic muscles of the hands to build strength in handwriting, using tongs for this color search and hand eye coordination activity for kids.
 
 
A quick and easy way to develop and strengthen the lumbricals is a tong activity like this one.  Use a large kitchen tong utensil to grasp items.  We used this kitchen tong, but any large tong would work for this strengthening activity.  Foam blocks are a nice size and make a great hand-eye coordination exercise for children with the tongs.  Fill a bin with water and add in the foam blocks.  Ask your child to grab the blocks as you call out colors for a color identification activity.


Idea:  Re-use the blocks to build MORE fine motor skill development like we did here.

Use kitchen tongs to work on the lumbrical intrinsic muscles of the hands to build strength in handwriting, using tongs for this color search and hand eye coordination activity for kids.


Using tongs to work on handwriting

It is important to notice the position of your child’s hand on the tongs in activities like this one.  You want to see a slightly extended wrist and tongs UNDER the hand to work on lumbrical muscle strength.  This is different than a task geared toward building precision and thumb intrinsic muscle strength. 

Use kitchen tongs to work on the lumbrical intrinsic muscles of the hands to build strength in handwriting, using tongs for this color search and hand eye coordination activity for kids.


More intrinsic muscles needed in handwriting

The muscles used in handwriting can be broken up into two actions.

The muscles: 
  • flexor digiti minimi, abductor digiti minimi and opponens pollicis & digiti minimi are referred to as the hypothenar muscles work to stabilize the ulnar side of the hand during handwriting. 
 
The muscles:
  • abductor pollicis brevis, flexor pollicis brevis, and opponens pollicis work to rotate the thumb for manipulation of the pencil.  
  • Adductor
    pollicis strengthens thumb opposition.
 
Looking for more ways to use tongs and fine motor tools in learning?  Try these:
 
 

 

 

Use kitchen tongs to work on the lumbrical intrinsic muscles of the hands to build strength in handwriting, using tongs for this color search and hand eye coordination activity for kids.Use kitchen tongs to work on the lumbrical intrinsic muscles of the hands to build strength in handwriting, using tongs for this color search and hand eye coordination activity for kids.
 
 
 
Looking for more strengthening exercises for hands?  Try these:
 

fine motor writing activity Pencil Grasp Activity Pencil Grasp Exercise Thumb opposition activity
 

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.

Large Fine Motor Threading with Recycled Spools

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Looking for a fine motor activity that uses the small motor movements of the hands needed for skills like beading, handwriting, and managing clothing fasteners?  Sometimes, it can be difficult to get a kiddo to work on those areas when the very task you need to strengthen is one that is difficult to do. 

 Sometimes an activity that is a little bit different is the very thing needed for kids who need to work on fine motor skills.  This jumbo threading activity uses cardboard ribbon spools (and we do love our recycled crafts!) and can help with fine motor skill development in a big way.  



Use large pipe cleaners and recycled ribbon spools to work on fine motor skills on a large scale.

Large Fine Motor Threading Activity


Using small beads to thread on string or pipe cleaners is an excellent way to build pincer grasp, tripod grasp, bilateral coordination, hand-eye coordination, and in-hand manipulation.  But if if is hard for a child to do these tasks, they may not want to participate in small beading as much as their parent, therapist, or teacher may like.  These cardboard ribbon spools are a fun way to build the skills needed for fine motor tasks, in a different way.

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Besides the recycled cardboard spools (which hold ribbons), all we used for this activity were large fuzzy pipe cleaners.  Ours came from www.craftprojectideas.com.  

This is an easy busy bag type of activity for kids.  Set them up with a tray of spools and pipe cleaners while mom grabs a cup of coffee.  OR, for the Occupational Therapists in the crowd, this makes a nice multi-purpose activity for the OT treatment bag.  

Use large pipe cleaners and recycled ribbon spools to work on fine motor skills on a large scale.
Simply show your kiddo how to thread the large pipe cleaners onto the cardboard spools.  Using different sizes of spools requires different motor movements of the hands, but using several sizes  promote graded grasp patterns.  Threading the pipe cleaners into the center of the spools allows the child to thread with a tripod grasp on a larger scale.  Children can hold the spools with their non-dominant helper hand in a whole hand grasp.  

Use large pipe cleaners and recycled ribbon spools to work on fine motor skills on a large scale.
Add more skills to this threading task by stacking the spools to work on precision.  Ask your client or child to hold the edges of the spools to incorporate a spherical grasp.  Threading by size encourages beginning math skills with visual discrimination and visual scanning. 

Areas worked on with this activity:
Bilateral hand coordination
Hand-Eye Coordination
Crossing Midline
Tripod Grasp
Whole Hand Grasp
Visual Discrimination
Visual Scanning

Use large pipe cleaners and recycled ribbon spools to work on fine motor skills on a large scale.
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Looking for more Fine Motor Activities for Kids?

