Christmas Lights Worksheet for Number Tracing

Free Christmas lights number tracing worksheet

Today, we have a fun Christmas lights worksheet for you. But, this printable handout doubles as a number tracing worksheet. The PDF can be printed off, laminated, and used in so many ways to work on number formation or as a Christmas math worksheet during the holiday season. Grab this printable number tracing PDF below, but be sure to check out the various ways to use this resource in therapy sessions, the classroom, or home. We’re covering them all!

You’ll also want to check out our resource on tracing sheets and when and where to use them to meet handwriting goals.

Free Christmas lights number tracing worksheet to address number formation

Christmas Lights Worksheet

The holidays are upon us!  Like it or not, they are COMING!  What better way to embrace the upcoming season, than incorporating it into lesson plans and therapy sessions?

Check out this informative article from Continental Press on the Benefits of Incorporating Holidays into a classroom or therapy session.  It includes the benefits, how to’s, and some great teaching points.

Some of the key things to remember when planning your holiday themed lesson/therapy plan:

  • Not all learners celebrate the same holidays.  Some do not celebrate at all.  Find out the preference of each learner before presenting holiday specific activities. If you are unsure, go for a “winter theme” instead of holidays, or be well rounded and work on ALL of the holidays if your learner celebrates something.
  • Some schools have strict policies about incorporating holidays such as Christmas into the lesson plan.
  • Adding exciting activities can motivate learners to complete tasks, but it can also raise their arousal level.  Regulate how much excitement you add into the lesson plan each day and watch for signs of sensory dysregulation.
  • If in a public school or secular private school keeping religion out of these lesson plans is not only wise, it is the law.  While many families believe and celebrate Christmas with the story of Christ, school based activities need to be centered around reindeer, holiday lights, snowmen, trees, gifts, and Santa if this is acceptable.

How to use this Christmas Lights Worksheet

This Christmas Lights Number Trace Worksheet can work on multiple skills at once.  This is the key to any activity.  Most students (or the ones we work with) do not like writing activities, therefore making it time efficient, fun, and incorporating multiple goals at once is the key to success.

Other than number tracing, which is obvious, what other skills are built using this Christmas lights worksheet?

  1. Kinesthetic awareness – this is essentially learning by doing. While tracing, the hope is that learners are feeling the movement of the numbers as they are being formed, thus making it easier for them to independently form them.
  2. Fine motor skills – tracing on a line and staying in a designated space helps build the intrinsic hand muscles necessary for good handwriting.  The smaller the picture, the more muscle control is required. 
  3. Coloring – add coloring to this activity to further aid in fine motor development.  This also works on recognizing the borders of the lines, using different colors, making patterns, fine motor control, attention to detail, neatness, prioprioception and countless other skills.
  4. Proprioception – since I mentioned it, let’s talk about it.  Proprioception in this case is going to involve the pressure of holding the writing tool, pressure on the paper, arm and wrist support on the table.  Did you know, increased pressure on paper can cause hand fatigue?
  5. Bilateral coordination – one hand needs to hold the paper while the other traces and colors.  Be sure to remind your learner to use their “helper hand.”
  6. Visual Perception – being able to scan the paper to trace the numbers in order (or any order you provide), perceiving the line to trace and following which direction it is going, and noticing lines and borders for writing/coloring.  
  7. Social skills – talking about the holiday, talking about the picture, sharing crayons to build social interaction, turn taking, following directions, and staying seated with peers all build social skills.

Christmas Math Worksheet

Whew!  That is a lot of skills for one worksheet!  Using this Christmas Math Worksheet you have built on at least seven different skills.  

Just a few more pointers while working on these types of number tracing worksheets:

  • Tracing will build kinesthetic and fine motor skills even if your learner does not know numbers.  This becomes just a tracing task rather than number recognition.
  • To many learners, tracing does not always build their ability to write after tracing letters or numbers.  Some learners see these items as merely symbols, not actual letters or numbers.  No amount of tracing is going to magically make them be able to make these figures if they do not have any meaning.
  • Use multiple methods if working on number recognition or formation such as writing in the air, using different mediums to write, copying from a model, matching numbers, doing number puzzles to name a few examples.
  • Visual perception – always rule out VISION problems before assessing if your learner has difficulty with visual perception.  There are times the learner can not see the work in front of them, or can only see part of it.  

Using a Number Tracing Worksheet in Therapy Sessions

When you use this Christmas lights worksheet to address number formation goals in therapy sessions, you can consider these points on documentation.

How to document about your session:  

“Student participated and was cooperative during 75% of activity.  Learner was able to trace 7/12 numbers within 1/4” of line with R hand using a tripod grasp on large half inch diameter crayon.  Learner demonstrated fair bilateral coordination, needing two reminders to use their helper hand to stabilize paper. Learner was able to color 12/12 shapes with 80% coverage and poor attention to borders, making 3-5 marks outside of each shape.  Learner demonstrated average visual perceptual skills while correctly scanning page left to right and top to bottom 12/12 numbers.  Learner demonstrated fair social skills needing two reminders not to touch peers, and one prompt to ask before taking objects from peers.”

While documenting, it is not necessary to state you are doing a Christmas Number Lights Worksheet.  Documenting progress and skills is most important, or simply stating it is a 123 tracing worksheet will be sufficient.

As you can see, an activity like the christmas lights worksheet is not only fun but FUNctional, which is the OT motto.

