Have you heard of rainbow writing? How about chalk rainbow writing? There are many fine motor and visual motor skills that are used when using rainbow writing as a handwriting practice strategy! Let’s break down what rainbow writing is and how this chalk writing activity is a skill-builder for letter formation. Also check out our handwriting library for more ideas.
Tracing letters with chalk is a handwriting practice strategy that helps to build muscle memory when learning letter formations. You can rainbow write on paper or with different utensils such as crayons, colored pencils, markers, or chalk!
Tracing Letters with Chalk
Tracing letters with chalk is a colorful way to practice letter formation. The strategy builds skills in visual motor and hand eye coordination in order to trace over the lines of a letter.
When you use chalk tracing to practice a letter or a word, the child traces over the letter with each color of the rainbow.
They will end up with 6 or 7 trials in writing over the letter.
Some things to consider with tracing with chalk
Tracing over letters with chalk, crayons, or colored pencils is a powerful strategy when practicing letter formation and the line awareness needed for letter size and line placement.
Read through this resource on tracing sheets to see the pros and cons of tracing with kids.
Some things you’ll want to consider about chalk tracing writing activities:
Be sure to watch how the student starts the letters. It can be easy to start a poor muscle memory for writing the letters if they start at the wrong starting point or form the letters incorrectly. This creates an incorrect motor plan in the handwriting process.
Make sure the letters don’t progressively get worse as the student traces over the letters when rainbow writing.
Some kids tend to make the rainbow letters with colors next to each other like a rainbow rather than tracing on top of each color. Ask the student to make a mixed up rainbow by tracing right on top of each color.
Rainbow Writing with chalk
We did rainbow writing with chalk one day. This was a great way to work on letter formation while outside because there was the added benefit of playing on the ground.
Using chalk to practice letters supports development by adding proprioceptive input through the core, strengthens the shoulder girdle for adding more stability for writing, as well as adding strength and stability to the wrist. It’s also a great way to focus on wrist range of motion exercises in a fun way.
We have a big ol’ bucket of chalk that we play with almost everyday. Our sidewalk and driveway have been know to be very colorful at times! We took the chalk to our sidewalk squares one day this week and practiced a little letter formation.
Our sidewalk squares were the perfect area to practice forming letters accurately. I used simple verbal cues to describe the formation of each letter (big line down, little curve around, little line) and we started in the corner of each square as we made the letters.
I made the letter first and Big Sister and Little Guy watched. Then we went to work making our letters very colorful!
Tracing the letters over and over again was a great way to practice accurate formation. Big Sister got into this activity. Little Guy only wanted to make a few letters that are in his name.
When the child is tracing the letters over and over again, they become more efficient at planning out and executing the movements needed to make a letter accurately. This activity is great for a new writer because they are given a confined space to practice a letter, and visual cues (and verbal prompts from mom).
Use the activities and ideas in The Handwriting Book for more ways to work on writing skills.
The Handwriting Book is a comprehensive resource created by experienced pediatric OTs and PTs.
The Handwriting Book covers everything you need to know about handwriting, guided by development and focused on function. This digital resource is is the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support handwriting development in kids.
The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills. Each section includes strategies and tips to improve these underlying areas.
Strategies to address letter and number formation and reversals
Ideas for combining handwriting and play
Activities to practice handwriting skills at home
Tips and strategies for the reluctant writer
Tips to improve pencil grip
Tips for sizing, spacing, and alignment with overall improved legibility
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.
Today we have a fun addition to our brain break collection here at The OT Toolbox: Farm Brain Breaks! Brain breaks are such a useful tool for boosting attention and focus in the classroom. This is just one of the farm activities that we love as a therapy tool for building skills in kids. So, check out the Farm Brain Break activities below, along with the fun ways to use these movement activities in farm obstacle courses, farm stations, and more!
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Farm Brain Breaks
We love this printable set of farm themed brain breaks because a farm theme is great for this time of year. Kids LOVE cows, chicken, roosters, pigs, and so adding a twist to the regular brain break activities makes the skill-building fun and engaging.
You can probably think of a dozen or more animal walks, but having a set of farm animal brain breaks all in one place is perfect as a therapy tool for supporting self-regulation and heavy work needs.
Why Farm Brain Breaks?
Here’s the thing: Taking a sensory-based movement break in between learning tasks is a great way to help kids with sensory needs and without re-group and attend to classroom work.
Brain breaks are a great gross motor coordination activity, too. For the child that needs to work on skills such as the ones listed below, these farm gross motor activities do the job!
Balance
Standing on one foot
Hopping
Skipping
Squatting and standing back up
Building core strength
Balance in a dynamic position
This month in the Virtual Book Club for Kids series, we read the fun book, Little Blue Truck and created farm animal themed brain breaks that are perfect for movement and sensory needs like vestibular activities in the classroom.
Sometimes creative movement can be just the movement and gross motor exercise that kids can use as a sensory tool for effectively addressing needs in the classroom.
Brain Breaks use vestibular and proprioceptive input to address the sensory needs that can help kids with their attention and focus during classroom tasks. This can also support body awareness.
Kids that need to boost their level of alertness with fast movements. Those kids that seem to droop and lose attention during classroom work may benefit from a vestibular sensory movement activity that uses the whole body.
Children that need to calm their body’s movements and regulate their sensory system may benefit from slow, rocking movements using the vestibular sensory system or heavy work gross motor activities that utilize the body’s proprioception system.
Little Blue Truck Farm Themed Brain Breaks
We came up with the brain break ideas in our farm theme based on the book, Little Blue Truck. This is a fun way to explore books in occupational therapy sessions to keep things fun and engaging.
This post contains affiliate links.
With the animals in Little Blue Truck (affiliate link), we focused on the farm animals and how they move and work to help our friend, the little blue truck. There are many ways that kids can use the typical movements of farm animals to address sensory and attention needs in the classroom.
In the book, Little Blue Truck (affiliate link), we meet each of the farm animals that say a friendly “hello” to the little blue truck. When he ends up stuck in the mud, the animals are the one that come to help their truck friend.
This book is such a fun way to look at the way friends can work together in small ways to help make big things happen. What a great way to look at the way the class works together to make changes.
