winter

Things to do on a Snow Day

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Use this snow writing prompt as a way to come up with things to do in the snow on a snow day.

When school is cancelled for a snow day, it can be fun to think of things to do in the snow. For parents or therapists, sometimes kids need things to do on a day at home so they stay off the video games and screens. Here, you will find therapist-approved winter family activities, things to do in the snow, and a special printable handwriting worksheet with snow writing prompts…perfect for a home therapy task that helps kids build skills through motor skills, PLAY, and even motivating and functional handwriting.

Use this snow writing prompt as a way to come up with things to do in the snow on a snow day.

Things to do on a snow day

Whether you live in the snow, are dreaming about wintery conditions, or are happy to never have to see it again, there is a lot to be said about a winter day. Check out these snow and ice activities, for snowy fun that doesn’t involve all of the cold, ice, and snowflakes!

Snow days represent different things to different people. Does it represent winter family activities? As a child in Connecticut, winter and snowy days were great!  There were endless things to do outside in the cold. These winter days meant bundling up layers and layers of clothing to head outside, building forts, rolling a snowman, shoveling sidewalks, climbing snow drifts, making snow angels, creating paths of footprints across the fresh, untouched snow, walking across a frozen pond, sledding down a huge hill, or skiing.

Some of my fondest childhood memories were made on winter days. During the blizzard of 1978, the snow was piled up over our heads.  We walked on top of huge piles over ten feet tall. We had a sheepdog for many winters, it was funny to see his fur covered in snowballs from jumping in the wet snow.  Not so funny having to take them all off after coming inside.  

Snow days can also mean NO SCHOOL!  We watched and waited for the announcement that there would be no school.  While parents dread this news, kids everywhere cheer for a day off.  

A day or two of fresh snowfall can mean some indoor cozy fun also. If the power went off, we had a rare chance for pizza from the little town.  I think the neighbor had a snowmobile to trek down and collect it. It also meant hot cocoa and home baked cookies.  In the 70’s and early 80’s TV was not really for kids, except Saturday mornings.  School cancellations did not mean lazy days by the TV or playing electronics.  Out came the board games, the Easy Bake Oven, puzzles, Legos, coloring books, and all of the other things we never seemed to find enough time for. 

What does a winter snow day mean to you?  Did you grow up with cold winters, or just read about it?  Did you long for just one flurry during a southern winter? Winter days feel different to me now, than as a child.  Today I would treat a winter day as a cuddle up under a blanket with hot cocoa, cookies, a good book, and a dog.

Snow days are now virtual school days?

What does a snow day mean to your learners?  It could mean 100 different things. This is a great snow writing prompt for digging up memories, stories, shared ideas, and working on critical handwriting skills. 

But, in many cases, a school cancellation means parents who still need to work while the kids are at home. There can be more screen time, video games, and YouTube watching than normal. Sometimes parents need a quick list of things to keep the kids busy and OFF screens.

Even more recently, in many areas, a school cancellation day is no longer a day off from school. Snowy conditions and ice or other weather conditions that may have previously meant a day off from school now may mean a virtual learning day. This change for many kids, is a change that may not go away now that many schools have virtual learning opportunities in place. In these cases, kids attend virtual school, but then they are finished early or have breaks during the school day. The last thing parents want their kids doing during a break from virtual learning is hopping onto another device!

That’s where a quick list of things to do on a snow day comes in handy.

In these cases, therapists who may be seeing students virtually can offer therapeutic activities that actually develop the very skills that the students on their caseload are working on.

Therapists may need a quick activity or task list that specifically addresses the skills their kids are working on, so the child can have an action list of activities to do outside in the winter.

These snow day activities can even be followed-up on and used as writing prompts in a later session to address executive functioning skills, handwriting, memory, and other skill areas.

That’s where the snow day activities worksheet available below comes into play. Print off the worksheet and use it to identify winter ideas. Then, when students do have a day off from school, they can use it as a winter bucket list. It’s also a great family activity list for winter days. Or, just use the worksheet in virtual or face to face learning to work on handwriting skills and executive functioning skills.

Things to do in snow Worksheet

This winter printable helps learners create a list of Things to do on a Snow Day.

Each person will have a different experience to write about. Encourage your learners to explore all different aspects of winter days, whether they have experienced them, or just read about it.  Learners will write something to do in the snow in each snowball.

Add this activity with our My Snow Globe worksheet.

This activity can be modified for all levels of learners:

  • Lowest level learners can dictate what they would like written in the snow balls
  • This printable can be projected onto the board to work as a group task
  • Pictures of activities can be printed separately, cut and glued onto the snow balls. Use this Snow Day bingo game board to cut out ideas or play snowy bingo
  • The snowballs can be cut and glued onto a separate sheet of paper to add cutting and gluing to the task
  • Middle level learners can write one or two words in each ball.
  • Higher level learners can write an idea in each ball, then create a story or memory out of each idea.  This turns into a multilevel activity to use during many sessions.

Skills addressed? As always, therapy or teaching is more than just fun and games. There are goals and objectives to be addressed.  This Things to do in the Snow printable, while being fun and relevant, also works on key skills

  • Handwriting – Work on letter formation, letter size, spacing, word and letter placement
  • Letter formation – correctly forming the letters top to bottom
  • Letter sizing – correctly fitting the letters into the size boxes
  • Copying – copying words from a model, transferring the letters from one place to another
  • Fine motor strengthening, hand development, and grasping pattern
  • Sequencing – will your learner do the words in order?   Will they go in a haphazard pattern all over the page?  
  • Following directions, attention to detail, turn taking, waiting, social skills, compliance, behavior, and work tolerance
  • Cutting on the line ( if you choose to add this step), within half inch of lines, in the direction of lines
  • Pasting using glue stick or drippy glue with accuracy
  • Bilateral coordination – remembering to use their “helper hand” to hold the paper while writing.  Using one hand for a dominant hand instead of switching back and forth is encouraged once a child is in grade school or demonstrates a significant strength in one or the other.
  • Strength – core strength, shoulder and wrist stability, head control, balance, and hand strength are all needed for upright sitting posture and writing tasks.