Pencil Grasp Trick Thumb IP Flexion
Thumb Opposition
  Hand Dominance and Fine Motor with Scooping and Pouring

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Magnetic Letter and Spoons Handwriting Game

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Sometimes, it’s fun to make handwriting practice a little bit different.  This magnetic letter activity was a fun way to work on letter identification and letter formation in handwriting. For young children, becoming more familiar with letters and the alphabet is key to age-appropriate literacy. This refers to knowing a letter’s name, the letter’s sound, and the formation of letters. My preschooler is getting more familiar with  letter recognition as an age-appropriate pre-literacy strategy by listening to books and pointing out letters that we see. Similarly, these same strategies are appropriate for the kindergarten age, but adding in letter formation. 
Preschoolers can use this activity to work on writing uppercase letters and kindergarten-aged students can work on lower case letters with this activity.  Extend this play to older kids by asking them to write words using the magnetic letters.  
This is a great eye hand coordination activity for toddlers and preschoolers that are learning how to hold a spoon.
And, I have to tell you that using a spoon in handwriting is always a hit with kids of any age!
Use magnetic letters to work on letter recognition and letter formation in handwriting practice with preschool, kindergarten, and school age kids.
 

Magnetic Letter and Spoons Handwriting Practice

 
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We have a bin full of magnetic letters from over the years.  I used a set like this in my school-based OT activities and magnetic letters have always been on our refrigerator starting when when my 8 year old was a toddler.
 To play this handwriting game, fill a small bin or bowl with magnetic letters.  This brand  worked well with our spoons activity because they were lighter. A magnetic letter like Melissa & Doug magnets worked, but they were just a bit too heavy to stick to our spoons.  We have a few sets of dollar store magnetic letters that worked well with our spoons, too.
Use magnetic letters to work on letter recognition and letter formation in handwriting practice with preschool, kindergarten, and school age kids.

Letter Formation Handwriting Game

I pulled out a few of our spoons.  Now, I wish I could tell you the brand and metal make-up of our spoons, but they are 12 years old and I have no clue about that info.  Apparently some stainless steel spoons are magnetic and others are not depending on the processing the metal has undergone.  You could try a few different utensils in your house with this activity, like ladles or serving spoons.  If none of these options work for holding the magnets, simply use a magnetic wand.
 
I had my kids take turns stirring the letters with their spoons.  They pulled out their spoon one at a time and looked at the letter they grabbed.  I had them tell me the name of the letter and then practice writing it.  This was a hit with all of the ages!
 
RELATED READ: Easy Tips to Teach Kids How to Write Letters
Use magnetic letters to work on letter recognition and letter formation in handwriting practice with preschool, kindergarten, and school age kids.
There is just something about spoons that are hilarious!  Practicing writing was fun with this activity!  
  • Extend the activity by having older kids write words using the letters.  
  • Children who are working on cursive letters can form the cursive or even upper case cursive version of the magnetic letter they pull from the bin.  
  • Have kids write the lower case letter of the magnetic letter.
Use magnetic letters to work on letter recognition and letter formation in handwriting practice with preschool, kindergarten, and school age kids.
More of my favorite ways to work on letter formation and handwriting practice:
Sensory Letter Formation
 
Homemade Pencil Grip
 
The Benefits of Coloring
 

ABC Play Dough Activity

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ABC play dough

This ABC play dough activity is a fun way to build hand strength with letters of the alphabet. This Fine Motor Play Dough Alphabet activity combined a couple of our favorite things: Creative Play Dough ideas and Fine Motor Skills.  We used a handful of foam alphabet stickers that we had in the house and store bought play dough to make letters that we used in spelling words, letter identification, and alphabetical ordering.  And our play dough fun rating was 26 letters long!

ABC Play Dough Activity

Sometimes, you need play dough in your day.  Other times, you need to turn up the play dough fun notch just a bit.  (That’s a thing, right?  The play dough fun scale?  I think so.)

This ABC play dough activity uses letter manipulatives and play dough to work on fine motor skills.

Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

So, we received these foam letter stickers and have been using them in a bunch of fun ways. Today, we used them with plain old fashioned Play-Doh.  

Fine Motor Skills and Play Dough

Every Occupational Therapist knows the benefits of play dough is so huge that they recommend it as a top-rated tool for fine motor development.  We’ve shared a ton of fine motor activities using play dough and I absolutely love to play with play dough with my kids for it’s use in fine motor skill development and hand strengthening.  