A group of classroom students that each do their part to pay attention and focus can make the whole classroom a better place.
We decided to use the movements of the animals in Little Blue Truck (affiliate link) to create gross motor, movement-based brain breaks. These are activities that can be done in conjunction with the book and used all year long for attention and focus in the classroom.
How to use Farm themed Brain Breaks
Print off your brain break printable sheet. The form is at the bottom of this blog post. Simply enter your email address and the printable will arrive in your inbox.
Then, cut out the cards and start to play! These animal brain break cards can be used to add movement within the classroom. They can be used at home or in therapy sessions. We love to use these along with other farm activities and crafts.
Some fun ways to use these farm brain breaks are below:
Farm Obstacle Course
One way to support gross motor skills is with a Farm obstacle course:
Place the farm brain break cards in an obstacle course.
Ask the child to go through the course by crawling as they push a tractor or pretend to be a tractor, doing animal walks, or moving on a floor scooter.
When they get to a brain break, they should stand up and complete the brain break action.
They can then move onto the next activity.
Farm Stations
Set up stations around the room using the farm brain break cards. Here’s what this entails:
Place the brain break activities in various places around the room. These will be the farm stations.
The child can go to the first farm station and pick up the brain break card. They can collect a small farm animal figure in their hand.
Ask them to copy the name of the animal onto paper.
Then they should complete the gross motor farm animal action.
If it’s an animal walk, they can use that farm animal walk to move to the next station.
Ask them to take the animal figure with them to encourage in hand manipulation as they collect more and more animal figures.
At the end of all of the farm stations, the child can then place the animal figures into play dough like we did in our farm play dough sensory bin.
Farm Writing Prompts
Use the brain breaks as a warm up for handwriting.
Select one of the farm brain break cards.
Then ask the child to follow the directions to complete the brain break action.
Next, use that card as a farm writing prompt. They can write a sentence or two about the animal such as their favorite thing about that animal, the role it plays on a farm, etc.
Or grade the activity down by simply asking the child to write the name of the animal as the farm writing prompt.
Little Blue Truck Activities
Use these brain break activities based on the animals in the book (Amazon affiliate links) Little Blue Truck (affiliate link):
Cow Walk: Stand on you hands and knees. Walk across the room while shaking your head from side to side and up and down like eating grass.
Sheep Crawl: Lie on the floor with your feet and arms tucked under you. Inch yourself forward in a slow and steady crawl.
Frog Hop: Hop like a from across the room. Hop back again.
Horse Gallop: Stand on your feet. Gallop across the room with one foot leading. Gallop back with the other foot leading.
Pig Roll: Lay on the floor and roll like a pig in the mud.
Hen Flap: Tuck your hands under your arms to make wings like a hen. Flap your wings as you strut across the room.
Goat Kick: Stand on your feet and place your hands on the floor. Walk across the room as you kick out your heels.
Duck Waddle: Place your heels together with your toes apart. Place your hands at your sides and waddle across the room.
Print out your printable animal brain break cards.
Add heavy work to these activities by pushing against the wall like the animals in the book (affiliate link) push against the little blue truck to help their friend out of the mud.
These farm animal themed brain breaks would work for any of these farm book.
Print off the farm brain breaks page and get started with gross motor activities! This item is also found in our membership under Level 1 along with all of the other free printables on our site. It’s also found in Level 2 under Farm 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.
If you are looking for a fun and healthy activity to do with a group of children, partner yoga poses for kids are the way to go. Kids yoga partner poses offer a great option for small groups that not only promotes gross motor coordination, physical fitness, and self-regulation supports, but also encourages social connection and teamwork. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of partner yoga for kids and share some beginner, moderate, and advanced partner yoga poses that are suitable for children of all ages and abilities.
Partner Yoga for Kids
Yoga is a fantastic way for kids to stay active and healthy while also promoting mental and emotional wellbeing. Some of the benefits of yoga for kids include:
In addition to these benefits, partner yoga for children has the added advantage of promoting social skills, problem solving, and teamwork. By working together with a partner or group, kids can learn valuable skills such as communication, cooperation, and trust.
It may be worth while to try single yoga poses before going straight for kids partner yoga. However, if you start where the child is at, anything is possible! We have tons of adorable yoga card decks to inspire your next step:
Some partner yoga positions for kids can include the list below. We’ve also broken down various partner yoga for kids into levels of difficulty as a way to grade this motor activity, depending on the needs of the individuals.
Double Tree Pose
Double Downward Dog
Partner Forward Fold
Partner Backbend
Partner Boat Pose
Seated Wide-Legged Forward Fold with Partner
Partner Wheel Pose
Double Warrior Pose
Partner Twist
Double Child’s Pose
Partner Plank Pose
Flying Lizard Pose
Partner Shoulderstand
Double Camel Pose
Partner Supported Headstand
Easy Partner Yoga Poses for Kids
Let’s jump into some great easy partner yoga poses to start with! This is a great starting point for young kids, or for any age when getting started with partner yoga. Just coordinating body movements with another individual can be a challenge in body awareness, force of modulation, and motor planning!
Please keep in mind the physical abilities and coordination skills of your group (we don’t want any injuries!) and be creative with adjusting these poses as necessary for the benefit of the group. You can even have the kids make up their own poses to really get them involved!
Try these easy 2 person yoga poses:
Partner Forward Fold: Partners sit down facing eachother in the straddle stretch, where you sit upright with legs out in front of you like a “V”. Partner’s press their feet together and hold hands, taking turns stretching forward and backward.
Partner Seated Twist: Sit back-to-back with your partner in a criss-cross legged position. Lift your arms and reach and twist to the right. Your left hand should be on your right knee, and your right hand should be on your partner’s left knee. Don’t forget to twist both ways!
Lizard Sunbathing on a Rock: A crazy fun name, but it’s easier than it sounds! The partner who is the “rock” will curl up into child’s pose. The “lizard” partner will stretch out onto the rock with their arms over their head and legs straight, arching their back over the back of the “rock”.
Double Chair Pose: Stand back-to-back with your partner, locking elbows. Squat down together until your body resembles a chair – your knees should make a right angle.
