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eye hand coordination

Hand Eye Coordination Toys

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Today, we’ve got just one of the many fun eye hand coordination toys to share. Occupational therapy toys like these hand eye coordination toys are powerful tools in child development. Let’s talk coordination skills needed for tasks like play and self-care.

hand eye coordination games and activities to promote eye hand coordination skills in tasks like handwriting and play.

What is Hand Eye Coordination

Working on hand eye coordination is part of play. It occurs from a very young age…in fact development of hand eye coordination begins in the first month. The early development of this essential skill serves as a building block for functional tasks occuring much further down the road in beyond the infant period.

Eye hand coordination is needed for tasks such as handwriting, tying shoe laces, managing clothing fasteners, catching and throwing a ball, reading, managing school supplies, and even walking through crowded hallways while managing items such as books, jacket and the backpack.

Other examples of eye-hand coordination include catching a ball, manipulating pegs into a pegboard, lacing a lacing card, etc. This is a skill that is an integral part of each day.

Poor hand eye coordination

When delays in coordination skills are present, children struggle in many ways.

While eye hand coordination plays closely with other visual processing areas such as visual perception and visual efficiency, visual tracking, convergence, etc., there is a motor component to consider as well. The visual portion and motor portion must be integrated in a coordinated manner, allowing for effective and efficient use of the hands so that we can manipulate and manage objects. This coordinated motor skill requires fine motor skill development equally as much as the visual skill component

These motor skills allow us to collect visual information and use it in a motor action. Eye-hand coordination requires fine motor dexterity, strength, shoulder stability, core stability, etc.

When there are difficulties with coordination of these areas, we see trouble with movement games, clumsiness, difficulty with sports, disorganization, and challenges with motor control in functional tasks.

Coordination Games and Activities

Hand eye coordination games and activities can be an effective way to work on these areas, even while addressing other areas such as sensory input, problem solving, and even learning. We’ve got many hand eye coordination activities here on the website:

Eye-Hand Coordination Activities using Paper– work on hand eye coordination using an everyday item…something you have in your therapy bag right now!

Bilateral Coordination Visual Motor Integration Clover– Work on the integration of visual processing skills with motor movements with this symmetrical drawing activity.

Jumbo Fine Motor Threading Activity– Threading and lacing is a great way to work on hand eye coordination.

Eye-hand coordination activity with letters– Sorting, manipulating, and organizing small items can be a way to boost skills with coordination exercises.

Feather Beading– Threading beads onto feathers is a creative and fun way to improve eye hand coordination skills.

Fine Motor color sorting– Encourage coordination skills for preschoolers and eye hand coordination in toddlers by sorting colors or shapes.

Hand Eye Coordination Toy

One such eye hand coordination toys that doubles as a tool for addressing sensory needs, motor planning, problem solving, and creative play is the Punkinfutz PunkinPitch Kit. This open-ended game uses a vest and soft, velcro “paint balls” that can be used to work on eye-hand coordination, motor planning, and more.

For example, we love to start with buckle toys as a tool to support eye hand coordination skills because they require integration of they eyes and hand movements and it’s a great clothing fastener toy to support self dressing goals!

Kids can wear the vest and move through an obstacle course or move from base to base as they dodge and avoid paint balls. They can then throw the soft balls at another player who is wearing the vest. The options are limitless, and part of the fun is coming up with creative ways to incorporate this coordination game into therapy needs or learning.

Kids can work on other skills beyond eye-hand coordination as well: Motor planning, gross motor skills, core strength and rotation, and social play are just some of the areas covered by this coordination activity.

Eye hand coordination activities

Some of the smartest and most creative folks I know are the readers of The OT Toolbox. I asked readers to tell me sensory strategies they personally love and use to address sensory modulation. Scroll through the comments…you might just find some new sensory strategies that will work for you! Hopefully we can learn from one another!

Also, check out these other soy 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 

Halloween Occupational Therapy Activities

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It’s that time of year! Halloween is just around the corner and so in your therapy clinic or school-based OT sessions, or even OT teletherapy, you may be thinking up Halloween occupational therapy activities that work on specific functional goals. Here, you’ll find a collection of Halloween fine motor activities, pumpkin occupational therapy activities, Halloween sensory play, and more. Use all of these ideas to help kids work on a variety of OT goals using a Halloween craft or ghost activity. This pumpkin deep breathing exercise is just one idea!

For activities and ideas to address all needs, check out these occupational therapy activities.

Here are occupational therapy themes that we’ve covered so far. Use them to make therapy planning a breeze…and make your life easier!

These halloween occupational therapy activities are great for working on skills in OT like fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, scissor use, and more!

Halloween Occupational Therapy Activities

We LOVE to create and come up with fun crafts and activities that double as a tool for addressing specific skills!

Here you will find a variety of Fall and Halloween activities that can address skills such as fine motor, visual motor, visual perception, scissor skills, hand strength, dexterity, core stability and strength, executive functioning, and so much more.

