Cutting - Page 14 of 17

Sensory Salad

You will need to use green construction paper (light and/or dark) and assorted small different textured objects (i.e. pom-poms, buttons, small blocks, etc.). You may also want to use different size and color straws.

First, explain to the child that you are going to make a salad. Let the child tear up the pieces of paper using both hands, to make lettuce leaves, and place the pieces in the bowl.

Then, have the child cut the straws into different size pieces and add them to the bowl. Ask the child to add the pom-poms, buttons, blocks, and think of creative things they can be (e.g. red pom-poms for cherry tomatoes, blocks as croutons). Have the child “toss” the salad by hand, allowing him to feel the different textures.

Use the tongs to “serve” the salad. To focus on social skills, ask the child to serve you/other peers/ themselves/co-treating therapists and say things like “more please!”, “no more, thank you”, etc.

Colorful Bookmark

Let the child trace or draw a 3″ x 10″ rectangle (if you want to work on cutting curves, you may draw wiggly lines instead of straight ones). Have the child cut the rectangle out.

Using a single hole hole-puncher, assist the child in punching a hole in the top part of the rectangle. Then, have the child thread a piece of yarn through the hole.

Using the markers and stickers, let the child decorate the bookmark and make it colorful.

Additional ideas for decorating the bookmark:
1. Have the child crumble small pieces of tissue paper
2. Cut/trace a 2.5″ x 9″ rectangle with white printer paper, and glue onto the center within the 3″ x 10″ construction paper.
3. Have the child cut out pictures that he likes from newspaper and magazines
4. Laminate the bookmarks to preserve them!

Yarn Painting

A 5-year-old child practicing fine motor skills by pulling a paint-covered piece of yarn through a folded paper butterfly cutout during a home art activity.

Draw a geometric shape or a picture on the paper and fold it in half (i.e. square, pumpkin, a person, butterfly, etc.). Let the child cut out the picture and open the paper.

Cut a piece of yarn (about 6-inch long). Put paint into the container and ask the child to dip one end of the yarn in the paint while holding on to the other end. Instruct the child to place the painted end of the yarn on one side of the paper, at the top. Fold the paper again and tell the child to pull the yarn out, from the bottom.

Open the folded paper, place the painted yarn at the top again, fold the paper, and pull the yarn out. Repeat these steps until the picture is painted.

You can use different colors and cut a piece of yarn for each color the child is using.

Winter Snowflakes

Have the child fold the paper in half vertically (independently or with assistance). Ask the child to draw any half-shape to be the base of the snowflake(i.e. half circle, half diamond, etc.). Instruct the child to draw more geometrical shapes along the edges of the paper, which can be cut out. Once the child is done drawing, let the child cut out all the shapes.

Let the child unfold the snowflake and decorate using crayons, markers, glitter, dot paint, stickers, etc.

To grade this activity you can:

1. Have lower/younger kids just cut out the big shape and then color in shapes that you draw for them (or you can draw and they can trace) if cutting the small shapes is too difficult

2. To make this activity easier you can also do half sheets of paper to make smaller snowflakes, less to color/cut/fold.

3. Have older/higher kids try to cut out shapes without drawing them first if they can. They can also fold the snowflake in half a second time (so it is in quarters) and do more cutouts on the snowflake.

Push Ins

A 4-year-old child practices fine motor skills by pushing cardboard discs into a slit in a shoebox during a home occupational therapy activity.

Start by making the shoe box and the cardboard discs. Cut a narrow slit on one side of the shoe box top and a small circle on the other side. The narrow slit will be used to insert the discs and the small circle will be used to insert the clothespins.

On the cardboard, draw 10 or more circles, about 3 inches in size. Cut out the circles and attach a clothespin to each circle.

Have the child separate the clothespins from the discs and insert the items through the right opening on the shoe box.

You can also place stickers on the circles and matching ones on the clothespins. After the child inserted the items, ask him to take them out of the shoe box and match each circle with the corresponding clothespin. You can also color the circles and the clothespins in different colors, and ask the child to match the items by color.