Celebrate the Olympics with a Fine Motor Craft Get into the Olympic spirit with this engaging, low-prep activity that’s perfect for therapy sessions, classrooms, and at-home fun. This Olympic Rings Craft for Kids encourages fine motor skill development, creativity, and cultural learning, all while using simple recycled materials. Whether you’re preparing for an Olympic-themed unit or just looking for a meaningful craft to build motor skills, this activity is a winner!
If you’re looking for ways to get the kids excited about the Olympics or are incorporating Olympics activities into learning and play this year, try these Olympic Games Activities for a bunch of creative ideas.
Why Make an Olympic Rings Craft? Creating Olympic rings is a great way to connect kids to global themes of teamwork, perseverance, and cultural unity. Incorporating movement and creativity through crafting helps reinforce learning and builds a sense of accomplishment. Best of all, this activity can be adapted for many ages and skill levels, making it a versatile addition to any therapy toolkit.
Skills Developed Through cardboard tube Crafts
This craft supports a wide range of developmental goals:
Fine motor skills: cutting, gluing, painting, and squeezing tools
Hand strength and bilateral coordination: using both hands to hold and paint tubes or paper
Visual motor integration: aligning and arranging rings to mimic the Olympic logo
Sensory input: tactile exploration with recycled materials, paint, glue
Color recognition and sequencing: matching the colors of the Olympic rings in the correct order
How to make an Olympics Craft
Materials Needed Gather these common supplies:
5 empty toilet paper rolls or 2 paper towel rolls cut in half
Paint (blue, yellow, black, green, red)
Paintbrushes or sponges
Glue or stapler
Optional: colored construction paper for an alternative craft version
Cut the cardboard tubes into rings of equal width.
Paint each ring one of the Olympic colors: blue, yellow, black, green, and red.
Allow the rings to dry completely.
Arrange and glue the rings into the Olympic pattern: 3 on top (blue, black, red), 2 underneath (yellow, green).
Display the finished craft or hang as a banner.
We started with our collection of paper tube rings (You may have just seen these used in a totally different way on our last post where we used the paper rings for Learning Sight Words. We pulled them out again for our Olympic rings.
Next came the fun part. We used our paint set (and pulled out a container of black paint because our set doesn’t have it). The rings were very messy to paint, but a great sensory and fine motor activity.
Once our rings dried, we glued them onto a piece of paper. This part got a little messy with the glue, but only because Big Sister wanted to pour the glue onto the rings. If you put the glue on the paper and then stick the rings into the glue, it will be a lot less sloppy than ours was. But, the glue dries clear, so no harm done!
Craft Option 2: Construction Paper Ring Chain
Cut strips of colored construction paper (about 1″ x 6″).
Create a ring by looping one strip into a circle and stapling or gluing the ends together.
Loop the next strip through the previous ring and attach.
Continue until all five Olympic-colored rings are connected.
This version supports cutting practice, sequencing, and bilateral hand use.
Therapy Ideas Using the Olympic Rings Craft
As a pediatric OT, I love crafts I can use with my whole caseload, no matter what level or grade the students are at. That means I can have my whole caseload do the same craft or activity and we just switch up the goals we are targeting. we can modify the activity to meet the level of the individual in a just right manner.
I can also adapt the activity and use the parts of the craft in different ways. This makes therapy activities fun and motivating, not just a rinse and repeat strategy.
Use this craft as part of a themed therapy session:
Practice handwriting by labeling each ring with Olympic values (e.g., Respect, Excellence).
Use tongs to pick up and sort the rings by color to boost hand strength and coordination.
Classroom Extensions and Olympic Learning
Occupational therapists that work in the school setting know all about pushing into the classroom or pulling the child out for 1:1 work. When we need to push into the classroom, this craft can be a great tool to build skills.
Teachers can incorporate this craft into social studies or physical education lessons by:
Exploring the meaning behind the Olympic rings and what each color represents.
Hosting a mini “Olympics” event and using the rings as decorations or awards.
Practicing math by counting rings, measuring lengths, or sequencing colors.
My kids are very excited to watch the Olympics this year. They can’t wait to watch their favorite sports next month. I’m excited for the opening ceremony and watching that with the kids.
We made this Olympics ring craft to get in the mood and to talk about the rings and create a little Olympic art.
Anytime we pull out the paint, Baby Girl gets excited to make a craft and paint away. This girl loooooves to paint. These Olympic Rings were fun (and messy) to paint…just the way she likes her crafts!
Olympic Rings Craft for Kids
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Olympic Ring Paint Craft
These colorful Olympic rings dried on a piece of wax paper (and looked so pretty!)
We’ve got all of the colors in there!
The three dimensional Olympic Rings looked pretty neat when hanging from our dining room wall. They remind us how excited we are for the games to begin!
Looking for more fun kid’s crafts? Follow along on our “kid’s crafts” Pinterest board for loads of fun ideas:
What are your favorite ways to get your kids excited about the Olympics and learn through play with an Olympics games theme? You’ll also love our Olympic playdough: gold, silver, and bronze play dough you can make for fine motor work!
Download the Printable Instruction Sheet!
This is a Level 2 Membership tool. Members can log into their account and find a printable activity handout for this craft with more information on how to use this activity in OT sessions for building hand strength and other goal areas. Click on Olympic theme under the Themes section.
Our Olympic Rings Craft printable is perfect for therapists, teachers, or parents. It includes:
Step-by-step illustrated instructions
Materials checklist
Therapy goals supported
Tips for adapting for different age groups
A visual model of the Olympic ring layout
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.
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.
Helping kids develop fine motor skills doesn’t require a bunch of fancy therapy equipment or carefully selected developmental toys. Here, I’ll show you how to use junk mail to help kids improve motor skills. This snowman collage is a winter craft that kids can use to work on areas like scissor skills, eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills, and hand strength!
You’ll also want to check out our other snowman crafts too. It’s a fun indoor activity for winter when the kids need something different to do. Grab that junk mail, we’re going to build a snowman!
A Fun and Easy Snowman Craft for Preschoolers and Toddlers
This snowman craft is as simple as it gets! It’s packed with developmental benefits. Using junk mail, old magazines, or recycled paper to rip and glue inside a snowman outline makes it the perfect easy snowman craft for young children.
I love using this snowman craft in occupational therapy. It’s a great Winter activity for kids because you can target several skill areas.
