Hello everyone! With Halloween just around the corner; I have a month’s worth of themed arts and crafts to enjoy with my clients!
In a previous blog post I wrote about the importance of play in the development and strengthening of skills necessary for a child to interact in their environment.
Today I thought I would share with you one of our crafts for the month.
In OT school we are taught how to “grade” an activity. What this means is making a task a good fit for your client/patient’s age and skill set (not too challenging, but enough that they are learning.) I will do my best to share ways to adapt the craft based on your child’s age and skill set.
Materials Needed:
- Construction Paper
- Crayons
- Googly Eyes
- Scissors
- Glue (if googly eyes don’t have sticker backs)
Skills Addressed:
- Fine Motor (tracing, coloring, cutting, managing small pieces)
- Visual Motor (tracing, coloring, cutting)
- Cognitive (following instructions, problem solving)
Instructions/Steps:
Tips: There are multiple ways to introduce this craft to your child. If your child is older; show them a picture of your end product craft and ask them to identify the materials they would need and steps that they would use to accomplish the task. This works on executive functioning skills and problem solving. You could also have your child practice reading written instructions. OR, you could practice giving your child 1-2 step verbal instructions (i.e. “first we will trace your hand, then cut it out.)
- Using a crayon, trace your child’s hand (either you or they can do it themselves) onto construction paper.
- Using child sized scissors, cut out the traced hand (either you can do it for them, you can help them by placing your hands over theirs, they can cut around a large circle that you draw around their traced hand, OR the child can do it themselves).
- Use the crayons to decorate your monster.
- Add googly eyes!
- DONE!
Simple as that! Have fun and Happy Halloween!