For more great Christmas activities check out this blog from Colleen Beck creator of the OT Toolbox:

Free Christmas Lights Number Trace Worksheet

You can grab a copy of this printable number tracing worksheet and start using it right away in therapy sessions. Enter your email address into the form below and the printable will be delivered to your inbox. If you are a member of The OT Toolbox Member’s Club, this resources is available inside your member’s dashboard.

FREE Christmas Lights Number Tracing Worksheet

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    Have a great holiday season!

    Victoria Wood, OTR/L

    Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

    *The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for readability, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, children of all ages, etc. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.

    Christmas I Spy

    Free Christmas I Spy worksheet

    Are you looking for a quick and easy activity to address the components of visual perception that you can also use to address numeral formation this holiday season?  This Christmas I Spy is a fun activity that can be used in a variety of ways to target the skills your students need including visual perception and numeral formation. Add this I Spy printable to your occupational therapy Christmas ideas!

    Use this printable Christmas I Spy worksheet for a party activity or in Christmas occupational therapy activities!

    Christmas I Spy

    It’s the busiest time of the year and this Christmas I Spy is a no prep printable you can take from the printer right to your therapy sessions with your students.  The best part of this worksheet is that it can target so many skills at once! 

    Some of the skills addressed with Christmas I Spy will target the components of visual perceptual skills.  Visual perceptual skills are foundational to reading and writing.  There are many components of visual perception that play a role in our student’s performance at school, but this activity primarily addresses visual discrimination and visual memory.  

    You can begin using this worksheet with your students by asking them to name some of the pictures they see on the page.  Then, focus their attention to the bottom of the page to the pictures they will look for during the activity. 

    Support Visual Skills with a Christmas I Spy

    Using their visual discrimination skills, ask your students to identify each of the pictures at the bottom.  Encourage your students to use a different color for each picture they find.  This is a strategy you can teach them to support their visual discrimination skills.  The students can circle each picture working on their fine motor dexterity skills or they could color each small picture.

    This activity is also great for addressing visual memory.  Visual memory is the ability to retain and recall visual information.  Visual memory is essential in reading and writing, but it is also important for completing tasks like Christmas I Spy in an efficient way.  

    As the students begin to work, they will be using their visual memory and scanning skills together to recall where they have seen each picture.  

    Visual scanning is also an important skill that will be addressed with Christmas I Spy.  Visual scanning is a function of the oculomotor system that involves using the eyes in a coordinated way to scan the environment for information. 

    For students who may have difficulty with visual scanning, try teaching strategies such as moving a ruler down the page as they track across, encourage them to scan in an organized manner from left to right, or you can reduce the demand by asking “can you find 3 candy canes”, for example. 

    Another way to support students who may have difficulty with visual perceptual tasks such as I Spy, would be to take turns finding the different pictures.  Not only would this take away some of the demand for struggling students, but it would also allow you to model visual scanning skills at the same time.  

    Work on Number formation with a Christmas I Spy Activity

    Finally, Christmas I Spy provides your students with an opportunity to address number formation.  After they find and color each picture, they will need to write the number in the box. 

    Here is a place where you can take this pencil/paper task and make it a kinesthetic learning experience for your students!  Many students need kinesthetic learning experiences or the opportunity to touch, move, and feel in order to learn. 

    Occupational therapists are uniquely trained to provide these types of kinesthetic learning experiences to students.  You will find that when you design an intervention to include a sensory, tactile, or movement experience, your students will be instantly engaged.  Engagement and participation are the keys to learning!

    More ways to use this Christmas I Spy Printable

    You could extend this activity to include a kinesthetic component by: 

    • Forming the numbers using gingerbread scented playdough, like this Gingerbread Salt Dough Recipe
    • If snow is more your style, try this snow dough recipe Snow Dough Recipe
    • And for an even more sensory experience try Candy Cane Moon Dough from
    • Pair the printable with this Hot Chocolate Craft for a winter themed activity.
    • Bend red and white “candy cane” pipe cleaners into the numbers your students need to practice
    • Use sand trays to practice numeral formation.  Use red and green sand to stick with the holiday theme or get inspired to use other materials/textures from ideas here: Writing Trays for Handwriting
    • Practice writing numbers in shaving cream.  Add a little silver glitter to mimic snow.

    So, grab your hot cocoa and hit print on Christmas I Spy! You will have so much fun with your students this holiday season while working on important visual perceptual and numeral formation skills!

    FREE Christmas
    I Spy Worksheet

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      Katherine Cook is an occupational therapist with 20 years experience primarily working in schools with students from preschool through Grade 12.  Katherine graduated from Boston University in 2001 and completed her Master’s degree and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study at Tufts University in 2010.  Katherine’s school based experience includes working in integrated preschool programs, supporting students in the inclusion setting, as well as program development and providing consultation to students in substantially separate programs.  Katherine has a passion for fostering the play skills of children and supporting their occupations in school. 

      Printable Santa Emotion Worksheet

      Printable Santa Emotion Worksheet

      Want a printable Santa emotion worksheet designed to support facial expression identification? This Santa emotion PDF is just that! And even better yet, if you are looking for ways to address visual discrimination using visual scanning activities with your students, this Santa Claus Emotions I Spy will check all the boxes!  Not only will you be able to address visual discrimination and visual scanning skills with this fun printable, but you can easily incorporate many other skills addressed in occupational therapy including fine motor control and emotional regulation.  Not to mention, this feelings worksheet is an easy way to have some fun this Christmas season in your treatment sessions with your students!

      Kids will love this printable Santa emotion worksheet to work on emotion identification and visual discrimination skills.

