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Thanksgiving and Fall OT Activities for Kids: 10 Turkey and Leaf Ideas

October 7, 2026 OTPlanLeave a Comment

Thanksgiving and fall occupational therapy activities for kids

Fall hands you free materials, like crunchy leaves, acorns, and twigs, and Thanksgiving brings turkeys to every craft table. These ten occupational therapy activities turn both into playful practice for scissor skills, finger strength, and sensory play.

Turkey activities for Thanksgiving

Fingerprint Turkey

Press a thumb in brown paint for the body, then add rows of colorful fingerprint feathers. Using one finger at a time builds finger isolation. Best for preschoolers.

Paper Turkey

Trace your child’s hand, cut it out, and turn it into a turkey with feathers and a crumpled tissue paper wattle. A classic for tracing, cutting, and gluing practice.

Catch the Turkey

Cut out a paper turkey, then pinch clothespins onto its body as feathers. Squeezing the clothespins builds finger strength and a strong pinch, and matching clothespin colors to dots adds a visual challenge.

Feel the Turkey

Glue soft, rough, and bumpy materials onto paper turkey feathers to make a touch board. Talking about how each texture feels builds tactile awareness and new words.

Fall leaf and tree activities

Fall Crunchy Art

Crunch dry leaves with both hands, then sprinkle the pieces onto a glue shape. Crunching gives great sensory input, and squeezing the glue bottle practices using just the right pressure.

Fall Leaves

Use tongs or tweezers to pick up leaves from one side of the table and glue them onto a paper tree on the other side. Reaching across the body practices crossing midline.

Fall Trees

Dot paint leaves onto a tree with one finger at a time, then let a few fall to the ground. A simple, low-prep activity for toddlers and preschoolers.

Fall Foot Tree

Trace a foot for the trunk and hands for the leaves, then cut and glue them into a tree. Older kids can write a short fall story under it for handwriting practice.

Acorn Stamper

Cut out a paper acorn, pinch a small sponge to stamp paint on the bottom, and crumble dry leaves onto the cap. Pinching the sponge builds a strong grip.

Crumpled Leaf Twig Tree

Crumple tissue paper leaves with the fingertips, then clip them onto a twig with clothespins. A great workout for the small muscles of the hand.

Tips for fall play

Collect leaves together on a walk. Picking up, carrying, and sorting them is good practice too.
Dry leaves crunch best. If they are damp, spread them out indoors for a day first.
Check leaves and twigs for sharp bits, and wash hands after outdoor collecting.
Let your child lead the design. There is no wrong way to make a turkey.

Looking for more ideas? Browse scissor skills activities, tactile activities, or activities for toddlers. For October, try our Halloween OT activities.

Halloween OT Activities for Kids: 7 Spooky Play Ideas

October 7, 2026 OTPlanLeave a Comment

A preschool-aged boy practices eye-hand coordination by throwing a pom-pom at a homemade sticky web constructed from masking tape in a doorway

Halloween themes make practice feel like play. These seven occupational therapy activities use spiders, webs, mummies, and friendly monsters to build hand skills, body awareness, and coordination with things you probably already have, like masking tape, paper plates, and yarn.

Keep it light. Some children love spooky themes and others prefer silly ones, so let your child choose, and skip anything that feels too scary.

Halloween activities for fine motor skills

Paper Roll Snip Monster

Your child colors a paper roll, then snips short lines around the bottom to give a monster wiggly legs or hair. Short, guided snips are a great early step for scissor skills. Best for preschoolers.

Motor Spider

Paint egg carton cups black, then build a spider with bendy pipe cleaner legs. Cutting, painting, and shaping the legs work on grasp and two-handed teamwork. Best for preschool and school-age kids.

Paper Plate Web

Cut the center out of a paper plate, punch holes around the ring, and lace yarn back and forth to make a web for a paper spider. Lacing builds eye-hand coordination, and the hole punch is a real finger workout.

Mummy Hand Wrap

Tear tissue paper into long strips and wrap a stuffed animal like a mummy, then unwrap it and start again. Holding the toy with one hand while the other wraps gives both hands a job. Best for preschoolers.

Halloween activities for movement and sensory play

The Sticky Spiderweb Challenge

Make a sticky masking tape web across a doorway, toss pom-poms at it from a few steps away, then peel them off. Throwing builds aim and body control, and peeling works the fingertips.

The Sticky Spider Crawl Maze

String a yarn web between two chairs and crawl under and over the strands to rescue a stuffed animal without touching the web. Crawling gives strong body input and builds motor planning.

Balance on the Web

Tape a giant spider web on the floor and walk along its lines while picking up bean bags and ping pong balls. A simple indoor way to practice balance and core strength.

Tips for Halloween play

Offer choices. Let your child pick a friendly monster, a spider, or a mummy, and follow their lead on how spooky to go.
Keep small items like pom-poms and wiggle eyes away from younger siblings, and stay close during play.
If sticky tape or crinkly paper bothers your child, offer tongs or a different material instead.
Short sessions work best. Stop while your child still wants more, and come back to it another day.

Looking for more ideas? Browse fine motor activities, sensory activities, or activities for preschoolers. For November, try our Thanksgiving and fall OT activities.

