eye hand coordination

Building Block Towers

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what type of skill is building towers of blocks or stacking blocks?

Building block activities like building block towers, and stacking blocks support development of many skills for young children. Development occurs through play and play is the job of the child. By using creative block activities in play, children can thrive in their skill development. We’ve shared specifics on fine motor skills using blocks, however, the skill-building doesn’t stop there. Here, we’ll discuss how and why building with blocks is so powerful in development of kids. We’re covering all things building block activities and exactly HOW to maximize skills like fine motor skills, visual perception, and even social emotional skills…all with toy blocks!

You’ll also love our DIY cardboard bricks activity to develop skills!

what type of skill is building towers of blocks or stacking blocks?

Building Blocks for Kids

Most of us have strolled through the toy aisle and found a set of building blocks for kids. Building blocks come in different sizes, colors, shapes, and even patterns. Did you know, however, that despite building block activities being one powerful way to build skills, that most sets are not played with once they are in the home?

That’s right…most of the time, those building block sets just sit they’re collecting dust. Today, we’re talking all about how to use building sets with kids to build skills!

Block activities to improve visual processing skills, fine motor skills, executive functioning and more.

The block set in this picture is our set of Lovevery blocks.

what type of skill is building towers of blocks or stacking blocks?

Toy blocks a are classic toy…and there is good reason. When kids build towers with blocks they are developing skills through play. Knocking blocks over is another set of skills, and stacking blocks to create shapes or forms (a train made from a handful of blocks, for example) is another set of skills. They are all related, however, and together, building towers with blocks results in powerful underlying skills that children can use in later years.

Research tells us that early experiences with blocks stimulate the development of spatial language, cognitive, and problem-solving skills. All of these are the literal building blocks for higher level tasks like reading, writing, executive functioning, math, and communication skills.

We talked previously about the connection between fine motor skills and math. Building blocks are a literal building block to math skills.

There’s more. By building with blocks, kids are establishing concepts of cause and effect (that tower falls down if I build it too high), reasoning (I need to place the blocks flat on each other so they don’t topple over), and creativity, self-esteem, fine motor STEM concepts, early math, language, and motor planning. Wow!

Let’s break this down further.

Building a tower with blocks

When a child builds a tower with blocks, there are several motor and cognitive skills at play:

  • Visual perception
  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Visual motor skills
  • Fine motor skills
  • Gross motor strength and core stability/strength (placing a block on a stack requires posture and positioning, especially as the tower gets taller)
  • Fine motor precision and graded release, or force modulation- It takes a gentle hand to place a block on a tower with precision and manual dexterity.

Knocking a tower over

Every baby, toddler, and preschooler knows the fun of knocking over a stack of blocks, particularly when it’s a sibling or friend’s tower! What’s happening here?

  • hand-eye coordination
  • Cause and effect
  • Self-confidence (I did that!)
  • Emotional practice- when another child’s tower is knocked over, there is sure to be an emotional response. This is not always a malicious act on the part of the tower-knocker! It is a repetition in what will happen however. We see facial expressions, emotions, and outbursts. This can be a good opportunity for problem solving, age-appropriate emotional regulation, personal space, body awareness, force modulation, and language skills.

Building things with blocks

Taking the block tower a step further, we can see more development and precision when creating shapes and forms with blocks. This is another set of skills that are expanded upon:

We’ve covered the fine motor development that occurs by playing with blocks. We’ve also addressed visual perception and block play.

Today, we are discussing the various ways to play with blocks that build more than wooden buildings…blocks build skills!

Block Activities for Toddlers

For the young child, presenting kids with just a jew blocks is the key to avoiding overwhelm. The nice thing about a variety set of blocks is that the various blocks can be used in different ways while working various skill areas.

During toddler play, young children develop many areas that impact functional skills and independence.

Try these block activities for toddlers to support development of skills. We used the Lovevery block set for these activity ideas.

Lovevery blocks for toddlers and preschoolers

One of the block sets in our Lovevery block set.

Sorting Shapes Block Activity– By sorting the colors and shapes of blocks, they are working on so many skills. Visual perceptual skill development begins at a young and age, including the ability to visually discriminate. We know that young babies are able to visually differentiate their mother from another female adult by visual assessment. The same skill can be used and honed with toy blocks

Use a small set of blocks and ask the child to pile clocks into sets according to color or shape. You would be surprised at a young child’s sorting ability and visual discrimination skills.

Sorting block shapes occurs around 15 months and at that time, a shape sorter is the perfect tool for encouraging matching. Visual discrimination skills will improve over the toddler years as your little one begins to recognize differences in shapes such as triangles and pentagons.

Sorting blocks is a literal building block for visual perceptual skills, math skills and executive functioning skills.

use blocks to work on fine motor skills and imagination

Pretend Play Block Activities– Children can use blocks as pretend play items as they interact with adults or other children. Giving blocks a name and a voice offers opportunities act out scenarios, express needs and wants, and practice communication.

By using blocks as pretend people, cars, trains, and animals, toddlers and preschoolers experiment with imagination and creativity. This is the beginning of social emotional skills.

Show your little one how they can set up a little family with the blocks as they talk to each other in words and phrases that your child knows. What a great way to work on communication and language.

building with blocks help development of visual motor skills and fine motor skills

Building Activities- The sky is the limit when it comes to building with blocks. You can show a young toddler how to stack two blocks while the develop the fine motor precision and refined grasp to place blocks and releasing their hand without knocking over the blocks.

Show your little one how to stack one or two blocks with specific colors. By asking them to copy your block form, not only are they working on fine motor skills, they are also building visual perceptual and visual motor skills.

Lovevery block set and block activities for kids

Use Blocks to Make Patterns- Building on the copying skills mentioned above, using blocks to copy and create patterns is an exercise in early visual motor skills, visual perception, and fine motor skills.

It’s also a fun way to introduce early math concepts. Little ones can copy and create patterns using different sizes, shapes, and colors of blocks.

Start out by creating a simple pattern with an AB pattern of blocks. Preschool children can use blocks to create ABB and ABC patterns too.

Gross Motor Skills with Blocks- Just because using blocks with preschoolers is a fun fine motor activity, there’s no reason to leave out the gross motor skill development. Use a small wagon, or create a pulling system to help kids with pushing, and moving the whole body while moving blocks from one place to another.