      Visual discrimination is one skill that makes up our visual perception. Visual discrimination is an essential skill for students to participate in school in both their roles as a student for tasks such as reading and writing, as well as their role as a friend.  We use our visual discrimination skills to read others emotions or changes in the environment.   As you can see, it is so important to address visual discrimination skills using scanning activities. This printable Santa Emotion worksheet I Spy activity will make it easy!

      What is visual discrimination?

      Visual discrimintation is the ability to recognize similarities and differences between visual images or objects.  Visual discrimintation is an important skill for students in school because of its link to reading and writing.  When looking at words on the page, readers need to be able to discriminate between subtle differences in letters like “b” and “d” or “5” and “S”.  Providing opportunities to build visual perceptual skills helps students engage in their occupations as a student! 

      Why is visual scanning important?

      Visual discrimination is a component of visual perception, but in order for students to use visual discrimination skills effectively, they also need to use their visual scanning skills.  Visual scanning sends the visual information to the brain, visual discrimination tells us why that visual information is important.  In order for the visual system to work, we need both!  Visual scanning is an important component of visual perception and there are so many fun ways to address scanning in your treatment sessions.  Try marble painting, using a flashlight, or looking at a Christmas I Spy book to address visual scanning.

      As mentioned before, students also need to rely on visual discrimination skills when reading other’s emotions.  When you begin this activity with your students, start by reviewing the pictures of Santa at the bottom of the page.  Talk about the similarities in the pictures, then talk about the differences.  Have the students select a color to match with each emotion.  This would be a great place to include Zones of Regulation colors and terminology if you use that program.  Emotional regulation is essential for social participation and this is a great way to hit on that skill with your students.  

      identifying emotions worksheet with a Santa Theme!

      Once you have reviewed the visual information and the emotions and filled in the coordinating colors, now it’s time to start coding or coloring in the Santa faces!  As the student scans and discriminates each Santa, watch to see that their visual system is working to support their performance.  There are many ways you could adapt or modify this activity to meet the needs of your students. 

      Here are some ideas to support visual scanning:

      • Use another paper to cover some of the visual information
      • Teach a strategy to help scan by making a mark on the page to indicate which row they are working on
      • Use a ruler to help students keep their place as they are working

      More ways to use this feelings worksheets pdf

      • Use bingo daubers for students who have not yet developed fine motor precision skills
      • Use tape or sticky tack to secure the printable Santa emotion worksheet to a vertical or inclined surface to address shoulder strength
      • Set up a container of markers on one side of the room and put the worksheet on the other side.  Have the students use a scooter board back and forth to retrieve the markers they need.
      • Use tongs and pom poms or beads to work on fine motor skills at the same time

      If your focus is on emotional regulation, you can easily extend this activity to target the student’s ability to identify their emotions.  When discussing Santa’s emotions, ask your students to think of a time when they felt happy, sad, excited, or mad.  It may also be fun for students to think about the self regulation tools Santa might use to help him regulate his emotions throughout the Christmas season!

      Free Printable Santa Emotion Worksheet

      Do you know a kiddo that would love this printable Santa emotion worksheet? You can download this emotions PDF and start working on skills like visual discrimination, scanning, coloring, feelings identification, and more!

      Free Santa Emotions I Spy Worksheet

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        Katherine Cook is an occupational therapist with 20 years experience primarily working in schools with students from preschool through Grade 12.  Katherine graduated from Boston University in 2001 and completed her Master’s degree and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study at Tufts University in 2010.  Katherine’s school based experience includes working in integrated preschool programs, supporting students in the inclusion setting, as well as program development and providing consultation to students in substantially separate programs.  Katherine has a passion for fostering the play skills of children and supporting their occupations in school. 

        Reindeer Games Gross Motor Slide Deck

        Christmas gross motor activities

        I am so excited to share this gross motor slide deck for teletherapy. It’s a reindeer games theme that allows kids to support gross motor skills in teletherapy, which is sometimes difficult to facilitate via a virtual therapy setting. These reindeer games activities are FUN for kids and they will be excited to see and do the gross motor activity on each slide of the therapy slide deck. Let’s explore reindeer games!

        Pair these with our reindeer activities to address other goal areas, and these free fine motor reindeer printables.

        Reindeer games activities for kids in a gross motor teletherapy slide deck.

        Reindeer Games Activities

        These reindeer games are fun for kids, and I am excited to use the therapy slide deck with my own kids at home. With colder temperatures and less kids’ sports activities this year, getting the kids active and moving can be tricky.

        So, that’s where these reindeer games for kids come in…we’ll use the reindeer games for a Christmas party at home as a way to get the whole family moving with a reindeer theme.

        Kids can use these reindeer games in teletherapy gross motor activities.

        Christmas Gross Motor Activities

        I wanted to use reindeer in the gross motor activities and challenge kids to move in different positioning, much like yoga positions. The gross motor challenges require kids to copy an image and hold that image.

        The slides can be graded to each child’s needs. Can they hold the position while reading the reindeer joke on the slide? Can they read just the response to the reindeer joke? Adjust the slide in a way that meets the needs of each child.

        The Christmas jokes are a fun way to encourage various positions and movement with themed Christmas gross motor activities.

        This Christmas slide deck goes great with our Gingerbread Man Teletherapy Slide Deck, our Decorate a Gingerbread House Teletherapy Slide Deck, and our Holiday Cookies Slide Deck.

        Use this gross motor teletherapy slide deck with a reindeer theme for Christmas gross motor activities.

