tactile

Tactile Defensiveness

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Tactile defensiveness and what you need to know about tactile sensitivities

Today, I have an update on a very old blog post for a specific reason. This fake snow messy sensory play activity is a valuable tool in addressing tactile defensiveness, or tactile sensitivity. In general descriptions, this simply means an over-sensitivity to touch, or over-responsiveness to touch sensations. For kids with sensory issues, this can be a very big deal. Tactile defensiveness can mean poor tolerance to certain clothing, textures, food sensitivities, closeness of others, wearing socks or the feel of seams or clothing. Sensitivity to these touch sensations can look like many different things! Today we are discussing all about tactile sensitivity, what that looks like in children, and a sensory challenge that can be used for tactile sensitivity.

If you are looking for more information on sensory processing, start here with our free sensory processing information booklet.

tactile sensitivity sensory challenge with fake snow

What is Tactile Defensiveness

I briefly explained the meaning of tactile defensiveness above, but let’s break this down further.

The tactile system is one of our 8 sensory systems: touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing, proprioception, vestibular, and interoception. The sense of touch is a very big piece of the whole picture.

The Tactile Sensory System is one of the earliest developed senses of the body, with studies telling us this sensory system begins to develop at around 8 weeks in utero. The sense of touch completes its development at around 30 weeks in utero when pain, temperature, and pressure sensations are developed.

Understanding Tactile Defensiveness

Tactile defensiveness is often discussed within the broader concept of sensory modulation, which refers to how the nervous system organizes and responds to sensory information.

In some individuals, the nervous system reacts more intensely to everyday sensations than expected. This pattern is often described in the research literature as sensory over-responsivity, a type of sensory modulation difficulty in which reactions to sensory input may be stronger, last longer, or feel overwhelming compared to what the situation typically requires.

It is important to understand that this is not simply a matter of a child noticing sensations more easily than others. Current understanding suggests that the nervous system itself is responding with a heightened emotional, physiological, and behavioral reaction to certain stimuli.

In other words, the child is not choosing to overreact; their nervous system is reacting in a way that signals discomfort or threat.

Some clinicians and organizations have begun using the term heightened sensory responsivity when discussing these patterns. This language reflects a shift toward more respectful and person-centered terminology. While the research base still frequently uses the term sensory over-responsivity, both phrases are generally referring to the same nervous system pattern, an amplified response to sensory input.

What Is Tactile Defensiveness?

When this heightened response occurs specifically in reaction to touch, it is commonly referred to as tactile defensiveness. Children who experience tactile defensiveness may react strongly to everyday sensations that others barely notice. Clothing seams, tags, certain fabrics, unexpected touch, or messy textures may trigger discomfort or distress.

The word “defensiveness” is helpful because it reflects what the child’s nervous system is doing. Instead of interpreting touch as neutral or pleasant information, the brain may interpret it as something that needs to be protected against. The body then moves into a defensive response, which can look like pulling away, avoiding certain clothing, refusing messy play, or becoming upset when touched unexpectedly.

How the Nervous System Contributes

The tactile system plays an important role in helping the brain determine whether touch is safe, alerting, or potentially threatening. For some children, this system sends signals that lead the brain to respond quickly and intensely to certain types of touch. As a result, everyday sensory experiences, such as getting dressed, standing in line, or participating in art activities, can become challenging.

When the nervous system reacts in this way, children may appear sensitive to textures, avoid certain fabrics, dislike grooming routines, or become distressed when their skin is touched unexpectedly. These responses are not simply behavioral choices; they reflect how the child’s nervous system is processing sensory input.

Types of touch

The skin performs unique duties for the body, based on different types of touch input, and tactile sensitivity can be considered to occur in the various aspects of touch. These types of touch include: light touch, pressure, discrimitive touch, pain, temperature.

Most importantly for our ancient ancestors, especially, the skin protects and alerts us to danger and discriminates sensation with regard to location and identification. This is important because touch sensations alerts us to both discrimination and danger. These two levels of sensation work together yet are distinctively important. And furthermore, the skin is the largest and the most prevalent organ.


Touch discrimination- Discrimination of touch allows us to sense where on our body and what is touching us. With discrimination, we are able to
discern a fly that lands on our arm. We are able to sense and use our fingertips in fine motor tasks. We are able to touch and discern temperatures, vibrations, mount of pressure, and textures and shapes of objects.

Danger perception– The second level of the tactile system alerts us to danger. It allows us to jump in response to the “fight or flight” response
when we perceive a spider crawling on our arm. With this aspect of touch, we are able to discern temperature to ensure skin isn’t too hot or cold. We can quickly identify this temperature or sharpness of an object and quickly move away to avoid burning, freezing, or sharp objects.

When either of these levels of sensation are disrupted, tactile
dysfunction can result. This presents in many ways, including
hypersensitivity to tags in clothing, a dislike of messy play,
difficulty with fine motor tasks, a fear of being touched by
someone without seeing that touch, a high tolerance of pain, or a
need to touch everything and everyone.

Sensitivity to touch can mean over responding to touch input in the form of textures, temperatures, or pressure. Touch sensitivities mean that the body perceives input as “too much” in a dangerous way. The touch receptors that perceive input are prioritized because the brain believes we are in danger. The body moves into a state of defensiveness, or safe-mode in order to stay safe from this perceived danger. This is tactile defensiveness.

What does Tactile Defensiveness looks like?

Hyper-responsiveness of the tactile sense may include a variety of things:

  • Overly sensitivity to temperature including air, food, water, or
  • objects
  • Withdrawing when touched
  • Avoids certain food clothing textures or fabrics
  • Dislikes wearing pants or restrictive clothing around the legs
  • Refusing certain foods due to food texture issues
  • Dislike of having face or hair washed
  • Dislikes hair cuts
  • Dislikes having fingernails cut
  • Dislike seams in clothing
  • Excessively ticklish
  • Avoidance to messy play or getting one’s hands dirty
  • Avoidance of finger painting, dirt, sand, bare feet on grass, etc.
  • Avoids touching certain textures
  • Clothing preferences and avoidances such as resisting shoes
  • Resistance to nail clipping, face washing
  • Resists haircuts, hair brushing
  • Dislikes or resists teeth brushing
  • Overreacts to accidental or surprising light touches from
  • others
  • Avoids affectionate touch such as hugs
  • Dislikes closeness of other people

As a result of this avoidance, development in certain areas can be delayed, in a way that functional performance of daily tasks is impacted. What you see in as a result of a poorly integrated tactile sensory system:

  • Delayed fine motor skills
  • Rigid clothing preferences
  • Behavioral responses to tasks such as putting on shoes or coat
  • Impaired personal boundaries
  • Avoids tactile sensory activities
  • Poor body scheme
  • Difficulty with praxis
  • Poor hand skill development

More information on sensory processing of each of the sensory systems and how that impacts daily life can be found in The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook. You’ll also find practical strategies for integrating sensory diets into each part of every day life, in motivating and meaningful ways. Check out The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook for moving from sensory dysfunction to sensory function!

Supporting Children with Tactile Sensitivities

Understanding tactile defensiveness as a nervous system response helps shift the focus from correcting behavior to supporting regulation. When adults recognize that a child’s reaction is rooted in sensory processing, they can begin to create supportive strategies that gradually build tolerance and comfort with different tactile experiences.

Occupational therapy approaches often include providing predictable sensory experiences, respecting the child’s comfort level, and introducing new textures in ways that feel safe and controlled. Over time, this supportive approach helps the nervous system learn that touch can be experienced without triggering a defensive response.