Moderate Partner Yoga Poses
Next, let’s move into slightly more challenging poses when it comes to yoga for two kids or individuals. These partner poses can be a little more difficult because they require more balance, coordination, and partner involvement.
For children struggling with body awareness and force modulation, this can be a real challenge, but as occupational therapy practitioners, we know the value of using an activity to challenge and build skills at a level that fosters the just right challenge while developing skills.
Partner Tree Pose: Stand side-by-side with your partner and raise your inner arms up to “high five” your partner as high as your can reach. Your inner hips should touch and lean on eachother. Lift your outside foot and place it against your inner thigh. Place your outside arm at your hip, up in the air, or at your partners other hand. You have become one tree with your partner!
Double WarriorI: Partners face opposite each other and lunge forward with their right leg. Their back legs should make an “x” shape. Raise both arms up and reach slightly behind you to touch the hands of your partner.
Double Reverse Warrior: Partners will stand side-by-side with their legs far apart. The outer leg bends and the back leg is straight, as in Warrior II. Partners lean back towards eachother in reverse warrior pose, touching fingertips with outside arms. Inside arms can hold hands or rest on the thigh.
Partner Boat Pose: Sit facing your partner with your legs straight out in front of you. Lift your feet off the ground, touching the soles of the feet together in the air while you balance on your sit bones. Hold hands through or around your legs to help you and your partner balance.
Advanced Partner Yoga Poses
These yoga poses for kids require 2 people and more advanced motor skills, balance, and coordination, but the benefits are great. For individuals that need more heavy work input, greater balance and motor planning challenges, these partner yoga positions are ideal.
Double Downward Dog: One partner will go into downward facing dog. The second partner will begin in downward dog and carefully place their feet on the back or hips of their partner, instead of on the ground.
Balancing Warriors: This partner pose is in warrior III, where the front leg is straight, the body is leaning forward, arms reaching, and the back leg is lifted up into the air to make a “T” shape in the body. Face your partner so when you reach your arms in front of you, you can touch eachother’s shoulders and balance together.
Bridge and Shoulder Stand: One partner will go into bridge pose, lying on their backs with their hips up. The second partner will start in bridge pose, but place their feet on the knees of their partner, and push up a bit higher into a shoulder stand.
Plow and Seated Forward Fold: Partner one is in a plow pose, where they are on their backs and bring their feet up over their head so they are sort of folded at the stomach. The second partner brings their legs on top of the plow and leans forward into a seated forward fold. Partners reach towards each other to grab hands – this pose looks a bit like an infinity symbol!
Tips for Partner Yoga for Kids
There are many ways to target specific skills through yoga activities. Try some of these tips to foster all of the benefits of partner yoga with kids:
Make sure to switch up partner placements for the poses where they have different tasks!
Switch sides as well, so both the left and right get the same level of exercise or stretch.
Encourage the kids to listen to their bodies, keep breathing, and laugh when they fall.
Consider using the ideas listed above within the family before moving to friends or small groups in therapy sessions. Offer the ideas listed above as options for family yoga poses. This can provide all of the benefits while participating in a more comfortable environment.
All in all, yoga poses for kids with 2 people is a fun and healthy activity for kids that promotes physical fitness, mental and emotional wellbeing, and social connection.
By practicing a wide variety of poses – ones for flexibility, balance, and strengthening – kids of all ages and abilities can enjoy the benefits of yoga while building valuable teamwork and communication skills.
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.
Have you heard of the Zoom Ball? Is zoom ball games and activities part of your OT Toolbox? This classic activity is a must for elementary school aged children and above. In this post we will explore ways to play with a zoom ball in occupational therapy, and how a zoom ball supports the development of gross motor coordination, visual convergence, wrist range of motion, and other skills.
Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Zoom Ball in OT
With the daily onslaught of new products and technology available for play, it can be challenging to select the best activities for your learners. My advice? Stick to the classics. They are tried and true methods, incorporating multiple skills, for a fraction of the price of high tech options. (Amazon affiliate link) Zoom ball is no exception. For younger learners, Zoom ball will be a novelty and instant winner. Older learners can take comfort in the familiar activity.
What is Zoom Ball?
Zoomball (affiliate link) (or Zoom Ball, Zip-it, Rip-it) is a great two player game. It is best played outdoors or in a large space. Players pull the handles to send the ball flying to the player on the opposite end.
Tug of war: the harder you pull out, the faster the ball zooms to your opponent.
Therapy time is limited. There are a ton of goals to cover in a short amount of time. Picking activities that address multiple skills are an efficient use of therapy time. Zoom Ball is no exception.
Bilateral coordination – both hands, shoulders, sides of the body need to be working at the same time, in order for the ball to shoot correctly. This may prove challenging for learners with definite one sided weakness. Hand over hand assist can be provided to compensate, until the learner builds strength or is able to compensate on their own. in this activity, both arms are doing the same thing, in opposite directions. Coordinating both arms to work at the same time is key to getting the ball all the way down to the partner. The OT Toolbox has an informative post on Bilateral Coordination here.
Eye-hand coordination – the eyes must follow the ball in order to prepare for the upcoming turn. This is a fast paced game. If the learner does not send the ball back quickly, it will start to retreat back down the rope. At this point it will need to be retrieved by one of the learners or a helper. This is also critical to thwart the element of surprise at being smacked in the hands with an incoming ball. Read more about hand-eye coordination.
Visual skills- Visual scanning, tracking, and convergence, play a critical role in this Zoomball game. not only are learners required to watch the ball, there is an amount of depth perception needed to determine how close or far away the ball is to the player. Convergence and divergence are developed while playing Zoom Ball.
Motor planning – Zoomball takes coordination of several muscle groups to be able to make the ball move to the other end. Timing, strength, and coordination need to be planned for smooth movement. At first, this will be a cognitive effort while the brain and the muscles communicate this intricate dance. After some practice, the muscles understand what to do, working in sync. A definite motor plan is developed while navigating all of the movements and steps it takes to coordinate getting the ball down the line and receiving it. For learners with motor planning difficulty, this will be a lengthy process with several stops and starts. Read about motor planning.