        Gross Motor Slide Deck for Teletherapy

        Because incorporating gross motor skills in teletherapy is sometimes a challenge (especially to find interesting and new ideas!) this gross motor slide deck was desined for teletherapy in a way that instructs kids to copy various postions as they balance and strengthen their core.

        Included are some slides to incorporate propriocepetion and vestibular input as well.

        All of these skills can be addressed with this gross motor slide deck in teletherapy sessions:

        • Core strength
        • Stability
        • Balance and equilibrium skills
        • Coordination
        • Range of motion
        • Flexibility
        • Motor planning
        • Crossing midline
        • Movement patterns
        • Posture and postural control
        • Muscle tone
        • Proprioceptive input
        • Vestibular input
        Use these Christmas gross motor activities with a reindeer theme in teletherapy movement activities.

        Want this Free Gross Motor Slide Deck?

        This slide deck is not interactive. It has no movable parts on the slide deck. Because it is static slides in the activity, you can use the slide deck on any devices, including tablets and phones.

        Be sure to make a copy of this slide deck and not change the url to indicate “edit” at the end. When you make a copy of the slide deck onto your Google drive, you will end up with your own version that you are free to adjust in order to meet your student’s needs. By changing the url to “edit”, you can potentially mess up the original version that many other therapists and The OT Toolbox users are given.

        ou can grab a copy of this Google slide deck and use it to work on specific skills.

        Enter your email address below and you will receive a PDF containing a link to copy the slide deck onto your Google drive. Save that PDF file, because you can come back to it again and again and send it to the kids on your caseload (or classroom) so they can make their own copy on their Google drive.

        Please use the copy of the slide deck and do not change the url.

        FREE Reindeer Games Gross Motor Therapy Activities!

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          MORE VIRTUAL LEARNING SLIDE DECKS?

          Would you like more therapy slide decks? Grab the others to add to your therapy toolbox!

          Kids are loving this Decorate a Gingerbread House slide deck.

          Try this Gingerbread Man Slide Deck.

          Use this Holiday Cookies Activities to address working memory, visual perception, and direction following.

          Here is a Community Helpers Theme Slide Deck.

          Here is a Football Theme Slide Deck.

          Here is a slide deck for a Social Story for Wearing a Mask.

          Here is a Space Theme Therapy Slide Deck.

          Here is a Therapy Planning Interactive Slide Deck.

          Here is a Back to School Writing Activity Slide Deck.

          Here is an Alphabet Exercises Slide Deck.

          Here is a Self-Awareness Activities Slide Deck.

          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.

          Reindeer Fine Motor Cards

          reindeer fine motor cards for kids

          Did you see the reindeer activities ideas listed here on the website last week? It’s a Christmas occupational therapy plan that can work on so many different areas. Today, I’ve got another fun holiday activity for kids to do…Reindeer fine motor cards! This newly created Christmas activity is a free pack of reindeer theme activity cards. Use them to work on fine motor skills such as pencil control, precision, eye-hand coordination, motor planning, and more.

          reindeer fine motor cards for kids

          Reindeer Fine Motor Cards

          You can print these off and use them over and over again. I created these reindeer theme fine motor cards for the purpose of multi-use, meaning that you can use them to work on several different areas:

          Work on pencil control with these free printables.

          Reindeer Theme Pencil Control

          Print off the reindeer cards for a pencil control activity where you can ask children to trace along the paths. In this way, kids work on pencil accuracy and motor planning to control the pencil. With each path, there are several repetitions, allowing children to work on these skills and accuracy. Use the sheets to collect data in therapy sessions. Kids can complete the path with accuracy on 3/5 attempts, (or other ratio) using these cards.

          Use the fine motor printables to work on precision, eye-hand coordination skills.

          Reindeer Activity for Fine Motor Skills

          Use the cards to work on fine motor skills such as precision, eye-hand coordination, pinch, dexterity, finger isolation, and motor planning. Print off the cards and ask students to place manipulatives along the lines to connect the reindeer. Try using these cards in a variety of ways:

          • Place stickers along the path
          • Trace the path to work on finger isolation
          • Place craft pom poms, mini erasers, pebbles, or small objects along the path.
          • Use a bottle of squeeze glue and ask students to create a glue path in the lines. They can crumble up small pieces of paper and glue them along the path.
          Pencil control and pencil pressure with coloring a reindeer on these free fine motor printables.

          Reindeer Coloring Activity

          Use the cards to work on fine motor skills in the ways listed above, but also by addressing coloring skills. Coloring is a fantastic way to work on precision, hand strength, arch development, as well as eye-hand coordination. Coloring also benefits visual perceptual skills as well. Here are all of the benefits that coloring offers. Children can use the cards to color in the path and work on pre-writing lines as well as line awareness. Use the cards as repetition trials to work on accuracy and consistency with visual perceptual skills, line awareness, and small motor movements when coloring in a small space. Each coloring card can be used to collect data.

          Use the cards to work on pencil pressure by asking children to color in the reindeer images with their pencil.

          Reindeer Cutting Strips

          The pencil control strips are set up in a way that allows them to be used as cutting strips as well. Ask children to cut along the bold lines and work on cutting skills. To grade the activity up, ask children to cut along the path on the curved and angled lines. Then, each strip can be used to collect data in the repetitions. Children can work on keeping the scissors within in the path. You can cut the left side of the page off to remove the reindeer on the left for cutting strips that start from the edge of the paper. Here is more information on scissor skills.

