Occupational Therapy Packet: May 11-15th

Activities to work on hand strength:o Crumpling Paper: Have your child crumple up sheets of newspaper or scrap paper into the

smallest, tightest ball they can manage. Make it harder by asking your child to crumple the paper with just one hand at a time.  Please make sure your child cleans the hands thoroughly afterwards as newspaper ink

can be harmful.o Clothes pins: clip clothes pins to large container or plastic bucket.

Get other types of clips: Hair clips, metal office clips, snack bag clips, and let your child clip them to your shirt, pant legs, or a towel.

Activities to work on grasp:o Use vertical surface like an easel or paper taped to the wall: break crayons into small pieces

and create masterpieces.o Toothpick and packing peanuts or marshmallows structures: Let your child push the

toothpicks into the packing peanuts/marshmallows to “build” structures, connecting the peanuts/marshmallows together.

Activities to work on bilateral coordination:o Marching to music and clapping hands at the same time. Start with music that has a simple

beat then get more complicatedo Traditional jumping jacks. Have your child start off slow to get the movement correct with all

limbs out like a “starfish” then jump with all limbs together to look like a “pencil.” Once they master these moves, have them go faster and faster without messing up.

Activities to help around the house: o Watering the Plants: Using a spray bottle filled with water, have your child water plants in

the house using a spray bottle each day. o Cleaning the windows: Using a paper towel and spray bottle with water, have your child

spray water on the windows and wipe with the paper towel.

These are just a few activities that you might want to try with your child. Most important, have fun together!

The following sheets include recommendations and or suggestions that you may do with your child. This packet includes information for students ranging from preschool to high school and various skill levels so please find a few to do each day that fit your child and your family’s needs best. Adult supervision may be required for certain activities. This depends on the age, skills, and abilities of your child. Before your child participates in strenuous activities it may be advisable to consult with your physician. Please choose activities that are safe for you and your child.

Three Fine Motor Warm Up Exercises for Handwriting Tasks Fine motor warm up exercises are a good way to “wake up” the fingers and hand muscles for writing. It makes a fun transition into writing tasks. Below you will find some quick, easy exercises to do with your class/child.

Penny shuffleboard: Penny Shuffleboard is a simple game. Two people stand on either side of a desk or table. Using their thumb and index finger or middle finger, they must “flick” the penny in order to make it slide to the other side of the table. Each player only gets 5 flicks. The goal is to get it as close to the edge as possible in those 5 flicks without going over the edge.

Spin the lid: This is an easy way to recycle your old lids - any size lids will work (tomato sauce jars, baby food jars, butter tub lids, coffee canister lids, etc.) Place your hand palm facing upward, holding the lid with your fingertips. Keeping your hand in this upward position, use your fingers to rotate the lid in a circle. Make the task entertaining by seeing who can “get to the….” marker first. This activity can easily be made into a fun and/or academic activity by placing “markers” on the lid. Using your thumb as the “pointer”, have the students rotate the lid to a desired point. Use letters, numbers, colors, etc.

Finger hockey: You already know how to play this game. Two players sit or stand on either side of a desk or table. Mark out a “goal” using masking tape on each side. Make a “puck” out of crumbled paper, a cotton ball, a small pom pom ball, a coin, etc. Using your thumb and index or middle finger, take turns shooting the “puck” into the goal.

Technology Resources

The following sheets include recommendations and or suggestions that you may do with your child. This packet includes information for students ranging from preschool to high school and various skill levels so please find a few to do each day that fit your child and your family’s needs best. Adult supervision may be required for certain activities. This depends on the age, skills, and abilities of your child. Before your child participates in strenuous activities it may be advisable to consult with your physician. Please choose activities that are safe for you and your child.

