Fun OT Activities To Do While At Home

Hanging Laundry

1. Draw clothing pieces on paper (shirt, socks, pants, sweater, bathing suit)

2. Cut out the clothing

3. Tie string to two objects, on both ends, to make a clothes line

4. Work on hanging clothes on the clothes line by pinching clothes pins

Don’t let the clothes slip off the clothes line!

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Spring Sensory Box

1. Get a container (the bigger the better)

2. Fill it with rice or beans

3. Add colorful items that remind you of spring, such as:

   • Pom poms

   • Dried noodles shaped as flowers

   • Colorful dried noodles

   • Rubber or plastic bugs

   • Can add your Easter eggs to play with

   • Plastic vegetables

4. Use tweezers to located items in the box

5. Use hands to dig under the rice or beans to hide items

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Sensory Bottles

Sparkle Bottle

Supplies Needed:

• Empty water bottle

• Clear Elmer’s glue

• Room temperature water

• Regular glitter

• Hot glue gun

• Food coloring

Directions:

1. Fill bottle ¾ of the way with water

2. Add glue, the more glue the better

3. Add the glitter

4. Squeeze a few drops of food coloring in the water

5. Super glue or hot glue lid to bottle

Search + Find Bottle

Supplies Needed:

• Empty dry water bottle

• Dry Rice

• Small items (beads, erasers, pom poms, toy animals)

Directions:

1. Add rice to an empty water bottle

2. Add small items

3. Hot glue lid to bottle

4. Have child search for the items you put in bottle by shaking the bottle

5. Make a list of the items inside and have child check them off as they find them

Connection to OT: Helps with sensory visual seeking behaviors, works on following directions, visual motor skills when looking for items in the bottle

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Penne Pasta Play

• Make a necklace or bracelet by stringing penne pasta on thin string/thread

• String Penne on chopsticks, twigs from outside

• Stick straws or pipe cleaners into Styrofoam block (from old packaging) or hold them and thread the pasta through

• Push penne pasta into play dough or putty

• Stick straws in putty and thread the pasta onto the straws

Connection to OT: Works on concentration, attention, focus, finger strengthening, eye-hand coordination, visual motor integration and fine motor skills

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Fun with Pipe Cleaners 

• Cut straws and thread pipe cleaner through them

• Push pipe cleaners through strainer; can also attempt to thread the pipe cleaner through more than one hole

• Write a number on a cup and parent make holes on top of cup. Have kiddo push the pipe cleaners through the holes

• For older kids working on writing, make the alphabet out of pipe cleaners. Kids can trace the pipe cleaners for sensory feedback with finger and then write the letter with pencil

• For younger kids, work on making shapes out of the pipe cleaners and trace with finger (parents can also make the shape and have kids trace with finger)

• Thread beads on a pipe cleaner; count the beads, create and follow a pattern and use pincer grasp to pick up small beads

Connection to OT: fine motor skills, pincer grasp, visual motor integration, attention and focus, eye hand coordination, counting, handwriting, following directions

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