Material: Paper Bag

The Sticker Puppet Rescue

The Sticker Puppet Rescue

Steps:

  • Use markers to draw a silly face on a paper bag.
  • Cover the bag with colorful stickers of all sizes.
  • Have your child put the bag on their helper hand.
  • This hand is now the sticker puppet!
  • Ask the child to use their other hand to peel the stickers.
  • Tell them to move the puppet’s mouth while they clean it.
  • Repeat until the puppet is ready for its next show!

Safety Tip:
Always supervise your child while they are playing with stickers. Small stickers can be a choking hazard. Ensure the child does not put them in their mouth.

The Pincer Mask Maker

The Pincer Mask Maker

Steps:

  • Draw two large eye circles on a paper bag.
  • Help your child cut out the eyes.
  • Spread glue around the eyes.
  • Use a pincer grasp to pick up one bean at a time.
  • Press the beans into the glue to make eyebrows.
  • Add sequins for a sparkly nose.
  • Slide the bag over your head to reveal your new face!

Safety Tip:
Supervise your child closely while using scissors. Small beans and sequins can be a choking hazard. Keep all small parts away from the mouth.

Newspaper Dance

Challenge your child’s core muscles by having them stand on a newspaper page (or paper bag, or another safe alternative you may have in your home).

This game works like Musical Chairs.

Play a song and have the child dance.

When the song stops, the child must stand on the newspaper page.

If the child does not step outside of the newspaper page boundary, fold the newspaper page in half.

Continue this until the child is unable to stand without stepping outside of the boundary.

Use painter’s tape to hold the newspaper page in place to prevent slips/falls.

You may see your child transitioning from standing with a typical stance, then standing with feet close together, then standing on one foot, then standing on tip-toes. This challenges their core!

Increase the challenge by:

  • Playing with an appropriate peer on the same newspaper page – be ready to catch anyone who loses balance!

Paper Bag Fish

Have the child crumple the newspapers into small paper balls.

Stuff the paper bag with the crumpled newspapers.

Use the yarn or a ribbon to tie a knot close to the edge of the open end to close the paper bag.

Ask the child to paint the filled paper bag using either a brush or cotton balls.

Glue large googly eyes.

For grading, you can ask the child to draw eyes on construction paper and cut/glue it onto the paper bag.

Lay a piece of yarn on the fish (below the eyes) to make a mouth. Use some glue to hold it in place.

To promote tactile perception, you can let the child finger paint the paper bag instead of using other media.

Textured Paper Painting

A young child finger paints on a textured rectangle of crinkled brown paper bag to develop sensory processing skills.

Draw (or depending on the child’s developmental skills, have the child trace or independently draw) a large rectangle on the paper bag (use the blank side if the paper bag has a design or picture on it) and ask the child to cut it out.

Fill the squirt bottle with water and have the child spray water all over the cut out rectangle. Encourage the child to utilize his thumb, index finger, and middle finger to press on the handle of the squirt bottle. Once the paper is moist, ask the child to use both hands and squeeze the paper into a little ball (have him squeeze as much as possible and drain out as much liquid as possible).

Then, ask the child to open up the paper and use both hands to flatten the paper back to a rectangle shape.

Allow the paper to dry up before you start drawing or painting on it. For a rough texture, let the paper dry on a flat surface in the sun. For a smoother texture, you can place the paper between to flat heavy objects.

Once the paper is dry, have the child use markers to draw the outline of the desired picture and use the paint to paint it. To work on pre-writing skills, you can outline lines and/or letters and have the child paint them.

To promote sensory processing and tactile perception, you can have the child use the paper with a rough texture and paint with finger paint.