Check out the variety of ghost crafts, pumpkin art, Halloween games, and other ideas. It just might be the perfect addition to your therapy plans this month!

One of our favorite activities for this time of year is our pumpkin deep breathing exercise. I love using this in every therapy session as a self regulation tool and warm up activity!

Ghost Occupational Therapy Activities

We’ve come up with some fun ghost activities here on The OT Toolbox! Try some of these ideas in your therapy clinic or as a home program recommendation this Fall. I love that these ideas can be done on an individual basis or as a small group. Use them in a classroom Halloween party planning or as a fun Fall fest activity.

This ghost craft is an easy way to work on scissor skills. Kids can also address skills such as bilateral coordination, hand strength with a simple halloween craft that uses just paper, crayon, scissors, and a hole punch. Use these ghosts to decorate for Halloween and monitor scissor skills.

This ghost craft for sensory play is a fun one for kids to make but also use in sensory bins or fine motor activities.

This ghost craft uses recycled materials and can be a tool for working on dexterity, precision of grasp, in-hand manipulation, bilateral coordination, hand strength, and more! These ghosts would make a fun addition to the therapy clinic, OT doorway, or even a bulletin board decoration.

This gross motor ghost game can be played over and over again while working on eye-hand coordination, visual tracking, visual convergence, core stability, reach, and other skills. Kids will participate in vestibular and proprioceptive input with a ghost theme!

Bat Occupational Therapy Activities

These bat activities will be an easy way to work on specific skills while making Halloween fun and not spooky for kids.

This bat Halloween craft is a fun on skills like scissor skills, bilateral coordination, fine motor skills, sensory input, and letter formation.

Looking to pair a Halloween book and activity for a party or small group? This Stellaluna activity can help kids with specific and purposeful skills such as sight word recognition or math skills while working on visual scanning, visual tracking, visual discrimination, figure-ground, bilateral coordination, crossing midline, and more.

Pumpkin occupational therapy activities for kids to build skills in fine motor skills, gross motor skills, sensory exploration, and mindfulness, using a pumpkin theme.

Pumpkin Occupational Therapy Activities

Be sure to check out the many pumpkin activities are to be found here on The OT Toolbox! Use these fall ideas all season long from Halloween through Thanksgiving!

The Pumpkin Activity Kit covers tons of fine motor skills, visual motor skills, coordination, and more.

Kids can make pumpkin stamp art using a paper tube while working on bilateral coordination, crossing midline, eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills, visual perception, and fine motor grasp. You can also make pumpkin stamps with a foam curler or other stamp.

Pushing into the classroom? Work on English Language Arts, math, or other classroom lessons by using small pumpkin stickers right in the classroom. This pumpkin activity can be a big boost to fine motor skills, visual scanning, eye-hand coordination, precision, distal mobility, and more.

We know how awesome carving a pumpkin is for fine motor, gross motor, and sensory needs. Once you carve that pumpkin, use the pumpkin seed in sensory play by dying the pumpkin seeds. It’s a great addition to Halloween sensory bins, fall fine motor activities, and other seasonal activities.

Love Halloween sensory bins? Make a set of pumpkins from an egg carton to work on fine motor skills. We’ve used these pumpkins in so many ways over the years.

Spider Occupational Therapy Activities

Spiders don’t need to be spooky! These spider activities and games can be a powerful way to work in some much-needed skills!

Work on bilateral coordination, motor planning, fine motor work, heavy work, vestibular input, and gross motor strengthening with this giant spider web activity.

Make a spider craft using recycled materials to work on fine motor skills such as hand strength, in-hand manipulation, separation of the sides of the hand, pincer grasp, and scissor skills.

Helping out with math or other classroom lessons? This math spider craft that we did addresses doubles and near doubles but you could use it to work on any math facts or ELA lessons. Sneak in bilateral coordination, scissor skills and more with this fun spider activity.

Make a noodle spider craft and help kids with fine motor skills such as in-hand manipulation, separation of the sides of the hand, and more.

Halloween Sensory ACTIVITIES

Recommending a sensory task for kids at home as part of a home program? This Frankenstein smoothie recipe is an awesome way to encourage calming proprioceptive input through oral motor work. Kids can get in on the recipe creation action to sneak in a few executive functioning skills, too.

Halloween Fine Motor Activities

So many of the activities we shared above work on and strengthen fine motor skills. Here are more Fall fine motor activities that use items such as fall leaves, scarecrows, or other Harvest items.

We’ve included many Halloween fine motor activities in this blog post. They are great for building hand strength.

Support finger strength by using bat mini erasers in theraputty exercises. Include some Halloween dexterity activities like the fingerer yoga activities we show in the video below. The Halloween dexterity exercises are fun as a handwriting warm up or as a fun way to get those fingers moving. Check out our video below…or you can catch it over on YouTube.

These Halloween fine motor exercises would be a great warm up to a writing task or gross motor activity.

