Handwriting Camp: Sensory Walk

This week, a coworker and I have led the very first Handwriting Camp in Abilene! We have 10 campers and numerous volunteers helping us with our camp! It has been so fun to see the kids learn the letters and have fun doing it! For one of our activities, we did a sensory walk! first the kids walked on bubble wrap, then stepped into a bucket of paint, from the paint they stepped onto butcher paper, after walking a few steps, they stepped into water and then onto towels. Here are a few pictures from our sensory walk:

Everyone participated and had a blast! One of our campers who has difficulty touching various wet and slimy textures stated, “I love this!” What a great thing to hear at handwriting camp!

Stacking and Balancing

Hi there everyone! I did this little game with a few of my kids I see in the school and they loved it, so I thought I’d share! I placed the blocks on the beam, and coordinating color cup on the left side of the beam on the floor, facilitating crossing midline. I had the kids walk across, first placing the block on top of the cup, then walk back, moving the block back to the beam. Lots of fun ways to grade and modify this activity! You can use a pedestal beam, or strip of tape; you can choose not to use the grabbers; use more blocks to build a higher tower; mix up the colors to have the child walk forwards/backwards/sideways, the list goes on and on! You can even use the numbers on the top of each block for part of the task. Dice blocks, grabber, and cups (bear counter cups) came from Mardel! Enjoy!

Mardel Monday: Sturdy Birdy

Hello everyone! So my boss gave me the challenge to put together “fine motor kits.” Primarily gathering items from Mardel and Walmart if needed. This all started because over time I have gathered up quite a collection of therapy toys from Mardel. I’m telling you, they should use me for marketing to therapists!!! Not just teachers!!! Anyways, I suckered a co-worker of mine into attacking this with me. (Don’t worry, I made sure our boss knew she helped out. ;)) We spent 4…yes 4 hours in Mardel…gathering items, spreading them out of the floor, and making tough decisions to put some things back. 😦 Now that I know ever item Mardel has to offer, I’ve decided to start a Mardel Monday to show an item that can be purchased from Mardel for therapy uses, and to gather more ideas from my wonderful readers!

First item: Sturdy Birdy

This is a game for my wonderful PT friends out there as well! The object of the game is to be the first to make it through all 12 poses. You must roll the dice to see how long you must hold the pose. In addition to holding the pose, you must balance the seed bag on your body! What a cute little game! Made by Fat Brain Toy Co. And under $20, this game is sure to create some fun!

Have you ever played this game before?

If you’re wondering how much stuff we ended up purchasing.. Check it out…

Fine motor kits in the making! Be sure to stop back by in a few days for a list of the items featured in the kits!

Have a great Monday!