There is a reason why toddlers and preschoolers love to move their toys around in bags or carts…the proprioceptive input that they achieve by pushing or pulling a cart full of toys provides much needed sensory input that helps them organize and calm their bodies. Pretty cool, right?

Another gross motor coordination activity with blocks is a pretty simple one to set up. Use blocks to create obstacle courses, paths, and games. Kids can animal walk from block to block, tip toe between block paths, or transport blocks one by one in a relay race. Block play is so open-ended and can meet any child’s needs.

Build Letters with Blocks- Block activities for preschoolers can involve building and making letters. Letter recognition begins around 24-36 months and during that time is a great way to teach letter identification.

Use building blocks to help kids trace letters using a finger. Point out how the letters are formed and you can even build those letters higher with another layer. Here is information on how to build letters with correct formation.

Use blocks to make dominos for a fine motor activity

Stack and Knock Over- Building towers with blocks or a trail of dominos is one way to help kids better understand STEM concepts, cause and effect, and problem solving.

Ask your little one how they can make one block fall over by using another. See if they can figure out how far apart to place blocks to make them push one another over in a row of “dominos”. It’s a fantastic exercise in eye-hand coordination.

Building Borders- Use about 10-20 blocks to create small squares and rectangles to form a border or home for small toys, dolls, or other small toys. By creating a “home” for their toys, children can work on shape identification as well as various skills: eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills, fine motor skills, precision of grasp and release, bilateral coordination, and crossing midline.

Take the house building up a notch by adding layers to the walls. Children can begin to stack blocks and attempt to create higher walls without knocking them over.

Amazon links included below.

Lovevery Blocks are a new product created by the folks at Lovevery. The 70 piece set is valued at $90.00 and is perfect for kids aged 12-48+ months (and higher! My big kids are loving this set right now!)

Lovevery has thought of your child as they grow. The set includes an activity guide with over 20 block activities designed to build learning and developmental skills as they grow. These are beautifully made blocks that will grow with your child.

  • 70 wood pieces in a rainbow of 18 different hues
  • 18 different shapes and tools
  • Activity guide with block play ideas to promote skills like visual perception, eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and more
  • Arrives in a wooden storage box that converts into a pull car
  • Drawstring cotton bag for flexible storage
  • Solid wood blocks made of sustainably harvested FSC-certified wood
  • Water-based non-toxic paint and finishes
Lovevery building block activities for kids

Block Activities and Ideas

Also, check out these other toy suggestions based on therapeutic development through play.

  1. Fine Motor Toys 
  2. Gross Motor Toys 
  3. Pencil Grasp Toys 
  4. Toys for Reluctant Writers
  5. Toys for Spatial Awareness 
  6. Toys for Visual Tracking 
  7. Toys for Sensory Play 
  8. Bilateral Coordination Toys 
  9. Games for Executive Functioning Skills 
  10. Toys and Tools to Improve Visual Perception 
  11. Toys to Help with Scissors Skills
  12. Toys for Attention and Focus 

Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

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.

Forest Animals Shadow Matching Worksheet

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shadow matching worksheet with forest animals theme

Today we have a fun shadow matching worksheet for you. This forest animals activity is great for adding to a woodland animal theme, but more importantly, use the shadow worksheet to build visual perceptual skills in areas such as form constancy, visual memory, and more.

Shadow math
Free printable shadow matching worksheet with a forest animals theme.

Shadow matching worksheet

How are your visual perceptual skills?  

My learner can see, but can’t really SEE.  Wait, what?  Isn’t all “seeing” the same?  Not really.  There is seeing in the sense of visual acuity, how well the eyes can see items up close and at a distance.  Then there is seeing in the sense or perceiving an object. A person can have great visual acuity, 20/20 in fact, but have terrible visual perception.  In visual acuity the eye basically has to see the object.  In perception it not only has to see the object, but make sense of it. These vision issues are covered in our blog post on visual efficiency.

For example; I can see the puzzle pieces, but I can’t perceive that each piece becomes something whole, or which piece is the right shape.

This article does an excellent job of explaining visual perception, its effects, and how to improve this skill.

Armed with this information, it is critical to work on developing visual perceptual skills at an early age.  Visual perceptual skills begin in infancy with facial recognition, and by school age are necessary for reading, writing, and mathematics.

When it comes to visual perception, the OT Toolbox has you covered!  Check out the latest PDF free printable, Forest Animals Shadow Matching Worksheet.

You can get the shadow matching worksheet below by entering your email address into the form, or head to The OT Toolbox Member’s Club and going to the visual perception area. Use this item in a forest animals theme! And if you’re doing a forest animals theme, definitely be sure to add this Forest Animals Scissor Skills Activity. It’s a free set of printable puzzles kids can color, cut out, and put back together.

This is a great activity to build visual perceptual skills as early as preschool age. It addresses form constancy, figure ground, visual discrimination and visual attention. You can find other matching activities that support visual perceptual skill development in our free visual perception packet. It includes resources like this flower match-up, and outer space matching worksheets.

Ways to modify the shadow matching worksheet:

  • Laminate the page for reusability. This saves on resources, and many learners love to write with markers!
  • Print in black and white or color for different levels of difficulty
  • Cut the shapes and make a matching game instead of using a writing tool to draw lines
  • Talk about the animals, describe their characteristics, and give context clues to help your learner understand why certain pictures match

Other skills addressed using this forest animal activity sheet:

  • Attention
  • Behavior
  • Frustration tolerance
  • Task avoidance
  • Self regulation
  • Organization
  • Scanning
  • Fine motor skills – pencil grasp, drawing lines

In order to create a full lesson or treatment plan, therapists will need to be armed with more than just this one shadow matching worksheet.  The OT Toolbox offers several free printable items to work on visual perception, including:

If you are looking for all of your resources in one place, the OT Toolbox also offers a Visual Processing Bundle, featured here:

Visual Processing Bundle

What other tasks or games work on visual perception?

  • Puzzles or dot to dots
  • Working on spatial concepts such as “in, out, on, under, next to, up, down, in front of.”
  • Hidden pictures games 
  • The game Memory – matching hidden pictures
  • Word search puzzles and mazes
  • Construction tasks using legos or popsicle sticks
  • Copying 3D block designs
  • Cleaning and organizing – washing dishes, sorting silverware, sorting laundry, organizing spaces
  • There are several Ipad apps available if necessary, but I recommend using electronics with caution, and following up with a real life task.

