Easy Mazes – Freebie!

Here are two easy mazes (freebie!) from the Big Book of Easy Mazes.  Mazes are excellent visual motor practice for children.  The only problem is sometimes they are just TOO hard.  These simple mazes are easier to complete helping to build a child’s confidence level.  Complete the piggy bank maze or the butterfly maze.  They are from the Big Book of Easy Mazes.

DOWNLOAD YOUR TWO FREE EASY MAZES.

Big Book of Easy Mazes digital download includes 36 black and white, easy and FUN mazes to complete. The easy mazes are suitable for preschool aged children and up. The picture mazes are animals, sports, flowers and more! The download includes the solutions to the mazes. Not only are mazes fun, they also help children to develop fine motor skills, visual perceptual skills and problem solving skills. These easier mazes will help children build their confidence skills. FIND OUT MORE.

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Cut, Sequence, Paste and Draw Penguin

Here is a penguin activity that includes scissor skills, sequencing, motor planning, visual motor skills and following directions!  All on one piece of paper (translation: NO PREP activity).  This penguin activity is from the Cut, Sequence, Paste and Draw – Arctic Animals.   Print out this activity and the child can cut, sequence, paste and draw the penguin using the step by step directions.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE CUT, SEQUENCE, PASTE AND DRAW  PENGUIN

Need more Winter activities?  Check out these titles:

 

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Trolls Pencil Challenges – Free!

How cute are these trolls?  Since I grew up in the 80’s, perhaps I am finding them even more adorable!  This is a 5 page freebie from the Trolls Pencil Challenges packet.  Children can practice visual motor skills with this fun troll themed activity.

Download the Trolls Pencil Challenges Freebie

Trolls Pencil Challenges download includes a HUGE collection of visual motor practice worksheets. Practice pencil control for vertical, horizontal, diagonal and curved lines. Most of the 40+ visual motor worksheets are available in easy or more difficult versions – great for differentiated instruction in group settings. The worksheets are in color. The worksheets progress in difficulty. Also included are 12 mazes that progress in difficulty and 5 Follow the Dot activities.

The pencil challenges are provided as full page worksheets and also as smaller worksheets (4 to a page) to increase the difficulty of the task. This download is an excellent choice for: fine motor centers in the classroom, visual motor skill practice, special education classrooms and/or handwriting warm ups.  Find out more information.

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DIY Scratch Art

I love scratch art and always have even as a child.  Now as an adult I am way too cheap to buy all the expensive papers.  You can make scratch art paper using crayons and paint but it is labor intensive.  When I came across this blog post from iCreativeIdeas on Pinterest I knew I had to try it.  It looked too good to be true.  The part that I was skeptical about was being able to use regular acrylic paint.  But guess what it works!  This is a super simple way to make DIY scratch art.  You can add some pizazz to prewriting skills and drawing skills when you do scratch art.  Bonus tip – may help some students to increase pressure on the pencil when writing since you need to press hard when doing scratch art.

First grab some recycled CDs.  If you don’t have any ask anyone born in the 70s or 80s for some, they most likely have some.  Another option is to check with your school’s IT department – they probably have some old ones hanging around.  Paint the shiny side of the CD with acrylic paint.  Let it dry completely.  I do recommend you use dark colored paint so the reflective mirror part of the CD shows through and shines.

Once it is completely dry which does not take long you can start using it for scratch art.  Grab a sharp object to draw a scrape away the paint letting the mirror like CD shine where you draw.

Create whatever design you like.  You could even draw lines in pencil first if you wanted the student to practice drawing particular lines or shapes.  I even found it to be less messy than purchased scratch art paper.

You could make it a collaborative, group project and make a mobile to hang when done.  So, this project actually was as easy as it looked on Pinterest.  Woohoo!  And I found a cheap way to make scratch art!

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Find the Differences Visual Discrimination Puzzle

Can you use your visual discrimination and visual scanning skills to find and circle the five differences in this picture?  Download this freebie from the Find the Differences Packet.

The best thing about this puzzle is that it is not too difficult.  Some of the puzzles that are available for children to spot the differences are very hard to complete and children get frustrated.  These puzzles are all in black and white and present a child with a “just right” challenge.

Find out more information about the complete packet at Find the Differences.

This download includes 30 find the differences puzzles and the solutions to the puzzles.  Find 5 differences between the two pictures on each page.  All the pages are in black and white.  There are plenty of find the difference activities around but many are just way too difficult.  This collection is easier to determine the differences between the pictures.  Find the Difference encourage visual scanning, visual discrimination and visual motor skills.  FIND OUT MORE.

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Color By Copy - Visual Motor and Visual Spatial Activity

Download these free visual motor and visual spatial activities.  Simply color the picture on the right exactly like the picture on the left.  You can download color by copy freebie here http://yourtherapysource.com/freecolorbycopy

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Title: Color Coding
By: Your Therapy Source

Summary: 40+ pages to encourage visual discrimination and visual motor skills with color coding activities.  Find out more at http://yourtherapysource.com/colorcoding.html

 

Lines, Lines and More Lines Free Sample Pages

Here are two free sample pages from the latest download - Lines, Lines and More Lines.  Practice pre-writing strokes and pencil control with this fun packet.  You can get the freebies here http://yourtherapysource.com/linesfreebie.html

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Spring Time Tulips - Finish the Picture

Here is a Spring time freebie to practice visual motor skills and attention to detail with this tulip picture.  Download it at http://yourtherapysource.com/holidayspringfreebie.html

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Download the complete packet of Finish the Picture - Spring Edition here http://yourtherapysource.com/holidayspring.html

Easy Visual Motor Activity

Here is a simple activity to set up that incorporates fine motor and visual motor skills.

