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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!   

baking soda dough for kids to use to build fine motor skills

 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!  

Use baking soda dough to help kids strengthen hands and fine motor skills.

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!

Kids can roll small balls of dough to develop fine motor skills using this baking soda dough activity.

  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. 

Baking soda dough is a great activity to help kids strengthen fine motor skills.

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.

 

Winter Clothes Worksheet for Visual Perception

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During the cold winter months, bundling up in mittens, scarves and other winter clothing is a must, which makes today’s winter clothes worksheet a fun way to work on various skills with children in the theme of winter! We’ve covered quite a few different winter occupational therapy activities here on the site, and this winter clothes printable supports visual perceptual skill building in fun ways during the cold months of the year.

Our free color and count worksheet goes really well with this printable so be sure to grab that resource, too.

And, grab this mitten printable for fine motor and visual motor skill development.

Wither clothes worksheet for visual perception

Winter Clothes Worksheet

Using creative themes and activities in therapy is a fun way to practice meaningful and functional skills in creative ways. That’s where the winter clothes worksheet that you’ll find below comes into play.

Winter means different things for different people depending on their climate. Winter in the southern United States means adding a sweatshirt, possibly a hat at the bus stop early in the morning.  In the northern states winter is a different story.  Up north, winter starts in mid- September and seems to last until May.  I have northern roots but am a southern girl by heart. 

Winter months in cold areas of the world mean bundling up and adding clothes.  Mittens, hats, coats, snow pants, boots, gloves, earmuffs, thick socks, long johns, and lots of layers are the customary daily garb. 

You can add this winter clothing printable to a few others from our Member’s Club, which you’ll find in the Winter Therapy Theme (Level 2 members):

  • Winter Pattern Paper Chain activity
  • Winter Words ABC order
  • Winter Listen and Color
  • Build a Sweater Craft
  • Winter Clothing Checklist
  • Winter Clothes Worksheet: Word Scramble
  • Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Earmuffs
  • Winter hat Hole Punch Cards
  • Match the Mittens
  • Mittens Lacing Cards
  • Winter Clothes I Spy Sheet
  • Winter Clothing Handwriting pages
  • MORE!

Since bundling up is a daily chore in the frozen north, why not add all it to your treatment plan?

The Warm Winter Clothes Worksheet is a cute winter printable PDF designed to target the underlying skills of visual discrimination, visual figure ground, and visual attention, making it a great winter clothes worksheet for kindergarten or early primary grades.

Winter Clothes Worksheet for Therapy

This winter worksheet prompts users to find the number of articles of winter clothing, but there are coloring and handwriting options as well. It’s a cute winter printable to build essential skills while using meaningful, relevant content.

What does this winter number tracing worksheet work on besides visual perception?

  1.  Kinesthetic awareness – Kinesthetic learning means learning by doing and this worksheet supports practice skills.
  2.  Hand strength and dexterity – Coloring while staying on the lines builds hand strength in the muscles of the hands and develops muscle control. Check out the In Hand Manipulation Blog which covers what this skill means as well as activities.
  3. Visual motor skills –Combining what is seen visually and what is written motorically.  Visual Motor Skills takes coordination to be able to translate information from visual input to motor output. Coloring, drawing, counting, cutting, and tracing are some visual motor skills.
  4. Visual Perception – Developing visual perceptual skills supports learning, reading, writing, and basically every functional task done throughout the day. One example addressed in this winter clothing worksheet is the figure ground skills to see where one item start and finishes, scanning to find all answers, and visual closure to understand that dotted lines will create something.
  5. Strength – Core strength needed for sitting, shoulder/elbow/wrist stability, finger strength, and head control all play their role in writing.
  6. Bilateral Coordination – Bilateral coordination is needed to use both hands together in a coordinated manner, which is important in handwriting and coloring. Be sure your learner uses their helper hand for stabilizing the paper while using their dominant hand for writing. You can target this skill by taping the worksheet to the wall on the bottom of the page. The user then has to work on the vertical surface and hold the paper up so they can write or color.
  7. Counting/Learning Numbers – Count the items to understand number concepts in addition to tracing them. Work on learning to write numbers by using this worksheet along with others on our site.
  8. Social/Executive Function – Following directions, turn taking, task completion, orienting to details, neatness, multi-tasking, attending to task, and impulse control can be addressed using this Warm Winter Clothing Printable PDF.

When using a task such as this number tracing worksheet, therapists can utilize and focus on all the above skills or just one or two. 

There are times when I am working more on executive function than fine motor skills but will use this task with more of my focus on these executive function skills. 

When using this worksheet in therapy, my documentation note might not say much about their number formation, counting skills, or neatness, but how well they were able to attend to the task, complete the task, follow directions, and control their impulses.

How to Modify a Winter Clothing Worksheet

The nice thing about using a worksheet in therapy sessions, is that you can print off the page as many times as you need to and use it with your whole caseload. OR, print it off once and slide it into a page protector sleeve. Then, use the winter clothing printable with the whole caseload. Just wipe off the page protector sleeve in between uses.

How do I incorporate or modify this task for the needs of all my learners?

There are lots of ways to modify this activity to meet various needs! 

  • This sheet can be laminated for reusability or marker use
  • Print off the number tracing worksheet on different colored paper for readability,
  • Print the number tracing worksheet in an enlarged or smaller size
  • Add more details to make the activity more complex
  • Use a cardboard window to show only portions of the sheet to make the activity simpler

Try having learners color the shapes and write the numbers independently on the back to add more visual motor tasks to this winter clothes worksheet.

This covers one day of winter, what about the other 240?

Glad you asked!  The OT Toolbox is stuffed with activities, blog posts and work pages to fill those winter days. The Winter Fine Motor Kit full of handouts and PDF files provides several visual motor tasks to be used throughout the winter season.

