Motor Planning - Page 14 of 22

Easter Egg Hunt with Spoons

Hide the Easter eggs around the room.

Designate which color eggs each child gets to hunt & place each basket in a corner of the play space.

The child is only allowed to pick up an Easter egg that matches the color they were given, and they must place it on their spoon.

Children will hunt for their eggs, and once they find them, instruct them to use both hands to hold the spoon, as they walk to their designated basket to drop off the egg (to work on bilateral coordination).

If the egg falls on the way over, the child must start over.

This challenges the skills involved in patience, concentration & pacing.

If you want to challenge your children and add more sensory input, place some obstacles in the way (i.e. walking on or over pillows, walking around cones or chairs, etc.).

Snowflake Sisters

This activity was inspired by our kiddo’s favorite movie involving a strong sisterly bond, a talking snowman, and the journey to discovering their strengths.

Blue Snowflake
Step 1: Fold construction paper in half.
Step 2: Fold it in half, again.
Step 3: Cut small snips off the corners & edges of your folded paper.
Step 4: Unfold & enjoy your magical snowflake!
Step 5: Try a new cutting & folding pattern to see which you like best.

Purple Snowflake
Step 1: Outline the shape of a snowflake with a marker.
Step 2: Trace the outline with glue from a glue bottle.
Step 3: Sprinkle salt on the glue & discard the extra salt that landed elsewhere on the paper.
Step 4: Let dry.
Step 5: Use watercolor paint to dab the salted lines & watch the magic travel through the snowflake!

Jump and Kick

Place steppingstones along a path.

Place cardboard blocks to the left and to the right side of each steppingstone.

Ask the child to stand on the first steppingstone and use the right leg to kick the cardboard block on the right side and the left leg to kick the cardboard block on the left side.

Next, instruct the child to jump to the next steppingstone and repeat the previous step.

The child will continue jumping to the ext steppingstones ad knocking down the cardboard block until the end of the path.

Don’t have steppingstones? Use pillows instead (this also increases the challenge for your child’s balance).

Don’t have cardboard blocks? Use water bottles instead (empty for an easier challenge, and filled with water or rice/beans/sand for more challenge and increase the proprioceptive input) or use empty shoe boxes, paper rolls, paper cups, or plastic containers.

Grading option:

The challenge can be graded by placing the blocks further away (see the 2nd video below)
Ask the child to frog jump from one steppingstone to the other, then stand back up, and kick the block.

Newspaper Dance

Challenge your child’s core muscles by having them stand on a newspaper page (or paper bag, or another safe alternative you may have in your home).

This game works like Musical Chairs.

Play a song and have the child dance.

When the song stops, the child must stand on the newspaper page.

If the child does not step outside of the newspaper page boundary, fold the newspaper page in half.

Continue this until the child is unable to stand without stepping outside of the boundary.

Use painter’s tape to hold the newspaper page in place to prevent slips/falls.

You may see your child transitioning from standing with a typical stance, then standing with feet close together, then standing on one foot, then standing on tip-toes. This challenges their core!

Increase the challenge by:

Playing with an appropriate peer on the same newspaper page – be ready to catch anyone who loses balance!

Secret Message

Challenge your child’s core muscles by having them maintain a tabletop positioning (on their hands and knees).

Place a hand towel under their hands (or have them hold onto it), then have the child write out letters and words with their arm movements.

Guess their message by watching what they spell out with their towel.

Increase the challenge by:

Using their non-dominant hand.
Using their feet.