summer

Sun Visual Perception Activity

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sun visual perception activities

Working on visual perceptual skills with kids this summer? This sun visual perception activity is a fun way to build skills needed for handwriting and reading! It’s a free therapy slide deck that builds skills like visual discrimination, form constancy, and visual figure-ground.

Sun visual perception activity and free slide deck

Sun Visual Perception Activity

Summertime doesn’t have to mean not working on specific skills that help kids to improve functional hand writing and learning tasks. It also doesn’t mean building visual perceptual skills requires boring worksheets either.

This free visual perceptual activity has a sun and sunshine theme for summer days.

The visual perception sun activities include visual discrimination, form constancy, visual attention, and visual memory tasks.

Kids can work on form constancy as they recognize differences in the various sun images and activities.

You’ll love adding this these other visual perceptual activities too:

Sunshine Visual perceptual activities

There are several visual perceptual activities with the sun theme on the slide decks.

This is also great if kids are heading off to vacation or taking a break from therapy for a while. They can use the activity as a fun way to work on specific visual perceptual skills.

Want to access this free therapy slide deck? Enter your email address into the form below and to receive this activity.

FREE Sun Visual Perception Activity Slide Deck

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    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Mermaid Sandcastle Activity

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    mermaid sandcastle

    Do you know kids that love all things mermaids? Or, are you heading to the beach this summer and want to add a sandcastle activity to your skill building? This mermaid sandcastle is going to be a hit this summer! Kids can decorate the mermaid and build a sandcastle in an interactive slide deck for therapy goals!

    Use this mermaid sandcastle activity to work on therapy skills- decorate a mermaid and a sandcastle and then complete the mermaid writing prompts and sandcastle writing prompts.

    Mermaid Sand Castle Activity

    Did you ever see a kiddo or little girl who loves all things mermaids? Using mermaid themes in therapy activities can be a fun way to engage kids in something that interest them like mermaids.

    In this interactive slide deck children can move the pieces to add accessories to create a decorated mermaid.

    This mermaid slide deck is mirrored off of our popular disguise a turkey slide deck from Thanksgiving and our fun decorate a gingerbread house from Christmas time. Both free slide decks were really popular during the pandemic when all therapy was virtual. Just like those interactive slides, this mermaid sandcastle activity allows kids the freedom of expression and creativity to decorate a mermaid and a sandcastle with movable pieces right on the slides.

    This slide deck is a great summer occupational therapy tool to work on several areas.

    Skills like eye hand coordination, visual motor skills, visual memory, visual attention, and visual discrimination can be used to move the different necklaces and crowns for the mermaid.

    On the first slide children can select accessories for the mermaid by clicking and dragging on different accessories. They have to work on mouse control or finger isolation to click and drag.

    Mermaid Writing Prompts

    Next the slides prompt kids to write about what they selected to create their mermaid.

    Depending on the child’s individual goals or needs they can work on hand writing and write out the sentence prompts on paper or they can type right on this the scrub slide deck.

    The slide asks kids about the accessories they used to decorate their mermaid, so the prompts work on using visual memory and working memory skills as part of executive functioning. Children can try to recall the specific details about the accessories that they selected like the color the shape the form and other details.

    This helps with awareness skills and recognition as well as discrimination and visual memory. All of his skills are essential for hand writing when copying materials or writing from memory to form letters and numbers.

    Decorate a sandcastle activity

    Next the slide deck continues with the sea theme with an interactive decorate a Sandcastle slide. On this slide, children can decorate this the Sandcastle using features such as colorful and fun windows, doors, and flags.

    Sandcastle Writing Prompts

    Then the next slide continues with a handwriting or typing prompt and asks about details that they selected for their Sandcastle.

    Children can again work on working memory skills and attention to detail.

    Both of the slide decks both of these slides are fun ways to use a mermaid and sandcastle theme in therapy.