Fall Sensory Activities

We’ve shared a lot of Fall sensory activities here on The OT Toolbox! You can find all of the posts here:

Choosing Wisely Occupational Therapy Activities

Remember that the craft or activity is the means to working on specific underlying areas, but also, so often kids really struggle with completing aspects of play or crafts. Addressing certain skills right in the craft can make it meaningful and purposeful. When we talk about “Choosing Wisely“, we are occupation-based activities. AOTA has guided us in Choosing Wisely recommendations that we can consider when coming up with OT activities and ideas. Using scissors to work on a Halloween craft with kids is something they need help to become more independence (scissor use) via a fun activity that they are proud to complete and show off (a ghost craft for example). Consider the occupational performance components in crafts and activities that meet the specific needs of the child or individual.

In that way, using a craft in occupational therapy can address a variety of different skills, with different levels of accommodation or modification, input, cues, or difficulty, based on the specific needs as determined by the occupational therapy professional.

Use a Halloween occupational therapy activity in therapy planning in October with a ghost craft, spider activity, or pumpkin centers!

Halloween Activities for Occupational Therapy

What are your favorite Halloween Occupational Therapy activities? Is there something you do each year with the kids you work with? Let us know in the comments below!

Halloween Cutting Activities

Many times, occupational therapy practitioners work on the functional skill of cutting with scissors.

Snipping paper, cutting shapes, and making crafts require cutting straight lines and multi-angular shapes with scissors. We can use the Halloween cutting activities in occupational therapy sessions to work on this motor skill:

  • You’ll LOVE these free pumpkin scissor skills pages that allow kids to “cut the pumpkin” and work on line awareness, cutting curved and angled lines, and even coloring. It’s free to print and go!
  • Use this ghost craft to work on scissor skills this time of year.
  • Or, snip strips of paper to make a spider, pumpkin sensory bin filler, or squares of paper to fill a pumpkin template.

PUMPKIN ACTIVITIES KIT

For more pumpkin fun this Fall, grab the Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit!

Work on underlying fine motor and visual motor integration skills so you can help students excel in handwriting, learning, and motor skill development.

  • 7 digital products that can be used any time of year- has a “pumpkins” theme
  • 5 pumpkin scissor skills cutting strips
  • Pumpkin scissor skills shapes- use in sensory bins, math, sorting, pattern activities
  • 2 pumpkin visual perception mazes with writing activity
  • Pumpkin “I Spy” sheet – color in the outline shapes to build pencil control and fine motor strength
  • Pumpkin Lacing cards – print, color, and hole punch to build bilateral coordination skills
  • 2 Pumpkin theme handwriting pages – single and double rule bold lined paper for handwriting practice
Pumpkin activity kit
Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit– perfect for building skills with a pumpkin theme!

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.

Winter Bilateral Coordination Activities

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winter bilateral coordination activities

Bilateral coordination is a big topic in child development. The fact is that the coordinated use of the hands is a tricky skill for many kids. Using the hands together in tasks is necessary for hand dominance and tasks like handwriting, managing clothing fasteners, catching and throwing a ball, fine motor tasks, and so many other skills. Below you will find winter bilateral coordination activities. These are winter themed activities that improve bilateral integration and can be used in occupational therapy activities in the winter months. Scroll through the activities below and add them to your therapy toolbox this winter!

Related: If you are looking for a resource for developing bilateral coordination in kids, try the Winter Fine Motor Kit. It’s loaded with fine motor strengthening activities designed to promote and develop bilateral coordination, all in no-prep materials.

Kids will love these winter bilateral coordination activities to help develop the skills to use both hands together in a coordinated way! Snowman activities, snowflake activities, and other winter themed activities for use in occupational therapy and at home.

Winter Bilateral Coordination Activities

This post is part of our Winter Week series here on The OT Toolbox. Each day this week, we are sharing activities, ideas, and tips for getting the kids active and moving…and working on occupational therapy goals in the winter months.

For example, these snow globe letter puzzles incorporate bilateral integration using both hands along with visual scanning, crossing midline to find and reach for a matching letter card. The winter-themed activity can be modified to meet the needs of the individual: using less or more cards, incorporating fine or gross motor input, and positioning the cards in different planes or surfaces to work on various levels of bilateral coordination. It’s just one more way to make therapy skills like bilateral coordination fun with a winter theme!

This time of year can be tough on therapists; It’s right after the holidays. If in a cold weather environment, it can be a glum and gloomy time of year with cold temps and shorter days. It can be hard to come up with fresh ideas! That’s why I decided a Winter Week was in order.

Each day this week, you’ll find winter themed activities designed to meet occupational therapy goal areas in fun ways. Here’s what’s going on this week: 


Monday- Indoor Recess Ideas

Tuesday- Winter Brain Break Ideas

Wednesday- Winter Bilateral Coordination Activities

Thursday-Winter Mindfulness Activities

Friday- Winter Fine Motor Activities


On to the Winter Bilateral Coordination Activities! Have fun in OT these winter months!

First, What is Bilateral Coordination?

In short, bilateral coordination is the use of both hands together in a coordinated manner. Development of bilateral coordination begins early in infancy and continues through childhood.