Play dough is perfect for refining skills like intrinsic muscles strength, finger isolation, tripod grasp development, thumb opposition, opening up the web space, bilateral hand coordination, and more.  With this activity, we specifically hit developing the intrinsic muscle strength of the hands.

Use balls of play dough with letter manipulatives

Intrinsic muscle strength and play dough

So, what is intrinsic muscle strength?   There are seventeen muscles in the hand that are responsible for fine motor skills and precision grasp, among other things like moving the thumb and fingers.  There are different groups of intrinsic muscles and they allow us to grasp items in a functional way.  The muscles of the hands work in conjunction with the muscles that originate in the forearm.  These extrinsic muscles end in your hand.  

For this activity, we used different colors of play dough and created small round balls of dough.  I asked my kids (and a niece and nephew who were over for the day) to roll small, dime-sized balls using just their thumb and fingers.  

Rolling small balls of this size uses the intrinsic muscles that are responsible for moving the thumb (thenar muscles) and the muscles that bend the fingers at the knuckle (lumbricals).  Also needed for a task like this are the palmer interossi muscles that work to move the fingers in a flexed position toward the thumb.  

So, when a child is rolling a small ball of dough, with their thumb and fingers, they are working on strengthening the muscles that a child uses to write and color with a pencil or crayon.

Weakness in Writing the ABC’s

Sometimes kids complain of their hand hurting when coloring or you might see them switch crayons very often when coloring.  

These are signs of a weakness of hand strength.  Other signs of intrinsic muscle weakness are a weak grasp on the pencil or writing very lightly with a pencil.  

Try this fine motor activity with letters to practice so many hands-on learning activities with kids of all ages: spelling words, sight words, and letter identification while working on fine motor skills like intrinsic muscle strength.
Try this fine motor activity with letters to practice so many hands-on learning activities with kids of all ages: spelling words, sight words, and letter identification while working on fine motor skills like intrinsic muscle strength.

After we rolled all of the play dough balls, we used our foam letter stickers to press letters into the Play-Doh.  Pressing the letters with an extended finger (like in the picture) is a great way to work on finger isolation.  It is important to note that using the finger in an extended “pointer” uses the extrinsic muscles that originate in the forearm.  

I shared more about finger isolation here.

Try this fine motor activity with letters to practice so many hands-on learning activities with kids of all ages: spelling words, sight words, and letter identification while working on fine motor skills like intrinsic muscle strength.

We used these letters to practice spelling words with my second grader, identify sight words for my Kindergartner, practice letter identification and letter order with my preschooler, and practice not eating play dough with my toddler 😉

It was a fun day had by all!

How will you use these letters to learn and play?  

Try this fine motor activity with letters to practice so many hands-on learning activities with kids of all ages: spelling words, sight words, and letter identification while working on fine motor skills like intrinsic muscle strength.
More fun play dough ideas you will love:

Teach Buttoning Skills with Heart Buttons

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Teaching kids functional skills like how to button their coat happens naturally during a day’s progression.  You help your Toddler or Preschooler into their coat before an outing and sneak in a few verbal cues while you show them how to slip the button through the button hole.  Then, before you blink your eyes, they are saying “I do it, Mommy!” and your little one is on their way to independence. This would be a great addition to a Valentine’s Day theme in occupational therapy.
 
NOW, I am a huge supporter of teaching kids to do things like buttoning and shoe tying in a natural setting, with real buttons and shoe laces and on their body.  BUT, sometimes a child just needs a fun way to practice the skills that make up the task of buttoning a button.  Other times, it’s just fun to practice buttoning so that kids can show off what they can do and get a little boost of self confidence.  
 
This Buttoning Skills Activity is easy to put together, fun to do, and a creative way to practice buttoning.  Before you know it, your little “do it myself”-er will be buttoning their pajamas up in a flash.  For now, we play our way to independence!
 
Teach kids how to button with this easy DIY buttoning teaching tool for fine motor practice and play, with hearts. Perfect for Valentine's Day
 
 

Teach Kids Buttoning Skills with a DIY dressing board

 
 
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So, we’ve practiced buttoning with egg cartons and tissue paper.  Today, I’ve got a new idea for you.  We used Foam Hearts to practice precision in fine motor skills while working on the motor control and dexterity needed for buttoning.  This was such a fun activity for my preschooler to do.  She can button large buttons on her body at this point, so it wasn’t hard for her to practice these motor skills.  BUT, adding the novel component of flimsy fabric and fragile paper made her practice the fine motor control that she needs for buttoning small buttons and many fine motor tasks.
 