    Free mermaid sandcastle slide deck

    Would you like to add the slide deck to your therapy Toolbox? Enter your email address into the form below to access the slide deck. You will receive an email with a PDF that you can click to cook to connect the slides to your Google Drive. When used in the edit mode the clickable pieces on the interactive slide deck will be movable. Note please consider using a personal email address as school email addresses and work email addresses may block the delivery of this PDF via email.

    FREE Mermaid Sandcastle Slide Deck Activity

      We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.
      Built with ConvertKit

      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.

      Outdoor Sensory Activities: Visual Sensory Processing

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      outdoor sensory activities for visual processing

      Getting kids outside is more important in recent months and years than ever before. That’s why I’ve put together a series of blog posts on outdoor sensory activities for visual processing and visual motor strategies to incorporate in outdoor sensory play. You may have seen our Backyard Summer Sensory series that covers all things outdoor sensory activities. You can see the other posts in the series, including backyard oral sensory activities, outdoor sensory activities for tactile sense, outdoor proprioception activities, backyard auditory processing activities, and outdoor oral motor sensory activities (yep, that’s possible to address in outdoor play!)

      All of these outdoor sensory diet strategies are powerful ways to help kids thrive.

      Visual sensory processing may be over-responsive or under-responsive. We explain how these areas appear as a result of sensory challenges in our blog post with a visual graphic sensory processing disorder chart.

      Outdoor Sensory Activities for Visual Processing

      Today, I’m sharing visual sensory activities that can be done right in the backyard. The visual sensory system is so closely related to the auditory and vestibular systems and is essential for function and independence in skills like reading, writing, and motor planning, balance, eye-hand coordination, among many other areas.  The visual sensory system is responsible for visual acuity, oculomotor control of the eyes, and processing of what our eyes take in.  When one or more of these areas are a problem, functional skills are affected.

      We’ve been sharing creative and easy sensory-based activities that can be done right in the backyard.  This is perfect for summer (and the series was intended as a backyard summer series!) but each post in the series can totally be adapted for year-round sensory ideas for backyard play.  

      Visual sensory processing activities that can be done in the backyard this summer

      Backyard SENSORY ACTIVITIES for Visual Processing:

      These ideas would be a great addition to all of our summer occupational therapy activities here on The OT Toolbox! 

      • Grass hide scanning- Use grass clippings to fill a large plastic bin.  Tuck small items, coins, or small parts into the bin.  Ask kids to scan the area and locate items with just their eyes.  Kids can try to remember the order that they found the items in a visual memory game.
      • Backyard Toy Memory Game-  Continue to work on visual memory and scanning visual perceptual skills by spreading out small toys into a plot of backyard.  Ask your child to look at the toys and try to remember all of the items.  Cover the toys with a blanket and then remove one or two items.  Remove the blanket and ask your child to recall the missing item.
      • Cloud Scan-  Lay on the ground with your child as you look up at the clouds on a clear but cloudy day.  Watch clouds as they move across the sky.  Ask your child to see images in the clouds shapes.  Ask them to rotate on the ground so that their head is now where their feet just were.  Ask them if they still see the same shape or if it is a new shape. Discovering an outline of a shape in a form uses a visual perceptual skill known as form perception and works along with visual closure and form constancy to allow us to determine that shapes, letters and numbers are the same no matter what their direction.
      • Figure Ground Hunt- Use rocks and letters to practice visual perception with a sensory bin like we did in this activity.
      • Catch a ball.  Try catching while standing, sitting, swinging, rolling a ball, catching between legs, etc.
      • Hit a tennis racket at a target.  Ideas include bubbles, falling leaves, large balls, small rubber balls, and balloons. 
      • Scavenger hunts-try doing these while crawling.
      • Catching butterflies in a net.  Try catching fire flies, too.
      • Visual scanning between targets.
      • Bubble pop- Try popping bubbles with a toe, knee, foot, head, finger, or elbow.
      Visual sensory processing activities that can be done in the backyard this summer

        Looking for more backyard sensory ideas for summer?  