Now you know  more about “seeing” better.  Before working on visual perceptual skills, make sure your learner has correct visual acuity.  Sometimes their struggle is due to acuity rather than perception.  In this case, a pair of eyeglasses is an easy fix!

Whether your learner is working on this shadow worksheet, or any other resources by the OT Toolbox, make learning fun and motivating.  There is nothing better than a learner who is excited to see what their therapist has to offer.

shadow worksheet, shadow matching worksheet, forest animals

Free Shadow Matching Worksheet

Want to work on shadow matching with a forest animals theme? This shadow worksheet supports development of visual perceptual skills through play! Perfect for adding to a forest animals weekly therapy theme. Enter your email address into the form below.

Or, if you are a Member’s Club member, be sure to log in and then head to the visual perception area of free downloads that are on The OT Toolbox website. Not a member? Join now.

Free Forest Animals Worksheets

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    *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.

    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.

    Sensory Activities For 1 Year Olds

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    sensory activities for 1 year olds

    This blog post is one of the oldest posts on the site, but the sensory activities for 1 year olds that we shared way back when are just as fun now! When this post was written, the babies that played with the balls and muffin tins were just 11 months and going on 1 year. Those little ones are now 11 years old! This is such a great brain building activity for babies that I wanted to reshare the idea for the latest crop of babies out there!

    If you are looking for more Baby activities, try the fun over on our Baby Play page. You’ll also find some great ideas for different ages on this post on baby sensory play.  We’ve been busy!

    This is my favorite activity to help babies learn colors.

    sensory activities for 1 year olds

    sensory activities for 1 year olds

    This sensory activity for 1 year olds is an easy activity to set up. You’ll need just a few items:

    • colorful balls
    • muffin tins

    You can add create another sensory activity for the babies with the same colorful balls and a cardboard box or basket. We also used an empty cereal box with hole cut into the sides.

    Each sensory activity here supports development of eye-hand coordination, grasp and release, core strength and stability in dynamic sitting, positioning and seated play on the floor (floor play).

    Baby and Toddler Brain Building activity using balls and a muffin tin. Perfect for developing fine motor skills, visual perceptual skills in an active activity for sitting and mobile babies.

    An important consideration is the use of baby positioners as they can impact powerful movement-based play in babies.

    The best for sensory play for 1 year olds is just playing on the floor! There are so many benefits to playing on the floor with a basket of balls and a few muffin tins.

    Baby and Toddler Brain Building activity using balls and a muffin tin. Perfect for developing fine motor skills, visual perceptual skills in an active activity for sitting and mobile babies.

    What do babies love to do? Take things out and put them back into containers.

    We have a bunch of different colored and sized balls that are so fun to play with in so many ways. I had my niece and nephew here one day and we needed something different to do. My nephew and my Baby Girl are both 11 months old and they absolutely loved this play activity! 

    I pulled out my muffin tins and they had a blast putting the balls into the tins, taking them out, putting them back into the box, and pulling them out again!

    Little Guy (my 3 year old ) loved joining in too. Really, who could resist playing with all of these colorful balls???

    Peek a Boo Sensory Activity for 1 year olds

    What else do babies love? The peek-a-boo game!

    It’s at this age (around one year) that babies often struggle with separation anxiety when being dropped off at a caregiver’s when separated from their parents or caregivers. You will even see signs of separation angst when a parent goes into another room, which can especially happen when the baby is tired.

    The next sensory activity for baby was a fun one!

    We had an empty cereal box that I cut circles into. They had a ton of fun putting the balls into a hole, and pulling a different one out as the box moved around…there were a lot of little hands in there moving that box around 🙂

    The it’s-there-then-it’s not of a great game of peek-a-boo (or peek-a-ball in this case!) is awesome in building neural pathways of the brain. 

     

     

    More sensory activities for babies

    Other sensory activities for 1 year olds and babies include using small baskets or boxes to transfer the balls from one container to the other.

    Transferring from box to box…working those hands to pick up different sized/weighted/textured balls.  Dropping the ball to see what happens is so predictable, but it is important in learning for babies. Just like when baby drops the cup from her highchair a million times…

    We had a ball!

    (couldn’t resist that one…heehee)

    Baby and Toddler Brain Building activity using balls and a muffin tin. Perfect for developing fine motor skills, visual perceptual skills in an active activity for sitting and mobile babies.

    Need more sensory ideas for 1 year olds? Try these:

    • Sensory tables- put interesting toys, textures, scoops, and containers on a low table like a coffee table. The new cruiser or early walker can stand at the table and explore the textures
    • Messy play on a highchair- Strap baby in and encourage messy food play. Thing about apple sauce, pudding, or mashed potatoes.
    • Textured fabrics- Put a bunch of fabric scraps into a box and invite the one year old to pull them out and put them back in.
    • Play with cups and spoons– with supervision- This is a great activity for eye hand coordination skills.
    • Use a baby gym to encourage reach and play in various positions.

    Easy Fine Motor Precision Activities

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    Precision activities

    Helping kids develop and strengthen fine motor skills is essential for functional tasks, and this resource on fine motor precision activities supports that development. Here, we are addressing what fine motor precision means and specific activities to do with kids to help with grasp manipulation, dexterity, and graded movements like managing a zipper, buttons, and adjusting a pencil within the fingers to write and erase. These are just a few examples of how grasp and release activities support fine motor skill development. Let’s break this down…

    Fine Motor Precision Activities

    Before we get to the fun stuff…the actual fine motor activities that support graded grasp and release, manipulation of objects within the hand, and various amounts of pressure and precision needed to perform functional tasks, let’s cover exactly what precision skills look like, what the term means, and why this area of development is so important.

    At the bottom of this post, you’ll find specific strategies to support precision development so that kids can complete these tasks and not fumble with objects in the hands.

    A good place to start is with our resource listing games with paper clips as a tool to support precision and refined dexterity.


    This post is part of my 31 Days of Occupational Therapy series where you can find 30 more ideas like this one with easy treatment materials.

    Easy precision in grasp, release, and rotation in fine motor skills for kids. Precision is so important in dexterity in many skills like handwriting, cutting with scissors, and everything done with the hands!

    What is Fine Motor Precision?

    Fine Motor Precision refers to the ultra-fine motor skills in the hand, broken down into areas: grasp and release, fine motor rotation, in-hand manipulation, and proprioception. Together, these precision skills enable us to pick up an object with the right amount of pressure and motor dexterity so you can grasp the object accurately taking eye-hand coordination skills into consideration. After grasping the object without overshooting or missing the item, it is necessary to position or rotate the object within the hand

    Let’s cover each of those areas in greater detail below.

