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Ballgown Jewlery

This activity was inspired by our kiddo’s favorite princess, whose fairy godmother transformed a pumpkin to take her to a ball in a beautiful ballgown, with sparkling jewelry, and glass slippers.

Step 1: Place toy jewelry into each slot of an ice tray. You may use pieces of beaded-necklaces, toy diamonds or toy earrings. Ensure safety by eliminating choking hazards and supervising children at all times.
Step 2: Pour water into the ice tray.
Step 3: Freeze.
Step 4: Remove from the freezer and place the jewelry-filled ice cubes into a bowl.
Step 5: Squeeze a squirt bottle filled with water to melt ice cubes. You may add food coloring for an additional visual effect.
Step 6: Melt the ice cube until the jewelry is set free.
Step 7: Scoop the jewelry out with a spoon or scooping utensil to practice self-feeding skills.
Step 8: Count your sparkling pieces of jewelry!

Basket Sock for Eye-Hand Coordination

This game is all too familiar for many of us: Laundry Basketball.

Challenge your child’s core muscles by having them stand in a tall kneeling positioning.

Place about 10 laundry items on the ground, to the child’s left and right. Have them side bend to retrieve the laundry items from the ground.

Position the basket in front of the child and have them shoot the laundry items into the laundry basket.

Increase the challenge by:

Moving the laundry basket further away from the child.
Scattering the laundry items further around the child.
Holding the laundry basket while moving around the room.
Tilting the laundry basket away from them, then toward them.
Having the child kneel on a more unstable surface (such as a pillow or dyna disc).
Having the child kneel on one leg.
Having the child shoot smaller laundry items/laundry items that weigh less.
Placing a timer.
Setting a goal for how many baskets to make.

Pickup Relay Games

Place two buckets in opposite sides of the room.

Fill one bucket with objects (Lego pieces, beads, plastic eggs, marbles, or anything that the child can pick up using tongs).

Have the child use the tongs to pick up an object from one bucket, run across the room, and drop it in the other bucket.

Grading Option

Place the objects in container or bucket full of sand or water.

Create an obstacle course for the child to go through.

Christmas Circles Tree

For this activity you will need green (tree), brown (tree trunk), red (ornaments), and yellow (ornaments) construction paper.

Draw different sized circles on the green construction paper. Make sure the circles do not overlap. These will be used to create the tree.

Cut the circles out by following the lines using scissors.

If you have a circle puncher, you can have the child punch circles from the construction paper. This will enhance hand strength.

Instruct the child to use a single hole puncher and punch holes in the yellow and red construction paper. These will be the ornaments on the tree.

Glue the green construction paper circles together in a triangular shape (to resemble a Christmas tree).

Using a pincer grasp, instruct the child to pick up the little yellow and red dots, one at a time, and glue them to the green circles.

Cut a rectangle shape from the brown construction paper. Attach it to the tree as a trunk.

Paper Flower

Provide the child with one pipe cleaner and 5-6 paper baking cups. You can use colorful baking cups or white ones.

Instruct the child to pile up the baking cups. Pierce a small hole in the middle of the stacked paper cups, using the edge of the pipe cleaner.

The child might need your assistance when completing this step.

Insert the pipe cleaner through the hole, and bend the tip, to secure the pipe cleaner from coming out.

Have the child lift and pinch the top paper cup towards the middle.

Then, repeat this step with the rest of the baking cups, until all paper cups are held up altogether.

To secure the baking cups from sliding down, instruct the child to hold the last paper cup at the bottom, right where the pipe cleaner inserts, and twist the pipe cleaner around a couple of times to create a stopper.

Once the flower is ready, the child can loop the remaining pipe cleaner on a pencil or a pen, like a pencil topper, or he can make additional flowers to make a bouquet.