Whether you’re in a classroom, therapy session, or at home with toddlers, this no-prep activity can be adapted for various ages and skill levels. Just draw or print a snowman outline and let the tearing and gluing begin!
Supports Fine Motor Skills Through Paper Tearing and Gluing
Tearing paper works on small hand muscles, particularly the intrinsic muscles of the hands and fingers, which are essential for pencil grasp, cutting, and functional hand use. This snowman fine motor craft also promotes bilateral coordination. Kids use one hand to hold the paper and the other to rip it. The gluing portion supports hand-eye coordination and precision. These are foundational skills for writing, buttoning, and scissor use.
Why This is a Great Snowman Craft for Preschoolers and Toddlers
Preschoolers benefit from activities that are both simple and meaningful. This snowman craft for preschoolers offers a tactile, sensory-rich experience using familiar materials.
The tearing action is developmentally appropriate for toddlers, too, who may not yet have the skills for cutting but can participate in a creative process. For toddlers, you can provide pre-ripped paper chunks, while preschoolers can tear independently. It’s also a great way to reinforce body part vocabulary (“Let’s glue paper onto the snowman’s belly!”), introduce sequencing (first tear, then glue), and encourage attention span.
Snowman Crafts That Build School Readiness
Crafts like this are more than just cute, they support kindergarten readiness. The fine motor development, attention to task, visual-motor integration, and sequencing involved in completing this snowman all build the skills kids need for success in early childhood education.
For therapists, it’s an ideal winter-themed craft that supports multiple goal areas while still being fun and seasonal.
Extend the Snowman Craft idea
For added engagement, you can turn this into a math or handwriting activity by adding a number to each snowman and having kids glue that many pieces of paper.
Or, use a black marker to have kids write their names, a winter word, or a letter of the week on the snowman’s hat. Encourage creativity by offering different paper textures, colors, or even letting kids add googly eyes, cotton ball “snow,” or stickers to decorate their snowman.
Snowman Collage Craft
We got a bunch of junk mail today with random neighborhood coupons inside… When my kids were younger, they loved to use scissors to practice cutting. And, actually, using the coupons found in junk mail to practice scissor skills, is actually a very functional and easy way to practice cutting along lines.
Junk mail is easily accessible and a material found in most homes. So, why not use it to help kids develop fine motor skills?
Junk Mail Craft
While we used junk mail to create a snowman collage, this craft technique can be used for any shape or theme.
Kids can use junk mail to work on snipping paper with scissors, eye-hand coordination, and visual motor skills. Try these strategies using junk mail:
Work on snipping along the edges of paper to create a fringe- This is a great bilateral coordination activity for preschool aged children and new scissor users.
Work on cutting along lines or coupons for early scissor skills- Cutting coupons or basic shapes is an early scissor skill activity. Junk mail often times includes flyers that are made from cardstock or heavy materials, as well as thinner materials, so it’s easy to progress through a graded activity to meet the needs of all levels of kids.
Cut out pictures- Use junk mail to cut out pictures or shapes. This is a nice way to work on simple to complex cutting skills. Progress from easy or basic shapes to more complex shapes.
For more scissor skills activities and how to progress along various grades, check out these Scissor Skills Crash Course.
To further along from basic scissor skills, use the junk mail materials to create a collage craft. You could use the steps below to make any shape or theme, making it a great addition to weekly therapy themes or preschool themes.
Snowman Collage
For our snowman craft, I first drew a snowman shape onto blue paper. This part could be graded as well. Use a larger shape for younger children or make a smaller shape for addressing more refined skills and precision.
Next, ask your child to cut out blue and white pieces of junk mail. This is where the craft gets open-ended. You can let kids snip random shapes, or you could request that they cut all squares. I love that this scissor skills craft fits with all levels and needs.
When kids are sorting through a stack of junk mail for specific colors, they are developing a variety of skill areas:
Eye-hand coordination
Visual scanning
Finger isolation (page turning)
Precision and refined grasp (manipulating one page at a time)
Visual attention and visual memory
Next, you will need squeeze glue from a bottle. As a pediatric occupational therapist, I love the use of a squeeze glue bottle over a glue stick for so many reasons. By using a squeeze glue bottle, kids are building refined use of skill areas:
Refined grasp
Hand strength
Eye-hand coordination
Arch strength
Open thumb web-space
Visual motor skills
You can focus on certain areas with use of a squeeze glue bottle by asking kids to place glue onto specific spots. Just use a marker to dot throughout the shape. Kids can then place glue dots on those specific spots.
If working with glue bottles is a helpful activity for the children you serve, you will love the Glue Spots Exercises in the Winter Fine Motor Kit.
Next, kids can place their junk mail pieces onto the glue and within the collage area to create the snowman.
Ask kids to line up strait and curved edges along the curved lines of the snowman. This is a great way to work on visual motor skills.
To grade this activity to make it easier, make the lines of the snowman thicker with a black marker.
You can see that we completed this craft on the floor, making it a shoulder strengthening activity as well.
That’s a pretty cute snowman…and great for practicing those snipping skills!
Want more ways to boost fine motor skills with a snowman theme or winter theme? The Winter Fine Motor Kit is on sale now!
This print-and-go winter fine motor kit includes no-prep fine motor activities to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, winter-themed, fine motor activities so you can help children develop strong fine motor skills in a digital world.
More than ever, kids need the tools to help them build essential fine motor skills so they develop strong and dexterous hands so they can learn, hold & write with a pencil, and play.
This 100 page no-prep packet includes everything you need to guide fine motor skills in face-to-face AND virtual learning. Includes winter themed activities for hand strength, pinch and grip, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, endurance, finger isolation, and more.
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.
If working on developing fine motor skills this Fall is something you’re focusing on, these Fall fine motor worksheets are the way to go. Add these printable clip cards use clothes pins or paper clips to develop hand and finger dexterity and grip and pinch strength to a Fall theme. Use these Fall leaves clip cards to several of our favorite Fall fine motor activities for developing hand strength, pinch, grip, and dexterity in the hands.
These fall fine motor worksheets are clip cards that combine a print and play activity.
It’s easy to set up this Fall fine motor worksheet into an interactive, and hands-on fine motor activity:
Just print out the Fall leaves worksheets.
Then laminate or use as a paper form. Cut out each circle.
Then, kids can clip clothes pins or paper clips onto each circle as they count and match clips to the Fall leaves on the cards.