You can grab the Winter Fine Motor Kit inside our shop OR, OT Toolbox Member’s Club members can log into your account and grab the whole Winter Fine Motor Kit, along with hundreds of other printable resources.

Winter Fine Motor Kit Deal

Winter is a very long season. Especially if you are not a fan of the cold weather (author raises hand).  Adding fun activities and games can take some of the monotony and sting out of the long cold days.  Moving south can also take the bitterness out of winter, but we are full.

Brrrrrr, bundle up!

Free Winter Clothes Worksheet

This printable is located inside the Member’s Club in our Winter Therapy Theme. Or, if you’re not yet a member, enter your email address into the form below.

Free Winter Clothes Worksheet for Visual Perception

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    Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

    Winter Number Tracing Worksheet

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    Winter number formation

    When it comes to managing the long winter with activities, this winter number tracing worksheet has you covered. Be sure to read up on our recommended use of tracing sheets as a tool to support functional writing. Use the printable below along with our winter number tracing worksheet to talk with kids about winter clothing AND work on number formation. It’s a winter printable that you’ll want to add to your therapy toolbox! Also be sure to grab our winter crossword puzzle and our winter clothes worksheet (for visual perception) as a tool to build visual motor skills.

    You’ll want to grab this winter worksheet because it covers number formation and writing numbers with a wintery theme!

    Kids also love this mitten printable to race the mittens across the page whild building motor skills.

    Winter clothing worksheet

    Free Winter Number Tracing Worksheet

    On the winter worksheet, you’ll find number writing spaces where the user can trace numbers. By practicing numbers through tracing, you give the user the opportunity to practice the motor plan needed to form the number. We talk about the occupational therapy provider’s perspective on tracing in our resource on tracing sheets. Specific for this winter clothing activity, we wanted to add the number practice option along with a few other ways to practice specific skills.

    This winter number tracing worksheet is similar to our recent Christmas lights number tracing printable.

    Winter means different things for different people depending on their climate. Winter in the southern United States means adding a sweatshirt, possibly a hat at the bus stop early in the morning.  In the northern states winter is a different story.  Up north, winter starts in mid- September and seems to last until May.  I have northern roots but am a southern girl by heart. 

    Winter months in cold areas of the world mean bundling up and adding clothes.  Mittens, hats, coats, snow pants, boots, gloves, earmuffs, thick socks, long johns, and lots of layers are the customary daily garb.  Imagine trying to put this on and off a toddler each time you head out!  As soon as you get your child decked out in all these layers, they usually announce the need to go to the toilet!  It never fails.

    Since bundling up is a daily chore in the frozen north, why not add it to your treatment plan? The Warm Winter Clothes Number Trace Worksheet is a cute printable to build essential skills while using meaningful, relevant content.

    This free winter number tracing worksheet is a winter clothes activity for kids that helps with motor planning of number formation using a winter clothing printable.

    Tracing Numbers Worksheets

    Let’s talk tracing so you can use it to the maximum benefit and its intended purpose. 

    I am not a fan of tracing unless it is used correctly, or the objective is understood. Here is information on the benefits of tracing. 

    • Tracing is not going to teach number/letter formation if the learner does not know what those figures are.  To a learner who does not know these symbols, they will be tracing lines, not numbers or letters
    • Know your audience. If your learner does not know the letters or numbers, use the activity as a fine motor task to develop dexterity
    • Kinesthetic awareness.  This long word means to learn by doing.  Theoretically if a person writes the number 5 enough times, the body will start to recognize this pattern and commit it to memory.  This only works if the learner understands what is being traced. Using our sandpaper writing trick is one great way to incorporate kinesthetic awareness into number tracing and number formation.
    • Tracing for dexterity. This is the type of tracing I like best.  Tracing for dexterity works on staying on the lines, fine motor control, building hand muscles, scanning and a whole host of other important skills as defined below

    Winter Clothes Worksheet

    While worksheets are not a favorite among occupational therapists, there are ways to support skill areas by using worksheets to meet the needs of kids. When we address the underlying skill areas to support function, printables like this winter clothes worksheet can address a variety of areas.

    What does this winter number tracing worksheet work on besides tracing?

    1.  Kinesthetic awareness – This means learning by doing.
    2.  Hand strength and dexterity – staying on the lines builds hand muscles and develops muscle control. Check out the In Hand Manipulation Printable Worksheet to incorporate developing the intrinsic hand muscles.
    3. Visual motor skills –Combining what is seen visually and what is written motorically.  This takes coordination to be able to translate information from visual input to motor output. Coloring, drawing, counting, cutting, and tracing are some visual motor skills.
    4.  Visual Perception – Developing figure ground to see where one item start and finishes, scanning to find all answers, and visual closure to understand that dotted lines will create something.
    5. Strength – Core strength needed for sitting, shoulder/elbow/wrist stability, finger strength, and head control all play their role in writing.
    6. Bilateral Coordination – Be sure your learner uses their helper hand for stabilizing the paper while using their dominant hand for writing.
    7. Counting/Learning Numbers – Count the items to understand number concepts in addition to tracing them.
    8. Social/Executive Function – Following directions, turn taking, task completion, orienting to details, neatness, multi-tasking, attending to task, and impulse control can be addressed using this Warm Winter Clothing Printable PDF.

    When using a task such as this number tracing worksheet, therapists can utilize and focus on all the above skills or just one or two.  There are times when I am working more on executive function than fine motor skills but will use this task with more of my focus on these executive function skills.  My note might not say much about their number formation, counting skills, or neatness, but how well they were able to attend to the task, complete the task, follow directions, and control their impulses.

    Number Tracing worksheet for winter

    Winter Clothing Printable

    There are so many ways to use this winter clothing printable to work on number tracing, and more.

    How do I incorporate or modify this task for the needs of all my learners?

