Pen - Page 2 of 4

PickUp Straws Game

Hold all the straws or pipe-cleaners together in your palm or have the child hold them this way and let go of all of them at once.

Once they are spread, ask the child to pick up one straw at a time, without moving the other straws.

Take turns picking up the straws.

If you or the child moves other straws when picking up a straw, the game is over. The winner is the one who has the most straws.

Another version of the game could be to ask the child to pick up a certain color of straws:

Start by holding all the straws together and let all of them go at once. Once they are spread, ask the child to first pick up all the blue straws, then all the green straws, and so on (for this version of the game, it’s OK if the other straws are moving).

For young children or those with poor grasp, use wider straws.

Finger Puppet Mouse

Using the construction paper and pencil, draw a circle onto the paper.

The circle needs to be about 8 inches across, so if you are not comfortable with drawing a circle on your own, you can draw round something like a cup or a bowl. Mark the middle of your circle with a small dot.

Take the scissors and carefully cut around the circle that you have drawn. Then make one cut from the edge of the circle to the middle that you have marked, and then another cut a quarter of the way along so you cut a wedge out of the circle.

Bring one cut side over the other side of the paper, creating a cone shape, the more you overlap the two side, the thinner the cone will be. Stick the sides down firmly with the glue.

Cut the string into 4 very short pieces for the whiskers, and a longer bit for the tail, carefully using the scissors.

Stick the tail onto the base of the cone using the glue, and two whiskers either side of the cone near the top.

Take a colored pen and draw a nose on the very end of the cone. You can choose any color you want but black or pink usually work best.

Stick on the two wiggle eyes on the top of the cone, just above the whiskers.

For the mouses’ ears, take the construction paper and cut out two tiny circles and stick these just behind the eyes.

Fall Leaves

Use a brown construction paper and draw a rectangle to be used as the tree’s trunk.

Let the child cut out the rectangle to promote visual motor skills.

Ask the child to glue the brown rectangle on piece of white construction paper.

Using the crayons or markers, have the child draw a few branches coming out of the trunk of the tree on the white construction paper.

Instruct the child to mark a few dots using the glue on each branch.

Place some leaves on the table on the child’s non dominant side.

Provide the child with tweezers or tongs and have him catch one leaf at a time and move across the midline to place it on top of a glue dots.

Repeat until all leaves are glued on the tree.

Fall Foot Tree

Have the child trace their foot on brown construction paper to make the trunk of the tree. Then have the child trace their hand in different fall leaf colors. Have them glue on the pieces they cut onto a larger piece of construction paper. Provide assistance as needed. For older children, working on handwriting, place lined paper on the bottom of the tree, and have them write a story about the tree or about fall. Both older and younger children enjoy decorating the tree and its surroundings with tissue paper (crumbled), sequins, pom-poms, etc.

You can relate this activity to a specific holiday or the different seasons.

Spelling Push Ups

Use the construction paper, the pen and the scissors to cut out letters of the alpha-bet. You will need more than 1 of each letter. You can also use pre-cut letters.

Spread the letters on the floor or a mat in a random order. Help the child lay prone on the therapy ball. The child should be able to touch the floor. Instruct the child to use his hands and reach out to grab one letter at a time, then to walk back and place the letter in front of them. After the child gets all the letters he needed, he can spell the word.

You can also use magnetic letters and a magnetic board, or use math equations where the child has to walk out and grab the correct answer.