There are three components of bilateral coordination, which include Symmetrical movements, Reciprocal movements, and Dominant hand/supporting hand movements. 

These movements require both sides of the body.  Also called bilateral integration, the movements of both hands together in activities requires processing and integration of both hemispheres of the brain to enable both hands working together at the same time.

Bilateral coordination is needed for skills like: eating, writing, coloring, drawing, self-dressing, brushing one’s teeth, playing, tying shoes, and so much more!

The winter themed bilateral coordination activities below are ideas for activities that can help to work on coordinated use of both hands in fun activities!

Winter Themed Bilateral Coordination Activities

1. Cutting Paper Snowflakes- Folding and cutting are bilateral coordination activities that require both hands being used together. Make paper snowflakes with different textures or types of papers to put a fun spin on this winter activity. Try making paper snowflakes with cupcake liners, paper bags, tissue paper, or large construction paper sheets!



2. Paper Snowmen- Remember making strands of paper dolls? Try making a strand of paper snowmen while working on bilateral coordination while folding and cutting the snowmen.


3. Lacing Mittens- Make a cardboard set of mittens and poke holes around the edges. Then lace with cord, yarn, or string like Fun Family Crafts did with their mitten lacing activity. Lacing is a bilateral coordination activity that boost the skills kids need for tasks like handwriting. Read more about how lacing is such a great activity for kids here. There are several winter-themed lacing cards in the Winter Fine Motor Kit.


4. Play Dough Snowmen- Mixing and rolling dough is a fantastic bilateral coordination activity. Here’s why: By mixing dough, both hands are working together against resistance of the dough, providing a sensory component in the form of proprioception. This feedback can provide a powerful muscle memory to the hands as they work. Kids can mix, stir, and knead while strengthening the hands and arms. This Baking soda dough is perfect for creating snowmen, which require rolling and building…and more bilateral coordination! There are 6 different winter themed play dough mats in the Winter Fine Motor Kit that you can print off and use over and over again.


5. Snowman Sensory Bag- This is such a fun sensory activity that allows kids to work both hands together to move parts of a snowman face while working on finger isolation and dexterity. This snowman sensory bag version from Mama Papa Bubba is very cute!

6. Winter Crossword Puzzle– A writing activity like a crossword puzzle is a great tool to build bilateral coordination skills. When writing, you need to support the paper with the nondominant hand while writing in the small spaces to fill in the crossword. Take the functional task up a notch by challenging users: Work on a vertical surface. Tape the BOTTOM of the page to a wall. Young learners can hold the paper up while filling in the crossword. If they lift up their non-dominant hand from the edge of the page, the paper will fall down.

Looking for more bilateral coordination ideas? Try these: 


Development of Bilateral Coordination and Feeding


Bilateral Coordination Lacing Plate


Bilateral Coordination Activity with Pop Tubes


Bilateral Coordination and Visual Motor Activity with Hearts


Bilateral Coordination and Visual Motor Activity Clover


Homemade and Store Bought Lacing Cards for Bilateral Coordination Skills

These winter bilateral coordination activities are great for helping kids develop the skills to use both hands together in tasks like handwriting, cutting with scissors, and more.

winter fine motor kit
 

WINTER Bilateral Coordination WORKSHEETS

To end out the Winter Week here on The OT Toolbox, I wanted to create a fine motor worksheets that are a true resource during the winter months. These fine motor worksheets that cover a variety of different fine motor abilities:

These reproducible activity pages include: pencil control strips, scissor skills strips, simple and complex cutting shapes, lacing cards, toothpick precision art, crumble hand strengthening crafts, memory cards, coloring activities, and so much more.

Play Dough Roll Mats- We’ve shared some free play dough mats before. They are perfect for developing bilateral coordination as well as fine motor skills and hand strength needed for tasks like coloring with endurance, manipulating small items, and holding a pencil. Kids can roll small balls of play dough with just their fingertips to strengthen the intrinsic muscles. The Winter Fine Motor Kit contains 6 winter play dough mats that can be used all winter long!  

Pinch and Grip Strength Activities- Use these bilateral coordination worksheets to target functional tasks and bilateral coordination. Kids will be challenged to use both hands together in a coordinated matter in addressing glue skills page, tong/tweezer activities, lacing cards, finger puppets, 1-10 counting clip cards, 10 toothpick art pages, find & color page, 5 crumble art pages.

Pencil Control Worksheets- Kids can develop bilateral coordination with a helper hand and their dominant hand while working on pencil control and accuracy. Some of the lines are small and are a great way to strengthen the hands, too. 

Cutting Strips and Scissor Skills Sheets- Cutting with scissors is a functional bilateral coordination skill that requires accuracy and precision of a dominant hand and coordination of the helper hand. These winter themed scissor skills worksheets are great ways to strengthen the motor and visual skills needed for cutting with scissors.   Also included are 7 scissor skills strips with graded precision designed for data collection and accuracy development, 2 color & cut memory cards, 4 pages simple cutting shapes in small/med/large sizes, 3 pages complex cutting shapes in small/med/large sizes, 2 small and 2 large cutting skills puzzles.