    Lots of ways!  As always, this sheet can be laminated for reusability or marker use, printed on different colored paper for readability, enlarged or made smaller, made simpler or more complex. Try having learners color the shapes and write the numbers independently on the back to add more visual motor tasks to this winter clothes worksheet.

    This covers one day of winter, what about the other 240?

    Glad you asked!  The OT Toolbox is stuffed with activities, blog posts and work pages to fill those winter days. The Winter Fine Motor Kit full of handouts and PDF files provides several visual motor tasks to be used throughout the winter season.

    Plus, in The OT Toolbox Members Club, you’ll find winter clothing printables and resources to address a variety of needs.

    Winter Fine Motor Kit Deal

    In addition to these handouts, you can also read this article on Winter Fine Motor Activities for more great ideas and suggestions:

    Winter Fine Motor Activities

    Winter is a very long season. Especially if you are not a fan of the cold weather (author raises hand).  Adding fun activities and games can take some of the monotony and sting out of the long cold days. 

    Brrrrrr, bundle up!

    Free WINTER NUMBER TRACING WORKSHEET

    Want to access this printable number tracing worksheet? Enter your email address into the form below. You can also find this winter clothing printable in The OT Toolbox Member’s Club.

    Winter Clothing Number Tracing Worksheet

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      Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

      Watch for more winter clothes worksheets and winter printables coming to this space.

      Hot Chocolate Craft

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      Hot chocolate craft

      One of the best ways to be an efficient therapist is to find activities that combine multiple skills at once and this printable hot chocolate craft does just that! Building crafts in occupational therapy is a tool that combines critical skills of coloring, cutting, and gluing that ends with a (sometimes) recognizable product. While it is “easy enough” to hand draw circles and squares for students to practice coloring and cutting skills, why not challenge learners to go one step further? This post not only introduces a great new printable, but offers ways to use and adapt it.

      Hot chocolate craft

      BUILD A HOT Chocolate CRAFT

      The older I get, the more I hate winter, especially cold weather.  Introducing hot cocoa into my diet this time of year helps make this season more bearable.  For those of you who do not love coffee, with all of its variations and super special flavors, cocoa is a great winter substitute to hit the spot. 

      I am not sure if children share the same fondness for this wonderful drink, but they certainly love the marshmallows, sprinkles, and whip cream that decorate the top!

      Motivating learners to work hard is difficult. It takes an engaging assignment that is meaningful to them to produce a willing crowd. 

      That’s where this winter craft comes in!

      This build a hot chocolate craft has a cup that is reminiscent of a very popular drink store. 

      Won’t it be fun to see how your learners decorate this cup, given what they know about popular culture?  My cup might not have a lid, but be overflowing with marshmallows and chocolate chips!

      Color Cut and Glue Crafts in Therapy

      You can use this printable hot chocolate craft template and modify the activity to meet a variety of needs in therapy sessions.

      Modify the Hot chocolate craft download:

      • Lowest level learners may need the pieces cut for them ahead of time, so they can practice color and paste. Alternatively hand this out and see what is created!
      • Middle level learners can cut, color, and paste the craft, working on basic level skills and following directions
      • Higher level learners can decorate their cup, add details, or try and copy a coffee shop logo onto their cup.  
      • Add a writing or story telling prompt to go with this.  Something as simple as, “what do you think this is” or “what would be the best drink to put in your cup”
      • Make this part of a larger lesson plan including gross motor, sensory, social, executive function, or other fine motor skills
      • Gross motor – run across the room collecting pieces to add to the build a hot cocoa craft.  Gather pompoms by squatting and bending to retrieve them.
      • Sensory – touching all of the elements of hot cocoa. Describing it in detail. Talk about how it feels, smells, and tastes, or what emotions it might evoke.
      • Executive function – hand the papers out with very limited instruction. Record how well your learners can follow instructions and make the picture look exactly like the example
      • Social skills – sharing resources promotes social function. Talking about a themed lesson plan builds social skills
      • Branch out – add a cooking activity, field trip, movie, or a book to make this build a hot cocoa craft multi-level. This snowman activity pack is full of fun activities
      • Check out these Winter Snow Day activities for more fun
      • Vary the paper. Cardstock might be more challenging to cut through, but it is sturdier to work with
      • Use different writing tools for different effects and skills.  Watercolor, paint, dot markers, chalk, glitter glue, crayons, and markers are some of the options
      • More or less prompting may be needed to grade the activity to make it easier or harder
      • Drippy wet glue is messy, and not as convenient as glue stick, however it is superior for different reasons.  The added benefit is the sensory input from touching the wet glue, as well as fine motor strengthening from squeezing the bottle is amazing
      • Learners can explore other games they could make using this activity 
      • Write a report about hot cocoa, different variations, the history of hot cocoa, jor different celebrations or activities that go with this hot beverage
      • Have students write on a slant board, lying prone on the floor with the page in front to build shoulder stability, or supine with the page taped under the table
      • Add glitter!  Glitter makes everything wonderful

      Make clinical observations using the hot chocolate craft

      When you use this printable color, cut, and glue craft in therapy sessions, you can make several clinical observations using this single printable.

      Collect Data- This printable has a top portion with areas for data collection. The printable includes space to document the amount of support, modifications, verbal cues, and accuracy for coloring, cutting, and glueing aspects of the craft building process.

      Set up the craft at the level needed for the individual user. Then, make observations for collecting data on goal areas:

      • There could be 1,000 observations to be made during any one activity.  The key is to know what you are looking for and measuring.  Coloring skills, executive function, fine motor strength, following directions, attention/focus, self regulation, scissor skills, grip strength, and bilateral coordination, are just a few
      • Watch your students closely as they do their task.  Sometimes teachers and other providers sit back while learners complete their activities.  This reveals an end product, but gives no clues how they got there.  What skills were lacking to make this look nothing like the model? 
      • The “how” is very important as skills get progressively harder. Some learners can get by with poor grasping, strength, or coordination skills while learning to snip with scissors or scribble with a crayon, however, intricate coloring and cutting requires a more mature grasping pattern, executive function, and overall attention to details
      • Observe which skills are holding the learner back, which need more direct practice, and what compensatory strategies you see struggling learners use
      • Need more scissor skills practice?  Check out this color, cut, paste workbook!
      • Here is an Animal Cut and Paste pack.