Remember, you can address all of these skills at once, or focus on one or two.  Some skills above will be addressed without your conscious knowledge, while other skills will be directly worked on. 

Documentation in Therapy with this Worksheet

Use this snow day worksheet to document and track skills for data collection. Take note of these areas to collect data for documentation:

  • the percentage of correct letters, 
  • how many letters are formed correctly/directionality/legibility
  • size of letters in relation to the boxes
  • grasping pattern, hand dominance
  • attention to detail, following directions, prompts and reminders needed, level of assistance given

If kids are filling out the worksheet and need some ideas to fill in the spaces, try these ideas. You can even fill out a worksheet to have as a copying activity for some student’s skill needs.

These things to do in snow are perfect for a day off of school or winter family activities:

What would you add to this list? Do any of these look like winter family activities that you would like to do on your next snow day?

Free Snow Day Worksheet

Make this snow writing prompt just part of your winter lesson plan. Print off this worksheet and get started with winter activities for the whole family! This winter worksheet is also available in the OT Toolbox Member’s Club. Members can log in and download this resource along with hundreds of other resources and tools to help kids thrive.

Get free SNOWBALL ALPHABET WRITING PRACTICE SHEETS

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    Gotta go get my cocoa and marshmallows!

    Victoria Wood, OTR/L

    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.

    Snowman Therapy Activity Kit

    Grab the Snowman Therapy Kit for more things to do on a snow day, or just in winter, whether you are on a snow day, or don’t even live in an area with snow!

    Snowball Alphabet Worksheet pdf

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    snowball alphabet letter formation worksheet

    Today, we have a fun handwriting resource for you. Grab your mittens because this snowball alphabet worksheet PDF is a free download that builds many skill areas. It may look like a snowball themed tracing worksheet, but this snowball letters PDF builds many skill areas. Let’s take a look at various ways to incorporate Winter Snowball letters into therapy and the classroom or home!

    And, grab our mitten printable too in order to support fine motor skills, pencil control, and eye-hand coordination.

    This snowball alphabet worksheet PDF is a free download that can be used to work on letter formation, handwriting skills, and more.

    Snowball Letters

    The OT Toolbox is continuing with its winter theme this month by offering another wonderful free printable.  If you have to live/vacation/endure somewhere with snow, you might as well make the best of it.  Everyone loves making snowballs.  That is why they have snow making machines pumping out fake snow here in the south, so we don’t miss out on all of the fun.  I have to say it is kind of strange sledding and throwing snowballs while wearing a short sleeved shirt.  

    Before we get to the snowball letters activities, check out these snowball sensory ideas. Use real snow brought indoors (or use the items outside!). Kids will LOVE to use these snowball tools with our fake snow recipe. Plus, when kids are involved in making the fake snow, there are more therapy goals to address like executive functioning, bilateral control, and even tactile defensiveness.

    Snowball Maker- The beauty of making snowballs?  It has evolved!  No longer do you need to have cold wet mittens while scooping up layers and layers of snow.  They have a tool for that! This (amazon affiliate link) snowball scooper is perfect for creating the perfect snowball.

    Before you scoff and say you would rather do it the old fashioned way, you need to check this thing out!  I made the most perfect fake balls of snow with this contraption.  Now all I need is a launcher like they make for tennis balls, and some better aim.  Are you intrigued by this wonderful tool? 

    Snowball Mold Set– Wait, there is more!  Kind of makes me want to have a snow day to try all of this cool stuff out.  You no longer have to roll snowmen, create handmade blocks for igloos, or scoop the snow with your hands.  Tired of circle snowballs?  They have a solution for that!  This snow mold set comes with penguin and heart shapes.  Need to be more efficient when creating these fluffy white bundles of fun?  They have a tool that will make FIVE snowballs at once!  They have just ramped being out in the snow to a whole new level.

    Now that we have filled your shopping cart with such wonderful things to do in the snow, what about the days when your learners have to be in school, or it is too awful to stay outside all day?  A winter skills treatment or lesson plan is just what you need.

    Snowball Alphabet PDF

    The OT toolbox is showcasing winter activities and PDF sheets all month long. Today’s cute design is an alphabet letter worksheet full of winter snowballs to practice letter formation.

    As always I love the versatility of each of these pdf activities and printables.  This design comes with two different ways to change the activity for different skill levels.  Tracing inside snowballs or working on letter formation with blank winter snowballs.

    Use this snowball alphabet worksheet PDF along with our recent Winter Clothes Number Tracing worksheet for tons of skill areas.

    When working with any learners, it is important to be able to adapt or grade your activity for multiple learning levels.  What does it mean to grade an activity?  To make it easier or harder for your whole caseload of learners or adapt the task for a specific learner.  Suppose you get started with the blank snowballs and realize your learner has no clue what the letters look like.  You would grade this down to either tracing, or copying letters from a model.  You could grade it further down to matching letters or identifying them.  You can grade up to writing lowercase and uppercase letters in the winter snowballs.

    Snowball Letter Tracing Sheet

    Since the first page is a tracing task, let’s talk about tracing. I am not a fan of tracing unless it is used correctly, or the objective is understood. 

    • 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
    • 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 so much more.

    What else does tracing and writing alphabet letters work on?