Fall Clip Cards for Fine Motor Development
Fall clip cards are a seasonal and engaging way to build essential fine motor skills in young children. These hands-on tools typically feature colorful autumn-themed images—like pumpkins, leaves, or acorns—and require children to clip a clothespin to the correct answer or matching image. This simple action offers big benefits, especially for developing the small muscles of the hands that are needed for tasks like handwriting, buttoning, and using scissors.
Using clip cards targets pincer grasp, which strengthens the muscles between the thumb and index finger. This grasp is essential for pencil control and other precision-based movements. In addition to hand strength, clip cards promote hand-eye coordination, bilateral coordination (using both hands together), and visual scanning, all of which are important foundational skills for classroom success.
The fall theme adds an extra layer of excitement and relevance, especially for preschoolers and early elementary students. Kids can work on matching letters, numbers, shapes, or even simple math problems, all while building motor skills in a fun, low-prep way. Clip cards can be used in centers, therapy sessions, or at home, making them a versatile tool for both educators and therapists during the autumn season.
Why Use Fall Fine Motor Tasks Like this one?
This activity is a powerful hands-on activity because it builds skills in many areas. Clipping clothes pins to paper or cards like this Fall themed activity develops several skill areas:
address hand separation into a fine motor side and a power side
Separation of the two sides of the hand allow for more precise use of the thumb. Hand separation starts when a baby bears weight through their arm and ulnar side of the hand while carrying a toy in the radial side. This simple activity developmentally lengthens the muscles of the ulnar side.
Intrinsic strength-The intrinsic muscles are the muscles in the hand that define the arches of the hands, bend the knuckles, and oppose with the thumbs.
Arch development: Arch support in the hand is related closely to the separation of the sides of the hand. Refinement of fine motor skills in the hand (the radial side) happens when the power half (the ulnar side) is stabilized.
When kids hold the circle card, they use their non-dominant hand to hold the card, and can use their dominant hand to clip clothes pins onto the cards. Kids can count the number of leaves on each card and attach the same number of clothes pins.
A functional fine motor grasp and manipulation of objects is more accurate when the ring and pinky fingers are flexed (bent) into the palm. This positioning stabilizes the MCP arch and allows for control of the pointer and middle fingers.
This repeated clipping task combines heavy work proprioceptive input through the hands and develops refined strengthening of the arches of the hands. All of this occurs while children count and combine fine motor skills with math.
It’s a great Fall preschool activity or a Fall kindergarten math center where kids are combining math with fine motor skills…and a Fall theme!
Be sure to find out more information on development and when this type of activity is appropriate by reading about fine motor milestones.
Free Fall Worksheets
Want to add these Fall fine motor worksheet clip cards to your therapy toolbox? Enter your email address into the form below. You’ll receive these fine motor math worksheets in your inbox!
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.
Looking for a fun way to bring movement into your circle time? This Jack Be Nimble craft pairs perfectly with nursery rhyme activities that get kids up and moving! Traditional rhymes like this one offer the perfect opportunity to build coordination, balance, and listening skills through gross motor rhymes. Add in a simple hands-on kids crafts, and you’ve got a meaningful activity that supports early learning in a playful way. Whether you’re working with a preschool class or doing OT sessions, this circle time movement idea brings the classic rhyme to life with jumping, crafting, and lots of giggles.
Today’s craft is a Jack Be Nimble craft based on the nursery rhyme, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. If you are looking for an easy nursery rhyme crafts based on development, this craft supports fine motor skills and scissor skills.
Jack Be Nimble Craft
I love this Jack be Nimble craft because it has so many components that are the building blocks for developing motor skills in kids. You’ll find:
Cutting simple shapes
Cutting straight lines and curved lines
Tearing paper
Crumbling paper
Gluing the craft pieces in order (direction following)
This craft is one of those kids crafts that is project based, but there are components that can be created by the child with a process-based format. You can have the child add their own spin on things and offer art and craft materials and just let the process go.
The Nursery Rhyme craft and activities series is in full swing and we’ve had some great ideas shared for some classic nursery rhyme favorites.
Today’s kids craft is one of our favorite Nursery Rhymes. We’ve loved this short little rhyme since we started book babies at the library years back.
It is a fun rhyme to recite and always brings a smile to my kids’ faces.
Jack be nimble
Jack be quick
Jack jump over the candlestick.
Jack Be Nimble Jack Be Quick Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers
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To make a Jack Be Nimble craft, you’ll need:
cardstock in white, another color (we used blue) and a background sheet (we used green)
This craft is a nice one because you can work on cutting simple shapes. Here is a scissor skills crash course that talks about how to modify cutting tasks to make it easier or harder for kids at different skill levels.
Use Squeeze Glue Bottles Instead of Glue Sticks
Here’s an occupational therapy fine motor tip: Use squeeze glue bottles for crafts. This is a strengthening tool that also works on graded precision, wrist stability, bilateral coordination, crossing midline, and visual motor skills!
These are skills that kids need for a wider variety of functional tasks and the squeeze glue bottle builds these skills with instant feedback.
Squeeze too hard and too much glue comes out of the glue bottle. Squeeze too softly and you won’t get any glue. The nice thing is you can modify the amount of pressure needed by opening or closing the cap slightly.
Wrist stability with fine motor tasks like using scissors and writing is huge. That’s why I love using the glue bottle task as a way to work on this. If the wrists are bent, or flexed when squeezing the glue bottle, the child won’t have stability and strength. It’s easy to point out this concept to them while they are using the glue bottle because it’s right there in front of them with both hands together on the glue bottle.
This is a great way to make the nursery rhyme craft even more functional and effective!
To make the Jack be Nimble Jack be Quick craft:
Start by cutting the simple shapes you’ll need to make the candlestick craft. Older kids can work on scissor skills to cut these simple shapes.
Cutting from card stock is a great way to work on scissor accuracy because the resistance is greater than regular printer paper. This allows children to slow their snipping speed and better accuracy when cutting along lines.
Cut a semi-circle from colored paper and a rectangle from white paper.
Tear a square of each color of tissue paper.
5. Glue the semi-circle onto the paper. This is a great opportunity to talk about shapes with your toddler or preschooler.
6. Glue the rectangle on top of the semicircle.
7. Draw a flame shape with the glue.
8. Have your child tear small pieces of the tissue paper.
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.
For more craft ideas, including templates and printable crafts that allow for data collection, be sure to get our resources inside The OT Toolbox Membership.