          Free Reindeer Printables

          Would you like to get a copy of these printable pages to use in working on a variety of fine motor skills? Enter your email address below and the file will be delivered to your inbox.

          FREE Reindeer-theme Fine Motor Cards

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            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.

            Reindeer Activities

            reindeer activities for kids

            If you love Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and of course, Rudolph, then you’ll love all of these fun reindeer activities!  The reindeer crafts and movement activities you see here will get kids grasping, pinching, jingling, buttoning, writing, sniffing, moving, creating, and partying. All of these developmental skills are included with the completion of these fun and festive reindeer activities. Kids will be engaged and motivated to do even the most difficult of tasks. These reindeer play ideas cover a variety of skills. So, let’s get to it! 

            reindeer activities, reindeer crafts, and reindeer art for kids

            Reindeer Activities

            I’ve broken these holiday activities up into sections: sensory activities, fine motor activities, movement, and reindeer crafts. These should help you with therapy planning this time of year. These reindeer fine motor cards will be a fun way to play, too.

            Reindeer Sensory Activities

            First, are some fun SENSORY activities, do you need some sensory tools with a festive reindeer theme? Then here ya go!

            Chocolate Scented Reindeer Play Dough gives you the recipe to create a yummy smelling play dough and when it’s in use as part of an invitation tray, children work on fine motor strengthening as well as tactile tolerance while building fun reindeer faces and more.

            Rudolph Jingle Bell Sticks gives you a fun way to incorporate music jingling into your daily activities.  The sticks include the creation of a unique musical instrument that can be used when working on dance moves, gross motor exercise, or even as a fun reading tracking stick. 

            Reindeer Food Writing Tray provides you a recipe for reindeer food that children create while working on eye-hand coordination to pour, shake, scoop, and stir while creating the food mixture.  Once made, it provides a fun sensory tool for children to work on letter, number and shape formation.  

            Christmas Sensory Bottles includes a reindeer-themed sensory bottle that can be used as a calming tool for use in a sensory or calm down corner. Super cute!

            Reindeer Crafts

            Next, are some fun FINE MOTOR and ART and CRAFT activities that can help if you need festive ideas for building fine motor strength, pincer grasp, bilateral coordination, hand dominance, fastener manipulation, tool use, and sequencing skills.  Use these reindeer crafts to help kids develop fine motor skills in a big way. Take a look: 

            Add these reindeer fine motor cards to your therapy toolbox to work on a variety of areas: pencil control, writing lines, coloring, scissor skills, precision, hand strength, spatial skills, and more.

            Olive, the Other Reindeer Book Ornament is a cute ornament craft that uses a recycled toilet paper roll to create a set of antlers. The ornament is based on the book, Olive, The Other Reindeer, who is a dog-reindeer, that’s right a dog-reindeer.  She thinks she’s a reindeer and goes to the North Pole to help Santa and the reindeer save Christmas. Olive earns her own set of antlers from Santa, so, why not create her antlers after reading the book? 

            Reindeer Antler Match includes matching and clipping multi-colored, miniature clothespins onto foam reindeer heads with the matching nose color. Works on pincer grasp and color recognition. 

            Reindeer Buttoning involves the use of felt and buttons to build a reindeer’s face while working on buttoning or unbuttoning skills, sequencing, and following directions.

            Feed Rudolph the Reindeer will work on pincer grasp and eye-hand coordination while children pinch small pieces of pipe cleaner to push through the holes of a recycled spice bottle. 

            Cocoa Pebbles Reindeer Craft includes the use of Cocoa Pebbles to fill a reindeer outline. Have kiddos pinch small piles of pebbles from a bowl and sprinkle onto the outline to work on fine motor pinch skills. Note: With the yummy smell of this cereal while doing the activity, it just might make it a little difficult not to sneak a nibble while creating this cute craft! 

            Toilet Paper Roll Reindeer includes the tracing of hands and cutting them out to create antlers for pasting onto a recycled toilet paper roll. Finish with adding cute googly eyes and a red pom-pom nose. Easy, but really cute and what great skills are worked on with tracing and cutting!

            Yarn Wrapped Reindeer Craft is really a fine motor activity that turns out to be a cute craft when completed. Children wrap yarn around a cardboard triangle, add googly eyes and a pom-pom nose, and then clip on two clothespins that are wrapped with pipe cleaners to create antlers. 

            Preschool Build a Shape Reindeer is a fun way to have prechoolers work on shape recognition by building a fun construction paper reindeer with use of precut shapes. You can easily have a child work on cutting skills with this activity, if you have them cut out the shapes and then assemble the reindeer. 

            Handwriting Reindeer Activities

            Next, are some multisensory HANDWRITING reindeer activities that help children to work on handwriting mechanics along with other skills in a fun and unique way that will motivate them to engage in the task!

            Reindeer Multisensory Handwriting Freebie involves a multisensory approach to handwriting that includes tracing, cutting, pasting, moving, scanning, visual discrimination, and handwriting. Check it out. 

            Meet My Pet Reindeer is a holiday craftivity that includes cutting, tracing, gluing and writing. 

            But, if you just need some festive holiday handwriting paper that is modified to help a variety of children with their handwriting needs, check out this Christmas Modified Handwriting Paper, by The OT Toolbox. 

            Gross Motor Reindeer Activities

            Next, are some super fun GROSS MOTOR Reindeer Activities that could be used for transitions while building gross motor skills and working on motor planning too!  Fun activities that can be used at home, at school, and during remote learning or therapy. 