    • Handwriting – this is obvious as you are building letter formation
    • Fine motor control – holding a pencil, developing intrinsic muscle control to improve written expression, dexterity to stay on the lines on the tracing section
    • Letter formation – correctly forming the letters top to bottom
    • Letter sizing – correctly fitting the letters into the size boxes
    • Copying – copying letters from a model if you have graded it to include one
    • Working memory – remembering what letters have already been written, and what comes next. See if your learner can recall the next letter without going back to letter A each time
    • Sequencing – will your learner do the letters in order?  Will they go in a haphazard pattern all over the page?  
    • Bilateral coordination – remembering to use their “helper hand” to hold the paper while writing.  Using one hand for a dominant hand instead of switching back and forth is encouraged once a child is in grade school or demonstrates a significant strength in one or the other.
    • Strength – core strength, shoulder and wrist stability, head control, balance, and hand strength are all needed for upright sitting posture and writing tasks.
    • Executive function skills – attention, frustration tolerance, task completion and initiation, self regulation, working independently

    To learn more about executive function, type this into the search bar on the OT Toolbox to see dozens of posts on this topic.  Here is a general post on executive function by Colleen Beck, owner of the OT Toolbox:

    What are Executive Functioning Skills?

    snowball letters, Winter Letter SNowballs- snowball letters, alphabet worksheets pdf, snowball alphabet worksheet

    More ways to use the SNOWBALL ALPHABET WRITING PRACTICE SHEETS PDF

    There are many other ways to adapt or grade the snowball alphabet sheet:

    • Laminate the page for using markers and wipes. This can be useful for reusability, as well as the enjoyment markers bring.
    • Place craft pom poms or mini erasers on the letters.
    • Cut out the snowballs and use them to match letters.
    • Use the snowballs for letter BINGO. Call out letters and ask kids to find the letter in the alphabet.
    • Call out a letter and have a student place a mini eraser or marker on the letter. Then they can form the letter onto paper or onto the blank snowballs.
    • Different colored paper may make it more or less challenging for your learner
    • Enlarging the font may be necessary to beginning handwriting students who need bigger space to write.
    • Create another page with all of the alphabet letters for copying or reference
    • Have students cut out letters from another page and glue to the snowballs – this adds a cutting and gluing element
    • Velcro the back of the snowballs, after laminating and cutting it, to create a matching game
    • Make changes to the type of writing utensil, paper used, or level of difficulty
    • 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
    • Project this page onto a smart board for students to come to the board and write in big letters.
    • More or less prompting may be needed to grade e 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

    How to document this activity:

    • First determine what goals and skills you are addressing. Are you looking strictly at letter formation, tracing, and alphabet recall?  Or something else entirely such as executive function and behavior?
    • Focus your observations on the skills you are addressing.  It is alright to address one or ten skills at once, just be sure to watch for those skills during the activity.  This can take practice to watch everything all at once. Newer clinicians often videotape sessions to go back and review clinical observations they may have missed.
    • Use data to back up your documentation. Avoid or limit phrases such as min assist, fair, good, some, many, etc.  They are vague and do not contain the numbers and data critical to proficient documentation.  Instead use percentages, number of trials, number of errors, exact sizing, how many letters were written incorrectly, number of reversals, number of prompts, minutes of attention.  You get the idea.
    • This type of documentation may feel foreign at first if this is not what you are used to, however insurance and governing agencies are becoming more strict on accurate documentation.

    In addition to this great winter snowballs alphabet PDF worksheet, the OT Toolbox has entire winter themed lesson plans available as well as a Snowman Lesson Plan Kit that covers all aspects of therapy sessions.

    Winter Fine Motor Kit Deal

    These winter printables, including this Snowball Alphabet Worksheet will be highlighted all month long to help create amazing therapy sessions.  I have to say I am kind of excited about the snowball making contraption for those of you who live in the frozen north.  

    Free SNOWBALL ALPHABET WRITING PRACTICE SHEETS PDF

    Want to grab a copy of this Snowball Alphabet Worksheet PDF for your therapy toolbox? Enter your email address into the form below and the PDF will be delivered to your inbox. OT Toolbox Member’s Club members can access this writing practice sheet along with many others with one click to download, inside the dashboard.

    Get free SNOWBALL ALPHABET WRITING PRACTICE SHEETS

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      I’d rather throw sand than snowballs any day!

      Victoria Wood, OTR/L

      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.

      Snowman Therapy Activity Kit

      Click here to read more about the Snowman Therapy Kit and to grab your copy while it’s on sale.

      Winter Brain Breaks

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      winter brain breaks

      Need Winter Brain Breaks for the kids? Here, you will find energizing brain breaks are gross motor activities that can break up the school day or be added to the classroom schedule. Mix some of these movement breaks into the classroom to help kids focus and stay on task while getting a chance to get a short mental break from the class schedule. With more online time and increased screen time than ever before, and the added piece of wintery weather, brain breaks are needed more now than ever.

      winter brain breaks

      Winter Brain Breaks

      I love that these movement breaks can give kids a chance to weave activity right into learning. Whether you are looking for stretches or specifics like activities that fit your curriculum, most of these brain break ideas can be modified to meet your classroom needs!

      For more winter activities, try using these ideas to help kids develop specific skill areas:


      Winter Fine Motor Activities – Use winter crafts, activities, snowflake crafts, and even paper icicles to work on fine motor skill work.

      Indoor Recess Activities– These indoor recess activities get kids moving when it’s too cold to go outside.

      Winter Bilateral Coordination Activities get kids moving with both sides of the body.

      Winter Mindfulness Activities help to focus and attend to the task at hand, as well as help with coping needs.

      This mitten printable is a great fine motor brain break that kids love. These are perfect for a fine motor and visual motor version of brain breaks.

      And, you’ll want to check out our new Winter Fine Motor Kit. It’s an amazing resource of 100 pages designed to help kids move and build the skills they need. While focused on the fine motor aspect, this kit includes play dough mats, toothpick art, lacing cards, crumble art, I Spy pages, and more, all which can be used in indoor brain break types of activities.

      Now, on to the winter brain breaks! Check out these Winter Brain Breaks for movement-based activity in the clinic, classroom, virtual therapy session, or home!


      1. Build a snowman- This winter brain break requires imagination and some large motor skills! Students may need verbal cues and maybe a visual model when first doing this snowman brain break. Here’s what  Pretend to roll a ball of snow. Then another big snowball. Ask students to place their pretend snowballs on the first one to build the snowman. Next, pick up a carrot and some “rocks” from the ground. Press them into the snowman’s head. Next, look on the “ground” to find some sticks for arms. Press them into the sides of the sides of the snowman. Add any additional details like a scarf, hat, or boots. 

      2. Winter Toothpick Art– Use the Winter Fine Motor Kit materials to get kids moving with the toothpick art activities. These can be used on cardboard or a carpeted area to help kids build fine motor strength and tripod grasp.