Speech-to-text and text-to-speech:

o Free option through Office3651. Using Chrome, open Microsoft office 365 (district homepage > Students > Microsoft

office 365)2. Sign in with school email address and password.3. From here you can click on ‘word’ to start a new document or choose an existing one

down below under the ‘Recent’ tab. 4. Once in the document, to use speech to text, click on the ‘Dictation’ button when ready

to talk and push it again to stop. 5. To hear it read back, click on the ‘View’ tab and ‘Immersive Reader’.

o TalkTyper- www.talktyper.com1. Click on the green dictate button and begin talking. 2. Click it again to stop recording. 3. To save the dictated work, click on the green button with the arrow to move it down to

the document.

o Google - www.google.com 1. Use speech to text online in google by clicking on the microphone button on the right

of the search bar.

Handwriting Prompts

o The following two pages include ideas for sentences to work on handwriting skills. Pick one prompt to work on.

For younger students (K-3rd grade), please answer the prompt directly on the lined paper in one or two sentences.

For older students (4th-high school), please answer the prompt in 1-2 paragraphs either handwritten or typed (whichever they prefer).

o Remember that all letters should sit on the baseline, to put spaces between your words, capitalization and punctuation.

o Provide a model of a completed sentence for students to copy if they are struggling to come up with their own sentence. The goal is to give them a chance to work on handwriting!

The following sheets include recommendations and or suggestions that you may do with your child. This packet includes information for students ranging from preschool to high school and various skill levels so please find a few to do each day that fit your child and your family’s needs best. Adult supervision may be required for certain activities. This depends on the age, skills, and abilities of your child. Before your child participates in strenuous activities it may be advisable to consult with your physician. Please choose activities that are safe for you and your child.

The following sheets include recommendations and or suggestions that you may do with your child. This packet includes information for students ranging from preschool to high school and various skill levels so please find a few to do each day that fit your child and your family’s needs best. Adult supervision may be required for certain activities. This depends on the age, skills, and abilities of your child. Before your child participates in strenuous activities it may be advisable to consult with your physician. Please choose activities that are safe for you and your child.

The following sheets include recommendations and or suggestions that you may do with your child. This packet includes information for students ranging from preschool to high school and various skill levels so please find a few to do each day that fit your child and your family’s needs best. Adult supervision may be required for certain activities. This depends on the age, skills, and abilities of your child. Before your child participates in strenuous activities it may be advisable to consult with your physician. Please choose activities that are safe for you and your child.

Lined Paper This lined paper on the following three pages are available for your child to use to complete writing work from the academic packets. Sometimes, children with fine motor difficulties have a hard time completing writing work in small spaces without lines. They need larger writing spaces with defined lines to help place their letters on the paper. 

Please have your child use this paper to answer the writing prompts, still using the organizational format provided in your packet. If you need additional paper, you can always draw lines on plain paper for your child to write on. 

o First page is for 3rd-5th gradeo Second page for 1st-3rd grade o Third page kindergarten/FA & 1stgrade

The following sheets include recommendations and or suggestions that you may do with your child. This packet includes information for students ranging from preschool to high school and various skill levels so please find a few to do each day that fit your child and your family’s needs best. Adult supervision may be required for certain activities. This depends on the age, skills, and abilities of your child. Before your child participates in strenuous activities it may be advisable to consult with your physician. Please choose activities that are safe for you and your child.

The following sheets include recommendations and or suggestions that you may do with your child. This packet includes information for students ranging from preschool to high school and various skill levels so please find a few to do each day that fit your child and your family’s needs best. Adult supervision may be required for certain activities. This depends on the age, skills, and abilities of your child. Before your child participates in strenuous activities it may be advisable to consult with your physician. Please choose activities that are safe for you and your child.

The following sheets include recommendations and or suggestions that you may do with your child. This packet includes information for students ranging from preschool to high school and various skill levels so please find a few to do each day that fit your child and your family’s needs best. Adult supervision may be required for certain activities. This depends on the age, skills, and abilities of your child. Before your child participates in strenuous activities it may be advisable to consult with your physician. Please choose activities that are safe for you and your child.