Vertical Drawing
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
OT Activity of the Day! Vertical Drawing Target Age Range: 18 months and up! Ask any OT and they will tell you that a great way to build those early foundational writing skills is to draw on a vertical surface. This is a great way to build overall stability (especially if kneeling-core strength!), shoulder stability, crossing the midline (an important skill in hand dominance), and so much more. If you have a chalk board, or easel, at your house, great, you can use that. Don’t have a chalkboard? You can always get a giant roll of paper and, using painter’s tape, tape the paper to the wall and ..read more
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Balancing Snowflake
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
OT Activity of the Day Balancing Snowflake Target Age Range: 4 and up This is a super fun way to work on letter identification and letter matching. If that is too much for your child you can always just work on the letters of their name. This activity can be geared/customized however it works best for your child. The idea of the game is to balance as you walk on the snowflake to the letters that have been called out. You can add in “letter snowballs” like I did and have the child match the letters adding another layer of motor planning and balance as they have to walk over the snowballs to ge ..read more
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Snowflake!
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
OT Activity of the Day Snowflake Target Age Range: 5 and up Not only did we use scissors to cut shapes and lines out for our snowflakes, but we also used a hole puncher for some added flair! Making a snowflake is a great way to work on visual motor skills and scissor skills. First you have to fold the paper into fourths and this is a great way to practice lining up the edges (fine motor manipulation and visual motor skills). Once the paper is folded then you get to cut and hole punch! These two skills focus on hand strength and bilateral coordination. Two skills necessary for writing! So make ..read more
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Glitter Play Dough
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
OT Activity of the Day: Glitter Play Dough Target Age Range: 2 and up This was a fun activity that I did today with a variety of different age ranges while targeting a variety of different skills! This is a great activity to work on: following a recipe fine motor control/stability (when holding the measuring cups/spoons still) bilateral coordination (holding the cup/spoon while pouring ingredients) wrist forearm rotation (when scooping and dumping) letter/number formation (manipulating the dough to make letter lines) sensory play The recipe: 1 cup of flour 1/4 cup of salt 1/4 cu ..read more
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Muffin Tin Fun!
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
OT Activity of the Day! Muffin Tin Fun! Target Age Range: 4 and up This is a great way to work on spelling your child’s name, visual scanning, letter/shape recognition in general, and hand strength. All you need is a muffin tin, rubber bands, and letters. I used magnet letters, but if you wanted to write them on paper and tape them on that works too. Next, have your child either put the rubber bands over the bumps with the letters of their name, or call out letters that they have to find and cover (you can easily do this with any magnets/shapes if letters are not what you’re into for this act ..read more
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Snowstorm!
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
Activity of the Day! Snowstorm! Target Age Range: 2 and up This is a super fun, seasonal, activity that you can do with just about any child 2 and up. For example, I did this activity with an almost 3 year old and a Kindergartner today. With the 3 year old, it was simply following basic directions and gluing the cotton balls on the paper, with the Kindergartener, we were making the letters of his name with dots, glue and cotton balls. To play all you need is construction paper, cotton balls, glue and a marker. First you take the cotton balls and rip them up into smaller pieces, this is a grea ..read more
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Elf of the Shelf with an OT Twist!
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
Elf on the Shelf with an OT Twist! Elf on the shelf ideas Looking for some motivation to engage your child into doing more challenging things?  Why not tell them your house Elf invited them to try? (Wink, wink). Most of this stuff you should already have in your home, except maybe painter’s tape.  Don’t worry, that you can get off Amazon!   Preschool 1.     Use painter’s tape and have the children play hopscotch to get to the kitchen table-great for working on balance and gross motor coordination 2.     Print off a few ..read more
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Balancing Holiday Tree
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
OT Activity of the Day Balancing Holiday Tree Target Age Range: 3 and up Do you have green painter’s tape (I didn’t until I ordered it off Amazon), a sharpie, and some small objects? Great, you too can make this holiday tree and decorate it! This activity is very versatile and while I’m using it to work on balance, motor planning, and letter identification. You can easily just work on balance and have the child decorate the tree. For this particular activity, I’m working on identifying letters of the alphabet. To start the child collects their jingle bell/pom pom/cotton ball/squished up piece ..read more
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Hanging Stockings
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
OT Activity of the Day Hanging Stockings! Target Age Range: 4 and up This activity can be done in several ways. I’ve decided to work on letter recognition, letter matching and name writing. However if you just wanted to work on the fine motor of just opening and closing the clothes pins, by all means do! If you’re looking to adjust to other holidays, you can always make candles and flames out of construction paper instead of stockings and ornaments. This activity targets two areas: 1. fine motor strength and endurance through opening and closing the clothespins. 2. this particular activity wa ..read more
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Gift Box Feel and Find!
FUNdamentals - Activity of the Day | Fairfax Occupational Therapy
by Shaun Grant
3y ago
OT Activity of the Day Gift Box Feel and Find! Target Age Range: 4 and up The technical term for this is tactile perception and this skill is necessary when putting your hand in your book bag and looking for a pencil, looking for your keys in your purse/pocket using touch only, and holding a pencil and writing with speed and legibility. But for all the kids know, we’re just looking for stuff in the gift box haha! Fun and educational all at once:). So I have duplicates of all these items and I will ask the child to locate the item I hand to them. Before they stick their hands in to feel around ..read more
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