Fine Motor:
- March Lion: (Materials needed - white paper plate (or draw a large circle on paper and cut it out), crayons, glue, orange construction paper cut into strips or orange tissue paper - if you don't have these items improvise by having your child color a piece of paper orange.) Have your child stand and use their non-dominant hand to hold the plate or round paper against a wall and color the whole thing orange (or whatever color they want their lion to be). Draw on eyes (or use googly eyes if you have them), a nose and a mouth. Next have your child use their their thumb, index and middle fingers to rip the strips of orange paper or tissue paper. If they use tissue paper have them crumple the strips using their thumb, index and middle fingers. Glue the paper strips or tissue paper balls around the edge of the circle to make the lion's mane. Alternative: If you have yarn or pipe cleaners, you can have your child cut them into 1" pieces and glue them around the edge to make the mane. Give them X marks as needed for where to put the glue.
- Please remember that whenever doing a craft activity - it is the process not the end product! Let them do it as independently as they can even if at the end it doesn’t look like what it is supposed to.
- Practice handwriting using a handwriting app. Our favorites are LetterSchool, Writing Wizard, and Cursive Writing Wizard.
- Magic Carpet (Materials Required: blanket, sheet, or throw rug.) This activity requires two or more people. One child sits cross-legged on one end of the “magic carpet” then pulls the sides of the magic carpet up and holds them in their lap. Their partner grasps the opposite end of the magic carpet and pulls the first child around the room/house or down a hallway. It is important to instruct the children regarding safety precautions such as avoiding obstacles and appropriate speed, especially when they first start pulling to avoid knocking the child who is riding over backwards. Once the first child has had a ride the children will switch places so the child who pulled the magic carpet will become the rider. Although only one child may ride the carpet at a time, more than one child can pull the rider. This may actually be necessary if there is a size differential between the participants or if the puller is not strong enough to move the rider. You can give your child a ride if you only have one child then have them try to give you a ride.
- Continue practicing at typing.com or Typing Agent.
- Continue to practice shoe tying, buttoning, and/or zipping.
- Chore of the Day/Week - Not only are chores functional life skills, they work on motor skills (bilateral coordination, fine motor, visual motor, sensorimotor, motor planning, etc.) and provide a motor break. Chore suggestions include making their bed, folding laundry, emptying the dishwasher, washing dishes, setting the table, sweeping, raking, dusting, washing the table/counter/etc., and vacuuming. You can have your child perform the same chore for a week to promote mastery of the skill or do a different chore each day.
- Continue to identify your zone and use strategies to adjust as needed.
- For this week, focus on identifying characters in movies, TV shows and/or books who are in the Green Zone. Help your child identify why they are in the Green Zone: i.e what they are doing, how they are behaving, how they are feeling or other non-verbal characteristics.