Strength – it takes a fair amount of shoulder and grip strength to launch the ball the full distance. core strength, shoulder and wrist stability, head control, balance, and hand strength are all needed for being successful at the Zoom Ball game. You can try shortening the ropes if your learner does not have enough strength.
Social function – communicating with a partner, turn taking, problem solving, compliance, attention to detail, patience, and frustration tolerance can all be addressed using a Zoom ball. working together in a group, problem solving, sharing materials and space, turn taking, and cooperation are great social skills developed using the Zoom Ball in therapy.
Executive function – following directions, attention, focus, sequencing, planning, task completion are key to success. Executive function, following directions, attention, attention to detail, focus, sequencing, planning, task completion, impulse control, compliance, behavior, and work tolerance are all important skills to learn while doing any activity.
Kinesthetic awareness – This means learning by doing. No amount of verbally explaining how the Zoom Ball works can replace getting in there and experiencing it
Proprioception – heavy work, bumping and crashing, pulling/pulling/lifting/carrying are all strategies to build proprioceptive skills and awareness. Zoom ball definitely involves bumping and crashing, heavy work, and pulling!
Hand strength – it takes a fair amount of grip strength to hang onto the handles while the ball is moving back and forth down the ropes
Timing- this goes hand in hand with impulse control. Timing when to pull your arms out to zoom the ball, when to close your arms and hold on tight, how long to hold your arms out, and when to brace for impact.
How to use the Zoom Ball in Occupational Therapy
Not only do occupational therapy providers like to have fun in therapy, it is important that the activities support the development of new skills. Play is the function of a child, therefore play based therapy is important in teaching learners new skills.
The Zoom Ball, while used to develop and practice skills, is definitely a fun game, once both participants get the hang of it. The Zoom Ball game is of course not limited to occupational therapy providers… It is great for physical therapists, speech language pathologists, caregivers, teachers, PE teachers, and more.
Therapists love activities that address multiple skills at once. It makes our job easier and much more efficient than planning 47 activities for an hour-long session.
Traditional method – two people stand opposite each other with the rope taught between them. The first person spreads their arms wide enough to launch the ball at their partner. Once it reaches their partner, they repeat the motion of opening their arms wide. The wider, faster, and more forceful the movement, the better the ball will move. There is a big learning curve to get the ball to go far enough to reach the other end. Usually it ends up stuck in the middle somewhere until your learners get the hang of it
Ramp – play Zoom Ball on an incline. The stronger player will be launching uphill, while the less strong/younger/poorly coordinated learner will be at the top, flowing downhill. This is a great challenge for targeting balance activities.
Experiment – talk about problem solving and demonstrate what happens if your learner goes too slow, uses one arm more than another, does not pay attention, pulls their arms fast and hard, etc.
Use the Zoom Ball in a Single Direction – If there are only two of you, and your learner needs significant help, tie one end onto a tree or post. Provide hand over hand assistance to launch the Zoom Ball, then manually retrieve and reset it.
Add a communication/cognitive element – have learners count while launching the ball, say a letter of the alphabet each time they launch, play categories yelling out a word in the category until someone is not fast enough to name something, do math facts, listen to a set of numbers/letters/items and repeat them while playing.
How to Play with a Zoom Ball
Directions for use:
Players pull the handles to send the ball hurling toward the other player
For 2 players
The line between the players must be taut in order for the ball to zoom across
The harder the players pull while spreading their arms apart, the faster and harder the ball will go
There is definitely a learning curve to this activity, with a lot of fetching the ball stuck in the middle along the way
If your learner is fearful of the ball crashing into their hands, you can add “bumpers” using clay, polymer, or pieces of foam that is attached to the string.
Zoom Ball Games
In addition to changing the type of Zoom Ball as highlighted above, changing the way it is played can also add to the challenge. There are some great ways to make the task more challenging.
Try these variations of zoom ball games:
Kneel while doing the Zoom Ball – kneeling on both knees or on one knee at a time changes the element of balance and increases the need for core strength
Standing on a foam cushion – standing on an uneven surface such as a wiggle cushion, foam block, or Bosu ball can increase the level of challenge
Stand on one foot – now there is an added challenge of balance while playing
Change arm movements – what about chomping up and down like an alligator while moving the ball
Categories – yell out an item in a category each time the ball touches the player’s hands
Math facts – yell out a math fact for students to answer when it is their turn
Counting – count the number of passes between students before they make a mistake
Spelling – shout out spelling words as the ball zooms back and forth
There are several different variations of the classic Zoom Ball. While the classic stands the test of time, there may be reasons to mix it up once in a while.
Check out some of the variations below (Amazon affiliate links):
Classic Zoom Ball (affiliate link) is made of a plastic hollow football, with two sets of handles on each end of a long cord. The slogan is “zip it to rip it”. There are several variations on this classic model:
Hydro Zoom Ball (affiliate link) – fill the ball with a water balloon that explodes when it reaches one of the ends. This adds the element of surprise, as you never know when the balloon will pop!
Foam Zip Ball (affiliate link) – this features a softer ball and shorter ropes for use with children ages five and up or those with lower range of motion or strength.
Homemade Zoom Ball – Make your own Zoom Ball! All you need is string/cord, a two liter bottle, and some duct tape. Cut the bottoms off two plastic water bottles and duct tape the open bottoms together. Thread the string through the tops of both water bottles and then play.
Other Great Resources from the OT Toolbox to Develop Coordination Skills:
Check out this OT Toolbox post on great Gross Motor Toys including the Zoom Ball
While there is a push out there to include electronics, technology, and gaming to everything children do, don’t forget to teach classic activities and games like Zoom Ball that their parents and grandparents grew up playing. There is a good reason these activities have withstood the test of time to become classic games.
Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.
If you are looking for fun ways to help toddlers develop skills through play, then this hand eye coordination activities for toddlers is for you. During the toddler years, there is much development happening. Whether you need fun ways to help little ones build gross or fine motor skills, this hand eye coordination activity will support the cognitive and physical development the young child can use for learning and play.