Handwriting Sensory Bin Materials- Help kids with bilateral coordination using the winter-themed A-Z uppercase and lowercase tracing cards with directional arrows, 1-10 tracing cards with directional arrows, 1-10 counting cards. Using the sensory bin materials can develop tactile handwriting, letter and number formation, finger isolation, crossing midline, sensory challenges with both hands as they scoop, pour, trace, and explore sensory bins.

Fine Motor Handwriting Sheets AND “I Spy” Modified Paper– Try the 4 Find/Color/Copy pages in different styles of modified paper, rainbow writing pages in 3 styles of modified paper. These handwriting worksheets use the winter theme to help with using a helper hand in handwriting activities and coloring tasks.

Write the Room Activities- Using a winter theme, these Write the Room cards includes: 5 lowercase copy cards, 5 uppercase copy cards, 5 lowercase tracing cards, 5 uppercase copy cards, 6 cursive writing copy cards, 2 styles of writing pages. TARGET SKILLS: Letter formation, pencil control, visual motor skills, visual attention, visual memory, line placement, functional handwriting at all levels and stages.

Get the Winter Fine Motor Kit Here.

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.

 

Easy Eye-Hand Coordination Activities Using Paper

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Eye hand coordination activities with paper

Here, you’ll fine easy eye hand coordination activities using paper. Paper is something that most parents, teachers, and therapists have easy access to.  

It’s usually pretty plentiful even if it is sourced from the recycling bin.  Whether it’s a roll of easel paper, a packet of construction paper, or yesterday’s newspaper, most of us have paper of some kind sitting around the house.  And for teachers, lined paper is one of those supplies that are typically provided by the classroom.  

So, it makes sense to use paper for a tool that provides way more therapeutic benefit than it seems a simple stack of paper can provide.   These easy eye-hand coordination activities use paper to develop fine motor skills and visual motor integration so that kids can carry over these necessary skills to tasks such as cutting with scissors, handwriting, fine motor tasks, and self- care tasks like clothing fasteners or shoe tying.

Kid using paper to work on eye-hand coordination skills.

 

Easy Eye-Hand Coordination Activities Using Paper

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Grab a stack of paper of any kind and use it in therapy or home programs to work on the visual motor integration skills needed for many functional tasks. 
 

You’ll need paper of any size and any variety to complete these activities.  Use what you have available or plan ahead when preparing visual motor activities for the classroom, therapy plans, or home programs.

Some paper ideas that can be used in eye-hand coordination activities include:

Amazon affiliate links included.

Recycled Newspapers
Printer Paper (It is ALWAYS a hit when a child receives their very own ream of paper as a gift!)
Recycled Junk Mail
Lined Yellow Composition Paper (a classroom staple!)
Roll of Easel Paper
Recycled Yellow Pages (or other phone directory)
Cardstock
Used Coloring Books
Paper Towels
Tissue Paper
Paper Shopping Bags
Paper Lunch Sacks
Coffee Filters
Cupcake Liners
Post-it Notes
 
So, looking at the list above, grab the nearest type of paper and get the kids busy with super easy activities that are easily able to promote eye-hand coordination development.
 
Child using paper to work on eye-hand coordination skills.
 

Use paper to develop eye-hand coordination activities 

Eye-hand coordination takes the visual information as it is processed by the eye and brain and coordinates motor movements in an appropriate and efficient manner to perform functional tasks. Eye-hand coordination is also known as visual motor integration and is essential for most functional activities.  
 
These paper activities can help kids work on the coordination of visual information with fine motor work:
 
  • One such way to work on eye-hand coordination skills in kids is to tear paper. 
  • Play games with paper clips.
  • Make paper dolls- Cut, fold, and decorate paper people of all kinds.
  • Create paper chains- Make a pattern and string it across a room.
  • Make and cut paper snowflakes- Make it creative by folding and cutting paper towel snowflakes or cupcake liner snowflakes, too.
  • Fold paper airplanes.  Then try to fly it into a target.
  • Fold a paper fan.
  • Throw paper snowballs into a basket.  Move back farther and add in obstacle course types of motor movements.
  • Fold origami- Follow step-by-step instructions in a how-to book.
  • Make paper helicopters- Fly them from a high space such as a step stool and try to drop them into a target. These paper helicopters are another fun way to work on eye hand coordination skills.
  • Make coin rubbings- Read about this eye hand coordination activity in our coin activities post. Trace other items such as leaves, paper clips, or keys.
  • Make a paper fortune teller- Add educational aspects such as math facts or definitions.
  • Fold paper footballs– Make it educational by adding math concepts or sight word practice.
  • Create paper hats.
  • Make paper boats.  Try to see how far they can float with added weight.
  • Play paper and pencil games such as tic tac toe, dots-and-boxes, or other paper and pencil games (Simple Play Ideas).
  • Scrunch paper into small pieces and glue them onto artwork.  
  • Tear paper in long strips- Tear long strips or simple shapes.
Paper eye-hand coordination activities for kids
All of these activities are simple to set up and require little preparation work.  Use this list as a backup activity list for those times when kids need something to do between lessons in the classroom, or a rainy day activity.  Some of these paper activities would be great for when waiting in a restaurant.  Use the down time to build eye-hand coordination skills with paper!
 