School buses and the back-to-school season is the perfect time for a fun, low-prep bus craft that supports creativity and fine motor skills. We love using back to school themed activities in occupational therapy sessions for a reason…This paper bus activity is ideal for young kids, toddlers, kindergartners, and even older kids. Using simple materials like cardstock, glue, markers, and printables, this craft is a great option for the first day of school, a classroom display, or a back-to-school school activity.
An easy school bus craft is just what kids need before back to school, along with a little crafting fun!
I don’t want to even think about the end of summer and the start of school. The summer fun is quickly passing by with long days of outdoor play and water activities. We’ve got a few of the cousins heading back to school this fall. A couple on the school bus and a few that will be starting up preschool for the first time.
New classes, new book bags, and new school shoes happen before the summer fun has even ended. With all of the newness happening, this mama wanted to touch on an old familiar theme with the start of school quickly approaching.
This school bus craft was a fun way to create while we explored easy shapes. This was a great craft for my two year old as we talked about the start of school and some easy shapes.
I cut a few simple shapes from the paper. An older child who is working on scissor skills could cut these shapes.
Building our school bus was fun! We moved our shapes around until we liked the bus. This was fun for Big Sister (age 6) as she helped us build the bus and made sure the windows were where she liked them.
Baby Girl (age 2 and half) worked on her shape identification with this craft. Big Sister and I would hold up a shape and ask her what it was. She was loving the shape test!
We glued the shapes in place on our bus when we got it looking like we wanted. Big Sister used some scrap paper to draw bus stops for our bus. I love the “baby stop”!
Easy Bus Craft for Kids of All Ages
As an OT in schools, I love this craft to start off the school year because you can get a quick look at scissor skills, fine motor skills, planning and executive function, and much more. It’s a wonderful way to welcome the new school year with hands-on learning.
Simple Steps and Creative Add-Ons
This paper plate school bus craft (or use cardstock to make a more structured paper bus) is great for easy crafting in small groups or as part of a station activity. Add a black line for the road, draw headlights on the front, or invite kids to sketch their own child’s face in the windows for a personalized touch.
Need a quick solution for class? Provide step-by-step instructions with a visual example, or print out bus shapes with cut-and-paste parts to make this a preschool craft that’s both fun and functional.
Make It a Wheels on the Bus Craft!
Turn your bus project into a Wheels on the Bus craft by adding interactive features to go along with the classic bus song. Use paper brads to make spinning wheels, or glue on circles cut from black construction paper. Attach craft sticks to act out the song as a puppet or prop during circle time. You can also label parts of the bus (“doors go open and shut,” “wipers go swish swish swish”) to reinforce early learning concepts while you craft.
This is a fun idea that pairs perfectly with music, group time, and creative movement!
Turn It Into a Pigeon Rides the Bus Craft
We have many preschool book activities here on The OT Toolbox. This paper bus craft is a perfect way to extend the craft into the book, Pigeon Rides the Bus!
Turn this craft into a Pigeon Rides the Bus craft inspired by Mo Willems’ beloved character. Simply add a drawing or cut-out of Pigeon riding in or driving the bus. Kids can glue Pigeon onto the driver’s seat or draw him peeking out the window using a marker or crayon. Pair the craft with a read-aloud and follow-up discussion to build on literacy and comprehension skills.
This is a great way to tie in book-based learning with preschool crafts or kindergarten art projects.
Why This Craft Works for Young Children
This school bus art project uses simple crafts and easy paper crafts to build important early skills:
Promotes fine motor skills through cutting, gluing, and coloring
Encourages creativity and storytelling
Supports classroom community with a shared fun activity
Perfect for first week of school routines
It’s one of those easy craft ideas that is great for building connection and confidence in your preschool class or at home.
With one cutting craft, you can assess many areas:
Fine Motor Skills
Cutting: Children cut squares, rectangles, and circles, which targets hand strength, bilateral coordination, and scissor skills.
Pasting/Glue Control: Squeezing glue bottles or using glue sticks promotes hand strength and precision.
Grasp Patterns: Encourages tripod grasp and refined finger movements when handling small shapes.
Visual Motor & Perceptual Skills
Visual Discrimination: Identifying and matching shapes (square windows, rectangular bus body).
Figure-Ground: Picking out shapes from a group of cut pieces or worksheet.
Visual Closure: Recognizing the bus even if parts are missing or partially hidden.
Visual-Spatial Awareness: Placing parts of the bus (windows, wheels, stripes) in correct orientation and location.
Bilateral Coordination
Cutting with Stabilization: Requires use of one hand to stabilize the paper while cutting with the other.
Assembly Tasks: Holding the bus body with one hand while placing and pressing shapes with the other.
Executive Functioning Skills
Planning and Sequencing: Following steps in order (e.g., bus body → windows → wheels).
Working Memory: Remembering shape placement and order from visual or verbal instruction.
Inhibition: Waiting to glue or cut at the appropriate time within the task.
Language and Cognitive Skills
Shape & Color Identification: Naming shapes and colors while assembling.
Following Directions: Completing a multi-step task with adult guidance or peer modeling.
Seated Tolerance: Sitting upright to complete a tabletop activity from start to finish.
Core Engagement: Maintaining posture while using both hands in front of the body.
Sensory Processing
Tactile Input: Handling paper, glue, and possibly stickers or markers.
Proprioceptive Input: Using controlled hand pressure for cutting and gluing.
Visual Input: Tracking lines while cutting and scanning for shape placement.
Social and Emotional Skills
Turn-Taking and Sharing: During group crafts, materials may be shared.
Task Completion: Builds confidence by following through on a start-to-finish task.
Self-Expression: Decorating the bus with additional details or personalization (child’s name, colors).
For more ways to focus on scissor skills, and the WHY behind development of cutting with scissors, check out our resource, The Scissor Skills Book.
Check out The Scissor Skills Book for tips and strategies based on development from school based occupational therapists and physical therapists.
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.
If your kids are outer space enthusiasts, then this space theme activities are just the thing to add learning and skill building with space activities. This collection of space activities for kids are actually part of a DIY summer camp that we designed. When the kids need a backyard summer camp or something fun to look forward to, easy and creative activities based on a space theme can do just that. This summer, create a home summer camp with an Outer Space theme…all while building skills in therapy or at home. Our space theme slide deck is just one way to help kids build skills, and a great way to lead into space theme learning and play with the kids!
For another space themed virtual therapy activity, try this free outer space Connect 4 game. It’s great for kids of all ages.