      3. Penguin Freeze Dance- This winter brain break activity is a great addition to an arctic theme in the classroom! Take 5 minutes to move and groove, penguin-style! Turn on some music and the students can waddle like penguins! Then suddenly stop the music and all of the classroom penguins need to FREEZE! Play for about 5 minutes and then get back to learning.


      4. Dice Roll- Write numbers 1-6 on the chalkboard. Assign each number to an action movement like hop up and down, touch the ground, stand on one leg, do a funny dance, jumping jacks, etc. Then roll the dice and everyone needs to do the action. Keep rolling and moving for 3-5 minutes. Some more action ideas include: turn in two circles, do a burpee, do a push-up, and sit on the floor then stand up very quickly.

      5. Winter Crumble Art- This is another fun fine motor activity for indoor recess. Use bits of tissue paper or crumbled up construction paper to create a winter picture. These sheets are in the Winter Fine Motor Kit, too.


      6. Winter Yoga- Add movement breaks to the classroom with some calming yoga moves. Winter themed yoga stretches can be a nice break in the classroom schedule when it’s too cold to go outdoors.

      7. Winter Play Dough Mats– While not a traditional brain break, the winter play dough mats in our new Winter Fine Motor Kit allow kids a chance to move and gain essential proprioceptive input through their hands.

      8. Snowman Says- Play a quick game of Simon Says with a snowman theme! Imagine you are part of a classroom full of snowmen who are moving their snowman parts. Use your imagination and stretch, move, and move that snow body! Use these printable Simon Says commands for specific skill-building.


      9. Polar Bear Brain Breaks- This polar bear gross motor slide deck is wintery fun! We’ve shared a bear brain breaks free printable sheet here on The OT Toolbox. Use it with a polar bear theme! Hint: Do the same brain break activities and call it a polar bear move 🙂


      10. Winter Brain Break YouTube Videos- There are some great break break ideas that are movement and activity videos on YouTube to get the kids up and moving so they are ready to learn. The YouTube brain break videos add movement and gross motor work. The ones listed below are winter themed. 

      11. Winter crossword puzzle– Brain breaks don’t need to be gross motor tasks. Use this printable to target fine motor skills and visual motor skills while taking a break from other activities as a self-regulation strategy.

      Winter Brain Breaks on YouTube


      Baby Shark, Winter Edition:

      Penguin Dance Brain Break: 

       

        The Sid Shuffle- Ice Age Continental Drift:

        Small Foot- Do the Yeti:  

      I’m a Penguin- Brain Break for Kindergarten:  

      Add winter brain break ideas to the classroom to add movement breaks so kids can learn and focus with better attention, all with a winter theme!

      Need more Brain Break Resources? 

      Follow our Brain Break Pinterest board.


      Here are more brain break videos (not winter-themed), but great for any time of year.


      Check out our past brain break activities here on The OT Toolbox and add them to your toolbox:



      I hope these ideas are helpful in creating opportunities for movement and activity during these indoor recess months at school! 

      winter fine motor kit

      WINTER FINE MOTOR WORKSHEETS

      To end out the Winter Week here on The OT Toolbox, I wanted to create a fine motor worksheets that are a true resource during the winter months. The Winter Fine Motor Kit contains fine motor worksheets that cover a variety of different fine motor abilities:  

      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.

      Play Dough Roll Mats- We’ve shared some free play dough mats before. They are perfect for developing fine motor skills and hand strength needed for tasks like coloring with endurance, manipulating small items, and holding a pencil. Kids can roll small balls of play dough with just their fingertips to strengthen the intrinsic muscles. The Winter Fine Motor Kit contains 6 winter play dough mats that can be used all winter long!  

      Pinch and Grip Strength Activities- Includes: glue skills page, tong/tweezer activities, lacing cards, finger puppets, 1-10 counting clip cards, 10 toothpick art pages, find & color page, 5 crumble art pages. TARGET SKILLS: Precision, pinch and grip hand strength, tripod grasp, arch development, bilateral coordination, open thumb web-space.

      Pencil Control Worksheets- Connect the arctic animals or winter items and stay on the pencil path lines while mastering pencil control. Some of the lines are small and are a great way to strengthen the hands, too.  

      Arctic Animal Cutting Strips and Scissor Skills Sheets- Work on scissor skills to cut along lines to reach the arctic animal friends or snowflakes, snowmen, and mittens. This is a great way to strengthen the motor and visual skills needed for cutting with scissors.   Also included are 7 scissor skills strips with graded precision designed for data collection and accuracy development, 2 color & cut memory cards, 4 pages simple cutting shapes in small/med/large sizes, 3 pages complex cutting shapes in small/med/large sizes, 2 small and 2 large cutting skills puzzles. These worksheets help kids develop graded scissor skill accuracy and precision, visual perceptual skills, eye-hand coordination, crossing midline, bilateral coordination.

      Handwriting Sensory Bin Materials- You and the kiddos will love these A-Z uppercase and lowercase tracing cards with directional arrows, 1-10 tracing cards with directional arrows, 1-10 counting cards. Using the sensory bin materials can develop tactile handwriting, letter and number formation, finger isolation, crossing midline, sensory challenges. These materials in the Winter Fine Motor Kit are a great brain break idea for kids.

      “I Spy” Modified Paper- Includes: Color and find objects in two themes: winter items and arctic animals; 3 styles of modified paper for each theme: single rule bold lines, double rule bold lines, highlighted double rule. Use these pages to develop handwriting, pencil control, line and spatial awareness, legibility, visual perceptual skills, visual memory.

      Fine Motor Handwriting Sheets- Try the 4 Find/Color/Copy pages in different styles of modified paper, rainbow writing pages in 3 styles of modified paper. These handwriting worksheets use the winter theme to help with handwriting, visual perception, pencil control, visual memory, visual attention, precision, pencil control, functional handwriting.

      Write the Room Activities- Using a winter theme, these Write the Room cards includes: 5 lowercase copy cards, 5 uppercase copy cards, 5 lowercase tracing cards, 5 uppercase copy cards, 6 cursive writing copy cards, 2 styles of writing pages. TARGET SKILLS: Letter formation, pencil control, visual motor skills, visual attention, visual memory, line placement, functional handwriting at all levels and stages.