Recognizing tactile defensiveness through this lens helps parents, educators, and therapists respond with understanding, empathy, and effective support strategies that promote participation in daily activities.

How to help with tactile sensitivity

There are ways to help address these areas, so that the child is safe and can function and perform tasks in their daily life. While addressing tactile sensitivities doesn’t mean changing the child’s preferences, it can mean understanding what is going on, what the child does and does not prefer in the way of sensory processing, and it can mean providing tools and resources to help the child.

This should involve an occupational therapist who can take a look at sensory processing and integration and make specific recommendations.

Some strategies that can impact tactile sensitivity include:

  • Understanding the child’s sensory systems, and integration in the daily life of the child. Grab the Sensory Lifestyle Handbook to read more on sensory diets that are meaningful and motivating. These are sensory activities that can be integrated right into tasks like baths, tooth brushing, hair brushing, dentist visits, clothing changes, etc.
  • Take a look at clothing sensitivity red flags for areas of sensitivity to clothing that stand out for the individual child.
  • Read more on proprioception and the connection of heavy work input as a calming and regulatory tool for sensitivities.
  • Work on touch discrimination with activities at the level of the child.
  • Provide verbal input to warn the child prior to light touch
  • Provide visual cues and schedules for tasks that must be completed such as tooth brushing or hair brushing.
  • Trial tactile experiences at a graded level, introducing various sensory experiences in a “safe space” at a just right level for the child.

Tactile Defensiveness Sensory Activity

That’s where this messy sensory play activity comes in. By taking out the “messy” part of this sensory experience, children who dislike messy play or touching certain textures can explore the sensory activity and challenge tactile exposure. In this way, they are experiencing a new and novel texture (temperature and squishy, messy experiences), but at a safe level, or “just right” level for them.

This snow sensory play activity has the opportunity for tactile challenges, but it uses a plastic bag to contain the actual mess, allowing for a mess-free sensory experience, at different grades of texture exposure.

Fake snow for sensory play

Fake Snow Recipe

We made fake snow one recent weekend, when we had a big cousin sleep over.  There were six kids aged five and under staying overnight at our house.  I had this activity planned for us to do together, (because I procrastinated ) and had to get it together to take to a Winter Festival at our church the next day.  It was a fun messy play idea for indoor snow.

We’ve made this fake snow before and I have the recipe listed on our Messy Play Day post.  

This fake snow is easy, because it includes only 2 ingredients:

  • Toilet paper
  • Ivory soap

With these two ingredients, there are many opportunities for tactile sensitivity challenges, and each child can experience sensory exploration at a level that suits their preferences. Some children may enjoy experiencing the dry texture of the toilet paper. (See the kids below…they sure enjoyed this texture.)

Other children may prefer (or avoid) the tactile experience of touching and manipulating the squishy, warm soap texture.

Others may tolerate mixing the two textures together.

Still others, may prefer none of these textures. In this case, move to the last level of this tactile experience, which is placing the fake snow into the plastic baggie. Then, they can squeeze and touch the sensory fake snow with a barrier in place. they will still experience the warm temperature and firm, heavy work of squeezing through their hands, but they will experience this sensory input in a “safe” level with that plastic bag barrier.

Fake Snow Dry sensory Bin

Step 1: Tear the toilet paper into shreds. Keep this in a bin or large container. We used an under-the bed storage bin because I was making a large quantity of fake snow for our Winter Festival.

We shredded the toilet paper and the kids had a BLAST! It started out so neat and kind.  Tearing the toilet paper is a fantastic fine motor activity for those hands, too. It offers heavy work input through the hands which can have a regulating, calming impact on the joints of the hands. This can be a nice “warm up” exercise for the tactile challenge of exploring and manipulating the dry toilet paper texture.

For kids with tactile sensitivities, this might be “too much” for them to handle. Try using tongs and ask them to explore the toilet paper shredding sensory bin to find hidden items. Some of the paper cards and winter words in our Winter Fine Motor Kit are great additions to this sensory bin.

How to make fake snow using toilet paper for a fun sensory challenge to the hands.
Kids can make fake snow for a tactile sensory experience.

 And then turned in to this.  

Use toilet paper in a dry sensory bin for tactile sensitivity and fine motor strengthening.

  And this.  

Slightly off-course in our sensory bin, but of course it did.   Why wouldn’t it when you have 6 cousins together?  ((Ok, that part of this post was NOT mess-free…the end result is mess-free. I promise.)) So, then we popped the Ivory soap into the microwave…

Fake Snow Wet Sensory Experience

Step 2 in the tactile sensory experience is the wet fake snow portion. Following the fake snow recipe, we popped a bar of ivory soap into the microwave and ended up with a cloud of sensory material.

Ivory soap in the microwave for a tactile defensiveness sensory challenge and to use in making fake snow.

Children can touch and explore this sensory material for a warm, sensory experience.

Step 3 in the tactile challenge is mixing the dry material with the wet material. This can definitely be a challenge for those with tactile defensiveness or touch sensitivities.

If it is too much of a sensory challenge, invite the child to mix with a large spoon or to touch with a finger tip.

Other children may enjoy this part of making fake snow. The melted soap can be mixed with the toilet paper…to make fake snow!    

How to make fake snow with ivory soap and toilet paper

 

Fake Snow Sensory Play for Tactile Sensitivities

THIS is the mess-free part that many children with tactile defensiveness may enjoy. 🙂

Simply place some of the fake snow material into a zip top plastic bag. You can tape the top shut to keep the material in the bag.

By manipulating the fake snow in a safe sensory manner, kids get exposure to a calming warm temperature. This is one low-level challenge to the tactile system. The warm temperature is a calming, regulating aspect that can be powerful in self-regulation.

Children can also squeeze, manipulate, pound, and spread the fake snow within the plastic baggie. This offers heavy work input through the hands and upper body in a way that is calming and regulating.

By placing the fake snow into a bag for sensory play, kids are exposed to tactile experinces in a way that may help with tactile discrimination by incorporating the proprioceptive sense.

Challenge motor skills further by adding items such as foam snowflake stickers, glass gems, and glitter.  This was so much fun for my crew of kids and nieces and nephews and I hope it’s a tactile experience you get to play with as well!

Make fake snow for a mess free sensory experience that kids with tactile defensiveness will enjoy
Fine motor sensory experience with fake snow.

 

Products mentioned in this post:

The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook

The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook– The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook is your strategy guide for turning sensory diets and sensory activities into a sensory lifestyle.

A Sensory Diet Strategy Guide The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook is a strategy guide for sensory processing needs. With valuable insight to the sensory system and the whole child, the book details how sensory diets can be incorporated into a lifestyle of sensory success. The thoughtful tools in this book provide intervention strategies to support and challenge the sensory systems through meaningful and authentic sensory diet tactics based on the environment, interests, and sensory needs of each individual child.

winter fine motor kit

The Winter Fine Motor Kit– Done-for-you fine motor plans to help kids form stronger hands.

This print-and-go winter fine motor kit includes no-prep fine motor activities to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. 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.

Valentine’s Day Heart Craft

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paper heart craft

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.

paper heart craft

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.
 
 
picture of sparkle heart craft for kids to make
 
 

Paper Heart Craft

 
We started with a few supplies:
 
Construction paper hearts and bath salts

 

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.

Bath salts sprinkled on glue for a heart craft for kids

 

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!
 
Toddler squeezing glue onto construction paper hearts

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.