Here, you’ll find everything you need to plan a space camp fun that builds skills like fine motor skills, gross motor skill development, sensory input, regulation, emotional support, bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, executive functioning skills, and more. Read on for all of the outer space fun!
Space Camp for Kids
Whether you are planning a space camp in your therapy programming or trying to think of ways to build skills for kids this summer in a fun and creative way, this space camp idea is for you. For parents that need something out-of-the-box this summer (that doesn’t break the bank!), a backyard space camp can be just the thing to get excited about.
Space theme ideas
You’ll want to check out some other space activities we have here on the Toolbox website. Add these ideas to your space camp planning. These ideas can get you started with planning. Scroll below to find more specific space activities based on skill area.
For more creative ideas with a space theme, be sure to check out my Outer Space Awesome Pinterest board.
We even grabbed up a handful of our all-time favorite Outer Space books from the library to share with you. If you’re looking for activities to do with the kids this summer, a space theme will be a sure hit. Your Summer Camp at home will be complete with Space crafts, Space snacks, Space sensory, fine motor, and gross motor learning and play.
Space theme
These activities are set up by theme (books, snacks, crafts, solar system models, sensory play, and movement learning activities) so that you can pick and choose activities for each day of your themed camp. Make the week work for you! Choose just one or two activities for each day, or go all out and do one from each category. It’s totally up to you and your little campers!
Space Fine Motor Activities
Use this outer space play dough mat printable to work on hand strength, fine motor skills, and eye-hand coordination. Simply print it off and slide into a page protector to use each day during your space camp.
We made this Outer Space model using pipe cleaners. We didn’t get into planet size, but rather checked out the size of each planet compared to the others from The Planets book and crafted them based on the pictures in the book. we strung the pipe cleaner planets along fishing line and taped it between two walls. This was a fun way to explore how the planets are spaced from the sun.
Space Visual Motor Activities
Visual motor skills and visual perception can be worked on with a space theme. Grab this free space visual discrimination worksheet to incorporate visual processing into a space camp.
This space maze is a visual motor activity that my own kids loved. Use Wikki Stix to build a maze and work on eye-hand coordination and other visual processing skills to work through the outer space maze.
Outer Space Books
Start off your daily activities during a week of Space activities with a Space book. Some of our favorites are ones we read weekly and others are ones we love to check out from the library. Here are outer space books for kids.
Outer Space Snacks
Cooking with kids is a huge way to build motor skills and executive functioning skills through cooking. Below are outer space snacks that the kids can help to make while building skills.
Affiliate links included below.
We quickly made this space snack while doing a little space reading. Kids will gobble up the stars and planets. We even made it a fine motor sorting activity by sorting the stars and planets from the snack mix. This outer space themed snack will be a hit during your Summer Camp at home or space themed week. We used a cup of Cheerios Cereal and a cup of Puffs snacks to make our stars and planets snack mix. Have the kids sort the planets and stars into separate bowls for fine motor practice that Toddlers and young Preschoolers will love.
More Space themed snacks to fill the rest of your week:
If there is one thing that occupational therapists love, it’s the use of kids crafts as a therapy tool. Be sure to check out our Constellation crafts. There are a bunch of space and star craft ideas based on constellations and outer space…that double as a fine motor and visual motor skill building tool.
Use this space martian craft that the kids can make to build fine motor skills, and then use in handwriting activities to space between letters and words.
Use these outer space crafts to make one each day of the week of your DIY summer camp…or just use them with your space-loving kiddo!
Our Outer Space sensory activities were a huge hit in adding proprioception, vestibular, and tactile sensory play into the day. Use them as part of a sensory diet with learning components. Mix these space sensory ideas into the schedule as a reward that also meets the sensory needs to benefit regulation and social-emotional skills.
These space themed sensory play ideas are ways to teach about planets, with an astronaut theme in mind. Know a little future astronaut? They will love these sensory play and learning ideas.
I love the rocket ship in this space themed party! Climb in and out of a cardboard rocket ship for lots of movement and play. Then, use another cardboard box to make this glow in the dark space fort like Lalymom. Nurturestore made a great Space math game.
Space Fine Motor Kit
Know a kiddo that loves all things space, astronauts, and planets? The Outer Space Fine Motor Kit is your chance to develop fine motor strength, dexterity, and coordination skills.
Addressing hand strength, endurance, and precision is out of this world fun! The Outer Space Fine Motor Kit includes:
Fine Motor Mazes
Fine Motor Ten Frames for motor activities
1-20 Star Counting Cards
Bead Copying Strips
Space Alien Directed Drawing Sheets
This fine motor kit includes 24 pages of printable resources. Included in this printable pack are:
Two pages of color coded bead copying strips
Two pages of blank bead copying strips
Four pages of “draw and write” directed drawing activities with a space theme (Includes 3 styles of handwriting lines: highlighted lines, single rule, and double rule)
Nine pages of fine motor mazes
1-20 Outer Space Counting Cards
Four pages of fine motor ten frames activities
These printable activities extend to work on a variety of other functional areas, too: handwriting skills, numbers, math, adding, subtracting, one-to-one correspondence, scissor skills, coloring, and more.
Have fun with your Outer Space themed week of fun!
Outer Space and Star Wars
For even more space themed activities for kids, add some of these Star Wars occupational therapy ideas to your therapy planning. We’ve broken down a bunch of space ideas using the Star Wars theme and include handwriting activities, sensory play, executive functioning ideas, crafts, gross motor ideas, and more. Kids will love it!
Set up Your Own Summer Camp
What’s next? Actually taking the steps to create your own Summer side-gig! If you’re ready to take the leap and turn your camp idea into something real, the Summer Camp & Tutoring Side Business Workbook is your perfect next step. Created specifically for OT, PT, and SLP professionals, this printable guide walks you through everything you need to set up and run your own skill-based summer program. It walks you through everything you need to know about this process, from planning and pricing to registration forms, waivers, and activity templates.
Whether you’re thinking about a handwriting bootcamp, sensory playgroup, or life skills club, this workbook helps you put your ideas into action, on your schedule, with your expertise, and without the overwhelm.
This workbook was inspired by my own experience starting a sensory playgroup while juggling work and mom life. I built it on my own terms, brought my kids along, and created fun, meaningful experiences that supported real skill development, and made extra income while doing it.
…and everything you need to confidently launch a camp, playgroup, or tutoring program this summer.
Whether you want to run handwriting bootcamps, sensory skill groups, or one-on-one sessions, you don’t need a full course or new certification. You just need a starting point. This is it.