      All of this is available in the Winter Fine Motor Kit.

      For more ideas for older students, try these middle school brain breaks.

      Looking for a consistent way to support fine motor skills all year?
      This yearlong fine motor system includes seasonal activity kits and monthly data collection tools to support planning and progress monitoring.

      If fine motor planning and data collection feel overwhelming, you’re not alone.
      This done-for-you yearlong bundle organizes seasonal activities and monthly screening tools in one system.

      Get the Yearlong Fine Motor and Data Collection Bundle today!

      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.

      Looking for a consistent way to support fine motor skills all year?
      This yearlong fine motor system includes seasonal activity kits and monthly data collection tools to support planning and progress monitoring.

      If fine motor planning and data collection feel overwhelming, you’re not alone.
      This done-for-you yearlong bundle organizes seasonal activities and monthly screening tools in one system.

      Get the Yearlong Fine Motor and Data Collection Bundle today!

      Salt Truck Craft

      by
      salt truck craft

      We live in an area with cold winters and lots of snow.  With the wintery weather comes ice, salt, and snow plows.  We’ve been watching many salt trucks rumble down our road, scattering salt and plowing snow.  My kids love to see the salt truck come and every time the see one when we’re out and about, they shout, “SNOW PLOW” from the back of the minivan.  We had to make an Easy Shapes Salt Truck craft to join our other truck crafts.

      Salt truck craft is perfect for kids that love vehicles, and working on early scissor skills.

      Other trucks and cars crafts that work on scissor skills with simple geomteric shapes include:

      Big Rig Craft

      Backhoe Craft

      Firetruck Craft

      School Bus Craft

      Craft for Scissor Skills

      If working on scissor skills is a must, then this salt truck craft is the way to go. Kiddos that love all things trucks and vehicles will love it for the vehicle theme, but as a therapist, I see the geometric shapes, making it perfect for working on early scissor skills.


      Salt Truck Craft

        This post contains affiliate links.

       

      To make the craft, you’ll need just a few materials:

      • Scissors
      • Yellow paper
      • Red paper
      • Black paper
      • White paper
      • Green paper
      • Glue

      Other colors of paper can certainly be used! These are the colors we used, and I’ll describe the shapes you need for this truck craft here so you can use the salt truck as a template.

      About paper type- Different types of paper provides different amounts of feedback for young scissor users. We love crafting with card stock or thicker paper, because it’s easy to hold with the assisting hand and the paper doesn’t easily bend or move when cutting through it with scissors. Cardstock paper is great for younger kids or those just learning to snip and cut with smooth lines as well as just starting with turning the scissors around a corner of simple shapes..  Its brightly colors make great crafting material and the thickness is perfect for new scissor users. You can find more information on types of paper for scissor skill development in our scissor skills crash course.

      You’ll need to draw the following shapes:

      • Yellow Rectangle- for the body of the truck
      • Yellow Square- for the cab of the truck
      • White Smaller Square- for the window of the truck
      • Large Green triangle- for the truck’s Salt bed
      • Long Green rectangle- for the top of the salt truck’s bed
      • 2 Black larger circles- for the wheels
      • 2 Smaller white circles- for inside the wheels
      • Red Half Circle- for the plow
      • Small Red Square- for the plow attachment

      Draw the shapes onto the paper and then start cutting. Cut shapes as pictured above to build the salt truck craft.    

      Snow Plow Puzzle

      Constructing this snow plow puzzle is part of the fun! Kids can work on visual memory by building the truck from memory or by looking at an example picture and then back to their project.

      You can build the salt truck with them and then deconstruct the truck.  Ask your child to recreate the truck from memory, using their mind’s eye to recall the placement of the shapes.  This memory is visual memory and an important skill for copying work when handwriting.  

      There are other visual perceptual skills at work, too.

      Looking for specific pieces that are placed on the table surface is a challenge in visual scanning, visual discrimination, figure-ground, and form constancy.

      Remembering the position of the shapes is part of visual discrimination, a skill needed when children need to remember subtle differences in a picture or written work.  Difficulty with visual discrimination will be apparent when a child has difficulty discerning between b, d, p, or q.

      Kids love salt trucks and snow plows! Make an easy shapes truck craft to work on visual memory and visual discrimination.

      Early scissor skills fine motor

      For more ways to work on scissor skills, along with all of the fine motor skills needed for scissor use and handwriting, try the Winter Fine Motor Kit. It’s loaded with cutting activities, lacing cards, coloring, clip activities, fine motor art, and fun ways to help children develop pre-writing hand strength, dexterity, and motor skills.

      Use the fine motor activities, lacing cards, toothpick art, and crafts in the Winter Fine Motor Kit. It’s a 100 page packet with all winter themes, and you’ll find penguins there!

      winter fine motor kit

      Click here for more information on the Winter Fine Motor Kit.

       
      More easy shapes Truck Crafts you may like:
       
      firetruck craftBig rig truck craftDigger truck craftSchool bus craft
       
                   Fire Truck craft | Big Rig craft | Digger craft | School Bus craft  

      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.

      Clothespin Snowman

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      clothespin snowman

      This clothespin snowman is a fine motor craft that is not only the cutest winter craft we’ve seen, but it’s also a powerful tool to strengthen fine motor skills. Kids that fumble with pencil grasp, struggle with clothing fasteners, or are challenged by opening lunch box containers, often times need focused fine motor strengthening. What if we could combine fine motor work with a fun snowman craft? That’s just what we did and we are sharing the how to below! This is a craft that kids can use to really boost fine motor skills…with a super cute snowman clothespin craft!

      Read on to find out how to make a snowman craft that uses a few craft supply closet staple items (hello clothespins!) AND works on the fine motor skills like hand strength, precision of grasp, and other skills, too.

      Clothespin snowman craft for developing fine motor skills in kids.