    But first, it’s important to note that a child’s ultra fine motor dexterity is dependent on bigger things.  And by that, I mean that in order for a child to use their hands super fine motor tasks, they first must demonstrate strength and control of their core, shoulder, and arm.  If any of these areas are not fully developed in stability or control, then the child will show compensatory strategies as they try to use their hands in handwriting or cutting with scissors. Gross motor coordination is a great place to start if precision skills seem to be “off” or delayed. Related to that is the key input of body awareness and the impact of heavy work on more distal motor coordination skills.

    One way to remember this is this:

    “Proximal stability allows for distal mobility.”

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L

    Before a child can manipulate and move an object with dexterity and refined motor skills, there needs to be a base of support in stability in the core and upper extremity, mobility and coordination in the proximal joints (shoulder before elbow…elbow before wrist…and wrist before hand).

    Breaking it down further, arch development and strengthening of the intrinsic muscles in the hands are both areas that are essential for precision in the fingertips.

    The following resources will be a great way to break these areas of development down:

    Fine Motor Precision

    Kids and fine motor skills go hand-in-hand. (That is my funny-OT attempt at a fine motor skills joke!) But really, fine motor skills are a staple of a child’s development and are essential to function.

    Precision occurs with development of grasp when child to use the pads of the index finger, middle finger, and thumb to manipulate objects with opposition.  I talked a little about strengthening these types of grasp patterns.  

    Today, I’m sharing ways to work on the controlled use of these fine motor patterns in controlled dexterity tasks.  The precision of grasp and release is essential for very small motor movements in activities like picking up beads and releasing items like blocks with precision. This is broken down into areas of dexterity that all work together:

    • Grasp and release (we’ll break these two areas down even further)
    • Fine motor rotation
    • In-hand manipulation
    • Muscular force, or the amount of force applied through the muscles in small motor use, also referring to proprioceptive input through the hands and fingers.

    What is precision of grasp and release?

    Precision in grasp, manipulation, and release of small objects makes the difference between fumbling with zippers and buttons and efficiently grading movements in very small dexterity patterns like threading a string through a needle (kid-friendly, of course!) 

    Precision in grasp is related to the picking up of items.  A graded lateral grasp is needed to cut with scissors and only squeeze the scissors halfway shut for accurate cutting lines in some situations.  Around 3-4 years, a preschool aged child typically develops a greater variety of grasping patterns, including precision.  They begin to grade their scissor strokes so that they can cut a line or shape without opening and closing the scissors completely.  Grasps in babies typically begin with a raking motion and work towards a pincer grasp.  Precision in this skill occurs when the child is able to pick up very small items like beads with accuracy and graded movements.  

    Precision release is needed for stacking blocks without toppling them over, placing cards on a pile, opening scissors just a small amount, or placing small beads into a bowl.  Precision is needed for a child to let go of an item in a controlled manner.  If they are not exercising precision in release, you might see them rolling or tossing an object as they let go.  They will knock over a stack of blocks, or over open the scissors when cutting lines, making their accuracy very choppy.   

    Precision in rotation is another task that children develop around age 5. Rotation is a portion of in-hand manipulation and seen when turning a coin on the edges and the child rotates it in a circular motion.  Precision in rotation also occurs when holding a pencil between the fingers and the child rotates it over and over. 

    Easy precision in grasp, release, and rotation in fine motor skills for kids. Precision is so important in dexterity in many skills like handwriting, cutting with scissors, and everything done with the hands!

    One way to develop these skills is through practice! One precision grasp and release activity I love is using popsicle sticks in various colors. You can stack the popsicle sticks so they build a wall without toppling over. Using the different colors allows kids to see how the sticks are aligned by offering contrasting colors. If they see a bit of yellow stick under the green stick, then they need to adjust the top stick with refined motor movements.

    Grade this activity for younger kids or those developing skills:

    • Simply place a single popsicle stick down on a table surface. Then pick it up.
    • Younger kids can stack just one stick on top of another.
    • Match colors.
    • Make a wall of popsicle sticks to develop more refined precision skills.
    • Place and sort popsicle sticks into a container on the vertical position (shown below)

    To practice precision in grasp and release, I showed my preschooler how to pick up and stack Popsicle sticks.  Picking up the sticks required a tip-to-tip grasp.  We used different colored Popsicle sticks for my 4 year old and my 17 month old.  

    The preschooler was able to pick up the sticks accurately without pushing other sticks around.  She could grasp the specific stick she wanted by an end or middle accurately.  

    The toddler grabbed the sticks with a pincer grasp, but showed much less accuracy.  

    Easy precision in grasp, release, and rotation in fine motor skills for kids. Precision is so important in dexterity in many skills like handwriting, cutting with scissors, and everything done with the hands!

    To advance this popsicle stick sorting, the next step is precision in rotation. This can be addressed by asking the individual to sort popsicle sticks into containers.

    Different small cups (Dixie cups would work) but we used a popsicle mold to encourage a single hand to hold the mold as the assisting hand.

    We used an empty Popsicle mold to place the sticks into the cups.  What a great way to practice grasp precision!  We worked on sorting the craft sticks by color and had to hold the mold with one hand to work on bilateral hand coordination.  For the activity, we placed the mold on the floor and sorted the colored sticks without knocking the Popsicle mold over. Both the preschooler and the Toddler loved this simple activity.  

    Easy precision in grasp, release, and rotation in fine motor skills for kids. Precision is so important in dexterity in many skills like handwriting, cutting with scissors, and everything done with the hands!

     Another precision in release activity was simply stacking the craft sticks.  The four year old could do this, but used her non-dominant hand to stabilize. 

    Precision in in-hand manipulation- In hand manipulation skills include different components as well. In our blog post, we cover rotation, refined movements within the hand, and how to actually move objects from the fingertips to the palm and ice versa. These are precision skills at work!

    Muscular force- This refers to knowing how much force to use to pick something up. When it comes to muscular force in fine motor skills this can mean the difference between overshooting an object when picking something up, fumbling with small objects, pinching things with too much force, or dropping items because not enough force is applied.

    As described above, muscular force also refers to the amount of force applied through the muscles in small motor use, also referring to proprioceptive input through the hands and fingers. Another term for this concept is force modulation, or graded force.