To make a DIY heart button activity, you’ll need just a few items.
Foam Hearts
Heavy Cardstock
Stiff Felt Sheet
Embroidary Thread
(we received ours from www.craftprojectideas.com)
Scissors
Embroidary Needle
 
Teach kids how to button with this easy DIY buttoning teaching tool for fine motor practice and play, with hearts. Perfect for Valentine's Day
 
This is an easy project to throw together, and equally adaptable to your child’s age and fine motor needs.  We made out Buttons with Foam Hearts, but for a child who needs more help with buttoning skills or has weaker fine motor control, use cardboard or plastic buttons.  
 
Sew the foam hearts/buttons along the edge of a piece of felt.  We used a thicker felt sheet for more control.  A thinner piece of felt would be more like fabric of clothing, so if you are working on certain aspects of buttoning, like controlling the material with two hands in a coordinated manner, you can make your buttoning project with fabric or thinner felt.
 
Use a cross-stitch pattern to simply sew the Foam Hearts
in an “x”.  This is a great real-life skill activity for older kids.  Threading a the large needle is a nice fine motor task and the project is so simple that it’s a great beginner sewing activity for kids. 
 
Fold the felt over and add snips for button holes and you have a nice portable practice activity!
 
We practiced buttoning with the felt a few times and then added another way to practice.  I marked button holes on a sheet of thick Cardstock
.  After cutting the holes with scissors, my preschooler practiced pulling the foam buttons through the holes.  Using paper to practice is a real workout for little fingers as the paper will tear with too much force.  The point for this part of the activity is to practice pushing the button through the hole and pulling it out.  The paper is a great reminder that the button slides through the button hole easily when both hands are working together in a coordinated manner. 
 
TIP: Snip the cardstock or Stiff Felt Sheet
button holes just a bit longer than you think you need to for kids who are working on buttoning skills. You can also cut the hole wider for easier buttoning.  This is one way to grade the activity for kids who need help learning how to button their clothes.
 

 

 
Teach kids how to button with this easy DIY buttoning teaching tool for fine motor practice and play, with hearts. Perfect for Valentine's Day
 
More ways to teach kids buttoning skills using this DIY button project:
 
  1. Lay the fabric on the child’s lap as a beginner task.  This is a good way for the child to see what they are doing as their hands are working together on the buttons.
  2. NEXT, lay the fabric on the child’s lap, BUT position it so that it would be if the child were buttoning a coat on their body.  Make sure the buttons are on the child’s lap and not on their truck for easier accessibility and success.
  3. THEN, position the buttoning activity up higher on the child’s trunk to simulate buttoning a shirt or coat on the child.
  4. Finally, move on to teaching buttoning with real-life articles of clothing.  
Occupational therapy Tip:
Be sure to provide real clothing items along the way of teaching buttoning skills, while adding in fun motor planning activities like this DIY Button activity or our egg carton buttoning activity.  Learning through play in creative ways is fun!
 
This post is part of the Activities for Kids blog hop. This month, each blogger is posting about hearts.  Stop by to see what our friends have come up with:
 
 
 
 
 
 
Teach kids how to button with this easy DIY buttoning teaching tool for fine motor practice and play, with hearts. Perfect for Valentine's Day
 
 
MORE fine motor activities that we love and you will too:
 
Neat Pincer Grasp Fine Motor Activity Buttoning Tips and Tricks
 
 Buttoning Tips and Tricks
 

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.

Rainbow Chain Toddler activity

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Color sorting activity

This rainbow color sorting activity is one of the oldest ones we have on this website, because we love using this classic occupational therapy activity. It’s a great tool for supporting color recognition skills in kids, fine motor skills, eye hand coordination, and more.

Chain Link Activity in Occupational Therapy

This rainbow chain can be used in a toddler activity to teach colors and color matching in a creative, hands-on approach to teaching toddlers colors. This is an activity that I’ve used over and over again with my own toddlers. Older siblings can make and build the plastic chain links to make a rainbow chain…and younger siblings can sort the colors of the chain links. This is a chain link activity that builds so many skills!
 
Today’s learning with manipulatives activity uses something that I LOVE.  I had these plastic chain links in my therapy bag for years, and used them daily in school based and outpatient occupational therapy treatment.  Now, I get to play with my kids using these plastic rainbow chain links. Today, we used them with my toddler to practice color sorting. 
 
And, here’s a little preview for you: We went a little crazy with playing with these chain links.  I’ve got a bunch of fun chain link ideas coming your way, soon!
 
Color sorting activity for toddlers using rainbow plastic chain links for learning and fine motor skills. This is an Occupational Therapists recommended tool for so many skills: bilateral hand coordination, tripod grasp, intrinsic hand strength, open thumb web space, extended wrist, and so many more.
 
 

Rainbow Chain

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Chain links are completely awesome for find motor skills in kids.  Linking the chains together and pulling them apart requires intrinsic muscle strength, bilateral hand coordination, tripod grasp, and pronation/supination of an extended wrist.  
 