      ClothesPin Snowman Craft

      We used some basic craft materials to make a snowman craft that has been as much fun to make as it is to play with! The fact that this snowman craft is on a clothespin makes it a fine motor power tool. Kids can pinch the clothespin to attach the snowman to anything from a folder, to a book, to a backpack, to a flowerpot! Our snowman craft showed up hanging out on the side of a flowerpot and it is still there!

      Fine Motor Skills Craft Idea

      The clothespin snowman craft that we made is a spin on the typical painted clothes pin idea. While equally cute, I wanted to come up with a craft idea that builds fine motor skills throughout the process of making the snowman craft AND while using it in play and decoration.

      The best thing about this little snowman is that while making him, we powered up on fine motor skills like neat pincer grasp, pincer grasp, bilateral coordination, in-hand manipulation, eye-hand coordination, hand strength, finger isolation.

      All of these fine motor skills are needed for every-day tasks like pencil grasp, management of clothing fasteners, cutting with scissors, manipulating small containers, shoe tying, and so many other areas.

      So many of our kids are struggling with fine motor skills…why not sneak them in with a fun winter craft like this clothespin snowman craft?

      Craft supplies to make a snowman craft that builds fine motor skills for kids.

      You will need a few materials for this clothespin snowman:

      • Clothespin
      • White craft pom poms
      • Small black craft pom poms
      • Red pipe cleaner (or any color!)
      • Brown pipe cleaner
      • Black paint
      • Craft glue
      Craft pom poms are needed to make a snowman craft that helps kids with fine motor skills.

      make a clothespin Snowman

      This was super easy to make:

      1. Use the craft glue to stick the white craft pom poms onto the clothespin. The bottom of the snowman should be at the end of the clothespin that opens when you pinch it.

      2. Glue the small black craft pom poms onto the belly of the snowman.

      3. Use the red pipe cleaner as a scarf by cutting a smaller piece. About 4 inches long is perfect, because you can then trim it as short as you would like.

      4. Thread the pipe cleaner behind the head of the snowman and bend it around the front. Twist it into a “knot” and bend the pipe cleaner so it stays in place with the ends hanging as you would like them. Trim the excess from both ends of the scarf.

      5. Use the brown pipe cleaner to make the arms of the snowman craft. Thread the pipe cleaner behind the snowman’s head. At this point, you can add a bit of glue to the red and brown pipe cleaners to keep them both in place.

      6. Use paint to make a face on the snowman craft. We used squeezable gel glue (the kind that is use for window suncatchers) because it really adds a fine motor strengthening component. A sharpie works as well. Other ideas for decorating the snowman’s face might include gluing small googly eyes and a orange pipe cleaner carrot in place. These options may include use of a hot glue gun.

      And that’s it! Your snowman craft is ready to hang out AND work those fine motor skills!

      This snowman craft helps kids work on fine motor skills.

      Fine Motor Skills Used in this Snowman Craft:

      We incorporated fine motor skills like the ones listed below right into the process of creating our snowman craft!

      Make this snowman craft to work on fine motor skills that kids need for functional tasks.

      Use the clothespins to pick up the craft pom poms that you will need for the snowman. One way to do this is to have a sample available. Kids can look at the sample and identify the correct pom poms they need to build a snowman of their own. What an exercise in visual perceptual skills as well as fine motor skills!

      Use craft pom poms and clothes pins to work on fine motor skills in kids.

      Picking up and moving craft pom poms with the clothespins really strengthens the hands. Here is more information on using clothespins to strengthen the hands, and you can read more about the specific fine motor skills below.

      Kids love this fine motor activity that is so easy to set up and strengthen the hands, using just a clothes pin and craft pom pom.

      Neat pincer grasp- This fine motor skill is a precision skill that uses the tip of the pointer finger and the tip of the thumb in opposition. Here is more information about neat pincer grasp. We use neat pincer grasp to manipulate very small items. This is a refined fine motor skill. Use the snowman craft to work on this fine motor skill by holding the small craft pom pom with the tips of the fingers while adding craft glue. 

      Pincer grasp- Pincer grasp is the opposition of the pointer finger to the thumb, but with the pads of the fingers. This is a skill tat develops from a very young age, but is used for so many functional skills! Use the clothes pins to pinch and pick up the craft pom poms like we did.

      Bilateral coordination- Using both hands together in a coordinated manner is a skill that is used in almost every activity we do. Work on bilateral coordination by building a fine motor snowman of your own.

      In-hand manipulation- This fine motor skill is essential for a functional pencil grasp and manipulating items like clothing fasteners and small objects. Work on in-hand manipulation by managing the craft pom poms when completing this craft.

      Eye-hand coordination– Build skills by asking your child or client to work on eye-hand coordination when adding the craft pom poms and details to this snowman craft.

      Hand strength- Strong hands allow us to perform fine motor tasks with coordinated movements. Use the clothes pin to strengthen the arches of the hand and the intrinsic muscles by pinching and placing the snowman craft onto various surfaces!

      Kids can work on visual perceptual skills and fine motor skills using craft pom poms and clothes pins.

      All of these fine motor skills are needed for every-day tasks like pencil grasp, management of clothing fasteners, cutting with scissors, manipulating small containers, shoe tying, and so many other areas.

      This snowman craft for kids is so cute and helps kids with fine motor skills too!

        This cute little snowman craft has been moving all around our house these last few days! 

      clothespin snowman craft- Fine Motor Activity

      We actually have a video that shows different ways you can use a clothes pin, like the snowman clothespin that we made, as a hand strengthening tool:

      Clothespins are a powerful way to strengthen hands. In this video, we walk through different grasp patterns that we can target with clothes pin activities.

      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.

      Glitter Paint Snowman

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      We used homemade glitter paint to make this snowman painting that is the prefect addition to a snowman theme! The nice thing about this snowman craft is that it uses paint and glitter so that the process is a little messy, but super sensory.  The way that we painted our glitter paint snowmen was very fun and a great sensory experience for the toddlers.  Add this to your creative art ideas for more fun!

      This, along with our how to paint snow activity are fun winter OT ideas

      Glitter paint snowman craft

      How to make Glitter Paint

      This post contains affiliate links. 

