Playing With Words 365

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Fine Motor Monday

January 30, 2012 by Katie Filed Under: Crafts for Kids, Fine Motor Activities, Language Enrichment Activities for Parents, Therapy Ideas and Activities 6 Comments

It’s been a few weeks since I posted about what we have been doing around here for fine motor practice. We haven’t done nearly as much as I had wanted to or that I had planned…I need about 5 extra hours a day! HA!

If you are new, one reason we do so much fine motor activities around here is to help my daughter gain back the strength and coordination that she lost due to her Juvenile Arthritis in her fingers.

We made more Snowmen

In my last Fine Motor Monday post I shared that we made a bunch of snowmen from a foam snowman set I bought on clearance from Target. Peeling the sticker tape off the back as well as placing the various parts on the snowmen are great for fine motor skills.

We played with our Magna Doodle

I LOVE Magna Doodles, and my brother, niece and nephew bought E one for her birthday. It has a short “pen” that is great for writing and fine motor, but it also comes with magnet shapes that have pegs on the top. Holding onto the peg and drawing is another great fine motor skill. (And of course, Ev joined in the fun).

We played with playdough

This is a staple in our home. E asks to play with Playdough all the time! One thing we have been doing is taking puzzle pieces with the little pegs on top, and pushing them into the playdough. E’s occupational therapist suggested it as a great way to work on building up the strength in her right hand.


We made lanterns

For Chinese New Year we made lanterns to hang for good luck. E wanted to decorate them using foam hearts that we had, which required fine motor practice. Also, I could have had E do the cutting work to make the slits in the lanterns by drawing lines on the lanterns and having her cut along the lines, for more fine motor practice. I’ll definitely do this next time.

 

 
We made bird feeders

I saw this amazingly adorable idea at Happy Hooligans last week, and thought that it would be awesome to do with E for her fine motor. We simply laced Cheerios onto pipe cleaners, made circles, and hung them up for the birds! E really enjoyed this activity and can’t wait to see the birds eat the Cheerios.


Hopefully we will be doing more fine motor in the weeks to come. I am planning on getting some tongs and doing some fun activities with them! What fine motor activities have you been doing? I’d love some new ideas!

Cheers!

About Katie

Katie is a licensed, credentialed and certified pediatric speech-language pathologist and mom to four (8, 6, 3 and 6 months). Her passion for educating, inspiring and empowering parents of children with all abilities led her to start her blog playing with words 365 where she shares information about speech & language development & intervention strategies, parenting, photography and a little about her family life too. Katie has been working in the field of speech pathology for 12 years and is certified in The Hanen Centre’s It Takes Two to Talk ® and Target Word ® programs and holds a certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). In addition to blogging and being a mommy, Katie works part time in her small private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

Comments

  1. Lisa says

    January 30, 2012 at 4:33 am

    Love the Cheerio bird feeders! I’ll definitely try this with my tot and preschooler! Just pinned it!

    Lisa
    Criss-Cross Applesauce

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 30, 2012 at 8:43 am

      Thanks Lisa!

      Reply
  2. Jessica @ Preserving Life's Moments says

    January 30, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    I have a fine motor question for you…I just found out that my 4.5 year old son has poor hand strength. He is super good at coloring and cutting and we have always done tons of fine motor activities and he loves playdoh. So I am kinda confused how we ended up here. From your experience and understanding will fine motor activities improve overall “hand strength”?

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 30, 2012 at 4:13 pm

      Jessica, I am not an OT but I’ll give you some info via email from my experiences!

      Reply
  3. patty says

    January 30, 2012 at 2:57 pm

    You guys rock!! So much fun stuff accomplished : )

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 30, 2012 at 3:42 pm

      Thanks Patty!

      Reply

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