These chain links are tools that can used to work on so many goal areas.  From using two hands together, to a functional pencil grasp, to using spoons and forks with an appropriate write positioning, to holding a zipper with the right wrists angle…these little guys are great skill builders!
 
Linking the chains together requires a bit of muscle oomph, so for preschoolers and school-aged kids, building chains are a great strengthening activity.  
 
Color sorting activity for toddlers using rainbow plastic chain links for learning and fine motor skills. This is an Occupational Therapists recommended tool for so many skills: bilateral hand coordination, tripod grasp, intrinsic hand strength, open thumb web space, extended wrist, and so many more.

 

Rainbow Chain Link Activity

Color sorting activity for toddlers using rainbow plastic chain links for learning and fine motor skills. This is an Occupational Therapists recommended tool for so many skills: bilateral hand coordination, tripod grasp, intrinsic hand strength, open thumb web space, extended wrist, and so many more.
 
For this activity, we used our Learning Resources Link n Learn Links.
 
(This set comes in a big bucket of 500, so you’ve got plenty for multiple kids playing at the same time, or different age-appropriate activities happening with the chain links)
 
You’ll also need colored card stock in matching colors.
 
 I cut squares of equal sizes and placed them out on the table. I figured this would be a great activity for older toddlers, but my 19 month old completely surprised my by correctly placing the colored links
on the matching paper squares.  I had a few links in place to show her what to do and she was able to put them on the correct squares.  
 
I even put an incorrect colored link on a different colored square and she was able to fix the mistake.  It was a proud mama moment!
 
Color sorting activity for toddlers using rainbow plastic chain links for learning and fine motor skills. This is an Occupational Therapists recommended tool for so many skills: bilateral hand coordination, tripod grasp, intrinsic hand strength, open thumb web space, extended wrist, and so many more.
 
Color sorting activity for toddlers using rainbow plastic chain links for learning and fine motor skills. This is an Occupational Therapists recommended tool for so many skills: bilateral hand coordination, tripod grasp, intrinsic hand strength, open thumb web space, extended wrist, and so many more.
 
 
Looking for more learning activities using rainbow manipulatives?  Stop by our Learning With Manipulatives team to see what they’ve come up with:
AND, be sure to stop by Instagram and check out the #toolsforlearning hashtag to see them all.  Tag your hands-on learning ideas using rainbow manipulatives, too! We would love to see them!
Graphing with Rainbow Bears from Still Playing School 
Color and Size Sorting with Rainbow Counters from Line Upon Line Learning
Alphabet Formation Compare Bears from Adventures of Adam
Size and Color Sorting {Learning with Rainbow Bears} from Squiggles and Bubbles 
Animal Counters Sensory Bin & Color Sort from Raising Little Superheroes 
Color Graphing with Rainbow Bears from Schooltime Snippets 
Rainbow Bears Sensory Bin from Something 2 Offer  
Rainbow Bears Addition Cards from The Kindergarten Connection 
Measuring with Rainbow Bears from Mom Inspired Life 
 
 
 
More fine motor activities you will LOVE:
 
 
 
Colors Handwriting Kit

Rainbow Handwriting Kit– This resource pack includes handwriting sheets, write the room cards, color worksheets, visual motor activities, and so much more. The handwriting kit includes:

  • Write the Room, Color Names: Lowercase Letters
  • Write the Room, Color Names: Uppercase Letters
  • Write the Room, Color Names: Cursive Writing
  • Copy/Draw/Color/Cut Color Worksheets
  • Colors Roll & Write Page
  • Color Names Letter Size Puzzle Pages
  • Flip and Fill A-Z Letter Pages
  • Colors Pre-Writing Lines Pencil Control Mazes
  • This handwriting kit now includes a bonus pack of pencil control worksheets, 1-10 fine motor clip cards, visual discrimination maze for directionality, handwriting sheets, and working memory/direction following sheet! Valued at $5, this bonus kit triples the goal areas you can work on in each therapy session or home program.

Click here to get your copy of the Colors Handwriting Kit.

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.

Steam Train Dream Train Busy Bag

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Great books for preschoolers need a fun activity to extend the fun.  We’ve shared a bunch of our favorite books and activities here on the blog and this Steam Train, Dream Train busy bag activity is another great book and play idea.  
 
Busy bags are a playful way to get kids involved in creative and independent learning through play and are many times, a DIY craft for the moms to make.  If you’ve got a child who loves trains, this preschool book and busy bag activity is for you!


Try these train themed sensory activity ideas for more ways to play with a train theme.


Steam Train Dream Train book and busy bag activity. This is a great idea for preschoolers and beginner readers who need to wait at a restaurant or doctors office! Make this busy bag to go along with the book and inspire creative and imagination play and learning as kids re-tell the story through play.