Look here for more ways to develop visual motor integration skills? 
 
Use paper to work on eye-hand coordination with kids
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.

Baked Cotton Balls Ten Apples Up On Top

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Did you ever do an activity with the kids that was such a hit, that the kids ask to re-do the activity over and over and over again?  This one is it for us.  There is rarely a day that goes by that I don’t hear about our smashing apples activity. Especially if we happen to see a hammer.  Oh, this baked cotton ball activity was a fun one for us! 
 
We’ve never made baked cotton balls before, but have had the idea bubbling for a while.  When we heard that the Preschool Book Club‘s book for this week would be Ten Apples Up on Top, we knew it would have to be an apple themed baked cotton ball activity.  We even made these waaaay before all of the other book activities in the second series of books.  Like back in June.  If you’ve never made baked cotton balls before, this is a MUST-DO activity!
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How to make Baked Cotton Balls:

First read Ten Apples Up On Top! by Dr. Seuss.  This is such a fun book for counting and playing along with the story.
Begin by mixing together one cup of flour and one cup of water.  This is a great activity for the kids.  Scooping, stirring, direction following, sneak tasting (my kids aren’t the only ones who go crazy for flour, right!??)
 
Pour in a bunch of red food coloring.  We typically go with Wilton gel colors for all of our dying activities, but I knew I wanted a really deep red color.  It seems like red coloring requires SO much dye to get a good shade of red.  I ended up using a bottle from the dollar store and used about half of the bottle of food dye.  This was maybe 20 drops?  Add enough to get a nice red color.
 
Mix in the food coloring.
Now is the cotton ball part.  Grab up your stash of cotton balls.
Mix them around to coat all of the cotton balls.  
Place a layer of aluminum foil on a baking tray and place the cotton balls on the tray for baking.  I used two forks to pick up the coated cotton balls and was able to let excess flour coating drip off before placing the cotton balls onto the foil. You’ll want to let as much excess drip off before putting them on the sheet to avoid the sharp edges and flat bottom once the cotton balls bake.
 
Pop the baking sheet into the oven for around 60 minutes at 300 degrees F.
 
While the cotton balls are baking, snip up the leaves and stems for the apples.  We used brown pipe cleaners and green crafting foam that we received from www.craftprojectideas.com.
When the apples are done, pull them out of the oven and let them cool for a bit. They will be nice and hard.  You’ll need to snip the bottom edges of the apples to remove any sharp edges that dripped to the base before baking.
 
To attach the leaves and stems, lay the leaves on the apple top and poke the pipe cleaner through the foam sheet and into the cotton ball.  The kids were able to help with this part, but assisting with stem attachment did not allow this mama to take any pictures 😉
 
Our crop of apples were ready for playing with!
 
We followed along with the book as we read to stack up apples one by one.  What a great way to learn and play with math facts, counting, number order, and simple adding.  Little Guy LOVED this activity.
We got to hammering the cotton balls and this was the really fun part!  The baked cotton balls have a hard outer edge that allow for a satisfying crunch when smashed, and a squishy, cottony center.  What a fun way to explore and play.
 
We used a plastic hammer, but any hammer would do.
In fact, fists work just as well for smashing.
We had a smashing afternoon.

 

The remains of our cotton ball smashing reminded us of this page in the book.  Be sure to let us know if you make baked cotton balls!  We would love to hear about your experience with this sensory and fine motor activity!
 
Stop by the other Preschool Book Club bloggers to see their takes on Ten Apples Up On Top!
 
Sensory Bag from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails | Relay Race from Homegrown Friends | Play Dough Activity from Buggy and Buddy

N is for Napkin Newt Craft

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We love making cute crafts and our dining room wall can attest for that.  There’s a nice gallery of kid art going on on all four walls (and the ceiling, too!) and this cute newt craft is sure to make the wall!  


We’re joining bloggers from all over in the 31 days of ABCs series hosted by All Done Monkey.   Each day, a blogger has been publishing a blog post based on a letter.  We’re up next with N and our napkin newt.  
N is for Napkin and Newt! Make a napkin newt with the kids. So cute!

Newt Craft:

To make your newt, you’ll need a few supplies.  We used napkins, googly eyes, paint dab markers, glue, and red card stock.  We received the googly eyes and paint dab markers from www.craftprojectideas.com.  



Start by drawing a simple newt shape on the napkin.  I used a marker, but a pen would work, too.

If you have a bunch of newts to make for a preschool class or siblings, stack up a few sheets of napkins.  Grab your sharpest scissors and cut out the newts.  This is a job for a parent, but an older child could cut this complex shape.  Hold the napkins together tightly as you cut around the toes.
We liked how our napkin newt’s texture looked like scales.
Next, use your paint dab markers to dab on spots.  We went with different colors, and each child made their newt differently.