    Muscular force is a must for picking objects up, putting them back down, manipulating them within the hand, and rotation.

    We go into greater detail on the proprioceptive input in our blog post on proprioception. In summary, muscular force means the ability to inherently know how much force is needed to pick up and hold and manipulate a ladybug as opposed to a heavier rock. Too much force and the bug is squashed. Not enough force, and the rock slips through the fingers. Another example is pressing too hard when writing and holding a pencil. This experience and muscle knowledge happens through play!

    As you can see, all of these concepts work together to enable precision skills in functional tasks!

    Precision Activities

    We’ve covered a couple of precision activities related to grasp and release and rotation, but let’s go over a few more that include all aspects of precision, including muscular force activities and how these are related to functional participation.

    Easy precision in grasp, release, and rotation in fine motor skills for kids. Precision is so important in dexterity in many skills like handwriting, cutting with scissors, and everything done with the hands!

    This post contains affiliate links.

    Looking for more ways to practice precision in grasp, release, and rotation with Occupational Therapy students or your kids?  Try some of these ideas.  While they are not all free (going with our series this month!), they are creative ways to practice precision.  

    • Precision engineering activities that use play dough and blocks to work on force modulation in the hands as well as eye-hand coordination.
    • Small motor pegboards like this precision pegboard activity combining crafts with fine motor skills
    • Perler beads- Try manipulating Perler Fuse Beads with Pegboards (affiliate link) for precision in grasp and release. These pegboards are very small and work on very fine dexterity with precision. 
    • Stamp sets (affiliate link)- Playing with stamps is a good way to practice graded grasp and release. Use these stamp blocks to accurately stamp within a specific area on a page. Draw squares or circles and the child needs to stamp in those areas. 
    • Tweezer games and activities like this Bed Bugs Game (affiliate link) encourage a precise and graded grasp and release of the small game pieces using tweezers. This game is on my must-buy list for Christmas this year! 
    • This Avalanche Fruit Stand (affiliate link) for another fun way to practice precision with a pair of tweezers. Stack the fruit with precision of grasp and release in a fun and colorful way! 
    • The Perfection Game (affiliate link) is another game that is great for precise grasp and release. Encourage kids to rotate the pieces by twirling the peg of the game pieces to work on precision in rotation as well. 
    • Jenga (affiliate link) is a precision work out in grasp and release of the blocks. My kids love this game!
    • Stacking blocks is a precision pattern activity that is perfect for working on graded grasp and release. 
    • This Tobbles stacking toy (affiliate link) is a version of that, with bright and bold colors. Try stacking and taking these balls down without knocking them over! 
    • Sometimes, simple is best! These Wooden Color Cubes (affiliate link) are perfect for simple block building and stacking while working on precision of grasp and release. 
    • Kids need precision of the thumb, too. These Slide Puzzles (affiliate link) are not only fun, they work on small motor skills needed for graded movements in cutting and pencil control.
    Easy precision in grasp, release, and rotation in fine motor skills for kids. Precision is so important in dexterity in many skills like handwriting, cutting with scissors, and everything done with the hands!

    It’s my hope that this post and ideas were helpful and a resource for you!  Looking for more fine motor activities for functional grasp?  Try these: 

    Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

    Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

    Letters Fine Motor Kit
    Kit de motricidad fina de verano
    Summer Fine Motor Kit
    Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
    Space Fine Motor Kit
    Spring fine motor kit
    Valentines Day fine motor kit
    winter fine motor kit
    Winter Fine Motor Kit

    Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

    Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

    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.



    Dinosaur Free Printable For Visual Perception

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    dinosaur free printable

    If you know a kiddo that loves all things dinosaurs, than this dinosaur free printable is for you! It’s a visual perception activity designed to develop and support visual perceptual skills such as visual discrimination, form constancy, visual closure, and other visual processing skills (visual tracking for one!) To grab this free printable dinosaur activity, read on! Add this resource to your dinosaur activities for an OT theme.

    Dinosaur free printable page

    Dinosaur Free Printable

    If you are working on the visual perceptual skills needed for letter formation, handwriting, or reading, then you are probably loving the recent free visual perception printable sheets that we’ve been sharing on the site.  

    This visual perception worksheet is great for working on skills like visual motor skills, visual scanning, visual figure ground, visual discrimination, spatial reasoning, and visual memory.  Also, it’s a great way to develop pencil control by moving the pencil around obstacles as kids connect the matching pairs of dinosaurs.

    Visual perceptual skills are needed for so many functional skills. You’ll find easy and fun ways to work on visual perceptual skills through play here. 

    Kids will love this free visual perception printable sheet with a dinosaur theme

    How to use this dinosaur printable

    This printable dino activity can be used in many different ways to support hands-on learning.

    Print the page and slide it into a plastic page protector.  Kids can then use a dry erase marker to work on the page over and over again.  

    Try these tips to use the worksheet in different ways:

    • Connect the dinosaurs with a dry erase marker
    • Place play dough balls on the matching dinosaurs
    • Use finger paints to place a fingerprint on each matching dinosaur
    • Play I Spy: Ask users to find an object that has specific colors or other details

    OR, use it right on your tablet.  You won’t be able to draw a line to connect matching dinosaurs, but you will be able to save the ink as kids use their finger to connect the matching dinosaurs.  They will still address those visual perceptual skills by using the freebie on a tablet’s screen.

    Then, use this activity along with other dinosaur activities to support development of other skills. Other dinosaur themed ideas to use along with this printable activity include:

    Free Dinosaur Printabale

    To get your copy of this printable page, enter your email address into the form below. The printable is part of our 24 page free visual perception packet, so you can use all of the items in the packet along with this dinosaur activity. Just print and go!

    OR, if you are an OT Toolbox Member, you can log in and go to our toolboxes and access this resource along with every other freebie here on the website. For this particular tool, head to our visual tools page.

    Look for more free visual perception worksheets like this one, coming soon to the site.  

    You can check out our space theme visual perception free printable, or if you sign up for the freebie below, you’ll be directed to a page with all of the free printables in one place.    

    These visual perception apple theme shape stamps are a perfect way to work on visual perceptual skills and fine motor skills with DIY stampers.

    Be sure to try some of these pencil control activities to help with the visual motor skills needed for handwriting and to challenge a child you know with more activities just like the dinosaur free printable.  