1.  Download the template for the activity at http://yourtherapysource.com/freeeasyvisual.html

2.  Ask the child to put stickers in each box.  If you do not have stickers, the child can cut out different shapes.  Glue the shapes in each box.

3.  Ask the child to trace over and around each shape.

That's it!  Super simple with materials that you have around the house or school.

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Visual Motor Bingo:  This download is a collection of 5 different bingo games to print and play. There are game boards for pre-writing skills, shape formation, letter formation (capital and lowercase) and number formation. You can print and create your own dice or use calling cards for the games. For letter and number formation there are two versions - you can trace dotted letters or trace over letters directly. To practice letter/number recognition you can just practice finding the letters/numbers instead of tracing.  FIND OUT MORE AT http://www.yourtherapysource.com/vingo.html

Step By Step Directions for a Mini Snowman Scene

After seeing this artist trading card idea at Art Projects for Kids (excellent website by the way), I thought this would make a wonderful craft projects for children who can benefit from practicing fine motor skills, scissor skills, sequencing, visual motor skills and creativity.

You can download the one page step by step directions fro the Mini Snowman Scene at http://yourtherapysource.com/freesnowmanscene.html.

The added bonus is if you make it artist trading card size you can have the children start a collection of their cards.  You can read more about artist trading cards and download a lesson plan at http://yourtherapysource.com/OTarttradingcards.html.

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Need more step by step projects to practice sequencing, scissor and visual motor skills?  Check out Cut, Sequence, Paste and Draw at http://yourtherapysource.com/cutsequencedrawaz.html and download a free sample page too!

Follow that Monster Visual Perceptual Activity

Challenge visual discrimination, visual spatial relationships and visual motor skills with this free printable.  Download just in time for Valentine's Day at http://yourtherapysource.com/vpvalentinefree.html

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Penguin Pencil Challenges Freebie

Get more information on the latest download - Penguin Pencil Challenges at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/pencilchallengespenguin.html



Here are some free sample pages from Penguin Pencil Challenges to practice visual motor skills. You can download them at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/pencilchallengespenguinfree.html

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Patterns, Patterns, Patterns

Here are 6 FREE sample pages from Patterns, Patterns, Patterns  which is a collection of over 50 visual perceptual activities involving patterns. Children will be challenged to draw the patterns and find shapes, numbers or objects in a pattern. The activity pages are in black and
white.

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns stimulates:
visual motor skills
visual perceptual skills
visual closure skills
visual discrimination
spatial relationships
visual memory

Download your free sample pages at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/patternsfree.html

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"Here Comes Santa Claus" Visual Motor Freebie

Practice visual motor skills and handwriting with this new freebie with a Santa Claus theme.  You can download it at http://yourtherapysource.com/freesantarace.html

Whooooo's There? Visual Motor Freebie

Download this visual motor and visual discrimination freebie at http://yourtherapysource.com/freethanksgivingowls2.html

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Autumn Visual Closure Activity

Encourage visual closure and visual motor skills with this Autumn activity.  Download it at http://yourtherapysource.com/freeautumncloseup.html

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Freebie - Black and White Lines for Pre-Writing Practice

Download these FREE black and white line pages to practice horizontal, vertical, diagonal, zig zag and curved strokes.  You can download them for free in three different sizes depending upon the child's visual motor skills.

Visit http://www.YourTherapySource.com/freeblackwhiteprewriting for the downloads.

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Traveling Chalkboards

For awhile now I have been trying to figure out how to make some chalkboard items.  I have tried the chalkboard spray paint which does work well on wood.  I tried it on fabric and cardboard and did not have good results.  The other day I received an email with a daily deal on repositionable chalkboard contact paper.   I figured I would give this a try and it worked perfectly!  I bought a roll of it on ebay for $9 including shipping.  One roll is 18" wide by 6 feet long so it is quite a bit.  The brand was Contact and it was called Chalkboard Roll.  

To read more about the ideas I came up with visit YourTherapySource at http://www.YourTherapySource.com/freechalkboards.

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5 Fine Motor Things to Do with Loom Bands Besides Making Bracelets

Ever wonder what else you could do with loom bands?  Here are 5 suggestions that encourage fine motor skills, visual motor skills and hand strengthening (and none of them are bracelets)!  Get all the directions at http://yourtherapysource.com/freeloombands.html

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Coloring Shape Stencils

How cool is this project?  It reminds me of a zentangle which I always find very calming to do.  There are two ways to complete this activity to encourage visual motor skills, grading of movements and visual spatial skills.

1.  Doodle Shape Stencils - Draw any random doodle all over a piece of paper with black marker.  The paper should not be too large.  Using stencils, trace a few shapes over the doodle.  Now color in the doodle inside the shape.  

2.  Printed Paper Shape Stencils - Print out a page from Geometric Patterns and Shapes Coloring Book or print out the freebie.    Using stencils, trace a few shapes over the page.  Only color inside the shapes.  

Want to make it easier?  Perhaps try these suggestions: outline each shape with dark marker so the child can clearly see the boundary lines or just color inside the entire shape instead of each intricate smaller doodle or shape.  

Want to change it up?  Use letter stencils and write a name instead of shape stencils.

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This download is a collection of 60 different geometric patterns and shapes to color. Challenge children's visual and fine motor skills while creating works of colorful art.  Find out more information at http://yourtherapysource.com/geometric.html