Halloween Sensory Bin

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Picture of hands playing in a sensory bin with dyed pumpkin seeds, and pictures of a Feed the pumpkin and Feed the Monster. Text reads: Halloween sensory bins.

Looking for a Halloween sensory bin that inspires mess, sensory tactile play? This spooky sensory bin has purple water beads, plastic spiders, Halloween toys, and is a fun fine motor and sensory activity for developing skills this time of year. Add this idea to your Halloween occupational therapy ideas. Sensory bins are such a fun way to learn and play!

Picture of hands playing in a sensory bin with dyed pumpkin seeds, and pictures of a Feed the pumpkin and Feed the Monster. Text reads: Halloween sensory bins.

As a pediatric occupational therapist, I’ve found that creating easy Halloween sensory bin ideas for toddlers and preschoolers can celebrate the holiday and sneak in therapy interventions that support development.

I love putting together non-spooky sensory bins for preschoolers because it’s a fantastic way to introduce them to Halloween themes in a playful, non-scary way. You can use materials that are fun to explore like tongs and plastic spider rings, and you can use sensory bin fillers like orange and green shredded paper.

It’s especially easy to make Halloween sensory bins using materials you have on hand, with just one added material like googly eyes.

Halloween sensory bin

Halloween Sensory Bin

We made this Halloween sensory bin many years ago, and it was a huge hit. We used purple water beads, however if water beads aren’t appropriate for the clients on your therapy caseload, that’s ok.

Use the spooky (or not spooky) sensory bin activity to target specific skills:

  • Fine motor skills– pincer grasp, separation of the sides of the hand, thumb opposition
  • Tool use- tongs, tweezers, scoops
  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Tactile sensory exploration
  • Benefits of playing with a sensory bin: self-confidence, problem solving, creativity, etc.
  • Visual motor skills- great for pouring and scooping
  • Learning opportunities
  • Scissor skills by cutting paper in the sensory bin

There are many items that you can use as a sensory base in a Halloween sensory bin.

Over the years, I’ve shared many DIY Halloween sensory activities for kids using simple items I already had at home. When working with children who have special needs, I’ve tailored Halloween sensory bins to provide just the right amount of sensory input, ensuring that every child can enjoy the experience.

For example, you can work on sensory motor skills like bilateral coordination, motor planning, fine motor work, heavy work, vestibular input, and gross motor strengthening with this giant spider web activity. An activity like this one can include a Halloween sensory bin…add picture cards or an example of the things students should find in the sensory bin within the spider web. They can climb through the strings and then go to the sensory bin, where they need to look for the matching item.

You can use the Halloween sensory bin cards that we have inside The OT Toolbox Membership Club in your sensory bin and in the gross motor spider web task.

Halloween Sensory Bin Fillers

We have many sensory bin ideas here on The OT Toolbox, but to make this one pumpkin, ghosts, or spider themed, you can pull out any Halloween decoration or party supply.

I often look for ways to save money, so I’ve put together some cheap Halloween sensory bins with household items that I can repurpose.

This is nice because I love to re-use those materials, when possible, to make other holiday sensory bins. If you use a tool like tweezers or tongs, you can definitely reuse the sensory bin materials.

Some of the small items you can use to fill a Halloween sensory bin include (a lot of these items can be found at the dollar store):

  1. Googly eyes
  2. Black and orange dyed rice
  3. Plastic spiders and bugs
  4. Eyeball bouncy balls
  5. Plastic bats
  6. Miniature pumpkins- these are good for sorting items into
  7. Foam ghost shapes
  8. Halloween-themed mini-erasers
  9. Plastic witch’s cauldrons- also use these to sort different small objects into
  10. Plastic vampire teeth- I like to use these like mini-tongs. Kids can put them on their fingers to pick items up.
  11. Glow-in-the-dark stars and moons
  12. Black and orange craft pom-poms
  13. Plastic candy corn shapes
  14. Orange and black feathers
  15. Miniature witch hats
  16. Plastic skulls
  17. Plastic snakes
  18. Black and orange beads

Many of these Halloween sensory bin ideas would be a great addition to a Halloween party.

One tip is to save party favors that kids get from Halloween parties at school. Because most schools don’t allow edible party treats, some parents will purchase small items like the plastic spider rings. I like to save these and add them to my sensory bin stash! Then you can make a Halloween toy I Spy game with those same items.

When I create these bins, I like to use things like rice, pasta, or homemade playdough, which makes these activities accessible for everyone. Here is how we used colored rice in a sensory writing table.

Another good idea is to use cooked pasta like we did in our messy sensory play activity. This is especially “spooky” for a Halloween bin.

How to use a Halloween sensory bin

Once you fill your bin with sensory play materials, there is more to it than just playing. The occupational therapy provider will probably think about all of the skills being targeted.

You can support learning and skills like executive functioning using a sensory bin, too.

  1. Textures: Add materials with different textures to encourage tactile exploration. Consider including items like sand, kinetic sand, rice, dry beans, cotton balls, or foam pieces. Or, add wet and dry ingredients to mix things up. For kids with tactile defensiveness, this can be a real challenge.
  2. STEM and Math Skills: Incorporate items that promote Halloween math skills. Use small toys or objects that children can count, sort, or group. You can also add numbers or counting cards for math-related activities. In The OT Toolbox Members Club, we have counting cards with pumpkin numbers that are perfect for this.
  3. Sensory Words: I like to work on self confidence in kids when playing in sensory bins. You can introduce themed books, flashcards, or word cards related to the sensory bin theme. Encourage children to describe what they see, hear, and feel in the bin, which enhances vocabulary and language development. This is important for self-regulation skills.
  4. Fine Motor Skills: Include tools like tweezers, tongs, or small scoops for activities that develop fine motor skills. Children can use these tools to pick up, transfer, or manipulate items within the sensory bin.
  5. Creativity: Add materials that inspire creativity, such as colored paper, markers, or crayons. Children can use these supplies to draw, write, or create art based on the sensory bin’s theme.
  6. Science Exploration: Incorporate items related to the scientific aspects of the theme. For example, if it’s an ocean-themed bin, include shells, plastic marine animals, and magnifying glasses for observing and learning about sea life.
  7. Problem-Solving: Include puzzles, mazes, or objects that require problem-solving skills. These can be used to create challenges or games within the sensory bin.
  8. Social Skills: Encourage group play and social interaction by providing enough materials for multiple children. Promote sharing, cooperation, and communication during sensory play.
  9. Music and Sounds: Play background music or use sound-making objects to stimulate the auditory sense. This can enhance the sensory experience and create a multisensory environment.
  10. Sensory Storytelling: Use the sensory bin as a storytelling tool. Create or find a story related to the theme and use items in the bin to act out the narrative. This combines sensory play with imaginative storytelling.
  11. Color Recognition: Choose items in different colors to promote color recognition. Have children sort or group items by color.
  12. Seasonal Themes: Align your sensory bin with seasonal or holiday themes. This keeps the sensory experience fresh and engaging throughout the year.
  13. Emotion Exploration: Introduce items that represent emotions or facial expressions. Use this opportunity to discuss and explore feelings and emotions.

Using a Halloween Sensory Bin in Occupational Therapy

In my practice as a pediatric OT, I often focus on using Halloween sensory bins to develop fine motor skills. Activities like scooping, pouring, and sorting small items are perfect for helping kids strengthen these skills in a fun way. You can use tweezers, tongs, scoops, or just fingers to work on fine motor coordination and strength.

You can also use image cards like the ones in The OT Toolbox Membership to work on visual memory, visual attention, and visual motor skills.