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.
I love using coffee filter butterfly crafts in occupational therapy to work on several skill areas. The fine motor benefits are huge with this one. This coffee filter butterfly craft is a great fine motor and bilateral coordination activity for kids. If you are looking for butterfly life cycle crafts, this one is a great addition. Or, if you are seeking Spring OT activities, be sure to add this colorful fine motor butterfly craft to your list.
Why make a Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft?
One craft that hits on several skill areas is a benefit in pediatric occupational therapy sessions. This coffee filter craft is a nice one to develop skills because it works on so many areas that are covered in therapy sessions:
This was an easy set-up and fun craft we did one afternoon recently. You’ll need the following materials:
Coffee filters
Water color paints/water
A straw
Clothes pin
Pipe cleaner
String (to make a banner)
Directions to make a tie dye coffee filter butterfly
Use a paint brush to add a bit of water to the wells of a water color paint pallet. To really work on fine motor skills, use your thumb to drop water droplets into the paint tubs.
Use the straw to drip colored water from the water color paints. Then drop them onto the coffee filter. Allow the colors to blend into one another. If you add more water to the paint wells, you can transfer that water with the straw.
This version of painting a coffee filter can be a challenging fine motor task but one that really develops separation of the sides of the hands, thumb IP joint flexion, and motor planning skills.
To make this painting process easier, try using a eye dropper where the child can squeeze the end of a small dropper to draw up water from the water color wells. Another option is using a small plastic syringe to draw up watercolor paint and dropping it onto the coffee filter.
Little Guy and Big Sister both loved dropping the water into the color wells. Big Sister felt pretty good about showing her little brother how to drop the water into the color wells using her straw.
This is a great activity to work on thumb isolation and control of the thumb during fine motor activities.
Next, dip the edges of the coffee filters into the colors so the water creeps onto the edges of the coffee filter.
Other ways to add the color can use the straw end or the paint brush. This craft is nice because it can be adjusted for many different kids.
When kids drip the color on with a paintbrush, or drop color with the straw, it’s fun to try different ways to color the filters and see the colors blend together.
Next, use clothes pins to pinch the middle of the coffee filter together in the middle. This is a great hand strengthening and eye-hand coordination task.
Finally, add a pipe cleaner to the end of the clothes pin for the antenna of the coffee filter butterfly. Bend the pipe cleaner around the clothes pin and twist it up to make antenna.
If you like to create several butterflies in a variety of colors, you can clip them onto the string for an other bilateral coordination task.
They look pretty! Big Sister wanted to hang them on the ceiling of her room. We strung the butterflies on yarn and taped them to her ceiling. This would be a great way to display a whole client caseload of coffee filter butterflies and really show off those fine motor skills!
Add this butterfly craft to a butterfly theme in therapy or home programing.
These heavy work cards include a page of butterfly life cycle activities that incorporate calming heavy work activities for motor planning and proprioceptive benefits.
Or, in the Spring Fine Motor Kit, you’ll find butterfly and caterpillar activities that are designed to build a variety of fine motor manipulation, dexterity, and strengthening tasks.
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:
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.
Creating a simple heart craft is a fun and engaging way to support fine motor skill development while celebrating Valentine’s Day. It’s a great addition to your Valentine’s Day Occupational therapy activity ideas! As occupational therapists, we believe in using hands-on activities to help children build important skills through play and creativity.
Incorporating an easy heart craft into therapy sessions, classrooms, or at home can encourage children to strengthen their hand muscles, improve coordination, and practice scissor skills, while making something festive and fun.
From construction paper heart projects to cut folded paper designs, this page is filled with simple Valentine’s Day crafts for preschoolers that support fine motor development. Whether you’re looking for a heart craft to help with cutting skills, hand strength, or coordination, this activity is a great way to promote learning while celebrating the holiday with creativity.
We have other heart crafts here on the website you’ll want to check out, too.
Cutting a paper heart
Before we get into the craft, let’s talk about how a simple paper heart craft is an easy way to work on skills in an occupational therapy session.
I love to use an easy craft like, just cutting construction paper into a heart shape because we are working on so many areas! This activity naturally promotes scissor skills, as children must carefully hold and manipulate scissors to follow a curved cutting line.
Cutting along a folded edge provides a visual and tactile guide, helping children develop control and precision while strengthening the muscles in their hands. You can make the lines bold or thin. You can use thick or thinner paper…there are so many ways to individualize this one craft, which is perfect for the busy school based OT.
Additionally, bilateral coordination is required as one hand stabilizes the paper while the other operates the scissors, reinforcing the ability to use both hands together in a coordinated manner. This carries over into daily tasks like dressing, handwriting, and using utensils.
Beyond cutting, the act of folding the paper before cutting works on pinch strength and hand dexterity. Pressing the paper together and making a crease encourages children to use their fingertips and develop the small muscles of the hand, which are important for fine motor control.
Occupational therapists can use this easy heart craft as a tool to address different areas of need by adapting the activity to the child’s skill level. For children with weaker hand strength, using thinner paper or assisting with the fold can make the task more accessible, while those needing more of a challenge can try folding multiple layers or cutting intricate designs. By incorporating this simple craft into therapy sessions, school activities, or home play, therapists, parents, and teachers can provide a fun and engaging way to build foundational motor skills in a meaningful and festive way.
Are you getting ready for Valentine’s day? Maybe putting together a few ideas for next week or just enjoying the pretty pink pictures (is Valentine’s Day reeeeally a holiday??) maybe you are looking for a few Valentine’s Day activities to use in occupational therapy.
Either way, you have to admit…the hearts, love, and kindness is pretty contagious! We’ve been having fun doing a few Valentines Day activities and this Sparkle Heart Craft was no exception. Valentine’s Day Activities are just FUN. This one was scented and smelled as pretty as it looked.
Paper Heart Craft
We started with a few supplies:
craft paper to cover the table (this was essential with this craft!)
Pomegranate Bath Salt (optional) You could also use glitter or skip this step all together.
I cut a few hearts from the construction paper. Baby Girl did this craft with me and she was excited to see the hearts.
I poured a little of the pomegranate bath salts into a little cup. They smelled SO good! This craft was turning sensory already.
Next, I used the glue to draw a couple of hearts and showed Baby Girl how to sprinkle the salts on the glue. She was hooked!