      More Winter cut and paste crafts you might like include:

      1. Build a Snowman printable
      2. Paper Icicle Craft  
      3. Snow Globe Letter Match 

      Free Hot Chocolate Craft Printable

      All this talk about cocoa has me craving some.  I’ll take mine extra hot, dark chocolate with whipped cream.  Throw in a piece of cake, a chilly day, and a great book, and you have the makings of a wonderful afternoon.  

      Don’t forget to put your email in the box to receive your free worksheet!

      • Level 2 members can access all winter themed activities in one place in our Winter Therapy Theme.
      • Level 1 members can access this resource in our Scissor Skills area along with other free downloads on this site.

      Hot Chocolate Craft Printable

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        Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

        BLANK WORD SEARCH

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        blank word search

        What better way to work on visual perceptual skills AND handwriting, than by adding this blank word search template to your treatment plans? If you’ve seen some of the other St. Patrick’s Day activities on the site this week, then you can add this activity to your March OT lesson plans.

        This blank word search is great for visual perceptual skills and handwriting skills.

        The OT Toolbox has a lot of St. Patrick’s Day activities including this blank word search template.

        Plus you’ll find more free downloads in our Spring Activities headquarters.

        BLANK WORD SEARCH TEMPLATE

        When my girls were young, I was forever searching for ways to make their homework more fun, especially while learning spelling words.  Straight repetition and memorization might work for some learners, but for the rest, there needs to be more engaging ways to improve working memory for retention of information.

        How can you use this blank word search worksheet?

        What I love about simple worksheets like this blank word search PDF template, is the flexibility and usability it offers. 

        By thinking outside of the box, dozens of treatment ideas can be created!  (This type of activity analysis would be a great project for therapy students or new teachers).

        • Use current spelling words on your learner’s list for the clues to the wordsearch
        • Add thematic words to your grid (winter, animals, foods, colors, clothing)
        • Write random letters in the grid and use this as a scanning task (find all the A’s)
        • Have learners create a grid for other students to use. This works on critical thinking skills, as well as promoting neatness and accuracy
        • Use the printable blank template as a grid for working on letter sizing, letter formation, and neatness
        • Work on speed and dexterity by seeing how many letters/dots/numbers they can write in a given amount of time
        • Use dot markers for accuracy either with a blank grid or while searching for letters or words
        • Laminate the page for reusability and eco friendliness
        • Extend the activity by having students write a sentence after finding each word, draw a picture, or define the words
        • Younger learners do not need to be able to read or spell these words, this will be a copying and visual memory task for those who can not read
        • Try presenting this without including a word bank.  See how many words your learners can find without clues, or remember what words are on their spelling list
        • Enlarge this template onto a smart board for group work, encouraging students to come to the board, and write vertically
        • What other ideas can you come up with?

        What is your objective using this blank word search?

        As always, shift your focus and observations toward the skills you are building.  In this task it could be:

        • Fine motor: letter formation,  handwriting, grasping, copying from a model
        • Visual perception:scanning, figure ground, visual memory
        • Sensory: arousal level, pressure on paper/pencil, seating position
        • Speed and dexterity
        • social/emotional skills, following directions, frustration tolerance
        • Executive function: organizing work, work completion, task analysis
        • Strengthening, bilateral coordination
        • Any combination of the above, or something entirely different

        If your main objective is visual perception, check out this huge visual processing bundle offered in the OT Toolbox.

        what and how to document session using this blank word search page

        Using this blank word search in therapy sessions covers a variety of areas and goals. But how do you document? And what do you look for when using a tool like this in therapy sessions?

        Here are a few things to watch for when learners use this resource:

        • Document in real numbers, percentages, and actual data
        • Accuracy of finding the words
        • Timing for finishing the task
        • Amount of physical and/or verbal assistance
        • Grasping pattern 
        • Sensory skills/problems
        • Behavior, social function

        The resources available for individuals/members visiting the OT Toolbox, are great for new teachers/therapists who feel overwhelmed, needing an organized direction for making awesome treatment plans.

        Don’t forget seasoned professionals who are burned out, or looking for quick and easy printables, PDF templates, and activities.  Whatever category you fit in, whether you are a professional or parent, the OT Toolbox has you covered!  

        more ideas for your St. Patrick’s Day themed lesson plan

        Sticking with the winter theme and tired of Frozen songs and worksheets? Try our Spring Fine Motor Kit full of flowers, butterflies, rainbows, and Spring fun. These reproducible activity pages include: pencil control strips, scissor skills strips, simple and complex cutting shapes, lacing cards, toothpick precision art, crumble hand strengthening crafts, memory cards, coloring activities, and so much more.

        Understanding why you are doing treatment, what goals you are working on, how to assess and grade each task, document the lesson plan, and troubleshoot the activities, are the most difficult (and important) parts of treatment.  Picking a worksheet is easy, knowing how to use it is where skill is involved.  That is why it is so awesome that these tools are readily available.  No need to keep reinventing the wheel.  

        Use the resources available to you at the OT Toolbox, or wherever else you search for quality materials, then take a moment of free time to listen to the Spring raindrops. Grab those Spring fine motor printables, then settle in with a book and a cup of cocoa.

        Free Blank Word Search

        Want to add this resource to your therapy toolbox so you can help kids thrive? Enter your email into the form below to access this printable tool.

