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visual motor skills

Color Matching With Play Dough

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This was an easy and fun way to spend an afternoon.  And when Baby Girl woke up from her nap, she loved it too.
I put out six colors of play dough and a little bin of colored beads, paper clips, and other little things.

               Fine Motor Strengthening for kids

They had so much fun matching up the colors.  Baby Girl just loved pushing the little beads and things into the Play Dough. 
I love her little knuckle dimples 🙂
Pushing the little objects into the dough is resistive and an excellent fine motor strengthening exercise for little hands.  They are also working on their tripod grasp when they push the beads into the Dough. 
  Big Sister said we needed to wash all of the little objects after we were done.  We put all of them into a bin of water and everyone had fun swishing them around.   
 Drain them into a colander and you are good to go 🙂

Using Stickers to Help with Scissor Skills

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There are so many fun ways to use stickers for fine motor skill development.

Stickers can be used in scissoring to work on accuracy, scissor control, snipping paper, manipulating the paper to turn corners and curves when cutting.  It can be really tricky for a kiddo to manage all of those areas if they have any fine motor/visual motor/eye-hand coordination…or any trouble area(s) that effects their ability to accurately maintain line awareness when cutting paper.
And for pre-schoolers, it can be really fun to use stickers in a cutting activity.
Anything that makes things different. Or silly.
It makes an activity Interesting!

We used some heart stickers in honor of Valentine’s Day…

(and also because we have millions of them)

to make some curves, squares, and angled lines…and to practice a little cutting!
This little bird stopped by to watch 🙂

What else can you do with stickers when practicing cutting…

~Cut along a line of stickers, like we did.
~Use a sticker only at the corners of an angled shape (the corners of a triangle) to signal when the child should turn the paper.
~Place stickers along the edge of the page, to show where the child should hold the paper with his “helping hand”, and signal when he should move his hand along.  This would be a good guide for kids with trouble coordinating both hands when cutting.
~For the child who needs help knowing when to open/shut the scissors to snip with smooth cuts, place stickers along the line signaling when to open/shut the scissors.  This can be a visual cue to assist the child.
~Using Fiscar scissors (or other scissors that have a smaller thumb opening): Sometimes kids will get mixed up about which opening their thumb goes in when they hold the scissors.  If they are holding the scissors upside down because of this, it can lessen the control they have when they cut.  Place a sticker on the scissors to they know which hole they should put their thumb into.
~Practice scissor control:  Place stickers randomly around a page and have the child cut from the edge of the paper up to a sticker and then stop before they cut into the sticker.
This was an easy and fun little activity!

Colleen

DIY Lacing Cards (from a carry out container!!)

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We had a clean take out container that was just asking to be made into something 🙂

Lacing Cards, of course!

Lacing cards are so important for pre-schoolers and kids of all ages to use in development of so many skills:
 Fine Motor Skills (tripod grasp), Motor Planning (figuring out how to pull the string allll the way through and push it through the other side), Visual Motor Skills (moving along hole to hole), Bilateral Coordination (using both of those hands together in a coordinated manner to hold the card and work the string)…
I asked them what shapes they wanted.  Big Sister chose a heart and Little Guy said his favorite shapes are an octagon or a pentagon (!).
They got started and loved it!
Little Guy needs a little work on the hole-to-hole thing haha!!
He was so into it!
The finished products…
We are gearing up for our 5th Share It Saturday link up…Hope to see you there!

Indoor Snow Play

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Grasp Strengthening and Learning Colors With SNOW???

Some days, it is just HARD to get the kids dressed up in snowsuits/gloves/hats/boots/scarves…only to bring them back in 10 minutes later because the baby wants to follow the big kids, but can’t pick up her boots to walk through the snow that is up to her mid-calf…so she stands still in the yard until I  pick her up…
Today was one of those days.
We needed an activity for after baby-nap-time and before dinner-making-time and this was just the one!
I had this idea in mind since right after Christmas when we got some snow, and I wanted to dye it using eye droppers.  After looking everywhere around the house, I just can. not. find the eye droppers!  So, on to another idea…
Turkey Baster
Spray Bottle
Scoops and Spoons.


These kids were so beyond excited to see me setting this up.  They helped stir the food coloring into the bowls of water. (Get Dollar Store food coloring for projects like this!  So cheap, and it will last you many, many projects…)  But they could not guess what we were doing with it.  Once I brought the snow in, there were cheers!