I’ve also seen how Halloween sensory play ideas like a themed bin are beneficial for children who need help with sensory processing.

Budget-Friendly Halloween Sensory Bins with Everyday Items

We made a simple sensory bin with just snips of orange and green paper. This was an easy way to incorporate skills like bilateral coordination to hold and cut the paper, and then refined motor skills like neat pincer grasp and intrinsic strength to peel and place stickers. I had this little one work on scissor skills and cut strips of paper into squares.

They then peeled stickers (there are SO many reasons to play with stickers!) and placed on on each piece. We added another paper square to match so that it was a DIY memory game type of activity. Memory card games are a powerful too, too, so this is another reason to add this game to the sensory bin.

We then scattered the cut paper squares into the sensory bin and hid the stickers.

I had this kiddo seek and find the stickers to match the pictures on the squares. It was such a great way to work on so many skill areas!

Then, after we did that activity, we hid Halloween mini erasers like bats and spiders. The child used fingers and then tongs to pick up erasers.

Feed Me Sensory Bins

One activity that I really love is using a “Feed Me” sensory bin. You might have seen this before…it’s usually a large face with a hole cut in the mouth area. I like to tape the face cut out to a container like an empty tissue box or a container of some type. You put small objects like mini erasers or letter cards into the mouth.

This is nice because it encourages eye hand coordination and wrist extension when working on a vertical plane to feed the creature or face.

We have several “feed me” activities in The OT Toolbox Membership Club. Plus, letter cards to go along with the theme to add in handwriting and letter identification.

Another Halloween Sensory Bin

 
 
With Our Trick Or treating postponed until this weekend (due to Hurricane Sandy weather), we have been continuing with the Halloween activities for a few extra days.
 
This Halloween Sensory bin was very much needed this morning! 
 
Sometimes, you can tell that all-out chaos is about to let loose in the house, unless Mom comes in to rescue the littlest (babies who can not-quite run) from out of harms way…flying couch cushions anyone??
 
I brought out this sensory bin and the couches were saved from three bouncing (catapulting?) children.
 
 
 
It’s a great addition to a spider web obstacle course, too!

 

 
 

Halloween Sensory Bin

 
 
This skeleton guy had a lot of fun too 😉 For more fun with bones, check out this bone identification activity. It’s a great learning activity to use with a Halloween sensory bin.
 
 
 
All it took were googly eyes, plastic spiders, orange beads, rings, and other random Halloween stuff all mixed in with the (still squishy-hydrated-awesome) water beads! 
 
Pumpkin activity kit
Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit

Grab the Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit for more coloring, cutting, and eye-hand coordination activities with a Pumpkin theme! It includes:

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

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

You can grab this Pumpkin Fine Motor kit for just $6!

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.

Fine Motor Leaft Craft

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plastic canvas sewing craft to make fall leaves

I love this fine motor leaf craft and activity that we did back in September, 2015. It was a fun Fall occupational therapy activity that targets several areas of development: bilateral coordination, wrist stability, fine motor dexterity, and visual motor skills.

plastic canvas sewing craft to make fall leaves

This plastic canvas leaf is a fine motor sewing craft for kids.

Fine Motor Leaf Craft

This week in our second grade learning activities, we’re sharing this Fall Fine Motor Leaf craft that is perfect for second graders.  We love fine motor crafts and activities and this creative fall art was no exception.  Kids of all ages will love crafting up these Fall leaves (my three year old and 8 year old both had a blast!) It’s great because these leaves can get creative and as unique as the crafty kids like!

 
 
Fall Leaf Art for second grade (or any age!). Kids can create this fine motor fall leaf craft and work on many skills like math, patterns, symmetry, homemaking/life skills, and more.
 
 
 


Fall Fine Motor Leaves Craft

 
(This post contains affiliate links.)You’ll need just a few materials for this easy Fall craft:
 
 To make the plastic canvas leaves: 
 
  1. We started by making a leaf shape on paper.  
  2. Fold a small square of paper in half and show your child how to draw half of a leaf.  

Now is a good time to discuss symmetry and that leaves are symmetrical.  Second graders can discuss and learn about mirror symmetry by creating leaves on the halved paper.  

 
Fall Leaf Art for second grade (or any age!). Kids can create this fine motor fall leaf craft and work on many skills like math, patterns, symmetry, homemaking/life skills, and more.
 
Draw leaves on plastic canvas:
 
  1. Next, trace the leaf shapes onto the Plastic Canvas.  Tracing with a marker onto the bumpy textured surface of the canvas is great fine motor work as the child holds the paper in place with their assisting hand and maintains control of the marker while tracing.  
  2. You’ll want the child to manage the paper in place with bilateral coordination as they use both hands together in a coordinated manner. 
 
 
Fall Leaf Art for second grade (or any age!). Kids can create this fine motor fall leaf craft and work on many skills like math, patterns, symmetry, homemaking/life skills, and more.
 
Cut out the plastic canvas shapes.
 
After tracing the leaf shape onto the canvas, have your child cut out the shape with scissors.  What a great scissor activity for older students like second graders!  
 
The holes of the canvas really provides feedback to the child as they cut the curved lines of their leaves.
 
Fall Leaf Art for second grade (or any age!). Kids can create this fine motor fall leaf craft and work on many skills like math, patterns, symmetry, homemaking/life skills, and more.
 
 

Lacing plastic canvas shapes

We’ve previously covered why I love lacing activities as an occupational therapist. There are just so many visual motor benefits to lacing tasks that support the areas that we are working on in OT sessions. 
 
The plastic canvas craft is a great way to gain all of the benefits of lacing tasks! 
 
After cutting out the leaves, start lacing!  Discuss the colors of the plastic cording and identify warm colors (red, yellow, orange) that might be seen on Fall leaves.  
 
Explore the look of cool colors too (blue, green, purple) through discussion.  
 

Sewing Activity for Kids

This craft is a practical life skill activity, too. Besides the craft aspect, you can support the IADL of sewing with this activity. 

 
Show the child how to thread the plastic cording though the holes of the canvas.  Show the students a running stitch and use terms “pull, over, and under”.  
 
Try a whipstitch where the cording goes down through the plastic canvas and around the edge with parallel stitches over the edge of the shape.  
 
These are all great terms to introduce to kids as a pre-sewing skill.
 
 

Fall Leaf Art for second grade (or any age!). Kids can create this fine motor fall leaf craft and work on many skills like math, patterns, symmetry, homemaking/life skills, and more.

 Practice different sewing techniques using the plastic cord to make designs and trim around the plastic canvas leaves. 
 
Allow the child to create as they like on their leaves.  Some of our leaves had long stitches that resembled the veins of the leaves (More symmetry!) and others were very creative with their colors and zig zagging lines.
 
Fall Leaf Art for second grade (or any age!). Kids can create this fine motor fall leaf craft and work on many skills like math, patterns, symmetry, homemaking/life skills, and more.
 
This Fall craft is sure to get the creativity and fine motor skills going!
 
More skill areas covered in this activity:
 
  • Science: Discuss leaf types, tree names, and shapes.
  • Math:  Count out squares and patterns with the stitches.
  • Crafting:  Create a decorative garland with the leaves by hanging all of the leaves together.
  • Creative Expression:  Each leaf can be as unique as your child and the leaves of the trees this Fall.
  • Functional Skills/Homemaking:  Practice types of stitches on the plastic canvas.
  • Sewing:  Encourage more homemaking skills by introducing a plastic needle and thread.
  • Fine Motor:  Many fine motor skills are addressed in this activity-tripod grasp, bilateral hand coordination, scissor skills, 
 
 
 
More Fine Motor Fall Art you will love:
 
 
 
 
Fall leaves therapy kit

You can continue the Fall leaves theme by using our Fall Leaves Therapy Kit. It’s available inside The OT Toolbox Membership, or you can find it in our Therapy Kit 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.