“Steam Train, Dream Train” Book and Busy Bag Activity

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“Steam Train, Dream Train”
 is a fun book to read.  My kids loved the rhymes and details in the gorgeous pictures.  In the book, a train is rumbling to a stop where it fills it’s cars with toys of all kinds.  The train workers are playful animals who rest in the trains cars after they’ve filled it.  At the end of the book, we see the train is a playset in a child’s bedroom and you can just imagine all of the creative play that happens with that train!
 
We decided to make our own playful train set that can be carried along to places where waiting is difficult.  This book-related busy bag would be a fun way to pass time while waiting at a restaurant.  Slip the book
into a bag along with a few play items and you’ve got a busy bag that will inspire creative play of limitless capacities.
Steam Train Dream Train book and busy bag activity. This is a great idea for preschoolers and beginner readers who need to wait at a restaurant or doctors office! Make this busy bag to go along with the book and inspire creative and imagination play and learning as kids re-tell the story through play.
 
You’ll need a few items to fill your busy bag.  We used items that correspond with the book
that we had in out house, but if you’re needing a few items, it would be easy to replace them with other toys.
We added these items to our busy bag:
 
“Steam Train, Dream Train” book
Cardboard shapes (See how to make them here.)
burlap bag
Toy cars
Small animal figures
Small alphabet beads
(We received ours from www.craftprojectideas.com)
Small dinoasur figures
Train pasta
Small rubber balls
Steam Train Dream Train book and busy bag activity. This is a great idea for preschoolers and beginner readers who need to wait at a restaurant or doctors office! Make this busy bag to go along with the book and inspire creative and imagination play and learning as kids re-tell the story through play.
Read the book together and as you read, play along and build your dream train!
We used the cardboard shapes to build a shape train.  Now is a great time to discuss the shapes that can be used to build a train.  Talk about colors, too!
Steam Train Dream Train book and busy bag activity. This is a great idea for preschoolers and beginner readers who need to wait at a restaurant or doctors office! Make this busy bag to go along with the book and inspire creative and imagination play and learning as kids re-tell the story through play.
Use the toys to add to the train as you go through the story.  
Steam Train Dream Train book and busy bag activity. This is a great idea for preschoolers and beginner readers who need to wait at a restaurant or doctors office! Make this busy bag to go along with the book and inspire creative and imagination play and learning as kids re-tell the story through play.

 

When you’re child is playing independently with their busy bag, they can recall the story or create parts of their own.
Steam Train Dream Train book and busy bag activity. This is a great idea for preschoolers and beginner readers who need to wait at a restaurant or doctors office! Make this busy bag to go along with the book and inspire creative and imagination play and learning as kids re-tell the story through play.
Play with your shape train busy bag over and over again!
 
Want to find more “Steam Train, Dream Train”?  Stop by and see what the other bloggers in the Book Club Play Dates series have come up with for this book:
 
Make an Egg carton steam train craft based on the book, like Craftulate did.
Play a Number matching game with a printable from Fun-a-Day.
Steam Train Dream Train book and busy bag activity. This is a great idea for preschoolers and beginner readers who need to wait at a restaurant or doctors office! Make this busy bag to go along with the book and inspire creative and imagination play and learning as kids re-tell the story through play.
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More preschool books you and your child will love:
   
hands-on activities to explore social emotional development through children's books.

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Fingerprint Christmas Tree Ornament Based on ee cummings’ Book Little Tree

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You know we are big on sneaking in the fine motor skill development around here, right?  We are also a bit of book fans, so when we decided to make a book-inspired Christmas tree ornament, we went with the book, “little tree” by e.e. cummings and made a little fingerprint Christmas tree. 
 
Check out these Christmas Fine Motor Activities for more creative ways to work on fine motor skills and address development of skills this Christmas season. 
Little fingerprint Christmas tree ornament memento based on the book, little tree by e.e. cummings. This kid-made Christmas ornament is a fine motor workout for intrinsic muscle strength, arch development, and finger isolation.

 
Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
 
We read the book, little tree by e.e. cummings (Illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray).  This book is a poem that describes a little tree that children chose and carried home to decorate in their city apartment.  They are very loving and proud of their little tree.  The warm pencil drawings that illustrate the book make you feel the love the kids have for their Christmas tree.  This book and poem make you realize that it’s the little things and not flashy decorations that really matter this season.  
 