 We did some mixing of colors on the snow…What does red and blue make?  We had green in the spray bottle and it was fun to change the stream to get more color on the snow.  They were pretty excited to get brown, of course 🙂
 

Squeezing the turkey baster bulb and the spray bottle nozzle is wonderful for grasp strengthening in hands. 

The strength of the whole had is needed for so many fine motor work in play and school based activities.

This was the extent of the mess…not too bad! They kept the tray on the right pretty clean of color mostly since that was Baby Girl’s side and she was busy eating the snow 🙂

This was a fun indoor play time for everyone!
Colleen

Golf Tee Wreath **25 Days of Christmas Play**

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Day 22 of 25 Days of Christmas Play

Little Guy loves to play with the golf tees and hammer them into egg cartons (Did you see this play idea?)
I had the idea to make a fun wreath that he could make while pounding out some excess energy…
I drew a circle on a pizza box and showed him how to crumble up the tissue paper. He was so excited!

Working on that tripod grasp to hold the golf tees…

Pushing them into the cardboard is a great resistance and muscle strengthening activity for the small muscles of the hands!

Tearing and Crumbling the tissue paper really works those hands too.

He loved following the line with golf tees.  Line awareness and visual motor skills!!

Love this action shot 🙂
Enjoy today and all things it brings!
Colleen

Christmas Water Play **25 Days of Christmas Play**

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Day 19 of 25 Days of Christmas Play

We’ve had this ice cube tray/chocolate mold thing for a few years and have used it to make all kinds of yummy treats.  I had an idea to make ice cubes with it and Little Guy thought that was a pretty good idea.
The snowflake ice cubes have been in our freezer for a few days now and he was very excited when we popped them out.  (He had helped me dye the water green and pour it into the ice cube tray so he knew it was in there, just waiting for a fun activity!)  We put them into a bin of water right on the kitchen floor.  

We decided to make it more Christmas-y and add some red food coloring to the water.  

Chasing those ice cubes around with the ladles and spoons really helps with visual motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and motor planning.
Baby Girl took over after Little Guy moved on to something else.  She played for a while in this.  Look how small the green snowflake ice cubes are! 

We had a great weekend of playing at home, snuggles, laughter, and enjoying every bit of crazy-awesome-chaos!
~Colleen

Christmas Sorting Game

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This Christmas sorting game and ornament sensory bin is perfect for toddlers during the holiday season. It’s a Christmas sensory bin idea that little ones love! Simply grab some baby-safe ornaments (plastic and soft ornaments work!) and put them into a basket on the floor for baby play during the Christmas season.

Christmas Sorting Game

This Christmas occupational therapy activity is a big hit, and it supports skill development, too.

Sort the ornaments by color. Color sorting is great for toddlers and babies.

Day 18 of  25 Days of Christmas Play….
 This busy activity is great for toddlers and babies (supervised!) for color concepts, shape and texture exploration, transferring skills, language development, and so much more!  Grab some child-friendly Christmas ornaments, a basket  or bin, and get ready for some excitement from your tot!


Christmas ornament sort learning game, perfect for a busy activity for babies and toddlers

Ornament Sorting  Basket for Toddlers

 
This day of play involved sorting, matching, memory, and just plain fun!
 
 
We took a few ornaments off of the tree and put them in a basket.  My little guy just loved this game because he has been trying to play with these for weeks now!  All of the ornaments on our tree are fairly kid-friendly, so I figured why not?  I picked two of each color so there could be some matching, some of the same size and some different, some smooth, and some rough.  We had to have a few sparkly too for my daughter:)
 
My 4 year old had fun sorting them by color and sorting them by biggest and smallest…
 

 We also had fun playing a game of memory. I would put a few it the basket and my daughter would take a look, then turn her head and cover her eyes while I took one away. She had to try to remember which one is missing.

 
 
It was also fun sorting them by texture, the ones on the left had sparkles and the ones on the right were smooth and shiny!  This is a great way to work on vocabulary as well as learning about textures for my little guy.  He is learning new words every day and trying his hardest to repeat.
 
 
 
And do babies love anything more than putting things in and out of a basket?!?
 
We had so much fun with this easy Christmas activity!
 