    FREE VISUAL PERCEPTION PRINTABLE PACKET

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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.

      Pasta Threading Activity

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      pasta threading activity

      This pasta threading activity is a fine motor task that supports development of many skills. If you are looking for toddler activities, preschool activities, or ideas for older kids to develop motor control and coordination, pasta threading is the way to go!

      Pasta threading is a fun fine motor activity for toddlers and preschoolers.

      Pasta Threading

      First, you might be wondering what is “pasta threading”? If you have Pinterest, you may have seen activities where kids thread pasta onto straws placed into play dough. This is one form of pasta threading.

      Another way to thread pasta as a fine motor activity is to simply create a pasta necklace by threading the pasta onto string or yarn. This is a classic craft that helps develop many skill areas.

      By threading pasta, kids develop skills in areas such as:

      • Fine motor skills
      • Hand- Eye coordination
      • Creativity
      • Wrist stability and extension (needed for precision in the fingertips)
      • Attention and Concentration
      • Feeling of success and achievement when completed

      We’ve covered other threading activities in the past, including this gross motor threading activity. Working from a larger aspect like using whole-body movements is a great precursor to the more refined fine motor work needed for threading pasta noodles.

      Pasta Threading Activity

      Similar to stringing beads as a therapy tool, threading pasta can be graded in many aspects to support the individual needs of the user.

      1. Modify the material– You can stringing pasta onto cord, thick yarn, straws, or even lightweight string.
      2. Modify the pasta size– Use a larger noodle or a smaller noodle. You can target in-hand manipulation skills, pincer grasp, and arch development by using different sizes of noodle.
      3. Modify the positioning– Ask users to thread onto a free lying piece of string. Or place straws or skewers into playdough to change the positioning and shoulder involvement.

      Depending on the needs of the individual, you can adapt or modify these materials. Use a thicker straw or a smaller straw cut into pieces. Position the straws on angles or all in one direction.

      There are so many ways to change this single activity to support a variety of needs and skill levels.

      To complete this fine motor activity, you need only a few materials:

      • plastic straw or straight spaghetti
      • tubular pasta
      • play dough

      Be sure to incorporate the play dough into the activity so that the user has ownership in setting up the activity. There are also the added fine motor benefits of play dough as well.

      How to thread pasta

      To set up this fine motor activity, follow these steps:

      • flatten out play dough on to table
      • stick the straw/spaghetti into the play dough
      • thread the pasta onto the straw

      Pasta threading is a great fine motor activity that supports so many areas, and can easily be set up at home.

      Looking for more ways to develop fine motor skills and visual motor skills?

      Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

      Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

      Letters Fine Motor Kit
      Kit de motricidad fina de verano
      Summer Fine Motor Kit
      Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
      Space Fine Motor Kit
      Spring fine motor kit
      Valentines Day fine motor kit
      winter fine motor kit
      Winter Fine Motor Kit

      Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

      Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

      Spring Worksheets for Fine Motor Skills and Handwriting

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      Spring worksheets

      How would you like some free Spring worksheets? Today, I have a fun freebie that I’m excited to get into the hands of little ones…our popular fine motor skills handwriting worksheets! These fine motor precision worksheets are actually Spring themed worksheets, BUT they can definitely be used year-round to work on handwriting and fine motor precision. You can get your hands on these printable Spring exercises and help little ones develop stronger hands!

      This is a great letter formation worksheet option: focus on one letter per sheet or use a page to write one letter based on the items in the picture.

      Spring worksheets to help kids with fine motor skills, handwriting, and letter formation.

      Spring Worksheets

      These free Spring worksheets for fine motor and handwriting skills are one of our popular printables for precision and dexterity (and handwriting). Here’s why: These Spring worksheets are a powerhouse in building fine motor skills. Kids can use play dough to build the fine motor strength they need to hold and write with a pencil, color, and complete fine motor activities all with more dexterity, precision, and endurance!

      We have so many themed fine motor worksheets like this one in our OT Toolbox Member’s Club. You can log in, click the ones you need and print them right away, without entering your email address for each printable.

      These printable worksheets are great for using in school based occupational therapy sessions, because you can cover a variety of OT goal areas:

      • Fine motor skills
      • Eye-hand coordination
      • Handwriting
      • Letter formation
      • Letter spacing
      • Letter size
      • Coloring

      Spring Worksheets for Fine Motor Skills

      Here’s how these Spring printable pages work: Kids can first roll a die (Great for in-hand manipulation, arch development, and separation of the sides of the hand!)

      Then, they can use play dough to create that same number of balls of play dough. Be sure to ask kids to use just the fingertips for this part of the activiyt. Using the fingertips to roll balls of play dough is a powerful strengthening activity.

      Using the finger tips and thumb of one hand at a time to roll a play dough ball is an intrinsic muscle workout that builds the muscles of the thenar eminence, hypothenar eminence, the interossei, and the lumbricals. All of these muscle groups make up the intrinsic hand muscles which are those located within the hands.  

      We talked about this more in a post on building intrinsic hand strength using play dough.

      Read about more fine motor activities using play dough here.

      Spring worksheets for Handwriting

      After working out the hands and getting them warmed-up for writing, the page asks kids to then write on the lines. I’ve left the writing portion open-ended so that kids can write words, letters, numbers, or sentences, based on their level, skills, and age.

      The Spring themed worksheets come with a flower style and a fun snail activity page. But, each printable sheet is available in three different writing lines styles:

      • Double ruled lines
      • Single ruled lines
      • Double ruled lines with a highlighted bottom space

      Print off these worksheets, slide them into a page protector sheet and start building those fine motor skills!

      Free Spring Worksheet Set

      Want to add this set of worksheets to your therapy toolbox? Enter your email address into the form below to access. NOTE- Due to changes in security levels, users have reported trouble accessing free resources when using a school district or organization email address. Consider using a personal email address.

      FREE Spring Worksheets for Fine Motor and Handwriting

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        For more play dough activities and fine motor worksheets, grab the Spring Fine Motor Kit:

        Spring Fine Motor Kit

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

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

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

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

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

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

        Want to add this resource to your therapy toolbox so you can help kids thrive? Enter your email into the form below to access this printable tool.

        This resource is just one of the many tools available in The OT Toolbox Member’s Club. Each month, members get instant access to downloadable activities, handouts, worksheets, and printable tools to support development. Members can log into their dashboard and access all of our free downloads in one place. Plus, you’ll find exclusive materials and premium level materials.