            Try the pin the nose on the reindeer activity in our Reindeer Party Games for a gross motor game with the whole family.

            Reindeer Brain Breaks is just that, a break for the brain with a reindeer theme! Each of Santa’s reindeer has a brain break card and children can use them while at home, during a transition, in the classroom, or while online. These brain break moves can easily be done in small spaces making them perfect for most anywhere! 

            Reindeer Testing will get kids moving as they perform some fun reindeer moves that may be needed when pulling Santa’s sleigh! This fun resource helps to get kids moving while testing their reindeer skills with running, jumping, stomping, and prancing. 

            Reindeer Boot Camp is an excellent source for gross motor activities and they are perfect for either a classroom, home party or just to get kids moving! The reindeer training activities include balancing, galloping, leaping, scooter pulling, and tossing bean bags at a target. Don’t have been bags? That’s okay, use some stuffed animals. 

            Reindeer Games Camp is a boot camp that works on a variety of gross motor skills. Children will pull sleighs, do agility drills, do hoop and cone training, practice reindeer moves, and work on present stacking. These skills are important when you’re a reindeer!

            Lastly, do you need a resource that literally has all you need in one place?  Try this fun resource by The OT Toolbox called, Reindeer Playdate Party. There is food, activities, snacks, and reindeer games! This will give you all you need to party like the Reindeer! Have fun!

            Try these ideas for more Christmas activities that help kids develop skills…Just click on the images below for holiday fun!

            gingerbread man activities
            Christmas occupational therapy interventions
            Christmas Fine Motor activities

            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.

            Gingerbread Man Activities

            gingerbread man activities

            Looking for gingerbread man activities? We’ve got you covered. From gingerbread men to gingerbread houses to gingerbread cookies, it’s the theme of gingerbread for this festive season! Can you smell the ginger? Ah, it’s so cozy and the theme of gingerbread is so classic and fun! Browse an old blog post from The OT Toolbox to find gingerbread activities for kids by kids. Lots of fun ideas in that post as well as some new ideas in this post! You can also find a Cardboard Gingerbread House idea.

            Use these activities with our decorate a gingerbread house slide deck and our gingerbread man handwriting and fine motor slide deck.

            Gingerbread man activities for kids

            GINGERBREAD MAN ACTIVITIES

            Included below are gingerbread man books that you can pair with hands-on activities. The gingerbread man ideas below build fine motor skills, gross motor skills, motor planning, direction-following, and sensory exploration. Let’s get started with the holiday activities!

            You can’t go the season without reading at least one gingerbread man book. So grab one or more of these gingerbread-related books and work on critical thinking and early literacy skills!

            GINGERBREAD MAN BOOKS

            Take a look at these gingerbread man books: (Amazon links included below.) These are great books to use along with therapeutic activities.


            The Gingerbread Man
            Gingerbread Baby
            Gingerbread Friends
            Gingerbread Christmas
            The Gingerbread Man Loose at School
            The Gingerbread Boy
            The Gingerbread Girl
            The Gingerbread Cowboy
            Gingerbread Mouse
            The Gingerbread Pirates

            This Gingerbread Man book activity from Fun-A-Day pairs well with these books.

            GINGERBREAD MAN CRAFTS

            Do you have visions of colorfully decorated gingerbread houses or some icing covered gingerbread men? Crafts are the supreme skill builder for kiddos and highly motivating.

            Crafts can work on scissor cutting, drawing, coloring, tool grasp, glue management, direction following, and sequencing. Now, let’s craft some gingerbread goodies.


            This fun gingerbread man stapling craft is a super fun way to build a gingerbread man while working on stapler use that incorporates strength, bilateral coordination, visual motor control, and precision handling.

            Craft a fun paper bag gingerbread house using office stickers galore! Stickers are an easy way to work on pincer grasp, bilateral coordination, spatial awareness with placement, and hand dominance.


            Craft a fun plate of gingerbread cookies using a paper plate and paper bag being sure to decorate with crayons. Don’t forget broken crayons color too and they can be better for kids to work on their tool grasp!


            Maybe a collage art gingerbread man is more what your kiddos would enjoy. Providing a tray of decorating goodies can give a child the opportunity for creativity and independence. But if you’re looking for more therapeutic benefits, you can incorporate body awareness and multiple fine motor skills.

            Provide a fun gingerbread man lacing craft that automatically incorporates fine motor precision, pincer grasp, motor planning, eye-hand coordination and bilateral hand use.

            Here is a baby gingerbread house from Pre-K Pages that works fine motor skills, too.

            Plus, they turn out super cute.

            Gingerbread Man Gross Motor

            Maybe you have the need for some energy consuming gingerbread movement! So many gingerbread books provide action words that can easily be utilized for movement exercises. Try substituting these actions with various movements you need your child to practice.

            Use these Gingerbread Man gross motor activities as a brain breaks for a physical break in the classroom, at home, or during a transition. Brain break movement activities can involve so many different body moves with a wonderfully festive theme!

            Here’s an activity that you can try called, Gingerbread Man Gross Motor Activity. It combines the simple idea of gross motor skills and literacy skills.

            You can also try these fun Gingerbread Man Gross Motor Dice printables to further incorporate movements related to the book. Read and move together!

            Try Gingerbread Passing to work on core strength, coordination, motor planning, and social skills. It’s a great team work activity or it can be simplified to have one child work on passing a gingerbread man from one place to another.

            Try this fun idea of some Gingerbread Hokey Pokey using a classic game with a gingerbread theme to work on body awareness and motor planning.

