Skill: Visual Motor

How the eyes and hands work together as a team. This is essential for tasks where movement is guided by vision, like catching a ball, cutting on a line, or staying within the lines when coloring.

Multi Step Shamrock

Print and cut the provided picture below of a shamrock (about 7 inch in size). You will use this as your stencil.

Provide the child with a green or white page of construction paper.

Ask the child to trace the shamrock on his paper using the stencil you made.

Instruct the child to cut out the shamrock.

Allow the child to spread some glue over the shamrock he cut. You may use a paint brush or a craft stick if the child avoids sticky materials.

Place the different manipulatives in front of the child inside a shallow container or a paper plate.

Instruct the child to glue the different objects on the shamrock transferring the objects from the container to his paper using the tweezers or the tongs.

The child may also use his fingers to reinforce pincer grasp and in-hand manipulation skills.

You may also have the child crumble pieces of tissue paper into small ball to work on dexterity and strengthening of the small muscles in your child’s hands.

Lunch Box

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.

Line Em Up

On a thick piece of paper, draw a line.

Give your child a bowl of beans, beads, buttons, or large seeds.

Ask the child to place them one after the other on the line you drew.

For grading, you can make the task a little more difficult with a circle, or any other shape. In addition, you could ask the child to use tweezers to pick up and line up the items on the line.

Sensory Puzzle

Fill the plastic container with rice and/or beans.

Hide the puzzle pieces in the rice/beans mixture.

Have the child search for the pieces using his hands (if the child is tacitly sensitive, you may try to put gloves on his hands or let him use tongs or tweezers).

Once the child has all the pieces, ask the child to put the puzzle together.

Paper Turkey

On a brown construction paper, trace the child’s hand or have the child trace his own hand using the pen/markers/crayons.

Make sure the thumb is extended and the fingers are spread apart while tracing the hand.

Let the child cut the traced hand. This will be the turkey’s body.

Glue the traced hand in the middle of the paper plate.

Use one bean as the turkey’s eye and glue it on the traced thumb. On the rest of the fingers, let the child glue feathers.

Take a piece of orange or red tissue paper and let the child crumble it. Glue the crumbled piece as the turkey’s wattle.

Using the markers or the crayon, let the child draw the turkey’s legs.