Why Your Kitchen Junk Drawer is a Goldmine for Child Development

January 10, 2026 OTPlanLeave a Comment

There is a common misconception that supporting a neurodivergent child’s growth requires a playroom filled with expensive, specialized equipment. We see catalogs filled with weighted blankets, proprietary swings, and perfectly engineered fidgets, and it is easy to feel like we are falling behind if we do not own them all. The truth is actually much more encouraging (and budget-friendly).

Some of the most effective tools for building fine motor skills, sensory processing, and motor planning are likely already sitting in your home. In fact, using everyday objects often provides a distinct advantage over specialized toys because it helps children learn to navigate the real world.

The Power of Generalization

In therapy terms, “generalization” refers to a child’s ability to take a skill learned in one setting and apply it to another. If a child learns to twist a knob on a specific colorful toy, they might not immediately understand that a doorknob works the same way. However, if they practice twisting lids off recycled peanut butter jars or water bottles, the connection to real-life independence is direct and immediate.

“Play is not just about having fun; it is the primary way children make sense of the world and their place within it.”

When we use “found materials” for play, we are also encouraging cognitive flexibility. A stick can be a spoon, a wand, or a bridge. A specialized toy usually has one fixed purpose, but a cardboard box has infinite possibilities. This open-ended nature challenges the brain to problem-solve and adapt.

Three “Tools” You Already Own

You can start integrating therapeutic play into your daily routine without spending a dime. Here are three versatile items that pack a developmental punch:

Kitchen Tongs: These are fantastic for building hand strength and coordination. Have your child use them to transfer cotton balls or small blocks from one bowl to another. This mimics the motion of scissors and helps develop the muscles needed for handwriting.
Tupperware and Jars: Managing different lids requires bilateral coordination (using two hands together) and motor planning. Matching the right lid to the right container is also a great visual perception activity.
Laundry Baskets: These are excellent for “heavy work” activities. Pushing a laundry basket filled with books across the carpet provides proprioceptive input (deep pressure), which can be very regulating for a child’s nervous system.

Research suggests that early fine motor skills are a strong predictor of later academic achievement in reading and mathematics (American Psychological Association). By weaving these skills into natural, playful interactions with household items, we remove the pressure of “doing therapy” and focus on connection. The goal is not to fix anything, but to provide the just-right challenge that helps your child feel capable and confident in their environment.

The Importance of Play

October 7, 2026 OTPlanLeave a Comment

A child’s primary occupation is play.

Children use play to develop strength and coordination, sensory modulation, emotional regulation, and socialization skills that they need to engage with others. They build confidence, relationships, body awareness, and problem-solving skills through play.

Play helps the child understand the properties of the world around them. For example, when a child is “playing tea party,” the child is learning pouring skills that helps them at mealtime. They are learning techniques such as how much pressure they should apply when gripping a cup and how fast or slow to tip the cup to avoid spillage.

Moreover, when “playing tea party,” they learn the social skills of sharing food and conversation with another person.

They are learning problem-solving skills of what to do when the liquid spills out of the cup: self-regulate and find an appropriate solution, such as using a towel to wipe the spill.

They are working on their endurance with their attention skills, by sticking with one activity until completion.

This type of pretend play boosts brain structure and brain function, which sets them up for success now and later in life.

One of the best benefits to play is that it is FUN! It promotes learning, appropriate child development, and overall emotional well-being.

It can take many forms and is unique to each individual. Play can happen by themselves while building blocks, playing on sports team with friends, and pretend playing with a caregiver.

Here is a reminder that yes, play is important because it is productive; it is also important because it is a necessity of life to learn how to navigate this world to the best of our abilities!

References:

https://www.aota.org/About-Occupational-Therapy/Patients-Clients/ChildrenAndYouth/Play.aspx

https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/3/e20182058

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17200287/

What is “Core Strength”?

October 7, 2026 OTPlanLeave a Comment

With more time spent working from home, attending school from home, or exercising at home, chances are you’ve heard about “core strength.”

Our “core” is the middle portion of our body – think: our abdominal muscles, back muscles, and pelvic muscles.

It’s important for us to maintain appropriate strength in our core – that goes for kids, too! This is because these muscles stabilize us while we are in different positions, such as when we sit, stand, or crawl.

A child’s “core muscles” are very important for development, because these muscles hold up their posture. In order to move about the world, manipulate toys and objects in their environment, keep them from falling, and even eat more efficiently, a child core strength plays an important role.

There is a phrase “core stability promotes distal mobility”, which means that having a strong core to stabilize us in different positions, allows us to focus more on the movements of our other smaller and more precise muscles of our body.

For example, if a child has decreased core strength, they may have difficulty holding themselves up in a sitting position. This may affect how efficiently they eat. They may be so focused on keeping themselves still and upright in a chair, that the more precise movements of the hands, such as bringing a spoon to their mouth, become second priority.

Signs of weak core muscles can include:

Sitting or standing in a slouched position
Difficulty with balance activities
Fatigue

To strengthen your child’s core, you can:

Place frequently used toys in different positions so they have to squat, side bend, or do trunk twists to retrieve the toys
Bear crawl through pillow forts in your living room
Play Tug-O-War

Modify the above activities according to your child’s abilities. For more individualized activities, consult with your occupational therapist and pediatrician.