We made our ornament with a little fingerprint tree that can be looked back on each year.  We added to the fingerprint tree, simple and small layers that aren’t flashy or bright, but just warm and comfortable.
We love to create handmade Christmas ornaments each year with fingerprints or handprints.  I love to see their little fingerprints each year when we pull out the Christmas decorations each year.
You might have seen a recent post sharing the importance of fingerprint art in fine motor development, specifically finger isolation.  This fingerprint Christmas tree ornament is a fine motor workout! 
 


Fingerprint Fine Motor Skills

Little fingerprint Christmas tree ornament memento based on the book, little tree by e.e. cummings. This kid-made Christmas ornament is a fine motor workout for intrinsic muscle strength, arch development, and finger isolation.
Cut small oval shapes from white cardstock.
Little fingerprint Christmas tree ornament memento based on the book, little tree by e.e. cummings. This kid-made Christmas ornament is a fine motor workout for intrinsic muscle strength, arch development, and finger isolation.
 
Next, have your kids make fingerprints with green paint on the ovals.


Fine Motor Arch Development

Little fingerprint Christmas tree ornament memento based on the book, little tree by e.e. cummings. This kid-made Christmas ornament is a fine motor workout for intrinsic muscle strength, arch development, and finger isolation.
To make our fingerprint tree ornaments, we grabbed some corrugated cardboard.  Ok.  If you are looking for a fine motor activity for the kids, grab the nearest cardboard box.  This time of year, you might be receiving packages in the mail.  Save those cardboard boxes!  
 
Peeling the top layer from corrugated cardboard really works on arch development of the hands and intrinsic muscle strength.  This is an activity that I love to recommend as an Occupational Therapist.
Little fingerprint Christmas tree ornament memento based on the book, little tree by e.e. cummings. This kid-made Christmas ornament is a fine motor workout for intrinsic muscle strength, arch development, and finger isolation.
Cut the peeled cardboard into circles.
Little fingerprint Christmas tree ornament memento based on the book, little tree by e.e. cummings. This kid-made Christmas ornament is a fine motor workout for intrinsic muscle strength, arch development, and finger isolation.
Draw a Christmas tree shape onto the fingerprint.  Add a small piece of  burlap with glue.  Tape a length of  baker’s twine to the back of the ornament. 
 
thumbprint little tree Christmas ornament
 
fingerprint-christmas-tree-ornament-for-kids
 
Hang the little trees in your Christmas tree and  notice how little your child’s fingerprints are! This is an ornament I will cherish as my babies’ (and their fingerprints grow!
This ornament is based on a Christmas book and part of the 10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas series.  
 
Check out the other bloggers who are sharing book related ornaments today:
Rainbow Fish Salt Dough from Artsy Momma
Clay Ornament from Heart of Deborah
Felt Robin Ornament from Mum in the Mad House
Santa Ornament from Inspired by Familia
Elf Peg Dolls from Rhythms of Play
Little fingerprint Christmas tree ornament memento based on the book, little tree by e.e. cummings. This kid-made Christmas ornament is a fine motor workout for intrinsic muscle strength, arch development, and finger isolation.
 
Try this at home! Pin it here.
Little fingerprint Christmas tree ornament memento based on the book, little tree by e.e. cummings. This kid-made Christmas ornament is a fine motor workout for intrinsic muscle strength, arch development, and finger isolation.
 
 
More Christmas ornaments you will love:
   
Spaghetti Wreath Ornament | Reindeer Antler Ornament | Pine Cone Christmas Tree

Llama Llama Red Pajama Proprioception Sensory Activity

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Use these proprioception heavy work activities for calming sensory integration Try these Proprioception activities for sensory integration and calming heavy work input based on the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama with your little llamas!





Did you ever read Llama Llama Red Pajama and think, “That Mama Llama. Oh, I FEEL for that mama!” 


She just wants to put the baby down to sleep so she can finally wash those crusty breakfast dishes.  Then she has to take a call from a friend (which was probably scheduled with the intention to cross another three items from her to-do list, and totally not a call of the friendship-soul-building type).  Then all she wants to do is finally… finally…put up her llama feet and sigh a deep, exhausted, mama breath. 


You know that end-of-the-day mama sigh, right? A Mama can finally breathe at the end of the day, knowing that her babies are safe in their beds and quiet, at peace, and not dumping toys all over the floor.  It’s the biggest sigh and is so satisfying.  Maybe it was a ROUGH day. A day filled with yelling and not happy giggles.  A day loaded with siblings pulling hair and not playing like nice little brothers and sisters.  A day of sensory overload. 


That Mama Llama.  She starts in on her nightly to-dos and hears the “Maaaaammmaaaa!” from upstairs.  


Ugh.  


A long day just got longer. 


But that “Mama!” yelling llama is scared. Nervous.  Alone.  Questioning. Upset.  


And a mama, be it a mama llama or a tired, frizzy, overworked mama of the people variety just help.


