As the holidays start to roll around, the special holiday themed activities come to life! This week, we started playing a fun fine motor activity that will help your child work on a number of skills including direction following, attention to task, fine motor strengthening, sequencing, and visual motor skills.
Step 1: Grab a medium sized container or Tupperware.
Step 2: Take a trip to your local dollar store or cabinets and fill the container with any holiday themed manipulatives. For this activity, I used colorful cotton balls, miniature drums, snowman erasers, miniature trees, and small bows.
Step 3: Make cards that contain “recipes” for all the items. These can be written out or visual pictures. You can also skip this step and instruct your child on what to pick up to create the “recipe”.
-For example, one of my recipe cards says “5 green cotton balls, 2 red bows, 3 silver drums, 1 snowman, and 2 green trees.”
Step 4: Grab some tongs or tweezers.
Step 5: Play! Have your child seated or lying in prone (on their bellies). To work on crossing midline, place the items near their dominant hand, and the container on the opposite side requiring them to cross over to place the items. To increase the challenge, you can add this activity in to an obstacle course, play with siblings and practice taking turns, or have them close their eyes to feel for the different items with their hands. This game will keep your child entertained as they work towards their therapeutic goals. Happy holiday season everyone!
Taylor Johnson Therapy, PLLC 