        This resource is just one of the many tools available in The OT Toolbox Member’s Club. Each month, members get instant access to downloadable activities, handouts, worksheets, and printable tools to support development. Members can log into their dashboard and access all of our free downloads in one place. Plus, you’ll find exclusive materials and premium level materials.

        Level 1 members gain instant access to all of the downloads available on the site, without enter your email each time PLUS exclusive new resources each month.

        Level 2 members get access to all of our downloads, exclusive new resources each month, PLUS additional, premium content each month: therapy kits, screening tools, games, therapy packets, and much more. AND, level 2 members get ad-free content across the entire OT Toolbox website.

        Join the Member’s Club today!

        Free Blank Word Search

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          Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

          *The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for consistency. This information is relevant for students, patients, clients, preschool, kids/children of all ages and stages, or whomever could benefit from these resources. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.

          Snowflake Activities

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          snowflake activities

          Who doesn’t love snowflake activities? Here, you will find all of the snowflake activities we have shared on the OT Toolbox, linked in one place. When working on creating a classroom or therapy session using a snowflake theme, you can pop right to this post and find everything snowflake related. From snowflake games and crafts, to sensory motor activities, and fine motor fun. You’ll find gross and visual motor activities too! Simply add any of these ideas to a winter snowflake treatment plan, and you’ve got interventions and fun for the whole season, with winter occupational therapy plans! 

          Whether it is a wintery day or just chilly outside, add these snowflake lesson plans. Learners of all ages will be able to get out some energy, while developing important skills. 

          Snowflake activities for occupational therapy during winter months.

          Snowflake Activities

          If you are looking for a fun snowflake game, or maybe some snowflake art, these skill-based wintery ideas from the OT Toolbox will have you covered! 

          Marbled Milk Paper Towel Snowflakes | By creating these snowflakes, there is a little science and art involved (check out STEM learning) while learners swirl a toothpick around in the food coloring and milk. Children will work on light touch as they swirl the toothpick, and pick up/drape the snowflakes to dry. This is a fun craft that is beautiful to display! 

          Winter Snowflake Stamp Art | Make winter snowflakes using pipe cleaners (chenille stems) creating art that is wintery, beautiful, and unique! Stamp art promotes fine motor skills as learners work on a functional grasp, separation of the two sides of the hand, arch development, and an open web space. A creative winter painting idea that has a sensory component, too! Here’s how to paint snow for more winter fun.

          Craft Pom Pom Snowflake Line Awareness Craft | This snowflake activity is a great one for preschoolers or novice learners, as it promotes a variety of grasp patterns when manipulating the pom-pom balls. It is a fun craft that uses pom-poms placed on the outline of a snowflake to create a colorful design that can be hung at home, or given to family/friends. The learner works on placing the pom-poms directly on the line, they are working on line awareness, which is important for drawing and handwriting. 

          Snowflake Party | Have a fun snowflake party with children while creating several snowflakes using a variety of materials, working on a variety of skills. A few of these ideas include snowflake sensory play, snowflake art and crafts, and snowflake snack food. Check out the post to see what we did at our party. It was FUN!

          DIY Snowflake Stampers | Use different foam stickers to create these fun stampers for art projects. 

          Kindergarten Sight Words with Winter Tic Tac Toe | The adult can either make the tic tac toe board, or work with the learner and make it together.  Either way, when using the board, the learner will be working on visual perceptual skills that are needed for forming and writing letters. 

          Gross Motor Snowflake Activities

          Snowflake balance beams, catching snowflakes, and throwing or dancing with snowflakes are great gross motor snowflake activities to add to occupational therapy sessions during the winter months. Try these wintery activities:

          Snowflake Balance Winter Gross Motor Indoor Play Therapy Idea | Learners will benefit from the vestibular input this activity provides as they play. The use of balance beams challenges the vestibular system. Work on balance and motor planning while using their visual skills to scan the balance beam, tracking the snowflake line they need to walk along. 

          Super Simple Snowflake Frisbee Indoor Play  | This basic activity creation uses paper/Styrofoam plates, tape, and a paper snowflake. This activity provides vestibular input as learners perform slight head movements as they throw the frisbee to their partner. Frisbee also promotes upper extremity coordination to grasp/hold/release the frisbee, flex/extend their wrists, cross midline, and use good postural control. 

          Proprioception Winter Activity Throwing Snowflakes | Are you working on scissor skills? If so, try this paper snowflake activity that goes along well with this winter theme. You can make them the typical way with copy or cardstock paper, or try using cupcake liners instead! This helps to boost hand strength, and provide proprioceptive input with the end reward of a pretty, colorful snowflake! 

          This collection of snowflake themed activities will provide enough activities for your classroom, therapy sessions, or at-home programming to use all season long. They provide a range of skill development with a bunch of craftiness all your learners will enjoy! 

          more great Winter resources!

          Add our Winter Fine Motor Kit from the OT Toolbox to your wintery treatment plan to help learners develop their fine motor strength and endurance, grasp, and dexterity skills while engaging in these easy, no-prep activities. Just print and go! 

          Check out the OT Toolbox Snowman Therapy Activity Kit to your cold weather lesson planning to help children work on core strengthening, motor planning, hand skills, visual motor skills while also getting some sensory input too! Just download, print, and go!

          Regina Allen

          Regina Parsons-Allen is a school-based certified occupational therapy assistant. She has a pediatrics practice area of emphasis from the NBCOT. She graduated from the OTA program at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute in Hudson, North Carolina with an A.A.S degree in occupational therapy assistant. She has been practicing occupational therapy in the same school district for 20 years. She loves her children, husband, OT, working with children and teaching Sunday school. She is passionate about engaging, empowering, and enabling children to reach their maximum potential in ALL of their occupations as well assuring them that God loves them!

          *The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for consistency, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, children of all ages and stages or whomever could benefit from these resources. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.

