Holiday Match Up Fine Motor and Visual Memory Activity

Check out this FREE Holiday Match Up activity from the December Packet. Print and laminate the page. Using thumb, index and middle finger create small balls of clay. Flatten each ball between thumb and index finger. Place clay over each circle. Player one removes two pieces of clay. If it is a match, keep the clay. If it is not a match, make the clay into a ball, flatten it and return back over the circles. Continue taking turns. The winner is the player with the largest ball of clay at the end of the game.

Try to use pennies to cover the circles instead of clay. Keep the pennies if you find a match.

Play a game on mini memory. Print 2 copies. Cut out all the small squares. Play a memory card game with the mini cards.

Want to add in visual motor skills? Use a dry erase marker, draw lines connecting each matching picture.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE HOLIDAY MATCH UP ACTIVITY

December Packet: Practice fine motor, gross motor, visual perceptual and handwriting activities with this no-prep, fun, December themed packet.  Includes 25 activities to print and play!  Find out more.

View the pages in the December Holiday Packet

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Homemade Play Dough Recipes and Activity Ideas

Pediatric therapists, parents and teachers use homemade play dough recipes daily. Here is a collection of fun ones from the Internet to explore.

1. Recipes for Sensory Fun: This is a nice 5 page download created by a therapy company to hand out to parents.

2. Nuture Store – Let’s Play with Dough – includes three recipes, suggestions to add to your dough play time and learning activities with play dough.  This would make a great parent handout.

3. Gluten Free Dough Recipes: Anyone who works with or has children on a gluten free diet here is lots of suggested products and recipes.

Need some suggestions and activity ideas to use the clay or play dough? Check out:

1. Creative Clay Activities – Includes the following activities: Animal Charade Cards, Food/ Drink Charade Cards, Snowy Clay, Rainy Clay, Steamroller Clay, Snake in the Woods, Clay Patterns, Clay Scavenger Hunt, Four In A Row and 26 Letter Sheets to promote tactile kinesthetic awareness of letters.

2. Clay Play Mats – This is a collection of 6 clay play mats that encourage: muscle strengthening of the hands, fine motor skills, visual memory,
counting and number identification.

3.  Clay Faces – Free download to create clay faces on templates.

4.  Hedgehog Clay game – directions and pictures to play this fun fine motor game.

5.  Copy the Clay Monsters – Copy these clay monster cards to encourage finger and hand strengthening, visual spatial skills and fine motor skills.

The post Homemade Play Dough Recipes and Activity Ideas appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Clay Marble Mazes

Clay marble mazes is a great activity to encourage hand strengthening, eye hand coordination, visual tracking skills and more.  

Here is what we did:

1.  Cover a recycled, clean styrofoam tray with tin foil.  Use a small tray if you have a little bit of clay and large tray if you have a lot of clay (or want the maze to be bigger).

2.  Push the clay flat on the tray to cover the entire tray if possible.

3.  First use a pen cap or pointed tool to draw a path for the maze.  

4.  Go over the maze that was drawn using a marble pushing with your fingers.  Retrace the path many times so that it creates a slight tunnel for the marble.  You could use a larger marble to make the path.

5.  It is ready to use.  Hold the tray with two hands and see if you can navigate the marble through the maze.

6.  Another option is to create and trace letters in the clay and then track the marbles with your fingers.

7.  When done, just flatten out the clay and make a new one next time!

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This is a collection of 6 clay play mats that encourage: muscle strengthening of the hands, fine motor skills, visual memory, counting and number identification.  Find out more at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/clayplaymats.html

Copy the Clay Monsters

Here is a free printable to have children copy the clay monsters exactly.  This is an excellent activity to encourage fine motor skills, finger and hand strengthening and visual spatial skills. 

Head on over to Your Therapy Source at http://yourtherapysource.com/freeclaymonster.html to get the free download.  

Hole Punch Play Dough

After seeing this idea at JDaneil4's Mom blog about using a hole punch with play dough, I created some quick templates for using hole punched play dough.  What a great way to sneak in some hand strengthening by using the hole punch.  It is not just the hole punch, you have to flatten the dough (pincer or tripod grasp), squeeze the handle (finger flexors and more) and pick up the dots (pincer grasp).  Plus, the colorful play dough dots are really pretty.   Here is a tip - use older or firm play dough.  If it is brand new play dough the dots get stuck.  You can get the directions and the free templates to print at YourTherapySource.com.

Clay Faces with Free Printables

Get this set of free printable to create faces using clay or wipe off markers.  You can download it at YourTherapySource.com.

Clay Monsters

How cute are these little monsters?  Practice some fine motor skills and hand strengthening making these cuties.  All you need is creativity, imagination and some clay/theraputty, googly eyes and cut up pipe cleaners. 

If you need more activities for clay check out these ebooks: Creative Clay Activities and Clay Play Mats.

Like the monster theme?  Check out these portable Monster Mazes.