Talking Scissors
Put a pair of scissors on your hand and have the child put a pair on his hand.
Open and close your scissors in a certain pattern and ask the child to imitate/repeat what your scissors “said” using his scissors.
Skill: Hand Arches/Separation
Developing the natural curve of the palm and learning to use the thumb side of the hand for work while the pinky side provides stability. This makes writing and cutting much easier.
Your Very Own Fish Tank
For this activity, you need to use blue, orange, and yellow construction paper. You would also need to use a single hole puncher.
On a piece of blue construction paper, draw a square (in a size that will fit inside the ziplock bag) with wiggly lines. Ask the child to cut the square that you drew and stay within the wiggly lines (thickness of the line depends on the child’s skills and development).
Draw a fish on the orange or yellow paper and have the child cut it out. Depending on the child’s skills, you can have the child trace a picture of a fish or draw his own fish.
Glue the fish onto the blue sheet. Ask the child to draw eyes, fins, gills, and mouth on the fish and add any plants on the blue paper. Use a hole punch to punch bubbles in the blue paper (coming out of the mouth of the fish and above). Place the blue sheet into the ziplock bag. Place the oats on the table or in a small shallow plate and ask the child to pinch the oats and drop into the bag, to represent the floor of the tank. Repeat this activity a few times, until there is enough oats on the bottom of the bag. Seal the bag nice and tight.
Sorting Buttons
For this activity, you will need a number of small containers, depending on the sorting criteria you chose, and an assortment of buttons (i.e. size, color, number of holes on the button).
Place the buttons on a plate or in a larger container. place the small containers in front of the child as well. Allow the child to sort the buttons by size, color, number of holes, etc.
As the child picks up each button, encourage him to use his thumb and pointer fingers to help with developing pincer grasp.
To work on thumb opposition, ask the child to pick up each button with his thumb and middle finger, thumb and ring finger or thumb, and pinkie.
Recycled Jug Catcher
For this activity, an adult’s help and supervision are required.
Use a plastic milk container with a handle. Wash the container thoroughly and let dry.
Using a permanent marker, draw a line all the way around the container, about 2 inches up from the bottom. Depending on the child’s developmental skills, ask the child to cut around the line you drew, leaving the handle intact. You may want to help the child at this point and protect from sharp edges. Once you removed the bottom of the container, use the tape to cover the jug’s edges.
Provide the child with different stickers and allow him to decorate the jug to promote pincer grasp. You can also use colored masking tape or paper scraps to decorate your jug.
Take the newspaper and ask the child to ripe large pieces of paper and roll them into balls. Encourage the child to use both hands to ripe and roll the pieces of paper.
Once the jug and the newspaper balls are ready, let the child chose if he wants to first be the pitcher or the catcher. Stand away from each other and have the child either throw the balls into the jug or use the jug to catch the balls you throw. Exchange roles after all the balls are in the jug.
Beads for All
Provide the child with different size beads and encourage him to use only his thumb and index finger to pick up one bead at a time.
The child strings the beads using his dominant hand to manipulate the lace and his non-dominant hand to hold the bead.
You want to make sure the child does not stabilize his arms on the table or push his elbows into the sides of his body for stabilization.
Remember that stabilization should occur at the shoulders and make sure the elbows are a couple of inches away from the trunk.