She LOVED this activity! She squeezed the glue and drew all kinds of decorations on our red hearts. Sprinkling the bath salts was a great way to encourage pincer grasp.
There were also times when she transitioned to a tripod grasp to sprinkle the glitter. Using the pointer finger, middle finger, and thumb to grasp with the ring and pinkie fingers tucked into the palm is a tripod grasp. She sprinkled the salts all over the glue. I had to cut more hearts because she wanted to keep making more and more sparkly hearts!
Valentine’s Day Craft with Fine Motor Skills
This craft worked on tripod grasp by sprinkling the bath salts (with a great scent!) and gross grasp of the hand when squeezing the glue bottle. This was a great activity for little hands!
Looking for more Valentine’s Day activities? You may also like Valentine’s Day Goop Painting for more sensory and fine motor fun!
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.
Have you ever used pencil grasp toys to support development of handwriting? Helping kids with pencil grasp can be a challenge, so using motivating and fun activities to support the underlying skill areas is essential. Today, we’re going over the best occupational therapy toys that target pencil grasp development. Pencil grasp toys to challenge precision, dexterity, endurance, separation of the sides of the hand, and other skills needed for a functional pencil grasp. All of this can happen through play using toys to support stronger hands by focusing on grasp pattern development through play!
Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Recently, we shared fine motor toy ideas and then gross motor toys. Both of these areas are closely related to a functional pencil grasp, so be sure to check out those toy suggestions, too.
Pencil Grasp Toys
We love coming up with fun play and craft activities designed to work on the development of an efficient grasp. Being the season of gifting to others, we thought it would be fun to bring you our top recommended toys to work on tripod grasp, intrinsic muscle strength, rotation of the pencil while handwriting, and an open thumb web space.
Children who have difficulty with handwriting may completely HATE to work on letter formation and pencil grip. Why not gift them with a fun toy this holiday that will work on the developmental skills necessary to improve their grip on the pencil? Make the exercise fun as they PLAY their way to a better pencil grasp!
Handwriting is more than just pencil grasp! Manipulating a pencil to write letters and numbers has a lot to do with visual perceptual skills. You’ll find easy and fun ways to work on visual perceptual skills through play here.
Coming up with this list, we thought about the skills needed for an appropriate pencil grasp and age-appropriate handwriting. This toy gift guide is broken down into toys that will help with different sets of problem areas when it comes to a poor pencil grasp.
Let’s take a closer look at toy suggestions for these areas:
Toys for Tripod Grasp
Toys for an Open Thumb Web Space
Toys for Hand Strength
Toys for Extended Wrist
Toys for Tripod Grasp
Tripod grasp: The most efficient way to hold the pencil when writing is with a dynamic tripod grasp. While not necessary…a functional grasp works, too…a tripod grasp is a term we’ve probably all heard described before. So WHAT is a tripod grasp?
A Tripod grasp starts with a nice round circle made with the thumb and index finger. The pencil is pinched with the tips of the thumb and index finger and held close to the point of the pencil. The pencil is resting on and assisted by the middle finger. The ring finger and pinky fingers are tucked into the palm. All movement should happen with the fingers and thumb. The wrist and arm should not move while writing, coloring, or drawing.
Often times, new pencil and crayon users will hold the writing utensil in a different way. You might see four fingers opposing the thumb to hold the pencil. You might see the pencil positioned in the knuckles between the index and middle fingers. Maybe they hold the pencil away from the tip where the lead is and instead hold it in the middle of the pencil shaft. There are SO many variations of awkward and inefficient pencil grasps. If your little hand writer is showing some version that affects their letter formation and pencil control, try a few of these fun toys…
A few toys that help to encourage a tripod grasp:
Light Brite: (affiliate link) Picking up and manipulating those little colored pegs encourage a tripod grasp. Pushing them through the paper and into the holes is a great resistive exercise…disguised as FUN!
We have this Lite Brite Flatscreen – Red (affiliate link) from Hasbro and love making pictures with the pegs! When the child holds the pegs in his hand, it’s a great way to encourage the ring finger and pinkie finger in a tucked position. Show your child how to pick up a handful of pegs and “squirrel them away” in their palm while they push one peg into the board. What a great fine motor exercise! Not to mention, the dots of the guide paper is a great visual motor activity…so important in handwriting!
Lacing Cards: (affiliate link) Lacing cards are a great way to encourage a tripod grasp. This set of Lacing Shapes (affiliate link) from Patch Products come in simple shapes with bold colors. The child must hold the tip of the string in a dynamic tripod grasp to push through the holes of the card. If your child has their thumb squashed up against their index finger while threading the cards, be sure to show them how to make a nice round circle for an easier time.
Peg Boards: (affiliate link) Grasping pegs encourage a tripod grasp especially while pushing them into the holes of a peg board. Here are homemade pegboard ideas and even a precision pegboard you can make using perler beads (see below).
Spike the Fine Motor Hedge Hog– (affiliate link) This fine motor toy builds a stronger tripod grasp, and when positioned appropriately, can place the wrist into an extended position, too. This helps to further refine precision movements for accuracy and dexterity. These are great skills to carry over to pencil control and pencil movements during handwriting tasks.
Learning Resources 3 Prong Tong– (affiliate link) This tong tool promotes a better grasp on objects…but only if the hand is positioned correctly. If you allow kids to just pick up the 3 prong tongs and start using them, they likely will position the tong into their hand with a gross grasp, or by using all of the fingers along the length of the prong. This can actually strengthen the wrong muscles, and promote an ineffective motor plan that becomes muscle memory when writing with a pencil.
When kids use these tongs, they should have their hand positioned almost under the tongs, as if it were a pencil. When used this way, the tongs can strengthen the intrinsic muscles and promote a tripod grasp. These 3 prong tongs can work well when used correctly, but be sure to work along side a child with this one.
Toys for Open Thumb Web Space
Sometimes you will see a child who is holding their pencil with a closed web space. This happens when the thumb web space is the area between the thumb and the index finger. If the thumb is squashed up against the side of their index finger, they are not able to manipulate the pencil with small movements. They might move their whole arm to make letters instead of just the hand. A closed web space is an inefficient way to grasp the pencil and will lead to poor handwriting. This type of positioning requires activities that strengthen and stabilize the thumb.
A few toys that help encourage an open web space:
Tweezer Games: Tweezer activities promote an open web space and stabilization of the thumb. This Avalanche Fruit Stand (affiliate link) from Learning Resources is a colorful way to encourage an open web space. The vertical surface is perfect for encouraging an extended wrist.
