When I first set out to really work with Andrew, one of the things that I wanted to focus on was his pretend play skills. I thought about what preschools and kindergartens did to encourage children to pretend play and realized that they simply provide materials for children to experiment with and play with usually based on a given theme for the week. I remember our school receiving several kits while I taught kindergarten and my students loved going to the stations that had those kits. There … [Read more...] about Pretend Play – Theme Boxes
Archives for May 2011
Patriotic Pinwheel Blowing
You may have picked some of these up for your yard or bicycle this Memorial Day but did you also realize that you can use this patriotic yard decoration to help your child build oral motor skills? Andrew had a lot of difficulty trying to figure out how to blow air out of his mouth so I was always on the lookout for ways to help him. I found this particular pinwheel at Michael's and thought that I could have him blow it to make it spin, giving meaning and purpose to something he finds … [Read more...] about Patriotic Pinwheel Blowing
Velvet Coloring Pages
These are Velvet Coloring Books that I found in the dollar section of Target recently. (Andrew also got one yesterday from a friend at school as a birthday favor.) I have seen these many times before, I even remember coloring with them while I was growing up but picked them up because I thought they would be great for someone who struggles with fine motor skills of coloring. The velvet edges create a natural border around the space to be colored and since the velvet is black, any … [Read more...] about Velvet Coloring Pages
Calendar Numbers With Story Starters
I recently found these calendar numbers at the teacher store and thought they were perfect for summer. In addition to being great for working on number recognition and number order, these also include "Story Starters" on the back to encourage creative writing. Each calendar number has a story starter on the back which makes them perfect for either independent journaling or writing together with your child on the computer, depending on what works best with your child. I am going to … [Read more...] about Calendar Numbers With Story Starters
The Nap Mat…Not Just For Napping!
Ahhhh...the nap mat! How I would love to have a mandatory nap time. Perhaps I’ll carry this around with me and when I get tired whip it out and take a nap. Wouldn’t that be awesome!! This is something I picked up two years ago at the beginning of the school year for Andrew to use during nap time. This year, they had quiet time but not nap time so the nap mat stayed home. As I was setting up a My Obstacle Course and was looking through my closet to see what sort of fun physical, OT- like … [Read more...] about The Nap Mat…Not Just For Napping!
Make Your Own Counting Book
I wanted to work on the math concepts of “How many ___?” and “How many in all?” with Andrew. While my first preference is to use objects or manipulatives, I also realized that it would be helpful for him to be able to count things on paper. I wanted to see how he would do discriminating visually between objects, counting only the things he was asked to count and see if he’d miss any or double count some things. The photograph above shows what the station looked like. So easy to make yet … [Read more...] about Make Your Own Counting Book