Pumpkin Sensory Activities

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Pumpkin sensory activities

During the Fall months, pumpkin-everything is all we see, hear about, and smell…so why not incorporate pumpkin sensory activities into therapy planning and play-based learning? These sensory-based pumpkin activities support development of motor skills and incorporate sensory processing in various ways, but there’s more to it: Using pumpkin sensory play is a fun way to integrate the environment during the Fall months using a therapy tool many may not have thought about: the pumpkin!

Be sure to check out our latest sensory idea- a Pumpkin pie sensory bin! It’s so much fun for this time of year.

Pumpkin sensory activities for sensory processing and Fall therapy strategies

Pumpkin Sensory Activities

Fall…It’s a time of crunchy leaves, pumpkin-scented everything, shorter days, and a chill in the air. There are many senses associated with the season! Maybe that’s why it’s the perfect time of year to incorporate sensory experiences into daily activities and a formal or informal Sensory Diet designed to meet the needs of an individual.

Try adding the sensory based activities listed in this booklet right into your Fall bucket list this year. I’ve included many activities that are easy to incorporate into your day and family free time. Many families struggle to fine free time with work, school, sports, and weekend activities. Adding in much-needed sensory activities to a full day’s schedule can be difficult.

These fall activities are an easy way to challenge sensory skills, provide input needed for organization and regulation of the sensory systems. Using typical Fall daily activities can establish levels of sensory needs in ordinary ways.

When it comes to sensory seeking behavior and feedback, what helps one child might help others, though maybe in different ways. Use the ideas below to address the sensory systems while building on and developing functional skills, fine and gross motor development, coordination, balance, attention, and independence.

There are a few reasons why the average pumpkin is a great sensory tool:

  1. A pumpkin is a sensory tool anyone can use- Whether it be the home, the therapy clinic, or schools, one thing is for sure: You are likely to see a pumpkin in all of these places as a decoration during the Fall months.

2. Pumpkins offer many sensory options- Think about how heavy a pumpkin is. Picking up a pumpkin is just the beginning of the sensory input. Then there is the messy sensory experience with pumpkin guts. Pumpkin recipes offer another sensory experience. Pumpkin crafts, science experiences, and carving all offer different sensory options.

Let’s break down the various pumpkin sensory activities by sensory system.

Pumpkin Heavy Work

Heavy work offers calming proprioceptive input. This can be achieved by heavy work input through the body…picking up heavy pumpkins is one way to support this area. Another way is through deep breathing as it offers heavy work awareness through the mouth, lips, and chest.

Pumpkin Proprioception Sensory Activities

1.  Move Pumpkins- Pumpkins are everywhere.  Use pumpkins to address proprioceptive needs by having kids pick up and move pumpkins from place to place.  Kids can pick their own pumpkin at a farm, carry their pumpkin to provide upper body proprioception input, strengthening, and addressing balance and coordination needs.  

Heavy work is organizing and moving pumpkins can address sensory needs simply by picking up and carrying pumpkins.

Try these heavy work activities:

  • Place pumpkins in a line
  • Move pumpkins around the room or yard
  • Place pumpkins in bucket, bag, or wagon

2. Pumpkin parade- Decorate pumpkins with stickers or paints and then carry them to deliver to friends or neighbors.

3. Pumpkin Rocks- Collect rocks of all sizes and weights.  Use them to create pumpkin rocks by painting them orange and then painting on jack-o-lantern faces.  Painting rocks is a very tactile sensory experience, using both hands together in a coordinated manner.  

What makes this activity perfect for heavy work and addressing proprioception needs is playing with the painted pumpkin rocks after they are dry. Stack them, sort them, build with them, create small world sets, and decorate the front stoop with them.

4.  Pumpkin Wagon Pull- Load a wagon full of leaves, sticks, corn husks, pumpkins, and even your pumpkin rocks to build a heavy work wagon pull activity.

Kids can pull the wagon over the lawn for heavy work through the whole body.  Pull the wagon on flat sidewalks or driveways for less heavy work.  Go on a family walk with your collections or set up an impromptu Halloween parade with kids in the neighborhood.

5. Pumpkin Deep Breathing Activities- One of our first deep breathing exercises we shared here on the site is our pumpkin deep breathing exercise. It’s a printable page that shows kids how to trace the lines of a pumpkin while breathing deeply. This is a great self-regulation strategy for coping needs.

Tactile Pumpkin Sensory Play

Pumpkins offer a great opportunity for the sense of touch. From messy pumpkin guts to the smooth pumpkin surface, there are many options for tactile sensory play.

1.  Pumpkin Seed Scoop- Carving a pumpkin is an excellent sensory experience.  When it comes to scooping out the pumpkin guts, kids can challenge their tactile sense by touching and moving the seeds.  

For kids who are not able to tolerate this task, try using latex free gloves.  Kids can also try pulling off the pumpkin’s seeds from the innards using tweezers.

Once the seeds are removed, allow kids to rinse the seeds in a colander and strain them into containers.  

Use scoops and spoons of different sizes to address visual motor integration skills as they move and manipulate the wet seeds. Pinching individual seeds is an excellent fine motor task.

2. Pumpkin Sensory Bin- One of our favorite fall sensory bins is a pumpkin egg carton sensory bin. Address sensory needs by creating a sensory bin with a pumpkin theme.  Use egg cartons to create pumpkins and place them in a sensory bin filled with field corn or rice.  

3.  Fall Texture Feel- Gather various textures from nature to create a multi- textural sensory experience.  Use leaves, sticks, acorns, small pumpkins and gourds, or dry corn husks for kids to explore various textures.

4. Paint pumpkins– Painting pumpkins can be done to meet the needs and abilities of any individual and it’s a great Fall activity. Set up young children at the water table like we did to paint rubber ducks using water colors. Or, paint pumpkins and add details like feathers, sequins, beads, and gems.

Pumpkin sensory bins

Pumpkin sensory bins offer so many sensory experiences. Make them a messy sensory play or dry tactile sensory input, and you can address fine motor, visual motor, tactile, tool use, and much more.

Add a dry or wet sensory bin base, a container, scoops, pumpkin materials, and items to explore.

  • This Halloween Sensory Bin is one option for scooping and pouring with a pumpkin theme. 
  • A Halloween Sensory Table can be set up on a play table like a train table. Use the items you have in the home to support tactile sensory exploration.
  • This Pumpkin Sensory Bin uses dry corn and pumpkins made from egg cartons for sensory play.

Pumpkin Visual Sensory Play

  1. Color Assessment- Use a magnifying glass to explore the colors of leaves, tree trunks, and nature finds while out on a nature hunt. Kids can look for each color of the rainbow in a scavenger hunt type of activity.  This fall activity builds visual scanning needed for reading and writing.

2.  Pumpkin Seed Colors- Use dry seeds from a pumpkin to create colorful seeds using liquid food coloring or liquid water colors.  While these seeds won’t be edible, they are great for creative play!  Use the seeds to sort, manipulate, and create in Fall themed learning and play or artwork.

3. Pumpkin Sensory Bag- A sensory bag is a great way to incorporate sensory experiences and fine motor play. Simply fill a plastic bag with gel or soapy water. Then add materials like pumpkin seeds, sequins, food coloring, etc.