      The Summer Sensory Activity Guide is the place to find everything you need for a summer of sensory input.  Use the sensory activities described in the booklet as a guide to meet the individual needs of your child.  The activities are not a substitute for therapy.  Rather, they are sensory-based summer activities that are designed to address each sensory system through summer play.  Activities are described to involve the whole family.  Check out the Summer Sensory Activity Guide today!

      The guide is included in our Summer OT Bundle: 

      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.

      Summer Sensory Activity Guide

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      summer sensory activity guide

      I wanted to share a bit about this resource, the Summer Sensory Activity Guide. Therapists know the importance of incorporating therapeutic and developmental activities into the everyday activities that a child and family experiences.  From a trip to the playground to a day at the beach, there are so many sensory-rich experiences that summer life has to offer!

      summer sensory activity guide

      Summer Sensory Activity Guide

      What if you could add a few activities to the summer bucket list that would promote developmental skills while encouraging the integration of sensory tasks that help with behavior, attention, self-regulation, development, and more?

      The activities outlined in this Sensory Summer Activity Guide do just that!

      Looking for more summer occupational therapy activity ideas? We’ve got a lot here on The OT Toolbox!    

      This guide book is perfect for parents who are looking for summer activities based on sensory input.   It’s the perfect summer program for therapists to send home for activity ideas that will last all summer long.  The best news is that you can access the summer sensory guide as a special bonus to the Summer OT Activity kit.

      You’ll also be interested in our new Summer Occupational Therapy Activities Packet. It’s a collection of 14 items that guide summer programming at home, at school, and in therapy sessions. The summer activities bundle covers handwriting, visual perceptual skills and visual motor skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, regulation, and more.

      Summer OT Bundle

      Or, you may want to grab this massive Summer OT Bundle, instead. The 18 product collection includes $90 worth of occupational therapy resources for just $20. When you use the Summer OT Bundle in your therapy planning, OT sessions, or home programing, you can set kids up for success in handwriting, fine motor development, regulation, motor skills, and so much more. Check out the Summer OT Bundle Here.

      You’ll find ideas to use in virtual therapy sessions and to send home as home activities that build skills and power development with a fun, summer theme. Kids will love the Summer Spot It! game, the puzzles, handouts, and movement activities. Therapists will love the teletherapy slide deck and the easy, ready-to-go activities to slot into OT sessions. The packet is only $10.00 and can be used over and over again for every student/client!

      Grab the Summer OT Bundle HERE.

      Summer activities for kids

      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.

      July Occupational Therapy Calendar

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      Can you believe that July is upon us?  This month’s Occupational Therapy calendar is full of backyard summer fun activities that build skills using sensory processing components.  These are great activities to get the kids moving and developing skills using the senses.  


      In case you’ve missed it, I’ve been sharing monthly calendars where you can find themed activities designed to build developmental skills using the senses.  


      These calendars and activities are backed by expertise, education, and experience as an Occupational Therapist.


      July Occupational Therapy Calendar ideas for a sensory-based backyard with therapeutic activities designed to build development in kids.

       

      July Occupational Therapy Calendar



      This month is all about backyard summer fun and creative ways to incorporate sensory input into summer activities.


      There are a few easy steps you’ll need to do to get the calendar:


      July Occupational Therapy Calendar ideas for a sensory-based backyard with therapeutic activities designed to build development in kids.

      These activities are sure to keep away the summer boredom.  Many kids who receive school-based OT are on a break from their school-based therapy services and are following a summer program.  These ideas are perfect for adding to a summer therapy program or just doing for fun!

      Are you looking for Occupational Therapy activities to beat the summer OT slide?  What are you doing to work on certain goal areas?