It was fun to see my daughter’s personalities coming out in their craftiness.  Big Sister was deliberate and colorful with her painting.  

Baby Girl painted in typical Baby Girl fashion…fast and furious and with STYLE!

Next, glue on googly eyes.
These newts are almost done.  We talked about the letter N and how Newt and Napkin both start with “N”.  We said a bunch of other words that start with “n” as we crafted.
Snip tongues from the red card stock and glue to the back of the newts.  Super cute newt!
Paint Dabber Newt Craft.



Let us know if you make this craft.  We would love to see your version!  Stop by our Facebook page and tell us all about it.

Apple Math Counting and Adding Activity

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We love using math concepts that are learned in school into playful activities at home.  Learning through play is a great way to strengthen concepts learned in the classroom.  We used apples to count, add, and learn one day, all in the great outdoors!
Be sure to use our free count and color worksheet for more fine motor math through play.

Kindergarten and Preschool students will enjoy this math activity using apples or other objects with chalk. One to one correspondence, dice math, counting


Apple math activity for Kindergartners and Preschoolers

 
This post contains affiliate links.  If a purchase is made through these links, we receive a small percentage in payment at no cost to you.

We used Sidewalk Chalk and a
dice for this activity.  I took the kids outside to the sidewalk one afternoon and drew a bunch of apple shapes.  We were ready to play.


Note–you could also draw any shape for this activity: pumpkins, smiley faces, geometric shapes, simple houses…any thing would work.

To play the game, I had the kids roll the dice.  They had to count the dots on the dice, or simply look at the dots to determine how many dots there were.  Big Sister did a lot of dice activities last year in Kindergarten so she was able to glance at the dice and know how many dots there were.  Little Guy counted the dots.  This is a great early math skill for preschool aged kids.

Once they counted the dots on the dice, I had them color in the same number of apples to correspond to the number of dots.  

We used the squares of our sidewalk to wok on Kindergarten math concepts that Big Sister learned towards the end of her school year.  Some of the squares had two apples drawn on them, and others had four or more.


This was a great opportunity to review addition. 



She added the apples to make the total match the number of dots on the dice. 


Little Guy counted along with Big Sister to count the total number of apples filled in.

Coloring in the apples with the chalk requires use of the small muscles of the hand.  The sidewalk surface is resistive and the area they colored in was small.  This required precision to stay in the lines.  Not to mention, coloring in all of those apples really strengthened the hands!


This was such a fun way to review old math areas for the new first grader and introduce new math concepts to the preschooler. Like this math activity?  Try a few of these ideas:

Apple Activities for Therapy

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apple activities

It’s that time of year again for all of the apple activities! The kids are headed back to school and crisp, fall days are ahead. The excitement that comes with summer has dwindled, but don’t you worry – we are here to help fill your days with fall-themed fun, starting with Apple Activities to use in occupational therapy sessions or at home to help kids develop skills! 

Apple activities including apple fine motor, apple gross motor, apple sensory activities, and more.

Just think of the hot apple cider, apple picking, and apple pie that lies ahead…along with the opportunities to learn, of course! 

We have broken down our activity list into therapy topics, so that you are able to pick and choose what you would like to address that day: sensory, motor, vision, cognition, or social skills! 

Apple Sensory Activities

Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post.

For heavy work through the hands that offers proprioceptive input AND tactile sensory experiences, try making these baked cotton ball apples. We used them in apple sensory play and fine motor work.

Sensory bins can be a great way to learn by experience. An apple-themed one could look like this: Apple-Cinnamon Sensory Bin. You could hide magnet letters to find and spell out the word “apple”, which would be great practice for children who have difficulty with shape constancy and letter reversals – actually holding the letter in their hand can help wire their memory for future use!  

Applesauce oobleck is just like traditional oobleck, a type of slime, but with applesauce! The applesauce adds a new texture that is not often felt in traditional slime, as well as the smell of apples and cinnamon, as an added sensory experience. You can use these types of sensory experiences to address sensory concerns, like hyper or hyposensitivity, or you can use them as a means to address other unrelated concerns. For example, I love making slime as a way to address attention, sequencing and direction following. Additionally, when paired with education or discussion, it can be used as an adjunct to a socioemotional intervention. 

For more Fall sensory activities, grab our Fall Sensory Activities Guide for hands-on sensory play with apples and all things Fall.

Apple Fine Motor Activities

To work on fine motor skills, strength, dexterity needed for functional tasks like handwriting, clothing independence, pencil grasp, cutting with scissors, and more, an apple themed fine motor activity is the way to go. Check out our Apple-Themed Fine Motor Math activity for a multi-sensory learning activity with apples. 

Kids love these apple stamps using a toilet paper tube. It’s a fun OT craft to work on precision, eye-hand coordination, crossing midline, and much more.