Hand Eye Coordination Activities for Toddlers
Hand eye coordination refers to the coordination between visual input through the eyes and physical motor movements through an integration of the visual and motor systems in order to use the hands and arms.
Hand Eye coordination for toddlers is necessary for play, self-feeding, and increasing independence in young children.
This is a developmental skill that begins at a young age and progresses in skill and precision.
Examples of Hand Eye Coordination in Toddlers
Toddlers gain precision and accuracy in motor skills at a rapid rate. You’ll notice this as they become more and more refined in motor skills. Some examples of activities that require hand-eye coordination during the toddler years includes:
Taking off clothing (shirts/pants) and putting on clothing
Putting toys into containers, bags, purses
Participating in pretend play
Self-feeding using feeding utensils (Read here for tips on how to hold a spoon to encourage self-feeding skills
Drinking from an open cup
All of these functional areas of day to day activities for toddlers build skills through actually participating in the task. However, you can definitley foster the underlying skills needed to support independence through play! For example, we love using play based learning or a craft for 2 year olds and all ranges of toddlerhood!
Why build hand eye coordination in toddlers?
There are many benefits to encouraging hand eye coordination activities in toddlers. Through play, you can create opportunities for young children to gain the type of play that the young child needs. This includes fine motor play, gross motor play, and not screen use!
Some benefits for toddlers to participate in hand eye coordination tasks includes:
Try the hand eye coordination activity we did using an inner tube. This is a great color activity for young children.
This was a fun little play activity for the Toddlers. Niece and nephew (19 months) was with us one day and LOVED doing this.
I put the blue inner tube and a little basketful of balls out on the dining room floor. I put one ball into the center of the inner tube and he was INTO it! Little nephew went crazy putting the balls in the center, taking them out, putting them back into the basket. This was FUN!
What are we learning with this activity?
Eye-Hand Coordination
Toddler Visual-motor skills
Cause and effect (if I throw this ball into the center, it might bounce out…)
Learning colors
Gross Motor Skills (throwing, rolling, bouncing)
We’ve been on a BLUE kick around here these days.
This was a fun little play activity for the Toddlers. Nephew (19 months) was with us one day and LOVED doing this.
This little (and EASY…seriously, it does not get much easier than this…) game will be coming out again. This Aunt can clean up the breakfast mess when something like this is going on!
Tips for Toddler Hand eye coordination skills
When setting up activities for toddlers, some tips include following the child’s lead. Offer support when needed, but allow the young child to participate in the process. Sometimes working and playing along side the toddler offers a model that the young child can copy if they like, but they won’t feel pressured and they still have the autonomy that gives them a sense of success.
Most of all, have 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.
If you’ve ever run a therapy session with a fun game of Simon Says, than you know the challenge of coming up with effective Simon Says commands on the spot. The beauty of a good game of Simon Says is that you can target any gross motor, fine motor, sensory motor, and visual motor skill area that you need to, making it the perfect gross motor coordination game that supports a variety of skills.
Simon Says Commands
Woohoo, it’s Simon Says for OT! Who doesn’t love a good game of Simon Says? It’s a classic game that builds a variety of skills without kiddos knowing it.
Below, you’ll find a great list of therapist-approved Simon Says game commands and, you can grab a Simon Says commands pdf so you can print off these game ideas and use them in any therapy session, or as a brain break in the classroom or home, too.
Let’s cover all of the Simon Says ideas!
How to Play Simon Says
If you’ve never heard of Simon Says or don’t have a clue what it is, it’s a fun game that is easy to implement in any location.
First, you identify one player for the role of Simon and that player will give the other players commands for actions to perform. (There are many targeted goal areas identified with commands listed later in the post.)
Second, the game has a trick with it, Simon MUST preface the command by saying, “Simon Says”, or the command is NOT to be followed.
If a player follows that direction and completes the movement when “Simon” doesn’t say “Simon Says”, they are out of the game or can lose one of their tally strokes or chips that is given to each player before play.
If they DO NOT follow one of the stated Simon Says commands, they are out or lose a stroke or chip too.
Third, the last player standing or the player with the last chip or tally stroke is the winner.
Simon Says Examples:
Simon: “Simon Says hop on one foot.”
Other players:Correctly follow the direction and hop on one foot.
The players that completed the correct action stay in the game or can stay in the game and do not lose a token or tally chip/tally mark.
Simon: “Simon Says hop on one foot.”
Other players:Incorrectly do not follow the direction.
The players that did not complete the correct action are out of the game or can stay in the game and lose a token or tally chip/tally mark.
Simon: “Hop on one foot.”
Other players:Incorrectly follow the direction and hop on one foot.
The players that completed the incorrect action (Simon didn’t say “Simon Says”!) are out of the game or lose a token or tally chip/tally mark.
Simon: “Hop on one foot.”
Other players:Correctly do not follow the direction and do not hop on one foot.
The players that did not complete the incorrect action (Simon didn’t say “Simon Says”!) stay in the game or do not lose a token or tally chip/tally mark.
Easy, right? Not too fast friends! A child’s (and adults’) attention, impulsivity, and patience can play a role in their ability to listen, act, and wait while playing this game.
Think about each child and what kind of commands you may need to give them to help them play successfully.
Younger students or those working to improve the cognitive skill of following sequences can improve these areas with certain adaptations. Give them simple commands that have few words and one step. Think about saying something like, “Simon Says clap your hands” vs. saying, “Simon Says spin around and then clap your hands”, see the difference? This will help a child focus on one skill at a time and then build from there as they age or become better at following multiple directions.
If a child struggles with verbal or processing skills, consider the use of a visual choice board, like this one by Panda Speech Therapy, that displays someone speaking coupled with a visual that demonstrates the action that Simon Says to do. This is a great modification to help children that need this type of support to be successful during play or even those who are new to learning how to play the game.
Think about the OT skills that can be facilitated with this game:
With therapy equipment, range of motion, muscle strengthening, and spatial relationships
Target whatever area you need to with children based on their goals and you’ve got a fun time with focus!
Think about the social skills that can be targeted while following and giving multiple skill-driven directions – don’t forget to either simply say the direction or add, “Simon Says” to give kiddos the true direction to DO vs. the fake direction to REMAIN STILL.