            Gingerbread Man Fine Motor

            Feeling the need to focus on fine motor or visual motor skills, maybe? How about drawing, handwriting or visual perception? Read on to find some great activity ideas.


            Here are some fun Gingerbread Letter Tracing Sheets or Gingerbread Prewriting Strips or Gingerbread Letter Tracing Strips to work on pencil control, letter formation and letter size.

            Need a low prep Gingerbread Man Cutting activity to work on bilateral hand skills and eye hand coordination along with scissor grasp? Try this fun idea! Maybe cardboard is too difficult for your kiddos to cut, so simply change to paper or even sandpaper for a fun approach.

            Maybe using scissors is not the skill level of your child so try a Gingerbread Pom-Pom Match activity and use tongs as a pre-scissor skill.

            How about a Gingerbread Man I-Spy activity that is perfect for visual scanning and discrimination? It’s a simple print and go for therapeutic fun!

            Do you have a child working on spoon use? Try this fun Feed the Gingerbread Man printable to set up a low prep scoop and pour activity or use tongs to feed the gingerbread man.

            Maybe simple Gingerbread Theme Play Dough Mats are all you are looking for to have kiddos work on fine motor hand skills.

            Gingerbread Sensory Activities

            This post started with a list and now it’s ending with a list! There are always children who need the sensory input or need to work on sensory tolerance provided by multiple sensory-related activities. Take a look at the list below and click on each item to read the details of how to create these varied sensory goodies all within the gingerbread theme!

            Gingerbread Salt Dough
            Gingerbread Play Dough
            Gingerbread Slime
            Gingerbread Rice
            Gingerbread Oobleck
            Gingerbread Cloud Dough
            Gingerbread Salt Tray
            Gingerbread Paint
            Gingerbread Sensory Bottles
            Gingerbread Sensory Bags

            Now, run, run, as fast you can…and prepare some fun gingerbread activities for the kiddos in your life as all of these activities are super skill builders for children at all levels of development! There’s something about this time of year and gingerbread.  The scent of ginger in the kitchen makes this time of year so warm and cozy!  

            Gingerbread Christmas activities for kids and by kids




            gingerbread activities for kids

            Christmas Handwriting Activities

            Writing out that Christmas wish list is a difficult task that brings out tears instead of holiday excitement.  I’ve got a solution for your kiddo with handwriting difficulties: a packet of modified paper for all of the Christmas handwriting tasks that come up each year.  Use this handwriting pack to help kids who struggle with handwriting to participate in holiday traditions while even working on and developing their handwriting skills!
            Working on handwriting with kids this Christmas season? Grab your copy of the Christmas Modified Handwriting Packet. It’s got three types of adapted paper that kids can use to write letters to Santa, Thank You notes, holiday bucket lists and much more…all while working on handwriting skills in a motivating and fun way! Read more about the adapted Christmas Paper here.   

            Decorate a Gingerbread House

            Decorate a gingerbread house activity for kids

            Today, I have a fun occupational therapy teletherapy activity for kids to do this time of year. It’s an interactive therapy slide deck where kids can decorate a gingerbread house! With this digital gingerbread house activity, kids can move the gingerbread decorations onto the house to decorate in any way they wish! This interactive Google slide deck is a fun way to incorporate therapy goals with a fun holiday activity. Pair this Christmas activity with our gingerbread man slide deck for more therapy fun.

            Decorate a gingerbread house virtual activity for occupational therapy interventions and fun therapy ideas.

            Gingerbread activities are fun this time of year, and this one is a fun twist on holiday activities. Add this to your Christmas Occupational Therapy Activities.

            Decorate a Gingerbread House

            Many kids make a real gingerbread house this time of year. Some lucky kids make a cardboard gingerbread house! But, for virtual therapy sessions, I thought it would be fun to make a FUN activity for therapy in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I know this year has been difficult with virtual learning and learning all that teletherapy requires. It’s been a difficult year for all of us! So, maybe a fun therapy activity is just what the doctor ordered!

            Use this virtual gingerbread house activity in several different ways to incorporate occupational therapy goals in a way that kids won’t even realize they are working on specific goal areas.

            Gingerbread House Therapy Activity

            When kids move the interactive Google slide pieces, they can develop skills such as:

            • Eye-hand coordination
            • Visual scanning
            • Motor planning
            • Visual discrimination
            • Figure ground
            • Form constancy
            • Visual convergence
            • Visual attention
            • Laterality
            • Visualization
            • Finger isolation
            • Computer use/mouse use
            • Direction-following
            • Planning, prioritization, working memory, impulse control and other executive functions
            • Self-confidence

            As you can see, a “fun” therapy activity like decorating a gingerbread house can work on so many areas even if it seems like an extra activity or a reward activity!

            Use this decorate a gingerbread activity in occupational therapy teletherapy sessions.

            Decorate a Gingerbread House Teletherapy Activity

            This slide deck includes two different activities: One is a slide where students can move the candy decorations onto the slide deck.

            The second slide is a gingerbread house writing prompt. Kids can either type into the text box, or they can write their responses on paper and work on handwriting, letter formation, and other areas they might be addressing in therapy or distance learning.

            Tip: to revert the slide to it’s original state, use the history option. This is located on the top dashboard in the link, “last edit was”. When you click on that, you will see a list of edits made on the right side of your screen. Click on the edit titled, “Blank Gingerbread House”. This should move all of the movable candy pieces and decorations back to their original location on the slide deck. Note that you can delete edits from that list, so if several students are using the slides, you can keep the organization simple and delete edit versions that you no longer need.