Apple Poke with Toothpicks is a super easy but satisfying sensory and fine motor activity for children of all ages. Holding the thin toothpick requires a fine grasp like a pincer or tripod, which prepares hands for the work of a child (handwriting, buttoning, zipping, etc). 

Adjust as necessary to make this activity your own:

  • Follow a pattern with colored toothpicks
  • Encourage fine motor precision by poking on dots or in pre-made holes
  • Use golf tees or one-sided toothpicks for a safer option 

Apple Pointillism is a great way to use one of my favorite tools – the hole punch. Hole punching strengthens important hand muscles, in preparation for skills like handwriting, buttoning, and so much more. Even better, picking up those teeny-tiny circles will encourage a pincer grasp. 

Apple Gross Motor Activities

Apple gross motor activities can be used to develop core strength, endurance, balance, position changes, motor planning, and more. All of these skill areas are a must for occupations and functional tasks. Try these gross motor activities with an apple theme:

Make an indoor balance beam with an apple theme to address balance, core strength, proprioceptive input, coordination, vestibular input, and more.

Check out our Apple-Themed Brain Breaks for plenty of movement-based activities as well as self-regulation through whole body movement.

Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss is a great book for sequencing and identifying numbers, but I think it could be great for gross motor development like coordination, balance and postural stability. Just have your child copy the movements of the animals! For even more challenging fun, cut out felt “apples” so they can balance them on their heads, too! 

Apple Visual Perception Activities

This apple visual perception activity uses shapes to work on visual discrimination, form constancy, visual closure and more.

Just like you would do with tangrams, you could create a pattern fitting for the theme with Lego Apples. Matching an image to another by building a structure is a great way to address visual perceptual skills, problem solving, and spatial awareness. 

Plus, here are some more on-theme resources for vision and fine motor skills: 

Apple Executive Function Activities

Cooking and executive function go hand-in-hand. To work on executive functioning skill development with an apple theme, try this apple salt dough recipe. It’s great fun and a wonderful sensory and fine motor experience, too.

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall shows the life cycle of a tree, and even shares a recipe for apple pie! I love using this story for sequencing and attention. 

You can address attention, memory, spelling, letter recognition or word recognition with these Red Apple Cups. You could use constructing the cups as an intervention, too – this activity can be used in so many different ways! 

Apple Activities for Social Emotional Skills

Social Communication Skills with Apples from the Social Butterflies Club offers great resources to use with kids that encourage social interaction in a structured activity.  

We hope that you have been inspired to create your own apple themed activity, or have chosen one that will work great for your kiddos! Check in for more fall-themed activities soon. While you are waiting, take a look at these awesome resources for a great fall: Fall Themed Water Table, Fall Gross Motor Activities, and Fall Fine Motor Crafts. 

 


Apple Theme Activities

Apple themed activities for learning and play: Math, spelling, fine and gross motor, art, sensory. This is perfect for school or home preschool apple themed week!
 

 

Sydney Thorson, OTR/L, is a new occupational therapist working in school-based therapy. Her
background is in Human Development and Family Studies, and she is passionate about
providing individualized and meaningful treatment for each child and their family. Sydney is also
a children’s author and illustrator and is always working on new and exciting projects.

Circus Sensory Bin

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A while back, we were on a bit of a Circus Theme in our pretend play.  We had a bunch of fun with our circus party ideas and read a bunch of circus books.  We did this sensory bin around that time, but are just now getting the chance to blog about it.  This was such an easy sensory activity to throw together that we will definitely be playing this again.

Creative and sensory play for kids with an easy circus theme.

This post contains affiliate links.  Read our full disclosure here.

Create a circus themed sensory bin using popcorn!

To create an easy Circus Sensory Bin, you will need:


circus train pieces

Mini Animals

popcorn


plastic tray

Use circus train and circus animals in an easy sensory bin

I started by popping some corn.  And only ate a few handfuls.  Pop extra.  Snacks are good.

I put some popped and un popped corn onto a plastic tray.  Then, simply added our train set and animals.  The scene was set for imagination and pretend fun!

Kids will love to pretend with mini animals.

The animals in the different textures was such a fun way to explore animal names, animal sounds, and all in an easy sensory bin.

Kids will love to pretend and play while learning animal names and noises.

Baby Girl (age 2) loved this pretend play so much!  Not only did we have a blast playing and learning, she got a snack too!  Bonus!

Of course, the animals needed feeding, too.

We loaded up the train with popcorn and made deliveries.  Such a fun way to play away an afternoon.

This might be the perfect accompaniment to our circus tent craft.  Sensory play, craft, and snack…sounds like the perfect afternoon with the kids to me!

Note:  Like all of our activities on sugaraunts.com, we encourage playing alongside your kids and in a supervised manner.  Some crafts and activities may present a dangerous situation for children who like to put things into their mouths.  Please monitor your child with this and any activity you see on our website.  Popcorn will present as a choking hazard for small children.  Please use your best judgment if you decide to do this activity with your kids.

You may be interested in our Circus Crafts and Activities Pinterest board for more circus ideas.

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