Kids can move the material around with their fingers to find hidden objects in a seek and find sensory bag or even write letters like we did with this window sensory bag.

Scented Pumpkin Sensory Activities

1.  Pumpkin Puree Touch and Smell- Grab a can of pumpkin puree from your grocery store and use it to challenge the sense of smell.  Ask kids to dip a craft stick into the pumpkin and smell the craft stick. You can use several craft sticks that are scented and unscented.  

Kids can pull one craft stick at a time from a jar and determine if it is a pumpkin stick or not. Do this activity blindfolded so that kids don’t see the stained craft stick.

2.  Pumpkin Spice Painting- Use pumpkin spice seasoning to create a scented sensory paint.  Mix the seasoning with flour and water to create a finger paint mixture.  

Color can be added with liquid water colors or food coloring. Once your child has created a painting, pop it into the microwave for a few seconds to create a puffy paint creation.

Pumpkin Taste Sensory Activities

Pumpkin Cooking with Kids- Use pumpkin puree to create all kinds of taste experiences with cooking with kids activities.  Add pumpkin to brownies, granola, or oatmeal for a taste experience while discovering new flavors.

How many ways can you think of to incorporate pumpkins into sensory play?  Just cutting into a pumpkin to carve a jack-o-lantern is such a sensory experience in itself. 

Why Use Pumpkin Sensory Activities?

The cool thing about using a pumpkin theme in sensory play is that a single activity supports many areas of development. This is why occupational therapy practitioners set up a sensory bin in therapy sessions.

Let’s take a look at why we might use a pumpkin sensory bins and sensory play activities in occupational therapy sessions…

  1. Fine Motor Skills: Handling and manipulating small objects like pumpkin mini erasers or tongs to pick up craft pom poms to put into mini plastic pumpkins in a sensory bin helps develop hand strength, coordination, and dexterity.
  2. Tactile Sensory Exploration: Sensory play, especially messy sensory play, like playing with pumpkin seeds, allows children to explore different textures, which helps them process and respond to sensory information from their environment.
  3. Cognitive Development: A pumpkin sensory play activity like the ones we shared above help kids engage in problem-solving, experimentation, and exploration, which is a great way to support executive functioning skills in play.
  4. Language Development: Sensory activities, especially during the Fall months, provide opportunities for children to describe their experiences, ask questions, and learn new vocabulary related to textures, actions, and objects.
  5. Calm and Focus: We love to use a sensory bin or a sensory bottle as a self regulation tool. Sensory play can be soothing and help children regulate their emotions, making it an effective tool for calming down and improving focus.
  6. Social Skills Development: When shared with others, sensory play encourages cooperative play, turn-taking, and communication, which are essential social skills.
  7. Supports Emotional Regulation: Sensory activities help children manage stress and anxiety by providing a calming and engaging outlet for their emotions.

Pumpkin Sensory Motor Activities

In our Pumpkin fine motor kit, you’ll find pumpkin theme activities to improve not only fine motor strength and dexterity, but sensory motor play activities. These include pumpkin play dough mats, interactive pumpkin mazes, pumpkin visual processing activities, lacing cards, I Spy pages, and so much more.

Grab a copy of the Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit to jump start sensory play this Fall!

Pumpkin activity kit
Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit

Grab the Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit for more coloring, cutting, and eye-hand coordination activities with a Pumpkin theme! It includes:

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

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

You can grab this Pumpkin Fine Motor kit for just $6!

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.

Crayon Play Dough Harold and the Purple Crayon Activity

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Harold and the Purple Crayon play dough, child cutting purple play dough with a cookie cutter and purple play dough creations

Many years ago (Aug 26, 2014 to be exact!) we made this Harold and the Purple Crayon Play Dough activity because it was one of our FAVORITE books. My kids loved that book and the fact that there is now a movie…we are going to see this movie even though my kids are now teenagers! I loved this play dough activity because first, we made the homemade play dough recipe ourselves (it’s a version of our original crayon play dough recipe) and then, my kids worked those fine motor skills and visual motor skills to build creations, just like in the book, Harold and the Purple Crayon! Check it out…

Harold and the purple crayon activity. Child pressing a cookie cutter into purple play dough and play dough creations using homemade purple play dough.

We used homemade purple play dough and then worked those fine motor skills to make creations! Play dough exercises improve hand strength and finger dexterity. The soft and squishy dough provides a tactile sensory challenge with proprioceptive sensory feedback. The bonus is the strengthening of the arches of the hands and precision of grasp. These are just some of the benefits of play dough!

Harold and the Purple Crayon Play Dough

Working with play dough builds fine motor skills. You can really target pinch strength and grip strength by rolling play dough snakes, and that’s what this play dough activity is all about. In the book, the crayon is used to create wild creations…we did the same thing with playdough!

This installment of the Preschool Book Club was one of our favorite activities, by far.  We made a batch of our play dough recipe, but added a twist.  We wanted to incorporate not only the purple color of Harold and the Purple Crayon, but the crayon, too!  This Crayon Play Dough uses real crayons in the play dough recipe and makes a silky smooth dough…perfect for creating, playing, manipulating, and more!

 

 
Recipe for DIY play dough using crayons
 
 

Crayon Play Dough Recipe

Harold and the Purple Crayon activity with purple play dough
 
This post contains affiliate links.  

Harold and the Purple Crayon Activity

 
The book Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson is such a FUN book.  It’s great for preschoolers, but grabs the attention of toddlers and school-aged kids, too.  When we read this book, all of my kids were frozen as they took in the bold pictures and the imagination of Harold. 
 
We had a blast re-creating parts of the book with play dough lines.  Of course, we needed purple, CRAYON play dough to go along with the book!

 

 
 
We love making our own play dough.  To make crayon play dough, you’ll need just a few adjustments.
 
 
1. First, chop up 2 and a half crayons.  I’m not sure that these exact amounts matter.  There are so many different brands of crayons with different wax make-ups.  We used a few different types mixed together and the results were a silky smooth play dough.
 
2. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (3 cups flour, 1 1/2 cup salt, 2 Tbsp. cream of tartar)
 
3. Next, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan. 
 
4. Add the chopped crayons. 
 
5. Stir until the crayons are completely melted.  Slowly stir in 2 cups of water while stirring.  Certain types of crayons will either make a clumpy purply goopy looking liquid.  Other types will make a smooth liquid once the water is added.  Either way is fine.  Just keep stirring. 
 
6. Slowly, stir in the dry ingredients.  The dough will pull together in a ball over the heat. 
 
7. Once the dough pulls together, dump it out onto a cutting board or counter.  Let the dough cool until you can tolerate kneading. 
 
8. Knead the dough for a few minutes until smooth.  (Note~ The waxy texture of this dough will create a spa-like experience while kneading.  This mama mixed up a few more batches of crayon dough and loved the mini-spa of kneading!)
 
Purple crayon play dough
 
Once cooled, you are ready to play.
 
Child playing with DIY play dough made from purple crayons
 
Crayon play dough is so smooth and silky to play with!  The color was very bold and bright.  Just like the purple crayon in the book!
 
 
We read Harold and the Purple Crayon a bunch of times before returning to the library.  Before it went back, we used our purple crayon play dough to make purple lines and “draw” them into shapes and pictures, just like Harold did in the book.
 
Create an activity for the book, Harold and the Purple Crayon



Harold’s house “drawn” with our purple play dough.