            Another Google Slide ninja tip: Be sure to make a copy of this slide deck and not change the url to indicate “edit” at the end. When you make a copy of the slide deck onto your Google drive, you will end up with your own version that you are free to adjust in order to meet your student’s needs. By changing the url to “edit”, you can potentially mess up the original version that many other therapists and The OT Toolbox users are given.

            Gingerbread house writing prompts are in this decorate a  gingerbread house activity.

            Free Decorate a Gingerbread House Slide Deck

            Does this looks like a fun way to spend a therapy session while working on skills?

            You can grab a copy of this Google slide deck and use it to work on specific skills.

            Enter your email address below and you will receive a PDF containing a link to copy the slide deck onto your Google drive. Save that PDF file, because you can come back to it again and again and send it to the kids on your caseload (or classroom) so they can make their own copy on their Google drive.

            Please use the copy of the slide deck and do not change the url.

            Decorate a Digital Interactive Gingerbread House!

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              MORE VIRTUAL LEARNING SLIDE DECKS?

              Would you like more therapy slide decks? Grab the others to add to your therapy toolbox!

              Try this Gingerbread Man Slide Deck.

              Use this Holiday Cookies Activities to address working memory, visual perception, and direction following.

              Here is a Community Helpers Theme Slide Deck.

              Here is a Football Theme Slide Deck.

              Here is a slide deck for a Social Story for Wearing a Mask.

              Here is a Space Theme Therapy Slide Deck.

              Here is a Therapy Planning Interactive Slide Deck.

              Here is a Back to School Writing Activity Slide Deck.

              Here is an Alphabet Exercises Slide Deck.

              Here is a Self-Awareness Activities Slide Deck.

              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.

              Gingerbread Man Virtual Activity

              Gingerbread man virtual activities

              This gingerbread man virtual activity is perfect for occupational therapy teletherapy activities, and just one more teletherapy activity that we’ve got lined up for you here on The OT Toolbox. Add this Christmas activity to your therapy plans, along with some gingerbread man activities and maybe making a little gingerbread salt dough for holiday fun with gingerbread themed development and learning!

              This is a fun addition to our weekly therapy themes for themed occupational therapy sessions.

              Gingerbread Man Virtual Activity

              This slide deck covers various areas with a gingerbread theme:

              • Mindfulness
              • Fine Motor Skills
              • Handwriting
              • Gross Motor
              • Self-Regulation Check In

              Use this list and the gingerbread man activities on this slide deck to help kids develop certain skills in virtual therapy sessions.

              CGingerbread man Therapy SLIDE DECK

              If you’ve been following The OT Toolbox, then you may have seen a few of our other interactive slide decks. Therapists are LOVING these therapy slide decks for their themed activities that help kids build skills, while in virtual or hybrid environments.

              This gingerbread man therapy activity can be adjusted to meet the needs of your clients or students. Use it as an outline and add prompts, or adjust the activities as you need.

              Gingerbread Themed Mindfulness Activity

              Students can use the gingerbread man image with deep breathing activity to work on deep breaths in and deep breaths out as a mindfulness activity with a gingerbread man theme.

              Gingerbread Man Writing Prompts

              Included in this therapy slide deck are gingerbread words writing prompts. These are set up as a copying activity for students. Work on letter formation, legibility, and copying skills. Kids can use this to work on printed or cursive writing, based on their specific needs.

              Gingerbread man Visual Perception Activity

              Children will love the gingerbread man visual perception activity as they visually scan to count the number of each cookie. Kids can type right into the Google slide deck when they find the correct number of each gingerbread man.

              Gingerbread Man Fine Motor Activity

              The no-prep gingerbread man fine motor activity asks children to work on fine motor skills such as finger isolation, dexterity, motor planning, and eye-hand coordination as they spell the word “gingerbread man” in sign language.

              Gingerbread man Gross Motor Activity

              Next, kids can work on core strength, gross motor skills, balance, and motor planning with a gingerbread man gross motor activity. This activity asks children to move the movable slide pieces into the correct order. They can then act out the images and work on gross motor skills as well as sequencing.

              Gingerbread Man Self-Regulation Activity

              The final activity in this interactive slide deck is the self-regulation activity where children can move the gingerbread man to identify and match their body’s feelings. Work on self-regulation strategies and coping tools as needed.

              Does this looks like a fun way to spend a therapy session while working on skills?

              You can grab a copy of this Google slide deck and use it to work on specific skills.

              Enter your email address below and you will receive a PDF containing a link to copy the slide deck onto your Google drive. Save that PDF file, because you can come back to it again and again and send it to the kids on your caseload (or classroom) so they can make their own copy on their Google drive.

              Please use the copy of the slide deck and do not change the link.

              Get this Gingerbread Man Therapy Activities Slide Deck

                We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                MORE VIRTUAL LEARNING SLIDE DECKS?

                Would you like more therapy slide decks? Grab the others to add to your therapy toolbox!

                Here is a Community Helpers Theme Slide Deck.

                Here is a Football Theme Slide Deck.

                Here is a slide deck for a Social Story for Wearing a Mask.

                Here is a Space Theme Therapy Slide Deck.

                Here is a Therapy Planning Interactive Slide Deck.

                Here is a Back to School Writing Activity Slide Deck.

                Here is an Alphabet Exercises Slide Deck.

                Here is a Self-Awareness Activities Slide Deck.

                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.