visual perception
Fine Motor Strengthening Color Match
Fine Motor Strengthening
And Big Sister helped, too. What a GREAT fine motor and bilateral hand coordination manual dexterity task! She reaaaallly had to concentrate on this. It was such a novel task for her. It was neat to see her watch me wrap the thread, follow my verbal directions and cues, and as it became easier for her…wrap that thread around faster and faster!
Pre-handwriting Warm-up Exercise
Fine Motor WATER PLAY
Sensory Play
Fine Motor Play
Colors
Sensory Paint Play
This sensory paint activity used bubble wrap for a wonderful tactile experience. We loved to feel the bubble wrap sensory activity. Kids can use this as a way to work on sensory touch and tactile defensiveness, or just for fun, creative painting!
Sensory Paint
This sensory paint idea is easy. You’ll need just a couple of items:
- Paint
- Bubble wrap
- Paper to press onto the bubble wrap
How to do this bubble wrap sensory play
Blue Sensory Play for Toddlers
Toddler Sensory Tray
Create Your Own Race Track…fine motor play with Wikki Stix
There are many ways that Wikki Stix are used for fine motor skills and this homemade floor race track is a favorite! We loved getting down on the floor…hello, core strength!) to make this DIY race track with wikki stix, but the fine motor benefits are even greater! Let’s break it down…
wikki stix for fine motor skills
If you aren’t familiar with wikki stix, then you should be because they are an occupational therapy prover’s favorite tool!
Wikki Stix are sticky strings that you can peel off and stick to things, but then they can re-stick. As an occupational therapist, this is one of my favorite OT tools! Build skills in:
- Pincer grasp
- Eye-hand coordination
- Separation of the sides of the hand
- Tactile defensiveness/discrimination (they have a sticky texture)
- Motor planning
- Range of motion
- Hand strength
- Visual motor skills
- Core strength
Plus, you can use wikki stix on various surfaces:
- Paper for tactile input to create borders around coloring areas
- Lines on paper, chalkboards, dry erase boards for a bumpy baseline
- The floor…like we did below!
- Windows to create a fun suncatcher
- Walls to work on the vertical plane
- SO many more ways!
Wikki Sticks Fine Motor Activity
Purple Waterbead Sensory Bin
This purple sensory bin is a fun way to explore the color purple using one of our favorite sensory play materials: a water bead sensory bin! While this is a very old post on our blog (circa 2013), we still love the mesmerizing impact of a color themed sensory play activity. Plus, if you are looking for more fun ways to extend the play, check out our water bead activities!
Purple Sensory Bin
A purple themed sensory bin has many benefits beyond exploring the color purple. Of course, you could make a color themed sensory bin based around any color and gain so many benefits:
- Tactile sensory experience- Targeting tactile discrimination and tactile exploration is one of the main skills that are address with a sensory bin. You can address various aspects of tactile defensiveness through engaging and motivating play.
- Motor Skills- Using a scoop or spoon to move and manipulate the sensory bin items builds skills in motor planning, dexterity, crossing midline, bilateral coordination, hand-eye coordination, and more. Check out all of the benefits of scooping and pouring activities.
- Social Emotional Skills- Playing in a sensory bin like our purple sensory activity is an engaging activity that fosters group play (parallel play) and encouraging peer interaction by borrowing tools, working together. Engaging in a new situation is an excellent way to foster communication, cooperation, and other social emotional skills. Here are more social skills activities kids love.
How to set up a purple sensory bin
In our colorful sensory bin, we gathered just a few items from around the home:
- Large storage bin
- Purple water beads
- Purple cookie cutters
- Purple scoops and bowls
You could use other sensory bin base materials with a certain color theme such as:
- Shredded paper
- Colored sand
- Dyed beans
- Dyed rice
Add a few spoons, cups, and manipulative items, and you are ready to go!
Invitation to Scoop and Pour
Scooping and Pouring for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Why we love scooping and pouring:
Fine Motor skill development
Visual perceptual skills
Bilateral hand coordination
Self-confidence
Real-world practice
Sensory Play
3 Rainbow Sensory Bins
Kids LOVE rainbow sensory bins! These rainbow sensory bin ideas are some of our absolute favorite sensory bins, and they are the perfect addition to our rainbow activities, rainbow crafts, and a rainbow theme in therapy. Be sure to use our rainbow breathing exercise, too. Let’s talk rainbow sensory play!
Rainbow sensory bins
A sensory bin is a container filled with materials that are designed to engage children’s senses and encourage exploration and play. They can be as easy or as complicated as you like, but the concept is the same- sensory based, tactile play with a theme or play idea with items to manipulate and explore as the user explores their tactile sensory system.
These materials can include a wide range of sensory inputs such as sand, rice, beans, water, or small objects like toys, beads, and stones. Here are many sensory bin base ideas to get you started.
The goal of a sensory bin is to provide children with an opportunity to explore their senses through play. As they play with the materials, they can feel the different textures, see the different colors, and hear the different sounds they make. This can help to promote their sensory development and stimulate their curiosity and creativity.
Sensory bins are often used in early childhood education and therapy settings as a tool for sensory integration therapy, which aims to help children develop and organize their sensory systems. They can also be used at home as a fun and engaging activity for children to play and explore.
We’ve been playing with a rainbow theme alllll week around here. These are three rainbow sensory bins that we have been exploring.
Any time that I pull out the corn bin, everyone gets very excited. I added ribbons in different colors and some “gold coins” (aka yellow Connect Four game pieces!)
Rainbow Handwriting Kit– This resource pack includes handwriting sheets, write the room cards, color worksheets, visual motor activities, and so much more. The handwriting kit includes:
- Write the Room, Color Names: Lowercase Letters
- Write the Room, Color Names: Uppercase Letters
- Write the Room, Color Names: Cursive Writing
- Copy/Draw/Color/Cut Color Worksheets
- Colors Roll & Write Page
- Color Names Letter Size Puzzle Pages
- Flip and Fill A-Z Letter Pages
- Colors Pre-Writing Lines Pencil Control Mazes
- This handwriting kit now includes a bonus pack of pencil control worksheets, 1-10 fine motor clip cards, visual discrimination maze for directionality, handwriting sheets, and working memory/direction following sheet! Valued at $5, this bonus kit triples the goal areas you can work on in each therapy session or home program.
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.