          Fine Motor Penguin Worksheet

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          Free penguin worksheet for fine motor skills

          This time of year is perfect for a penguin theme and the fine motor penguin worksheet below is a perfect addition to a penguin lesson plan. This penguin worksheet works on a variety of fine motor skills and can be adjusted to meet educational needs as well, making it a functional worksheet for kids. Use it along with a Tacky The Penguin book and theme, and fun facts about penguins (great for writing prompts while working on handwriting!)

          Free fine motor penguin activity with this penguin worksheet

          When planning a penguin theme, be sure to add activities from our new Penguin Therapy Kit. It’s got fine motor, gross motor, self-regulation, sensory materials, scissor skill activities, handwriting tasks, and more.

          Let’s get on with this free penguin worksheet!

          Penguin Worksheet for Fine Motor Skills

          As occupational therapists, we love all things function, so functional handwriting beats out on rote copying any day. We can help kids with handwriting skills using a motivating topic like penguins, or we can use discussion of facts that go with an educational theme when working on handwriting skills. The fine motor worksheet here is a perfect addition to that functional and educational topic because it can be used as a hand-warm-up while staying on a theme that is being discussed in the classroom. For OTs pushing into the classroom, this will be a fine motor warm-up that the whole class might want to join in on!

          First start with the fine motor work out using the penguin worksheet and then move onto penguin writing prompts.

          Then, add other penguin activities like this penguin yoga, penguin deep breathing, and penguin brain breaks, sensory bin play.

          Penguin writing Prompts

          When thinking about penguins, the movie, March of the Penguins comes to mind.

          March of the Penguins Writing Prompts- Use the movie, March of the Penguins as a writing prompt idea to work on handwriting skills after you do a fine motor warm up with our free penguin fine motor worksheet.

          I imagine everyone has a different take away from the film March of the Penguins. For me, it was seeing how cold it was in Antarctica in the winter, and watching that poor Dad penguin who has to sit on that egg all winter, while the Mom goes out and gets a few snacks. There was that one scene where the penguin BECOMES the snack, but let’s gloss over that part. 

          Other people watching the film might take away the fact that the Dad was really stepping up to do his part in the family. These types of Emperor penguins  mate for life, and start this ritual every march.

          Depending on your audience, this movie leads to opportunities for some deep discussion. Use those discussions as writing prompts.

          • Penguin facts
          • Facts about Antarctica
          • Facts about Emperor penguins

          Tacky the Penguin Writing Prompts- If your learners are preschoolers or young children, reading Tacky the Penguin, by Helen Lester might be more their speed. 

          • Write out the story in a comic strip type of writing prompt
          • List out penguin names from Tacky the Penguin
          • List out features of Tacky that describe: loud, distracting, funny, is himself
          • Incorporate interoception concepts from the Tacky the Penguin that kids can relate to.
          • Use materials from these Tacky the Penguin
          • Incorporate activities and ideas from this Tacky the Penguin lesson plan.

          Penguin Facts Writing Prompts- Use other penguin facts as writing prompts no matter the age of the learner.

          • Facts about penguin species
          • Penguin features
          • Penguin eggs
          • Penguin habitats

          Create an entire treatment plan around this penguin winter theme. Whatever direction you decide to take your penguin writing theme, the OT Toolbox has you covered with penguin worksheets and printables.

          Before rushing out to watch March of the Penguins (I may be scarred for life), perhaps take in a viewing of Happy Feat for a lighter film.  Also consider purchasing this winter fine motor set as an add on to your treatment theme:

          In the Penguin Therapy Kit, you’ll find penguin writing pages to use with these handwriting tasks. There are also penguin-themed sensory bin materials, letter formation cards with a penguin theme.

          Penguin Worksheet

          Along with the writing prompt ideas, use the free penguin printable below to address fine motor skill work. It’s appropriate for many ages and skill needs. From tracing, to cutting the penguin paths, to working on in-hand manipulation, pencil control, and more.

          Beyond a cute tracing activity, this penguin worksheet targets many different skills:

          1. Tracing for dexterity works on staying on the lines, fine motor control, building hand muscles, scanning and a whole host of other important skills as defined below.
          2. Visual motor skills –Combining what is seen visually and what is written motorically.  This takes coordination to be able to translate information from visual input to motor output. Coloring, drawing, counting, cutting, and tracing are some visual motor skills.
          3. Kinesthetic awareness – This means learning by doing.
          4. Hand strength and dexterity – staying on the lines builds hand muscles and develops muscle control. 
          5. Visual Perception – Developing figure ground to see where the lines start and end, being able to follow the path with the eye and hand, seeing the dotted lines creating a path rather than just dots.
          6. Strength – Core strength needed for sitting, shoulder/elbow/wrist stability, finger strength, and head control all play their role in writing.
          7. Bilateral Coordination – Be sure your learner uses their helper hand for stabilizing the paper while using their dominant hand for writing.
          8. Social/Executive Function – Following directions, task completion, orienting to details, neatness, multi-tasking, attending to task, and impulse control can be addressed using this Penguin worksheet.