 
 
Little Guy made a boat, a Harold, and a snowman.
 
 
Use crayons to make your own play dough!
 
 
This was such a fun way to explore a great book.
 
 

More Harold and the Purple Crayon Activities

 
Looking for more activities for the book, Harold and the Purple Crayon?  Stop by and see what the other Preschool Book Club bloggers have done:
 
 
Homegrown Friends: Giant Purple Crayon Mural
Buggy and Buddy: Yarn Art
Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails: Lavender Crayon Soaps
Mama. Papa. Bubba. blog: Dry Erase Activity
 
 
Be sure to make your own play dough with crayons and use all of the broken crayon pieces to make a rainbow of crayon play dough colors!
 
 
hands-on activities to explore social emotional development through children's books.

Love exploring books with hands-on play?  

Grab our NEW book, Exploring Books Through Play: 50 Activities based on Books About Friendship, Acceptance, and Empathy, that explores friendship, acceptance, and empathy through popular (and amazing) children’s books!  It’s 50 hands-on activities that use math, fine motor skills, movement, art, crafts, and creativity to support social emotional development.
 
 
 

Baking Soda Paints

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baking soda paint

Many years ago (July 28, 2015 to be exact…this post has been updated!) we made this set of baking soda paints. It was a fun outdoor, creative painting activity and we painted on the driveway. I wanted to come back to this sensory painting idea again, because it’s such a fun way to be creative with kids. Plus, kids can mix up paints of their own and work on scooping and pouring with the ingredients and support those fine motor skills. I think it’s a fun idea you’ll want to check out!

baking soda paint

Baking Soda Paint

The amazement of watching a child’s face light up when science and discovery happens is like watching a light turn on.  

This baking soda and vinegar paint experiment is a creative painting and sensory way to explore science through painting.  My kids had so much fun exploring the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar with our bright and bold homemade paints. We ended up with vivid paintings and had a great time creating.

Be sure to read our article on why kids need messy play…this activity sure does support those needs!

And, this activity is a great one for adding to a messy playdate with friends. As an OT, I LOVE using this activity for so many goal areas!

STEAM Activity

One fun benefit of this activity is that it’s a STEAM activity. we’ve covered the benefits of fine motor STEM activities, but the creative painting aspect of using the baking soda paints adds an art component to the science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

We’ve use STEM activities before, including with our baking powder boats.

You might want to check out our baking soda snowmen sensory activity for another fun science activity.

Baking Soda and Vinegar Paints

This post contains affiliate links.  This post is part of our Learning with Free Materials series where we are sharing learning ideas for homeschoolers and school-extension activities using items that are free or mostly free (i.e. CHEAP or you already have in the home), and is part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.

You’ll need just three ingredients to make these paints:

  • baking soda
  • Vinegar
  • Washable Poster Paint (This is my favorite brand of paint!)
  • A Mini Muffin Tin (any containers will work, but you’ll want all of the paints near each other and enough compartments so that you can see the different shades made by slightly adjusting the amount of paint you add. 
  • Paper 
  • Popsicle sticks for mixing the paint and baking soda
  • Water 
  • Paint Brushes

How To make Baking Soda Paint

Ok, now that you’ve got your materials gathered, actually making the baking soda paint is really easy! This process is fun for kids to be involved with as well.

  1. First, mix together baking soda and water to create a thick paste.  You want it to be stir-able and moist.  Use the popsicle sticks to mix it together.
  2. Scoop the paste into the sections of the muffin tin with a spoon.  
  3. Add drops, globs, and dabs of different colored poster paint.  Adjust the amounts in the different sections so that you get a nice variety of shades.  
  4. Stir the paint into the paste.
  5. Next, pour off any excess water from the tops of the paste.  You want a nice, thick paste to remain.  

Then you are ready to paint! You can either start painting right away, OR you can let the paints harden. Allow the muffin tin paints to sit overnight. This will create a hard, tub of dried paint, almost like dry watercolors.

Baking soda and paint makes a great colorful painting mixture. We added a bit of vinegar to get a lovely fizz and pop to our paints!

This is such a fun way to explore the vinegar reaction with the baking soda paint.

Baking Soda Painting

Child mixing vinegar into baking soda paint with colorful painting on a driveway.

When you are ready to paint, you’ll need to prepare the vinegar.

Pour a small amount of vinegar into cups.  Use paint brushes to dab vinegar into the dried paints.  Watch the science reaction happen as you paint!

Mix baking soda, poster paints, and water to make baking soda paint

Adding more vinegar to the tubs of paint will give you a brighter hue as you paint.  You can get even more vivid colors by swiping chunks of moistened baking soda across the page.  And, what a textured piece of art this will be!

Child mixing vinegar in a cup with baking soda paint in a mini muffin tin

What is especially neat about these paints are that if you work quickly enough, you can see the bubbly reaction right on your art work.  Simply swipe the paint brush into the vinegar and then into the baking soda paints.  Quickly paint and your bubbles will dry onto the paper.

Child painting with baking soda paint on an easel

We taped a piece of paper onto an easel and painted on the vertical surface. This is a great activity for developing wrist stability and core strength.

Baking Soda Painting

How gorgeous is this work of art? The baking soda paint made vivid colors!

 
 
Make your own Baking Soda Vinegar reaction paints for bold and bright colored creative art for kids.
 
Use a mini muffin tin to make a whole set of baking soda paints. The colors are so vivid!


Looking for more baking soda experiments?  These are a few of our favorites:

 
 

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.

Snowy Farm Sensory Bin

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farm sensory bin

Welcome to a winter wonderland on the farm! In today’s blog post, we’re diving into the magical world of sensory play with a snowy farm sensory bin. This delightful activity combines the charm of a farm theme with the sensory joys of winter, creating an engaging and therapeutic experience for children. This is one of our favorite winter sensory bins because you can focus on so many different underlying skills through play.

Farm sensory bin

Whether you’re a parent looking for creative winter activities or a therapist seeking effective tools for skill development, this farm sensory bin is tailored to captivate young minds while addressing various therapeutic areas. Read all about sensory bins in general as a therapy tool to support skill development.

Farm Sensory Bin

We love a great occupational therapy sensory activity because cold winter temps and less daylight hours mean you might not have a chance to get little ones outside as often as you might like. Plus, a farm sensory bin goes great with a Farm theme in preschool or in occupational therapy sessions.

This farm sensory bin has a winter theme, but you could actually set up a farm sensory bin any time of year. In fact, we loved this play dough farm activity that goes along with a farm theme and supports fine motor skills as well as sensory input.

The base of shredded paper sets the stage for a snowy landscape, providing a tactile experience that stimulates sensory exploration and fine motor skills.

This winter-themed sensory bin features a collection of farm toys and mini figures, turning the snowy setting into a farm scene ready for imaginative play.

Farm Animal Sensory Bin

The farm animal sensory bin takes the excitement a step further, introducing miniature figures of beloved farm animals. As children dive into the bin, they engage in hands-on exploration, feeling the textures of the shredded paper, maneuvering the farm toys, and creating their own farm stories.

This sensory-rich experience enhances tactile input, encouraging self-confidence as children express themselves through play.

Farm Theme Sensory Bin Setup

Setting up the farm theme sensory bin is a breeze:

  1. Begin with a large container filled with shredded paper to create a snowy base. You could also use other sensory bin base materials if you don’t have shredded paper on hand.
  2. Add farm toys such as barns, tractors, and mini figures of animals to bring the farm to life.
  3. Encourage creativity by incorporating small props like faux trees or fences. This simple yet effective setup provides a canvas for endless imaginative scenarios.