      Make glitter paint for kids crafts

       To make the glitter paint, we started with some white paint in a bowl and a new shower scrub.  You can get a pack of these at the dollar store. 

      At this point, you could mix white or iridescent glitter right into the paint and mix it up. We chose to sprinkle the glitter onto the paint, however, for the fine motor benefits of sprinkling.

      Next, you are ready to make the snowman craft!

      Glitter Paint Snowman

      Press a new shower scrubber into the white paint. Then, gently press it onto blue construction paper. You can “build” a snowman by adding three puffs of white paint.

      RELATED: To build a snowman with less sensory input or via virtual therapy, try this build a snowman therapy slide deck.

      The shower puff was the perfect stamper for our snowman’s body and a great painting tool for toddlers. The Toddlers could grab the shower pouf with a gross hand grasp and smash it right down on the construction paper.

      Toddler craft idea using a shower puff to paint.

      Big Sister helped out with this craft and was the “teacher”. 

      Toddlers can paint with a shower puff for fine motor and sensory crafts.
      Sprinkle glitter into paint for homemade glitter paint, great for a snowman craft.

      While the paint was still wet, we sprinkled **generous amounts** of clear glitter right onto the paint.  By sprinkling the glitter with your fingertips, kids develop intrinsic hand strength and arch development. It is a similar motor plan and muscle use required for rolling small balls of play dough. You can explore more on intrinsic hand strengthening here.


      We used the same technique recently when we made our Fine Motor Snowman Craft.

      The glitter stuck right in the glue and the excess was shook off.  Our snowmen were starting to look pretty snowy!

      Use a bottle of squeeze glue to help kids develop fine motor skills.

      The next step involved Big Sister coming to the aid with her “teacher” duties.  She squirted dots of glue for eyes, noses, scarves, hats, and buttons. 

      Next, you will need squeeze glue from a bottle. As a pediatric occupational therapist, I love the use of a squeeze glue bottle over a glue stick for so many reasons. By using a squeeze glue bottle, kids are building refined use of skill areas:

      • Refined grasp
      • Hand strength
      • Eye-hand coordination
      • Arch strength
      • Open thumb web-space
      • Visual motor skills

      You can focus on certain areas with use of a squeeze glue bottle by asking kids to place glue onto specific spots. Just use a marker to dot throughout the shape. Kids can then place glue dots on those specific spots.

      If working with glue bottles is a helpful activity for the children you serve, you will love the Glue Spots Exercises in the Winter Fine Motor Kit.

      All of these were one at a time and because we were doing four kid’s worth of snowmen, she was pretty busy with her little glue assembly line!

      Fine motor snowman craft with glitter paint.

      Little Nephew was much more sure of himself when it came to squashing the black pony beads into the glue dots.  This was a great fine motor activity for little hands.  I love those little wrinkly knuckles!

      Work on fine motor skills with this glitter paint snowman craft.

      Big Sister helped to keep everyone on task with the steps.

      Fine motor snowman craft with homemade glitter paint.

      I cut little pieces of orange felt into carrots for the snowmen noses and tiny felt hats from felt sheets.  The eyes were googly eyes and the scarves were just strips of red felt.  Once everything was glued on, we used a brown marker to draw stick arms.

      Cute glitter snowman crafts for preschool and toddlers.

        Our sparkly snowman family looks pretty cute.  This was such a fun craft for multiple ages.  I love how their personalities come out in each snowman, too…with the different sized eyes, the smash of the paint, the sizes of the arms…Big fun!  

      Looking for more winter activities designed to build fine motor skills?   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.

      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.

       
       

      Snowman Theme Bilateral Coordination

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      Snowman Bilateral Coordination Slide Deck

      I have something super cute to share with you today. This snowman theme bilateral coordination activity might be one of my favorites of recent resources. If working on bilateral coordination, crossing midline, and motor planning is something you’ve been working on with kids, then this free therapy slide deck is for you. It’s meant as a fun, play-based direction-following therapy slide deck. Use it as a warm-up to occupational therapy interventions, or a brain break, with a snowman theme!

      You can use this snowman gross motor activity alongside this snowman deep breathing activity for winter therapy fun!

      Snowman Bilateral Coordination Slide Deck

      Snowman theme bilateral coordination activity

      This therapy slide deck is designed so therapy practitioners need no other materials or items to run a virtual session. The free slide deck can be uploaded to Google slides and then used within a virtual session or distance learning classroom.

      There are so many benefits to working on bilateral coordination skills, and motor planning with a fun theme like this snowman activity.

      Read here about crossing midline activities and the benefits of this essential skill in handwriting, learning, and functional tasks. This skill integrates with bilateral coordination, or a coordinated use of both sides of the body so that functional use of both hemispheres in everyday tasks are possible.

      Be sure to read more on this link about bilateral coordination, because you’ll see that there are three components of bilateral coordination:
      Symmetrical movements
      Alternating movements
      Dominant hand/supporting hand movements

      Each of these areas play a role in functional tasks like play, self-care, learning, school-day tasks, and things each of us do all day long.

      Motor planning is another important motor skill that impacts everyday functional tasks. Here is more information about motor planning.

      There is a connection between creating a plan for movement, following a visual representation of a body positioning, and then sequencing movements using both sides of the body.

      This snowman gross motor activity does just that!

      You can scroll back and forth between the slides to really challenge kids with these motor plans. It’s like a “Simon Says” game with snowmen.

      Work on all of these areas:

      • Bilateral coordination
      • Motor planning
      • Crossing midline
      • Core strength
      • Stability
      • Balance and equilibrium skills
      • Range of motion
      • Flexibility
      • Movement patterns
      • Posture and postural control
      • Muscle tone
      Snowman bilateral coordination activities for virtual therapy

      Free Snowman Gross Motor Therapy Slide Deck

      To get your hands on this free snowman slide deck, you’ll need to enter your email address into the form below.

      Use this polar bear theme therapy slide deck in virtual therapy sessions or as a brain break.