          There are many different variables that can be modified while using this activity:

          1. Paper: 
          • lightweight paper is much more difficult to stabilize than heavy weight construction or cardstock paper.  
          • Colored paper may be easier or more difficult for children to work with because of color contrasts.
          • The page can be laminated first, using wipe off markers to trace the penguin paths.  This is a great way to make this page reusable. 
          1. Writing utensils: 
          • There are endless possibilities for written expression.  Markers, crayons, colored pencils, paints, watercolor, chalk, or dry erase pens all provide different input, and require different levels of fine motor skill to manipulate. 
          • Small one inch crayons are excellent for developing those tiny hand muscles.  
          • Chalk, with its grainy texture, provides sensory feedback and can be a positive (or negative) experience
          • Markers glide easily, requiring less precision and grip strength
          • Change writing utensils to appeal to different students and improve their level of motivation. 
          1. Other ways to change this task:
          • Have learners write on a slant board to build wrist control and shoulder stability
          • Try having learners lying prone on the floor with the page in front to build shoulder stability
          • Lying supine with the page taped above the child, under the table builds shoulder and wrist stability
          • Project this page onto a smart board for students to come to the board and write in big letters.
          • Enlarge or shrink this page to make it easier/harder
          • Place mini erasers or beads along the path
          • More or less prompting may be needed to grade the activity to make it easier or harder
          • Make this part of a larger lesson plan including gross motor, sensory, social, executive function, or other fine motor skills
          • Press a fingertip into paint and dot along the lines to work on finger isolation and separation of the sides of the hand

          Use the penguin worksheet for sensory play

          • Use sugar cubes to move along the worksheet path and to make igloos
          • Make fake snow to get hands into for more fine motor play. Slide the worksheet into a page protector. Use the fake snow to mold a snowy path along the penguin’s path.
          • Shredded paper in a pool would make a great snow activity. Spread it along the penguin path, adding glue to create a textured, snowy path.
          • Trace the lines with squeeze glue and add craft materials.
          • Use glue and feathers to make a feathery walk to the penguin.
          • Use the penguin path in a preschool penguin theme in a sensory bin using penguin figures, dry beans, scoops, and tongs.

          Free Fine Motor Penguin Worksheet

          Want to get your hands on this free printable so the kids you serve can develop stronger hands? Enter your email address into the form below for access through your email inbox. This resource is also available in our Member’s Club…you’ve asked for it: A one-stop space to access all of our free downloads in one place. Members can log into their dashboard and download every freebie we have on the website in one place. You’ll also find exclusive Member’s Only materials. Level 2 members get immediate access to the Penguin Therapy Kit mentioned in this post.

          Free Fine Motor Penguin Worksheet

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            Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

            Victoria Wood, OTR/L

            *The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for readability, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, children of all ages, etc. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.

            Indoor Ice Skating Activity for Gross Motor Skills

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            indoor ice skating activity

            This indoor ice skating activity is an older blog post on The OT Toolbox, but the gross motor benefits are perfect for today! Did you know you can use an indoor balance and coordination activity like paper plate ice skating (and the inside skating task below) to challenge and integrate proprioceptive input, vestibular sensory input, and work on various gross motor skills. This is a fun indoor gross motor activity kids love.

            Use this indoor ice skating activity to challenge gross motor skills, balance, endurance, and add sensory input.

            Indoor Ice Skating Activity

            Sometimes, you come across a play activity that provides many skill areas and is just plain old fun.  These indoor ice skates proprioception and vestibular activity is one of those.  

            A few years ago, we shared a bunch of winter sensory integration activities.  This is on of those movement sensory ideas (that we’re just getting around to sharing this year!)

            With this indoor ice skating activity, you can play indoors AND incorporate proprioceptive input, vestibular input, crossing midline, visual scanning, motor planning, among other therapy areas…all with play.  


            Add these resources to the ones you can find here under sensory diet vestibular activities to meet the sensory needs of all kids. 

            This is a great indoor therapy activity for challenging balance and endurance.

            • Ask kids to follow a specific path to work on memory, sequencing, and motor planning.
            • Ask the child to move the indoor skates along a straight line and then bend and stoop to retrieve objects.
            • Incorporate the indoor skating activity into an Olympics therapy theme.
            • Use the indoor skates to move in circles, curved lines, and move as a real ice skater.
            • Ask the skater to carry objects from one point to another.

            In this skating activity, kids are really challenging strength and balance. The carpeted surface is a slick and slippery surface when sliding with a non-resistant surface when sliding on a paper plate, wax paper, or cardboard. TO slide, you need to move the legs along without lifting along the carpet, using core strength to maintain balance.  

            To move the feet, kids need to engage muscles of the core help maintain balance without falling or sliding.  

            Indoor Ice Skates proprioception and vestibular sensory play activity

            Tissue Box Ice Skates

            This is an activity that I remember doing as a kid.  When the weather is too cold or icy to get outdoors, adding any vestibular or proprioception input can be just what the child with sensory needs craves.

            To make your own indoor ice skating activity, all you need is a couple of cardboard tissue boxes and a carpeted floor.

            If you don’t have tissue boxes, you can use other materials to make indoor ice skates. Or, try some of these ideas. The options are limitless:

            • Tissue boxes
            • Cereal box cut in half
            • Paper plates
            • Styrofoam plates
            • Two pieces of wax paper
            • Pieces of cardboard delivery box
            • 2 plastic frisbees
            • Padded delivery envelopes (think Amazon delivery pouches)
            • Any cardboard box!

            Depending on the material and the user’s motor skills, you may need to strap the cardboard pieces onto shoes with pieces of tape. Other users can slide their feet to move the materials along carpeted surface by sliding their feet.

            There are many skills that are developed with this indoor ice skating activity. Let’s cover those therapy skill areas:

            Indoor ice skates with cardboard boxes add proprioception and vestibular sensory play.
            Use cardboard boxes to make a pair of indoor “ice skates” that work on a carpet.

            Indoor Ice Skating and proprioception

            Use empty tissue boxes to create ice skate “boots”.  Moving the feet along the carpet requires heavy work, coordination, balance, and awareness of position in space.

            Incorporate proprioceptive input by using a blanket and pull your child around a carpeted area.  Ask them to squat down to a skater’s ready position as you pull them, too.


            Try skating with the tissue boxes as an adult pulls the child along with a blanket or towel.  Play tug of war with the blanket, too.

            Read more about proprioception activities and how they impact functional skills.

            Indoor Ice skating and Vestibular Sensory

            A child can work on vestibular input by skating fast from one target to another. Encourage them to position themselves in different ways as they skate around a carpeted room.  