 
 

Find more Christmas play activities in our 25 Days of Christmas Play series

Looking for done-for you therapy activities this holiday season?

This print-and-go Christmas Therapy Kit includes no-prep, fine motor, gross motor, self-regulation, visual perceptual activities…and much more… to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, Christmas-themed, motor activities so you can help children develop the skills they need.

This 100 page no-prep packet includes everything you need to guide fine motor skills in face-to-face AND virtual learning. You’ll find Christmas-themed activities for hand strength, pinch and grip, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, endurance, finger isolation, and more. 

Click here to grab the Christmas Therapy Kit.

Christmas Math

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Day 15 of 25 Days of Christmas Play

This one was super easy and Big Sister gave a big “OOOOOoooo, Cool, Mom” when she saw it, so I think that means it is pretty fun…
AND it helps with teaching beginning math, so bonus!

 I had her start by putting the correct number of clips on each decorated circle.  This is a great activity for fine motor strengthening.  Pinching the clothes pins works the small intrinsic muscles of the hands.

Then we did a little simple math…I put two of the circles on the left and asked her what they added up to.
She did pretty well, without needing to count the pins for most of them!  
We also had some Christmas-y fun taking pics for our Christmas card…with lots of out-takes!
It is reeeeeallly hard to get THREE children to look at the camera, smile, and not move for a split second!  
There is not much you can do, besides laugh! I think I got one good shot, though.  Will work on the card and try to share it here, soon 🙂
Fun Times! Looking for more fun ideas to stop, take a minute, and play with the kids this season? Check the Christmas Play tab 
to follow along each day with Christmas themed play!
Colleen

Christmas Tree Sensory play

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Day 8 of 25 Days of Christmas Play
 


Christmas Tree Sensory Play for learning colors, shapes. This is great for Toddlers and Preschoolers!
 

 

 


This Christmas Tree Sensory Play activity was fun for the senses, cutting, patterning, sorting, and even pre-handwriting!

 
Big Sister showed Little Guy how to cut shapes from foam sheets.  We had these in our crafting bin just waiting for some fun Christmas play…
 

Each color was a different shape so they could be sorted and used in patterns on the tree.
 
 
While the Big Kids worked on the cutting and sorting, the Babies had a fun time fighting playing with some coasters 😉

 

 

 
I stuck the tree shape in the water and when the foam sheets are wet, they stick really well to a white board. 
 

 
Everyone was so excited when they realized the shapes would stick and had a blast decorating our little tree.  
 
We started out with the tray of water on the table and did some patterns on the tree, putting the colors or shapes one at a time on the Christmas Tree.  
 

 

I wanted them to use the easel white board to promote wrist extension (bending the wrist back). This is so important in controlled use of those little fingers when they write, cut, tie their shoes…any fine motor dexterity task.  
 
If a child has a flexed wrist (bent forward), they don’t have the control to manage skills using the small muscles of the hand.  Think about holding a pencil.  If the wrist is bent forward, it is so much harder to write with smooth and controlled pencil strokes.  A slightly extended wrist is much more efficient in any fine motor task.  
 
Working on a vertical plane (like the easel) is perfect for promoting an extended wrist!
 

 

 The Babies just had sooooo much fun with this! 
 

 

After a bit, we decided to put the whole water tray on the floor…
 
Oh yeah, that was fun! 
 
 
 They had so much fun with this!  The mess really was not bad, with the small amount of water that was in the pan.  Even still, the point of our Christmas Play Series is to have fun with your little ones, enjoy a moment of play, and slow down during this hectic, crazy month.  If you’re too busy worrying about the potential mess in any play activity, it’s not worth it…put it away and try something else.  The kids will sense your stress level and that affects them!  
 
One important thing to keep in mind when doing a (fun) messy play activity… is the sensory inputs, educational aspects, and unique experiences you’re exposing your kiddos to.  Not to mention the bonding experience and LAUGHS that will without a doubt result!


Don’t Stress the Mess!

 
And, at least with this play activity, you can mop up the floor a bit afterwords and combine some cleaning into it 🙂
 
 
Look at all those happy little piggy toes!!
 
I think we are missing the swimming pool days of summer 😉
 

 

 
Have a Fun Day!
 

More Christmas Play activities you may be interested in: 

 

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