      Recycled Materials STEM Lever and Fulcrum

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      I love reusing recyclables in crafts and activities.  One thing my kids might love even more is science and STEM activities.  We decided to use some materials we had in the recycle bin to make a lever and fulcrum.  This is a perfect STEM activity to do with the kids over the summer to promote learning, creativity, and problem solving.  The Summer Slide is a real thing and simple, easy projects like this one are fun ways to build skills as a family.  Our Lever and Fulcrum STEM activity led to cheers with all four of the kids. This is a fun STEM fine motor activity kids will love.

       
      And when the kids are cheering for science, engineering, and math, it is perfectly OK for Mom to do an inner cheer, too.
      Build a lever and fulcrum with recycled materials in this STEM activity that is perfect for kids to do over the summer at home or at summer camp to prevent the summer slide!

      Recycled Materials Lever and Fulcrum STEM Activity

       
      There are so many items found in your recycle bin that can be used in STEM activities.  Today, we pulled out a few materials to build a lever and fulcrum.  We used a recycled chopstick, a toilet paper tube, and two coffee pods.  

      Build a lever and fulcrum with recycled materials in this STEM activity that is perfect for kids to do over the summer at home or at summer camp to prevent the summer slide!
      To make the lever and fulcrum:  Poke a hole in each of the coffee pods.  We used a sharp skewer to do this.  you will want the holes to be at the same height on each pod.  Insert one end of the chop stick into each pod.  Finally, fold the toilet paper tube into a triangular shape. The cardboard tube will be the fulcrum and the chop stick can rest evenly on the tube and act as a lever. 
      Build a lever and fulcrum with recycled materials in this STEM activity that is perfect for kids to do over the summer at home or at summer camp to prevent the summer slide!
      Now for the fun part:  It was time to play and learn with our STEM activity!
      • We added crafting pom poms to each cup and counted how many were needed to keep the lever even.  
      • We talked about the distance between the ends of the chop stick and how the fulcrum needed to be in the center in order for the lever to be even.  
      • We tried moving the fulcrum and measured the distance between the ends of the chop stick and the fulcrum.  
      • When the fulcrum was off center, we counted how many craft pom poms were needed to make the lever even again. 
      I was kind of amazed at how much all four of my kids were totally absorbed by this STEM activity.  It was enough to make me smile (and cheer some more, on the inside!) for their love of science, technology, engineering, and math.
      Build a lever and fulcrum with recycled materials in this STEM activity that is perfect for kids to do over the summer at home or at summer camp to prevent the summer slide!

      STEM Summer Camp

       

      Summer Kick-Off Bucket

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      One fun way to celebrate the start of summer is with a family fun activity and this summer kick off idea is just that! We wanted to to start summer off with a bang and came up with this summer bucket full of summer toys and activities. We do love using Summer occupational therapy activities with warm and festive themes for this time of year, and a bucket of activities would be a great addition! Check it out…

      Summer kick off bucket

      Summer Kick Off Idea

      This summer kick off idea came about years ago at the start of a summer break, but the idea is still a fun one!

      Passing on kindness with a simple and surprising gift is an easy way to make a person smile.  Sometimes, all it takes is an unexpected token that says another is thinking of you to make your day.  

      Kindness is contagious and it can easily start with a fun gift like a Summer Kick-Off bucket.  

      Certain items make you think of summer:  sparklers, Popsicles, buckets and shovels, and hanging out with neighbors on hot summer evenings.  

      We decided to make a Summer Kick-Off bucket as a surprise for our favorite neighbors.  You know the ones: that family down the street that you hang out with on hot summer evenings while the kids run around the yard; the family that is always up for firefly catching, sitting around a fire pit while commiserating about teething babies who are up all night.  

      You could also use the summer bucket idea for other fun events:

      • To celebrate the end of the school year
      • Summer kick off party
      • Summer birthday parties
      • Neighborhoods block parties
      • Any Summer kick off event!

      Neighborhood friends are there every day, and are always up for playing, chalking on sidewalks, and walks through the neighborhood.  Our Summer Kick-Off bucket will bring a smile to friends and start the summer off right!