            This activity works on crossing midline as the child “skis”.  Sometimes you might see children with vestibular difficulties who have difficulty determining proper motor planning in activities.  They might have trouble crossing midline in functional tasks as well as difficulties with reading and writing.  


            A movement activity that challenges the body’s position in space like this one can help with these problem areas.

            Read more about vestibular sensory activities and how these therapy tasks impact functional skills.

            More Winter activities to use in occupational therapy

            Add this indoor ice skating activity to these other winter ideas for occupational therapy sessions or home programming:

            Snowman Therapy Activity Kit
            Snowman Therapy Kit

            This print-and-go snowman-themed therapy kit includes no-prep fine motor, gross motor, sensory, visual processing, handwriting, self-regulation, and scissor skill activities to help kids develop essential skills. Includes everything you need for therapy tasks, home therapy sessions, and movement-based learning.

            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.

            Icicle Winter Scissor Skills Activity

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            Paper icicle craft

            This paper icicle craft is a fun one for wintertime occupational therapy activities. If you are working on Scissor skills, cutting icicles into paper is a great fine motor task that builds eye-hand coordination, crossing midline, and visual motor skills to cut basic shapes. Be sure to add this paper icicle template for more tools for your winter occupational therapy toolbox.

            Take fine motor work a step further by grabbing our new winter crossword puzzle to incorporate a whole winter theme.

            Paper icicle craft that helps kids develop scissor skills, a great preschool craft for winter.

            Paper Icicle Craft

            Do you have a little one who is just learning to master scissors?  Scissor Skills for children who have never picked up a pair of scissors before can be very daunting.  Frustrations can build and the next thing you know, your little sweetheart is spiking the scissors across the table!  

            Kids learn all things at different paces.  Every developmental milestone and functional activity are achieved at different paces. 

            Scissor use is no different.  Kids as young as two can start to snip paper (and probably with an awkward-two handed grasp on the scissors!)  And as their fine motor skills develop, will achieve more and more accuracy with scissor use.   

            This winter themed Icicle cutting activity is a great beginner project for new scissor users.  The strait cuts, bold lines, and even paper type are good modifications for a new little scissor-hands!  

            Icicle Craft Beginner Scissor Skills Activity

            Winter Icicle Craft

            Preschoolers are just beginning to gain more control over scissors.  Preschool activities like this icicle craft at the way to go when it comes to building motor skills.

            Strait lines are the perfect way to gain confidence when they are learning to cut…and ensure that they’ll want to pick up the scissors and try another craft again soon!  We started out with nice strait lines on these icicles.  Little Guy could cut the whole way across the page without needing to rotate the page to cut a curve or angle.

            Draw icicles on paper to work on cutting with scissors. Great for winter occupational therapy activities.


            Note: This post contains affiliate links.

            How to Modify this Icicle Craft

            The smallest icicle could have been a harder task for him to cut, if he turned the whole page around like he started out doing. 

            We used a few different strategies to scaffold this paper icicle craft:

            • Cut through the page instead of turning around corners
            • Adjust the paper weight to a thicker resistance
            • Thicker cutting lines
            • Trials with thinner lines to carryover the task with practice
            • Verbal and visual cues

            I prompted him to start one line from the edge of the paper and then instead of rotating the whole page (which would have probably given him a big chopped off icicle point), I showed him how to start the other side from the edge as well.  He was much more accurate with the lines and wanted to keep going!

            We had two different types of paper for our icicles.  The first set was drawn on a sheet of white cardstock. 

            Cutting from this thicker paper is a great beginning step for new scissor users and a modification often used for kids with fine motor difficulties. 

            The thicker paper requires slower snips and allows for more accuracy.  I also drew the icicles on the cardstock with nice thick lines.  This gave Little Guy more room to cut within the lines and allowed for less line deviation. 

            The second set of icicles were drawn with thinner lines on printer paper.  After practicing on the first set, he was game to cut more  icicles.  The thinner paper and lines requires more control of the scissors and better line awareness, and bilateral hand coordination.

            Work on preschool scissor skills using aa paper icicle craft.

              This looked like so much fun, that even Big Sister wanted to get in on the icicle-making action!

             
             
            Paper icicle craft for the window
             
            We hung our icicles in the window to match the icy conditions outside.
             
            Looking for more ways to practice beginning cutting? Check out this guide to scissor skills.

            More paper crafts for winter

            You’ll love these other cut and paste crafts for winter. Use them in winter fine motor ideas for occupational therapy activities

            • Winter crafts using paper and a variety of textures for sensory play, motor planning, and motor skills.
            • Paper Icicle Craft is an actual printable template that you can print off and use to work on the scissor skills we covered in this post. It’s a great way to make an icicle craft.
            • Build a Snowman Craft– Work on scissor skills and fine motor strength to build a paper snowman
            • Use these paper snowflake ideas from our list of snow and ice ideas.
            • Use activities in our Winter Fine Motor Kit.
            • Use the printable ideas in the Penguin Fine Motor Kit for building scissor skills and hand strength.
            • Incorporate snowman crafts and scissor activities using our latest Snowman Therapy Kit.
            winter fine motor kit
            Winter Fine Motor Kit

            Done-for-you motor tasks to help kids form stronger bodies that are ready to learn.

            Use fun, themed, fine motor activities so you can help children develop fine and gross motor skills in a digital world.

            Themed NO-PREP printable pages include tasks to address fine motor skills such as:

            • Endurance Activities
            • Dexterity Activities
            • Graded Precision Activities
            • Pinch and Grip Strength Activities
            • Arch Development Activities
            • Finger Isolation Activities
            • Separation of the Sides of the Hand Activities
            • Open Thumb Web-Space Activities
            • Wrist Extension
            • Bilateral Coordination Activities
            • Eye-Hand Coordination Activities
            • Crossing Midline Activities

            Click here to read more about 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.

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