Bead Sets: (affiliate link) Stringing beads is a good way to encourage an open web space. The child must hold the bead and string between their thumb and index fingers. Collapsing of the thumb web space will happen when the child demonstrates weakness in the muscles of the thumb. Beading is a repetitive activity and promotes strength.
This Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Stringing Beads with over 200 beads (affiliate link) from Melissa & Doug has over 200 beads in different colors and shapes, and even letters! You could even form sentences for the child to copy and practice their improved pencil grasp!
Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots: (affiliate link) Often times, a child will wrap their thumb around the index finger when they are writing with a pencil.. This indicates instability in the thumb and the muscles that allow for smooth pencil motions.
Pushing down on the buttons of the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em ROBOTS Game (affiliate link) from Mattel really strengthens the muscles of the thumb and allows for more stability leading to an open web space and ultimately more fluid motions of the pencil in letter formation. Plus, this game is just plain old FUN for kids of all ages!
Toys for Hand Strength
Hand Strength: If a child has weakness in their hands, they may complain that their hand is tired when they write or color. Then, to compensate for muscle fatigue, they resort to an inefficient hand grasp. They may grip the pencil with four fingers or with their whole palm. many times, a child will start off with a nice tripod grasp and then switch to a less efficient grasp…or even switch hands! Do they complain that their hand is tired or that it hurts? These kiddos need to work on hand strength. To allow for increased endurance when writing and coloring, this child would benefit from strengthening exercises.
A few toys that help encourage hand strength:
Pop Beads: (affiliate link) Pushing pop beads together is a perfect way to strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the hands including the arches of the hands.
Pop beads are such a fun toy that can be used to make patterns, different lengths, bracelets, necklaces, and even shapes. This Pop Beads (affiliate link) from ConstructivePlaythings are unique in their shape, color, sizes, and textures. A twist on the classic bead, this set will excite girls and boys of all ages. Be sure to shop for size-appropriate beads for your child’s hands.
Play-Doh: (affiliate link) Play dough is the ultimate open-ended toy for hand strengthening. There are unlimited ways to play all the while encouraging hand development.
We love this Play-Doh 24-Pack of Colors(affiliate link) for lots of creative play! Hide coins, beans, or beads in the dough and allow the child to find the items. Roll small balls of dough using just the thumb, index, and middle fingers.
Roll a play dough snake with the dough and have the child pinch the dough between their thumb and index finger. Just get creative and make some things with your play dough. Most of all, have fun!
Tissue Paper Art: (affiliate link) There is possible no better art project for hand strengthening than tissue paper art! Crumbling little bits of tissue paper is perfect for strengthening the small muscles of the hand.
Encourage your child to use just their finger tips to crumble the bits of tissue paper rather than two hands to crumble. This ALEX® Toys – Early Learning Tissue Paper Art -Little Hands 521W (affiliate link) from Alex Toys is bold, colorful and just plain fun art! Even better for the intrinsic muscles of the hands is tearing bits of paper before crumbling.
Squeeze Toys:(affiliate link) a gross grasp is using the whole hand to squeeze and flex into a grip.
What a great way to strengthen the muscles of the hands! This Lobster Claw Catcher (affiliate link) from is a fun way to encourage hand strength and endurance for coloring and writing.
Geoboard Activities– (affiliate link) Using a geoboard supports hand strength to enable endurance in handwriting. Manipulating the rubber bands promotes finger isolation, open thumb web-space, and and extended wrist.
Learning Resources Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set Toy– (affiliate link) This set of fine motor tools includes an eye-dropper, scissor scoops, and tongs. The sensory bin scoops and tools support hand strength through manipulating small objects or water.
These tools are a great way to strengthen the exact muscles needed for a functional pencil grasp.
Toys for Extended Wrist
Extended Wrist: An Extended wrist is a slightly bent back wrist. When a child’s hand is bent forward toward the palm, they typically exhibit inefficient grasp on the pencil and weakness in the hand. A slight bend in the wrist towards the back of the hand (bent up toward the ceiling when writing) allows for better movement and flow of the fingers when forming letters. Often times a child with a poor handwriting demonstrates a “hooked wrist” or a flat wrist and it leads back to inefficient control of the pencil and messy handwriting.
A few toys that help encourage an Extended Wrist:
Easel: (affiliate link) An easel can be used in so many ways while encouraging an extended wrist. Paint, draw, color, or write on the elevated surface. We love taping contact paper to our easel and sticking all kinds of craft supplies.
This really encourages an extended wrist while using a tripod grasp or tip to tip grasp to manipulate little items (think tissue paper, sequins, foil squares…the possibilities are endless!) This Easel (affiliate link) is great for extended wrist activities. And, it even folds down to reveal a desk surface. It’s the perfect gift to promote improved handwriting!
Ker Plunk: (affiliate link) The Ker Plunk Game (affiliate link) from Mattel encourages an extended wrist as the child pushes the sticks into the holes of the game. They are encouraged to use a tripod grasp to hold the sticks as well. Rotating the sticks encourages two types of in-hand manipulation.
Take this game a step further in handwriting exercise for strengthening and play laying down on the floor, propped up on your elbows. Getting down on the floor to play will activate the large muscles of the back and the shoulder girdle to improve precision in pencil grasp.
Montessori Boards-(affiliate link) Precision and dexterity activities are needed for pencil grasp and when you add in dexterity tasks and manipulation of tongs, spoons, or tweezers to move and place objects, it’s a win-win.
This precision Montessori board (affiliate link) builds the skills needed for pencil grasp: a stabile wrist, in-hand manipulation, open thumb web space, and dexterity.
Looking for a few activities to improve handwriting skills? Check out our round-up of the best handwriting activities from our blog and these other toy suggestions:
Want a printable copy of our therapist-recommended toys to support pencil grasp?
As therapy professionals, we LOVE to recommend therapy toys that build skills! This toy list is done for you so you don’t need to recreate the wheel.
Your therapy caseload will love these PENCIL GRASP toy recommendations. (There’s space on this handout for you to write in your own toy suggestions, to meet the client’s individual needs, too!)
Enter your email address into the form below. The OT Toolbox Member’s Club Members can access this handout inside the dashboard, under Educational Handouts. Just be sure to log into your account, first!
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.
in white, another color (we used blue) and a background sheet (we used green)
(in red, yellow, and orange)
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(optional) You could also use glitter or skip this step all together.
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