      You’ll also be interested in our new Summer Occupational Therapy Activities Packet. It’s a collection of 14 items that guide summer programming at home, at school, and in therapy sessions. The summer activities bundle covers handwriting, visual perceptual skills and visual motor skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, regulation, and more.

      You’ll find ideas to use in virtual therapy sessions and to send home as home activities that build skills and power development with a fun, summer theme. Kids will love the Summer Spot It! game, the puzzles, handouts, and movement activities. Therapists will love the teletherapy slide deck and the easy, ready-to-go activities to slot into OT sessions. The packet is only $10.00 and can be used over and over again for every student/client!

      Grab the Summer Occupational Therapy Activities Packet HERE.

       
       

       

      summer occupational therapy activities for kids

      Summer kick-off bucket to share and create summer memories with friends and family this summer. Start summer off right with this kindness gift that kids can help make! #ShareMemories #ad
       

      Summer Kick-off Idea: a bucket of activities 

      This summer bucket is a literal summer bucket list! Gather a few items:
      • Plastic bucket
      • Fun snacks and drinks
      • Sidewalk chalk
      • Print off a list of 100 things to do this Summer and add it to the bucket
      • Sparklers
      • Popsicle molds
      • Glowsticks
      • Toys like jump ropes, etc.
       
      When you make your bucket, fill the bottom with tissue paper. This will help to position the items in the bucket and keep everything in place.

      Summer kick-off bucket to share and create summer memories with friends and family this summer. Start summer off right with this kindness gift that kids can help make! #ShareMemories #ad

       

      Once you have your bucket full of goodies, gift them to your favorite neighborhood family at a backyard barbecue, firepit fire, or as a surprise on the doorstep.  
       
      Our kids spend so much time with our neighbor friends: riding bikes, playing “spies”, and catching bugs.  Good food with good friends and the start of summer is a special time.  
       
      Our little ones are lucky to have sweet neighborhood kids the same age.  
       
      Brothers and Sisters and Friends are always up for adventures as they catch bad guys, take wild Big Wheels rides on the driveway, and run through the sprinkler.  Summer means adventures and these neighborhood friends have a blast playing together every day.
       
       
       
      We are excited to kick off summer with our Summer Kick-Off bucket and share memories with our neighbors.  How will you create memories with family and friends (and neighbors) this summer?

      Want to take summer play to the next level? Be sure to grab your copy of the Summer OT Activities Bundle!

      Summer activities for kids

      Lighthouse Cupcake Liner Craft Summer

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      Are you planning a vacation or holiday with kids to the beach or shore this summer?  We made this lighthouse craft using cupcake liners to prepare kids for beach itineraries and experiences such as lighthouse visits!  We’ve made a few cupcake liner crafts and this is one of our new favorites!
      Cute lighthouse craft using cupcake liners! This is a fun craft to make with the kids before going on vacation this summer.


      Lighthouse craft for kids

       
      This post contains affiliate links.  See our full disclosure. 
       
      You’ll need a few materials for this lighthouse craft:


      red cupcake liners
      card stock
      (in various colors)
      glue 
       scissors

      I drew a long triangle shape for my daughter to cut from yellow card stock.  Use the red cupcake liners to create the lighthouse.  Fold two cupcake liners in half red side our and two cupcake liners white side out.  Line them up and add a bit of glue so they stay put as shown in the picture above.  Use the scissors to cut a slightly slanted line up both sides of the stack of cupcake liners.
      Lighthouse cupcake liner craft. This is so cute for a summer craft with kids!
       
      Glue all of the pieces to a piece of blue card stock.  We added a black top and brown beach to our lighthouse picture.  
      Are you going to the beach with the kids this summer?  Try one of our other beach activities to prepare:
      Beach activities for kids and families. Do these fun ideas before going to the shore this summer!
      Don’t forget to make a DIY beach souvenir