Simon Says Ideas
The list of Simon Says ideas below are separated by area of development. You’ll find specific movement ideas for:
Visual motor skills
Fine motor skills
Gross motor skills
Sensory motor skills
Social skills
Emotional skills
Oral motor skills
Simon Says Commands to Target Visual Motor Skills
Draw a row of circles
Draw a face
Draw a person
Trade drawing tools with your neighbor
Use different colors and write the letters of your first name
Write the ABCs
Build a block tower
Build block stairs
Build a block pyramid
Write the numbers 1-10
Toss a ball up to self and catch
Walk a ball on the wall
If you need more visual motor command ideas to help, look at these fun resources:
If you are looking for a combination of Simon Says Commands that address multiple areas, you can find a list of these below from A-Z. Enjoy!
A – Air write your name
B – Blow pretend bubbles
C – Cross crawls or crunches
D – Deep breaths
E – Excited body movements
F – Fingertip taps to thumb
G – Give a compliment
H – High 5 someone
I – ‘I love you’ hand sign
J – Join hands or arms with someone
K – kangaroo hops
L – Lick your lips all around
M – Make a sad face
N- Number 8’s in the air
O – One leg stands each leg
P – Print the alphabet
Q – quick run in place
R – Roll out a playdough square
S – Stick out your tongue
T – Twirl around
U – Up on toes stretch
V – Valentine’s heart hands
W – Wave to someone
X – XO to give self-hug
Y – Yawn for feeling tired
Z – Zig-zag line in air
Lastly, you can also be creative and think about how you can use Simon Says Commands with commercial board games, like Operation, Perfection, Twister, Whac-A-Mole, Spot It, Avalanche, or Kerplunk. Think about just changing it up by using Simon Says commands or NOT, to direct the child in what they should or should not do. It’s a new approach to some common board games used in pediatric OT and the kids will love it!
Free printable Simon Says Commands for craft stick labels.
Free Alphabet Simon Says Popsicle Stick Labels
I am so excited to share this newest resource. All you need is a printable page with the popsicle stick Simon Says commands and craft sticks. We used the larger-size popsicle sticks to make the popsicle stick commands.
Kids can pull a craft stick out of a cup and use the command to create actions based on movements for each letter of the Alphabet. This set goes with our Alphabet Exercises blog post where each letter of the alphabet has a corresponding exercise or motor action.
Want a copy of these popsicle stick exercise labels? Enter your email address into the form below. OT Toolbox members can also find this printable inside the Member’s Club (along with the full list of Simon Says cards listed above in printable card form AND in popsicle stick label format).
Regina Parsons-Allen is a school-based certified occupational therapy assistant. She has a pediatrics practice area of emphasis from the NBCOT. She graduated from the OTA program at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute in Hudson, North Carolina with an A.A.S degree in occupational therapy assistant. She has been practicing occupational therapy in the same school district for 20 years. She loves her children, husband, OT, working with children and teaching Sunday school. She is passionate about engaging, empowering, and enabling children to reach their maximum potential in ALL of their occupations as well assuring them that God loves them!
You may have heard the term motor planning but wondered what this means and what does it look like to utilize motor planning skills in everyday activities. Here, we are breaking down this important motor skills topic. Occupational therapists are skilled at analyzing movements and underlying skills needed to perform the things we do each day, or the tasks that occupy our time, and establishing an efficient and coordinated motor plan is one of the main aspects of this assessment.
Motor Planning
When we perform an action, there are movements of our bones, joints, and muscles that enable our bodies to move. It’s through this movement that the body and brain receives feedback, or a motor concept that tells the brain and body that we have moved in a certain way in order to accomplish a specific action. This is the motor plan for that particular task at work!
Let’s look at a child’s motor skills in a specific action to really explore this concept.
Ok, so you’re walking along a hallway with an armful of bags and see a ball in your path. You walk around it and continue walking. But, hold on. That was a pretty cool ball. It was all red and shiny. It looked like a really fun ball to bounce. You stop, turn around, walk back to the ball, stoop down, put down your bags, and pick it up. Woah. It’s not only red and shiny, but it’s a little heavy too.
It takes a bit more muscle oomph than you were expecting. You hold your arm up high, with the ball up over your head. Totally not a baseball player’s pose, but all awkward and kid-like. You know. Pure fun throwing.
You toss that red, shiny, heavy ball as hard as you can towards a big old blank wall on one of the hallway walls. Now watch out! That red, shiny, heavy ball is bouncing around like crazy!
It’s bouncing off of the wall and right back at you! You jump to the side and then to the left and right as it bounces back and forth between the walls of that hallway. You have to skip to the side to avoid your bags.
The ball stops bouncing and rolls to the side of the hall.
Well, that was fun. You pick up the ball and hold it while you gather your bags. Now, you see a boy coming down the hall who sees that red, shiny, heavy ball in your hand and says, “Hey! There’s my ball!” You smile and toss the ball as he reaches out his hand and catches. “Thanks!!” he says as you wave and start walking down the hall again.
What is Motor Planning?
Motor Planning happens with everything we do! From walking around objects in our path, to picking up items, to aiming and throwing, drawing, writing, getting dressed, and even dodging red bouncy balls…
Motor Planning is defined as the problem solving and moving over, under, and around requires fine motor and gross motor skills and planning to plan out, organize, and carry out an action. We must organize incoming information, including sensory input, and integrate that information into our plan. We need to determine if a ball is heavy or light to pick up and hold it without dropping it.
You might hear of motor planning referred to as praxis.
Praxis (generally also known as Motor Planning, but also it’s more than simply motor planning…) requires observing and understanding the task (ideation), planning out an action in response to the task (organization), and the act of carrying out the task (execution). A difficulty with any of these areas will lead to dyspraxia in many skill areas.
Praxis includes motor planning, but also involved is ideation, execution, and feedback, with adjustment to that feedback. You can see the similarities in motor planning, which refers to the conscious and subconscious (ingrained) motor actions or plans.