Baby Llama’s routines have changed. The normal nightly get-a-drink-one-last-kiss-tuck-me-in norm has been a little diverted.  And then, you can’t help but feel for that little llama baby who NEEDS his mama. Her KNOWS he needs her.  
He needs deep pressure, sensory, proprioceptive input, calming relaxation before he can snuggle up and go to sleep.  Routines have changed, a sensation triggered a thought process of what-ifs, and there is no turning back from the sensory integration that only mama can give.  

Try these proprioception activities for heavy work input based on the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama
 

And Mama Llama does just that.  She drops everything, does the tuck-snuggle-one-last-kiss thing and baby llama is finally able to settle.  


And that Mama Llama.  She can finally take that last big sigh of the day and know that she helped her little one in every way that she could.

Proprioception Needs and Llama Llama Red Pajama book

{This post contains affiliate links.  See our full disclosure here.}


SO, When we read Llama Llama, Red Pajama, I couldn’t help but notice the proprioceptive needs that are being yelled for.  Screamed for, even.  Baby Llama needs to feel calmed after his routine is thrown.  And it doesn’t take much.  That one last drink that mama brings every night, or even some nights, is a known to Baby Llama.  He knows his mama is going to help him and keep him safe.  When that normal thing is gone because Mama is on the phone, his little llama world is thrown.


I had to put together these Llama Llama Red Pajama
Proprioception cards.  They are a fun way to get a little proprioceptive input in when sensory needs are thrown and a child needs to calm, relax, and center themselves.


This sensory activity is very simple.  Read Llama Llama Red Pajama.  Notice how Baby Llama jumps, twists, stomps, and cries.  He’s gotten so upset that there is NO way he can settle down on his own.  Sometimes all it takes is a snuggle and a reassuring hug from mama, but for other kids, they need proprioception to re-group and organize themselves.

Try these proprioception activities for heavy work input based on the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama



We cut out red pajama shirt shapes from red paper.  After printing the free printable with the Llama proprioception activities, we cut them out and attached them to the pajama shirts.


Try these proprioception activities for heavy work input based on the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama


Cut a small strip of paper to create a sleeve on the back of the pajama shapes.  Slip the paper strips into the sleeve to hold the proprioception activity ideas.

Use these cards along with the book or as needed.  Keep them together in a pile on a window sill or in an envelope and pull them out when calming proprioception needs are high.

Llama Llama Red Pajama Proprioception Activity

These activities provide heavy work input and can be calming for some kids.  Other kids might get overly excited by the same activities.  It is SO important to speak to an Occupational Therapist to find the perfect fit for your child’s individual needs.  Know that no tow kids are alike and a general list will not work for every child.  This list is meant to be a resource.
 
Try these proprioception activities based on the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama
 
 
Proprioception activities based on the book Llama Llama Red Pajama:
  • Wrap up tight in a blanket.
  • Squish between pillows.
  • Jump in a pile of pillows.
  • Play tug-of-war with a blanket.
  • Squeeze a pillow with one hands.  Then use two hands.
  • Hug a body pillow. Use all of your muscles!
  • Fold a heavy blanket (or two or three blankets laid on top of one another. Lift and carry the folded, heavy blanket square.
  • Use a sheet like a parachute.
  • Do the Llama Walk (aka crab walks). Kick your hooves up high like a llama.

You’ll be directed to a link with all of our free printables in one place.  It’s a jackpot of freebies. And the bonus is that you’ll receive occasional emails from me with more fun and creative ideas.


 

Try these proprioception activities for heavy work input based on the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama

 

Stop by and see what the other bloggers in our Book Club Play Dates series have come up with based on the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama:

  • Create a snack based on the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama! Find snack ideas for the book on Fun-a-Day.
  • Create and play with a Llama Llama busy bag!  Still Playing School has a fun idea.
  • Craftulate has a great idea for a Llama Llama Red Pajama game.
  • Make a Llama print craft like House of Burke.
Try these proprioception activities for heavy work input based on the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama

 

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The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook
 
Are you looking for more information on Sensory Processing and Proprioception (or any of the sensory systems and how they affect functional skills, behavior, and the body’s sensory systems?  This book, Sensory Lifestyle Handbook, will explain it all.  Activities and Resources are included.  Get it today and never struggle to understand or explain Sensory Integration again.  Shop HERE.
                       
Looking for more proprioception activities?  Try these: 
 
 
hands-on activities to explore social emotional development through children's books.

Love exploring books with hands-on play?  

Grab our NEW book that explores friendship, acceptance, and empathy through popular (and amazing) children’s books!  It’s 50 hands-on activities that use math, fine motor skills, movement, art, crafts, and creativity to support social emotional development.