Before this weekend, we’ve had a super cool spring.  With a handful of days where it snowed.  We are ready for outside play in short sleeves, running in the yard, and grass stained knees.

But, we have been loving this fun play activity too 🙂

We had a boat load of shredded paper from doing taxes recently.  It came in pretty handy for a small world snowy farm scene!

We put some farm animals, the Little People barn, and of course, Little Guy’s construction vehicles.

(how else can the farmer move allll that snow??)

Little Guy went to farm-town with imagination stories and pretend play.

Baby Girl loves to make the animal sounds and had a blast finding them in the shredded paper.

Why This Farm Sensory Bin Helps Development


Beyond simply playing in the sensory bin, this farm sensory bin serves as a therapeutic tool to foster development in various areas.

You can target areas in:

Fine motor skills are particularly important in early childhood development, as they lay the foundation for more complex tasks in the future. 

Tactile discrimination, exploration, and sensory desensitization are effectively addressed with sensory bins as they are playful and present in a non-threatening way. The playful nature of sensory bins allows children to control their tactile experiences, fostering confidence in their interactions with materials and gradually increasing their comfort with different sensations. 

The hands-on nature of the activity promotes fine motor skills as children manipulate the farm toys and engage with the sensory materials. Communication skills blossom as they create farm narratives, fostering language development.

In addition, occupational therapy providers love sensory bins because they can offer a unique and enjoyable way to engage reluctant children who may initially be hesitant about engaging in the sensory elements of tactile defensiveness challenges.

Tactile input and sensory exploration contribute to a holistic sensory experience, supporting overall sensory processing.

 

 
 
 
 
My fun-loving Baby Girl instigated this little incident…
 
she just couldn’t help herself 🙂
 
 
What are we learning through play?

Imagination Play

Pretend Play

Learning Animals

Animal Sounds

Visual Scanning

Sensory Play

 

Farm Sensory Bin Ideas

You can pair this farm sensory bin with other therapy ideas, too. Use some of these tools and resources to support skills like gross motor skills, coordination, brain breaks, and more:

  • These Farm Brain Breaks can add movement and gross motor input to a child’s day and fit in great with a farm animal theme. Print off the cards and use them in the classroom or home.
  • These heavy work cards includes a set of 8 farm themed heavy work activities that can be used as a brain break or added proprioceptive input.
  • Free Farm Scissor Skills Packet
  • This barn craft is fun because kids can make a barn and use it in the farm animal sensory bin.
  • This Farm Fingerprint art activity supports visual closure, visual tracking, and visual scanning activity, too.
  • The Farm Therapy Kit has a bunch or activities to support sensory needs, handwriting, motor skills, dexterity, and more.

Get your copy of the Farm Therapy Kit.

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

Baking Soda Dough Snowman

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baking soda dough snowmen

This post on baking soda cornstarch dough was originally written January 22, 2014 and updated November 18, 2023.

Many years ago, we made this baking soda dough cornstarch recipe to make baking soda dough snowmen. It was a fun sensory play activity for Christmas, and one of the many Christmas occupational therapy activities that we love to do with kids to support tactile play and sensory touch. However, you could extend the play out to all of the winter months, along with our other Winter fine motor activities.

Today I have something fun to share: baking soda cornstarch dough! We tried a baking soda dough recipe and used it to make snowman in a way to help kids strengthen fine motor skills and hand strength.

Just playing with the baking soda cornstarch dough has so many benefits. Specifically, we’ve covered the fine motor benefits of play dough (and soda dough counts in that regard!)

If you’ve been a follower of this website for long, you know that we are big fans of play dough, salt dough, clay…any dough is tops in our house! It’s a great way to build fine motor skills with a fun sensory dough activity.

We’ve tried a lot of different recipes for different doughs and have our favorites, definitely.  We wanted to make some snowmen one day and tried a new (to us) recipe…Baking Soda Dough!    

Baking soda dough and soda dough snowmen to help kids build fine motor skills.

Baking Soda Cornstarch Clay

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup baking soda
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 3/4 cup water

Instructions to make Baking Soda Cornstarch Clay:

  1. In a medium-sized saucepan, whisk together the baking soda and cornstarch.
  2. Gradually add the water to the dry ingredients, stirring continuously to avoid lumps.
  3. Place the saucepan over medium heat and continue stirring the mixture. As it heats, the mixture will start to thicken.
  4. Keep stirring until the mixture reaches a clay-like consistency. It should pull away from the sides of the pan and form a soft, pliable dough.
  5. Once the desired consistency is reached, remove the saucepan from heat and allow the mixture to cool.
  6. Once the baking soda clay is cool enough to handle, transfer it to a clean surface and knead it for a few minutes to make it smooth and more pliable.

Now, your baking soda clay is ready for sensory play! Children can use it to create shapes, textures, and engage in imaginative play. It’s a great way to promote fine motor skills and sensory exploration.

If you’re using this recipe in an educational or therapeutic setting, you might consider incorporating elements that align with child development principles. For example, you could guide children to create shapes related to their fine motor skill development or use the clay to explore different textures for sensory input.

Baking Soda Dough

Add this activity to your snowman crafts and activities line-up or if you are using snowman in a therapy theme. More snowman activities can be found here:

Snowman bilateral coordination activities– Our baking soda dough snowmen make a great addition to the snowman themed bilateral coordination activities shared in a previous post. Rolling, pinching, and manipulating baking soda dough supports bilateral coordination development.

Snowman Fine Motor Craft– Add the baking soda snowmen to a fine motor theme when it comes to using snowmen in helping kids develop skills.

Baking Soda Dough is the neatest stuff to play with.  This soda dough was soft and easy to mold into little snowmen.  Rolling the balls of dough with the hands is a powerful way to help kids develop hand strength.

In fact, kids can improve intrinsic hand strength using dough by rolling small pieces with their fingertips. The kids loved playing and creating with our soda dough.  It was easy to roll little snowmen bodies and  so we made a bunch!   

lump of baking soda dough on a blue plate

 We were inspired to make soda dough before Christmas when we made thumbprint reindeer ornaments for Christmas gifts to grandparents.  Jen over at Mama.Papa.Bubba. made these Baking Soda Clay Ornaments and we thought they were beyond adorable!  They made perfect little gifts from the kids. 

It was an easy recipe to follow and perfect for little hands to mold, roll, and smash!  

child's hands pressing lump of baking soda dough on a table

We made these Soda Dough Snowmen one day when Little Nephew was over to play.  The toddlers were big fans of this dough!  They had so much fun making snowmen…we ended up making 12!

child's hand rolling baking soda dough into a snowman

  Pinching, rolling, stacking…this was great fine motor play here!  Working the dough uses the small muscles of the hand (the intrinsic muscles) that are so important for small motor activities like button management and endurance in coloring and handwriting. 

child's hand holding a ball of baking soda dough in the palm of their hand

Once we had our family of snowmen, I put them on a cookie sheet and let them dry for two days.  At the end of two days, they were still a little soft, so I then threw them into the oven set at 150 degrees F.  I let them bake for about 2 hours and they seemed to be hardened up. 

If you make snowmen like ours, keep an eye on them in the oven.  It will probably take longer if you bake them from the onset.   

Our snowmen were hardened and ready for play and pretending. 

Want more ways to boost fine motor skills with a snowman theme or winter theme? The Winter Fine Motor Kit is on sale now!

winter fine motor kit

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. 

Click here to grab the Winter Fine Motor Kit!

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