Motor Planning is needed for everyday tasks. Think about the everyday activities that you complete day in and day out. Each of these actions requires a movement, or a series of movements to complete. There are both gross motor movements, fine motor movements, and posture all working together in a coordinated manner.
putting on a coat or jacket (on top of other clothing such as a shirt so that in this case, there isn’t the tactile feedback available of the fabric directly on the skin’s surface)
performing sports actions such as swinging a baseball bat or tennis racket, running, or gymnastics like doing a cartwheel
The interesting thing is that a movement plan, or the physical action that is completed whether the action has been performed in the past or if it is a new movement. A motor plan for a new task can be completed without thinking through how to move the body because it is just inherently completed.
When we complete unfamiliar tasks and need to stop and think through how the body needs to move, is when we see inefficient movement, or motor planning issues.
Motor Planning Difficulties
Above, we talked about praxis as another term or way to name the motor plan concept. When there are difficulties with motor planning, we are referring to the opposite of praxis, or dyspraxia.
Dyspraxia can be a result of poor sensory integration, visual difficulties, fine motor and gross motor coordination and ability, neural processing, and many other areas.
Motor planning difficulties can look like several things:
Difficult ability to complete physical tasks
Small steps
Slow speed
Pausing to think through actions
Clumsiness
Poor coordination
Weakness
These challenges with motor function can exist with either new motor tasks or familiar actions. Deficits are apparent when speed is reduced so that the functional task isn’t efficient, when the motor task is unsafe, or poor completion of the task at hand.
There are diagnoses that have poor motor planning as a component of the diagnosis. Some of these disorders can include:
When motor planning difficulties exist, this can be a cause for other considerations related to movements, and demonstration of difficulties when participating in movement-based activities:
challenges in social interactions
anxiety
behaviors
social skills issues
Today, I’ve got a quick and easy fine motor activity to work on motor planning with kids. This activity is part of our 31 Days of Occupational Therapy series where we’re sharing fun and frugal ideas for treatment of many OT skill areas with items you might already have in your house.
Motor Planning Activity
Affiliate links are included in this post.
To make this motor planning activity, you’ll need just a few items:
one red pom pom. These are items we had in our crafting supplies, but you could modify this activity to use items you have. Other ideas might be beads, pin pong balls, ice cubes, or any small item.
Fill the baggie with the pom poms and squeeze out the air.
Seal the baggie.
Use a permanent marker to draw on a maze from one side of the baggie to the other. You can make this as complex as you like.
Add additional mazes, or two different pom pom colors for the maze. Work the red pom pom from one end of the maze to the other.
Squeezing the pom pom is a fine motor work out for the hands. You’ll need to open up the thumb web space (the part of your hand between the thumb and fingers, and use those intrinsic small muscles of the hand. Both of these areas are important for fine motor tasks like coloring and writing.
Use this motor planning exercise as a warm-up activity before writing, coloring, and scissor activities. This is a great activity to have on hand in your therapy treatment bag or to pull out while waiting at the doctor’s office.
Motor Planning Activities
Looking for more ways to work on dyspraxia with your kids? These are some fun fine and gross motor activities that are fun and creative.
The best thing about all of them is that they are open-ended. Use them in obstacle courses or in movement tasks to incorporate many skill areas. These are some fun ideas to save for gift ideas. Now which to get first…
Work on fine motor dexterity and bilateral coordination while encouraging motor planning as the child matches colors of the nuts and bolts in this Jumbo Nuts and Bolts Set with Backpack set. The large size is perfect for preschoolers or children with a weak hand grasp.
Practice motor planning and eye-hand coordination. This Button Mosaic Transperent Pegboard is a powerhouse of motor planning play. Kids can copy and match big and bright cards to the pegs in this large pegboard. I love that the toy is propped up on an incline plane, allowing for an extended wrist and a tripod grasp. Matching the colors and placing the pegs into the appropriate holes of the pegboard allow for motor planning practice.
Develop refined precision of fine motor skills with eye-hand coordination. A big and bright puzzle like this Puzzle-shaped Block Set allows kids to work on hand-eye coordination and motor planning as they scan for pieces, match the appropriate parts of the puzzle pieces, and attempt to work the pieces into place. Building a puzzle such as this one can be a workout for kids with hand and upper extremity weakness.
Strengthen small motor skills. Kids of all ages can work on motor planning and fine motor skills with this Grimm’s Rainbow Bowls Shape & Color Sorting Activity. Use the colored fish to place into the matching cups, as children work on eye-hand coordination. Using the tongs requires a greater level of motor planning.
You can modify this activity by placing the cups around a room for a gross motor visual scanning and motor planning activity. Children can then follow multi-level instructions as they climb over, around, under, and through obstacles to return the fish to their matching bowls.
Encourage more gross motor planning with hopping, jumping, and skipping, or other gross motor tasks. This Crocodile Hop A Floor Mat Game does just that. It is a great way to encourage whole body motor planning and multiple-step direction following.
Address balance and coordination. These Gonge Riverstones Gross Motor Course challenge balance skills as children step from stone to stone. These would make a great part of many imagination play activities as children plan out motor sequences to step, cross, hop, and jump…without even realizing they are working on motor planning tasks.
Introduce multiple-step direction following and motor planning. These colored footprints like these Gonge Feet Markers support direction following skills. Plan out a combination of fine and gross motor obstacle courses for kids to work on motor planning skills.
Make hand-eye coordination fun with challenges. For more fine motor coordination and motor planning, kids will love this Chickyboom Balance Game as they practice fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and about balance and mathematics.
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.
Lower extremity strength and coordination are areas of development needed for so many functional tasks that children complete throughout the day. Here we have a fun and creative way to develop gross motor coordination by building strength in the legs and core of the body so that lower extremity coordination and mobility are used in daily tasks such as self-care, mobility, and play. Motor planning in the lower extremities drives play, and play drives lower extremity strength!
These are great activities and ideas to add to an obstacle course.
Add this to our other balance activities to develop stronger legs and lower body in kids here on the site. We’ve talked before how the development of balance occurs through play.
