Skill: Fine Motor Control

Using the small muscles in the hands and wrists to make precise movements. This is the foundation for almost all school tasks, like drawing, writing, and using tools.

Hearts and Oval Butterfly

On the construction paper, have the child draw, copy, or trace, 2 hearts and an oval (depends on child developmental abilities).

Using child scissors, ask the child to cut out the shapes, and glue them so the oval is in the middle, between the two hearts (see image).

Allow the child to color and decorate the butterfly using crayons, markers, stickers, glitter, etc.

To make the antennas, let the child pick a pipe cleaner and help him to cut it into three pieces. Demonstrate twisting the pipe cleaners around your pencil or finger. Ask the child to do it independently, or offer assistance. Tape the antennas on the back side.

When the butterfly is done it can be glued to a craft stick and the child can “fly” their butterfly around.

If you wish, a writing component can be added and attached to the butterfly instead of gluing it to a craft stick.

Melting Rainbow

A young child uses a water spray bottle to melt a colorful marker rainbow on a white easel in a sunny backyard.

Using the markers or chalk, have the child color a rainbow or any other drawing appropriate to the child on the dry erase board/easel.

Use the squirt bottle to squirt the board/rainbow with water, the water causes the marker/chalk to run a.k.a. melt the rainbow.

Note: this activity would work best outside as it can get quite messy.

Fall Foot Tree

A young child and an adult work together on a Fall Foot Tree craft using colorful construction paper and craft supplies at a dining table.

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.

Therapy Snowman

A 6-year-old child glues colorful pom-poms onto a construction paper snowman during a home occupational therapy activity.

Make two circles (one big and one small) from construction paper, to be used as stencils for the snowman’s body and face. You may also make a stencil for a hat.

Let the child trace the circles on a white construction paper and trace the hat on a piece of fabric.

If needed, trace the child’s circle to make a wider line to assist with cutting accuracy.

Ask the child to cut the traced shapes.

On a separate piece of construction paper, have the child glue the circles and the hat: the big circle on the bottom for the body and the small circle on the top for the snowman’s face.

Ask the child to draw the snowman’s face using markers or crayons.

Cut out a stripe from the tissue paper for the scarf and let the child glue it on the snowman.

For buttons, let the child glue pom-poms, buttons, or stickers on the big circle.

Use the wooden sticks or branches for hands.

If you wish to work on handwriting skills, let the child write a story about the snowman.

Lunch Box

A five-year-old child uses safety scissors to cut out construction paper handles for a DIY paper lunch box craft on a wooden table.

Let the child pick a color of construction paper (paper size should be A4).

Draw a line in the middle of the construction paper and ask the child to fold the paper accurately on the line. This works on his fine manual control skills.

On a separate construction paper, draw 2 handle shapes and ask the child to cut it along the lines. These handle shapes will be used as the lunch box handles.

Ask the child to glue the handles to the top ends of the folded paper (the child should be able to open/close the folded paper as a lunch bag).

Have the child draw what they had or brought for lunch on the inside of the folded construction paper or have the child cut and glue pictures of food items from newspapers/magazines.

Allow the child to decorate the outside “lunch box” using the crayons, markers, and colored pencils.