        Level 1 members gain instant access to all of the downloads available on the site, without enter your email each time PLUS exclusive new resources each month.

        Level 2 members get access to all of our downloads, exclusive new resources each month, PLUS additional, premium content each month: therapy kits, screening tools, games, therapy packets, and much more. AND, level 2 members get ad-free content across the entire OT Toolbox website.

        Join the Member’s Club today!

        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.

        Play Dough Recipe Without Cream of Tartar

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        playdough without cream of tartar

        This play dough recipe without Cream of Tartar is one of our favorite playdough recipes because it omits cream of tartar, so the dough ingredients are commonly found in the home.

        If you’ve been following this site over the years, you’ve seen many of our play dough recipes, one of them being this play dough recipe without cream of tartar. This easy play dough recipe is one that kids can help to make, and to use in occupational therapy interventions. Read more on how play dough benefits child development, and making the play dough is half of the fun!

        Use this homemade play dough without cream of tartar to work on fine motor skills, executive function, cognitive development, and more.

        Homemade Play Dough without cream of tartar

        Homemade play dough is a childhood staple. When kids are part of the playdough making process, they are active in the kitchen and can incorporate many executive functioning tasks as well as other skill-building.

        But most homemade play dough recipes include cream of tartar as an ingredient. However, purchasing this ingredient is just expensive, and there really aren’t many common uses for cream of tartar except in the playdough recipes.

        So, we decided to do some experimentation and come up with a play dough recipe that omits cream of tartar.

        Our recipe uses a common ingredent that is inexpensive, but also can be used in other kitchen recipes. So, when you purchase this ingredient, you can use it for other recipes as well, making the purchase a good buying decision.

        So? What is our substitute for cream of tartar in homemade playdough?

        Lemon juice!

        Lemon juice makes a great substitute for cream of tartar in homemade play dough recipes because it’s an easy to find ingredient in most stores and you can use it in so many other recipes. Plus, the lemon juice adds pliability to the play dough just like cream of tartar does.

        why is play dough good for child development

        Over the years, we’ve used many ingredients to make play dough as a sensory tool. These are all wonderful ways to incorporate various sensory input through sensory play.

        One of our most popular playdough recipes is our crayon play dough recipe. But other homemade dough recipes you’ll love include:

        All of these various doughs offer sensory experiences through play, using different scents and textures. We’ve strived to create sensory tools through easily accessible and inexpensive materials, mainly using ingredients that are on hand in the kitchen.

        When sensory and fine motor play is easily accessible, kids develop skills!

        And, playdough is a great tool for developing math skills, too.

        Making homemade play dough is a great occupational therapy activity for the clinic, school-based session, or a home recommendation to carryover skills in a family time activity.

        Play dough and hand strength

        Play dough is a fantastic easy and inexpensive tool to work on hand strength and pinch strength. We previously covered over 30 ways to improve fine motor skills with play dough.

        These are great ways to use playdough can be used as a warm up activity or to incorporate palm strengthening exercises into therapy through play.

        Another aspect of homemade playdough and fine motor skills includes the mixing and kneading aspects. Pouring, scooping, stirring, and kneading are all very functional tasks that

        Whether you are developing fine motor skills, addressing cognitive skills like direction following, or incorporating sensory play into occupational therapy interventions, a simple homemade play dough is the way to go. Play dough has many benefits and there are many ways to use a simple dough recipe into therapy.

        Playing with playdough improves fine motor skills such as:

        • Pinch strength
        • Eye-hand coordination
        • Intrinsic muscle strengthening
        • Separation of the sides of the hand
        • Pincer grasp
        • Opposition
        • Tripod grasp
        • Wrist extension
        • Bilateral coordination

        All of this occurs through play!

        Try these fine motor activities using play dough:

        1. This homemade play dough recipe is great for easy play dough activities like our play dough snakes.
        2. Match colored paper clips with play dough. This is a great pincer grasp, tripod grasp, and separation of the sides of the hand activity.
        3. Improve thumb opposition and address a thumb wrap pencil grasp using play dough and beads in this thumb IP joint activity.
        4. Explore all of the fine motor play dough activities.
        ice cream play dough mat

        Grab our free play dough mats available here on the website (or log into your Member’s Club dashboard to grab these in an instant download).

        play dough and cognitive development

        Play dough can be a great cognitive skill tool, too.

        Play dough is a multi-step task. It involves following a recipe, following directions, planning, prioritization, impulse control, working memory, and other executive functioning skills.

        Play dough is a great way to develop executive functioning skills while cooking.

        Kids can work on safety skills while working in the kitchen to prepare this recipe. There is the heat of the play dough after cooking, and stove safety to consider.

        Some users would benefit from using a stove to make the playdough and others may benefit by using an electric skillet in place of the stove.

        So, let’s get to the recipe making with our play dough recipe (without cream of tartar)!

        Playdough without cream of tartar

        To make this playdough without cream of tartar, first gather your ingredients, cooking items, and get started. This is a great play dough recipe to make with kids!

        You’ll need just a few ingredients in this playdough recipe withoug Cream of Tartar:

        • 3 cups flour
        • 1 and 1/2 cup salt
        • 3 and 1/4 cup water
        • 3 Tbsp oil
        • 3 Tbsp lemon juice
        • food coloring

        How to make playdough without cream of tartar:

        1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, using a fork to stir. Add the water, oil, and lemon juice and stir until the dough pulls together. Move the wet playdough lump to a sauce pan and cook over low heat for 3-4 minutes until the dough forms. 

        2. Plop the dough onto a clean surface and knead for a few minutes. 

        3. Separate the play dough into portions and add food coloring.  Knead the dough to mix the food coloring. If you are making just one color of play dough, you can add the food coloring to the dough before cooking.

        Many times, we want a variety of play dough colors, though, so mixing the food coloring in after the dough has been cooked is one way to get several colors of play dough.

        4. Remember that the dough will be very hot to the touch after cooking. Use a dishtowel to mix the baggie so the color is absorbed throughout the dough.

        5. Keep the homemade play dough in covered containers/sealed plastic bags.  Dough does not need to be refrigerated.  

        Playdough with cream of tartar

        If you do have a jar of cream of tartar, use this play dough recipe:

        • 3 cups flour
        • 1 and 1/2 cup salt
        • 3 and 1/4 cup water
        • 3 Tbsp oil
        • 2 Tbsp cream of tartar
        • food coloring

        The same cooking process listed above can be used to make this dough recipe, using cream of tartar instead of lemon juice.