Lower Extremity Strength
When it comes to building strong core, legs, hips, and ankles, there are many lower body strengthening exercises that can be done:
Lunges
Squats
Planks
Yoga
Animal walks
Wall sits
Side-lying Leg Lifts
Prone Leg Lifts
Bridges
While these exercises develop strength and stability in the core and lower body, they are just that…exercises. There is no function to completing them. However, as occupational therapists, our practice is driven by function.
If a client wishes to develop the strength and stamina to complete exercises such as the ones listed above, that is the functional task, and working on these exercises in a graded manner is a no brainer. It’s the functional task which is being addressed.
There is another side to the coin as well. Using lower extremity strengthening exercises to support development, stamina, add resistive feedback, and develop motor planning skills can drive functional performance by building on underlying areas.
When therapists use lower extremity strengthening exercises in therapy sessions, several underlying areas are addressed all at once:
Balance
Coordination
Muscle strengthening
Eye hand coordination
Vestibular input
Stretching
Proprioceptive input
Stability
Body awareness
Personal space
Lower extremity strength is needed for functional tasks such as:
hopping
skipping
jumping
kicking a ball
riding a bike
playing on playground equipment
running
tying shoes
getting dressed
bathing
toileting
so much more!
Lower Extremity Exercise Activity
One way to make this skill into a game is to use the skill-building as a game, an obstacle course, or a challenge.
This lower extremity exercise challenges motor planning, balance, and vestibular input, while encouraging the child to pull weight back over their heels in dynamic stance.
Materials needed:
Ball
Something to use as a target (cone, bucket, bowl)
To do the lower extremity and motor planning exercise:
Set up a basket, cone, or bucket, or other target behind the child.
Ask the child to stand with feet shoulder width apart, in front of the basket/bucket.
The child can reach through the legs to place a ball or small toy through their legs and into the target.
Challenge them to return to standing and pull the toy or ball up to shoulder height and repeat.
As occupational therapy students, we had to learn bone names and all about anatomy and physiology. Naming bones comes in very handy as an occupational therapist! But, if you are working in pediatrics, kids need to learn names of bones, too! For one thing, kids learn bone names in school. But did you consider the interoception aspect to teaching bone names? When it comes to internal feelings or anatomical states that impact sensory processing and internal body actions, learning names of bones supports this awareness of self. Add this fun way to learn names of bones to your anatomy and physiology games!
Bone Names Activity
Learning human anatomy has a special place in my heart. I mean, those semesters in Human Anatomy, Anatomy lab, and clinical kinesiology bring back fond memories.
So, when my kids ask questions like how their arm can pick up a sandwich, I have a little fun telling them about bones, joints, and muscles. This bone naming activity is just one fun way to teach bone names and teach kids about anatomy.
(Moving a sandwich is a big deal in our house!)
We’ve done a body part identification activity before, using band-aides, but these labels were a big hit with my kids. We used them to practice for a test for my big kids.
My Kindergartner and Second grader had a bones theme in their gym class, we had fun talking about the bones in our body, and made this Bone Identification and movement activity. (It would be great as a skeleton activities for preschoolers, too.
Bones Activity
This bone activity for kids is one they won’t forget…and when teaching human anatomy to kids, it’s one that will stick! The fun stickers help! 🙂
This post contains affiliate links.
I threw this activity together really quickly. We had a few sheets of blank address labels, and I grabbed a red permanent marker (affiliate link). I made a quick strip across the top and bottom of the address labels and then wrote in black marker (affiliate link), “Hello my name is” with the bone names below.
While we used this bone identification activity with kids, it would be a great way to learn bones as part of an anatomy and physiology lesson for OT or PT students, too!
list of bones in human body
After I wrote out the names of the bones, I tested my kids on what they knew. They recalled most of the bones from gym class lessons, but we had a few that needed practicing.
For the second grade and kindergarten physical education curriculum, they had to know this list of bones in the human body:
skull
humerus
radius
ulna
carpals
phalanges
clavicle
sternum
ribs
pelvis
femur
tibia
fibula
tarsals
Complete List of Bone Names
Above is just a simplified list of bone names, which can be used for teaching kids about the skeletal system. A more complete list is as follows. The bone identification activity shown below can definitely be used for this complete list of bone names and bone types. Classifying and naming the entire skeletal system requires much practice, and as occupational therapists we know the power of multi-sensory learning!
Bones in the skull (includes bones in the head and face):
Cranial bones:
frontal bones
Parietal bone
temporal bones
occipital bone
sphenoid bone
ethmoid bone
Facial bones:
mandible
maxilla
palatine bone
zygomatic bone
nasal bone
lacrimal bone
vomer bone
inferior nasal conchae
Bones in the thorax:
sternum
ribs
Bones in the throat:
hyoid bone
Bones in the vertebral column, or spine:
cervical vertebrae
thoracic vertebrae
lumbar vertebrae
Bones in the pelvis:
coccyx
sacrum
ossa coxae (hip bones)
Bones in the legs :
femur
patella
tibia
fibula
Bones in the feet:
Ankle (tarsal) bones:
calcaneus (heel bone)
talus
navicular bone
medial cuneiform bone
intermediate cuneiform bone
lateral cuneiform bone
cuboid bone
Instep bones:
metatarsal bone
Toe bones:
proximal phalanges
intermediate phalanges
distal phalanges
Bones in the middle ears:
malleus
incus
stapes
Bones in the shoulder girdle:
scapula or shoulder blade
clavicle or collarbone
Bones in the arms:
humerus
radius
ulna
Bones in the hands:
Wrist (carpal) bones:
scaphoid bone
lunate bone
triquetral bone
pisiform bone
trapezium
trapezoid bone
capitate bone
hamate bone
Palm or metacarpal bones:
metacarpal bones
Finger bones or phalanges:
proximal phalanges
intermediate phalanges
distal phalanges
We had a blast sticking the labels all over ourselves while saying “Hello my name is humerus!” in funny voices.
While we had the labels on our body parts, we practiced the motions of that bone. We talked about how that bone could move and what it could do.
Yes, your humerus has a job in picking up a sandwich! (This is a very important fact when teaching bone names to preschoolers!)
Bone identification activity with a doll.
Even the baby doll got in on the bone labeling action.
How cute are those tarsals??
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.