      Be sure to make a copy of this slide deck and not change the url to indicate “edit” at the end. When you make a copy of the slide deck onto your Google drive, you will end up with your own version that you are free to adjust in order to meet your student’s needs. By changing the url to “edit”, you can potentially mess up the original version that many other therapists and The OT Toolbox users are given.

      You can grab a copy of this Google slide deck and use it to work on specific skills.

      Enter your email address below and you will receive a PDF containing a link to copy the slide deck onto your Google drive. Save that PDF file, because you can come back to it again and again and send it to the kids on your caseload (or classroom) so they can make their own copy on their Google drive.

      Please use the copy of the slide deck and do not change the url.

      FREE Bilateral Coordination Slide Deck- Snowman theme!

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        Penguin Deep Breathing Exercise

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        This penguin deep breathing exercise is another coping tool that kids can use as a self-regulation strategy. It follows several others in our series of image-based deep breathing exercises. These were originally created here on The OT Toolbox and you’ll be seeing many more breathing exercise tools coming your way! I think you’ll love the recent polar bear self-regulation activity. It’s a deep breathing exercise, too. Scroll on to access this printable worksheet.

        Penguin deep breathing exercise for self-regulation or coping skills in kids.

        Penguin Deep Breathing Exercise

        I love this deep breathing activity for part of a penguin theme. This time of year, penguins are all the rage in preschool and younger elementary grades. This penguin-themed breathing activity is a powerful way to work on self-regulation using that theme.

        More penguin activities:

        Penguin yoga– This penguin yoga slide deck is another penguin activity that you can use along with the self-regulation tool.

        Penguin Activities– For more ways to use a penguin theme, check out this penguin activities post full of penguin crafts, movement activities, and sensory play ideas, and even snacks.

        Grab the Winter Fine Motor Kit, with 100 pages of done-for-you therapy activities, including penguin themes. There are lacing cards, crafts, pencil control strips, scissor skills activities, and much more. Grab it now before January 9th and you get a bonus of 3 fine motor slide deck activities.

        CLICK HERE TO GET THE WINTER FINE MOTOR KIT.

        Want to grab this free printable? Enter your email in the form below. You’ll receive the deep breathing worksheet immediately in your email inbox.

        Free Penguin Theme Deep Breathing Exercise

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          winter fine motor kit

          Don’t forget your copy of 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.

          Penguin Yoga

          by
          Penguin Yoga slide deck for teletherapy

          Did you ever wonder if a penguin can do yoga? Well, today we’re not talking about penguins doing yoga…we are talking about penguin-themed yoga exercises! These are brain breaks for kids that are a great addition to a penguin theme in the classroom or home. Last week, we had a polar bear therapy slide deck full of yoga and gross motor activities for you. It goes well with this penguin yoga slide deck. Use it in virtual therapy, in home programs, or as a brain break in distance learning or therapy at home!

          Penguin Yoga gross motor slide deck for teletherapy or brain breaks.

          Penguin Yoga Exercises

          This slide deck is a fun way to get the kiddos moving along with the penguins. Like many of our other slide decks, you’ll find the movements include heavy work exercises for proprioceptive input that can be calming and centering.

          Other slides are vestibular activities that encourage movement in various planes.

          These slides can be part of a sensory diet for scheduled sensory activities throughout the day. Read more on how to start a sensory diet.

          Add these slides to brain breaks or other movement activities throughout the virtual classroom or teletherapy day.

          Yoga and Balance

          This slide deck has two options for each yoga movement. The nice thing about yoga exercises is that each movement can be modified to meet the needs of the individual while challenging abilities and strength at a “just right” level.

          You’ll notice that each slide has one penguin on it. As you progress through the slide deck, the penguin does a move, and then it does that same move on an iceberg or piece of ice. This can be a way to challenge kids and work on core strength, coordination, motor planning, and upper or lower body strength depending on the yoga position.

          Kids can use an object they have in the home and pretend they are a penguin posing on the slab of ice. Some ideas to use include:

          • Couch cushion
          • Folded towel
          • Washcloth or flat fabric
          • Paper plate
          • Hoola hoop
          • Any object in the home!

          Ask the child to complete the yoga move and then complete the yoga exercise concentrating on balance.

          This slide deck is not interactive. There are no moveable pieces on this particular slide deck.

          Penguin yoga exercises for brain breaks for kids

          Winter Activities for Kids

          Use the penguin yoga along with these winter activities for whole-body movement and development activities that are effective in building skills in kids:

          Winter Fine Motor Kit– Use this printable kit to help kids develop and strengthen fine motor skills. The 100 page kit includes penguin theme activities, polar bears, and other arctic activities, as well as all-things winter.

          Indoor winter activities for kids– Try these fun and effective ways to to incorporate movement during the winter months.

          Winter Brain Breaks– Just like our penguin brain breaks, these winter theme movement activities will get brains and bodies developing!

          Penguin themed snacks– These cute snacks are easy to make and get the kids developing skills in the kitchen.

          Get the Penguin Slide Deck for Teletherapy

          You can grab a copy of this Google slide deck and use it to work on specific skills.

          Enter your email address below and you will receive a PDF containing a link to copy the slide deck onto your Google drive. Next, save that PDF file, because you can come back to it again and again and send it to the kids on your caseload (or classroom) so they can make their own copy on their Google drive.

          Please use the copy of the slide deck and do not change the url.

          FREE Penguin Yoga Gross Motor Therapy Activities!

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            MORE VIRTUAL LEARNING SLIDE DECKS?

            Would you like more therapy slide decks? Grab the others to add to your therapy toolbox!

            Try this Polar Bear Gross Motor Slide Deck.

            Use this Holiday Cookies Activities to address working memory, visual perception, and direction following.

            Here is a Community Helpers Theme Slide Deck.

            Here is a Football Theme Slide Deck.

            Here is a slide deck for a Social Story for Wearing a Mask.

            Here is a Space Theme Therapy Slide Deck.

            Here is a Therapy Planning Interactive Slide Deck.

            Here is a Back to School Writing Activity Slide Deck.

            Here is an Alphabet Exercises Slide Deck.

            Here is a Self-Awareness Activities Slide Deck.