        How to get Vivid Colors in Homemade PlayDough

        Want the secret to really bold and vivid colors?  Use (Amazon affiliate link) Wilton’s gel food coloring.  I have a bunch of these that I use for my cookies, and Big Sister had fun picking out the colors she wanted to mix up.  

          A lot of times, you can find these color sets on clearance (plus add coupons) for a Great discount!

        Little Guy had SO MUCH FUN playing with little straw pieces in the red play dough.   What a great

        Fine Motor Activity for a three year old

        This easy safe play dough recipe is great for toddlers and preschoolers, but also younger if closely watching young children.

        We used the play dough recipe above, and some cut straw pieces to create a toddler-friendly play dough activity that builds fine motor skills.

        Cut the straws into pieces. You can get preschoolers involved with this part of the activity for a scissor skills task.

         Then, show your toddler how to poke the straws into the play dough.

        He played with this one for a long time…hiding the straw bits in the dough, poking circles, bending the bendable part of the straw… So much fun!   

        Playdough Play Mats

        Use this easy playdough recipe (without cream of tartar) with our playdough mats to add play dough as a handwriting warm-up and then incorporate handwriting skills!

        play dough mat writing prompts
        Play Dough Roll and Write set

        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.

        Icicle Winter Scissor Skills Activity

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        Paper icicle craft

        This paper icicle craft is a fun one for wintertime occupational therapy activities. If you are working on Scissor skills, cutting icicles into paper is a great fine motor task that builds eye-hand coordination, crossing midline, and visual motor skills to cut basic shapes. Be sure to add this paper icicle template for more tools for your winter occupational therapy toolbox.

        Take fine motor work a step further by grabbing our new winter crossword puzzle to incorporate a whole winter theme.

        Paper icicle craft that helps kids develop scissor skills, a great preschool craft for winter.

        Paper Icicle Craft

        Do you have a little one who is just learning to master scissors?  Scissor Skills for children who have never picked up a pair of scissors before can be very daunting.  Frustrations can build and the next thing you know, your little sweetheart is spiking the scissors across the table!  

        Kids learn all things at different paces.  Every developmental milestone and functional activity are achieved at different paces. 

        Scissor use is no different.  Kids as young as two can start to snip paper (and probably with an awkward-two handed grasp on the scissors!)  And as their fine motor skills develop, will achieve more and more accuracy with scissor use.   

        This winter themed Icicle cutting activity is a great beginner project for new scissor users.  The strait cuts, bold lines, and even paper type are good modifications for a new little scissor-hands!  

        Icicle Craft Beginner Scissor Skills Activity

        Winter Icicle Craft

        Preschoolers are just beginning to gain more control over scissors.  Preschool activities like this icicle craft at the way to go when it comes to building motor skills.

        Strait lines are the perfect way to gain confidence when they are learning to cut…and ensure that they’ll want to pick up the scissors and try another craft again soon!  We started out with nice strait lines on these icicles.  Little Guy could cut the whole way across the page without needing to rotate the page to cut a curve or angle.

        Draw icicles on paper to work on cutting with scissors. Great for winter occupational therapy activities.


        Note: This post contains affiliate links.

        How to Modify this Icicle Craft

        The smallest icicle could have been a harder task for him to cut, if he turned the whole page around like he started out doing. 

        We used a few different strategies to scaffold this paper icicle craft:

        • Cut through the page instead of turning around corners
        • Adjust the paper weight to a thicker resistance
        • Thicker cutting lines
        • Trials with thinner lines to carryover the task with practice
        • Verbal and visual cues

        I prompted him to start one line from the edge of the paper and then instead of rotating the whole page (which would have probably given him a big chopped off icicle point), I showed him how to start the other side from the edge as well.  He was much more accurate with the lines and wanted to keep going!

        We had two different types of paper for our icicles.  The first set was drawn on a sheet of white cardstock. 

        Cutting from this thicker paper is a great beginning step for new scissor users and a modification often used for kids with fine motor difficulties. 

        The thicker paper requires slower snips and allows for more accuracy.  I also drew the icicles on the cardstock with nice thick lines.  This gave Little Guy more room to cut within the lines and allowed for less line deviation. 

        The second set of icicles were drawn with thinner lines on printer paper.  After practicing on the first set, he was game to cut more  icicles.  The thinner paper and lines requires more control of the scissors and better line awareness, and bilateral hand coordination.

        Work on preschool scissor skills using aa paper icicle craft.

          This looked like so much fun, that even Big Sister wanted to get in on the icicle-making action!

         
         
        Paper icicle craft for the window
         
        We hung our icicles in the window to match the icy conditions outside.
         
        Looking for more ways to practice beginning cutting? Check out this guide to scissor skills.

        More paper crafts for winter

        You’ll love these other cut and paste crafts for winter. Use them in winter fine motor ideas for occupational therapy activities

        • Winter crafts using paper and a variety of textures for sensory play, motor planning, and motor skills.
        • Paper Icicle Craft is an actual printable template that you can print off and use to work on the scissor skills we covered in this post. It’s a great way to make an icicle craft.
        • Build a Snowman Craft– Work on scissor skills and fine motor strength to build a paper snowman
        • Use these paper snowflake ideas from our list of snow and ice ideas.
        • Use activities in our Winter Fine Motor Kit.
        • Use the printable ideas in the Penguin Fine Motor Kit for building scissor skills and hand strength.
        • Incorporate snowman crafts and scissor activities using our latest Snowman Therapy Kit.
        winter fine motor kit
        Winter Fine Motor Kit

        Done-for-you motor tasks to help kids form stronger bodies that are ready to learn.

        Use fun, themed, fine motor activities so you can help children develop fine and gross motor skills in a digital world.

        Themed NO-PREP printable pages include tasks to address fine motor skills such as:

        • Endurance Activities
        • Dexterity Activities
        • Graded Precision Activities
        • Pinch and Grip Strength Activities
        • Arch Development Activities
        • Finger Isolation Activities
        • Separation of the Sides of the Hand Activities
        • Open Thumb Web-Space Activities
        • Wrist Extension
        • Bilateral Coordination Activities
        • Eye-Hand Coordination Activities
        • Crossing Midline Activities

        Click here to read more about the Winter Fine Motor 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.