VIRTUAL OT LESSON PLAN- WEEK 3
Choose 1-2 items from each category and complete 1-2x per week. Areas are subdivided generally into grade levels--but feel free to
upgrade or downgrade based on what your child/children currently need to work on the most.
Warm Up:
Do 10 frog jumps (PK-5)
Do “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes Dance” 5 times (PK-5)
Jog in place for 45 seconds (PK-5)
Army crawl across the room and crab walk back (PK-5)
Touch your knees to your elbows 10 times on each side (PK-5)
If available, use chalk outside and do hopscotch! (PK-5)
Sensory:
-Wrap bubble wrap around your feet or hands, have a poster board or cardboard to walk on. Put globs of paint down on the surface and make your painting masterpiece! (PK-5)
-Put sprinkles in a gallon size ziplock bag. Tape down all four sides of the bag to the table or surface. Using a pencil or finger, draw things like letters, numbers, and shapes. (PK)
-Shaving cream painting! Place shaving cream on a surface such as a table with plastic table cloth over it. Add food coloring drops to the shaving cream and use your fingers to make different pictures. Shaving cream is also a great way to work on letter formation and writing words and sentences. (PK-5)
-Place small items such as legos, marbles, coins, hotwheels, pegs, balls into a bowl of cooked spaghetti noodles, Navigate through the messy noodles and find all of the hidden objects. (PK-5)
Fine Motor:
Threading Activity: With a hole puncher, punch holes in toilet paper rolls. Thread pipe cleaners or straws through the holes. (To make this more challenging, make smaller holes in the toilet paper rolls and use something thin like spaghetti noodles to thread.)
(PK-5)
Button Stacking: Make a pancake with play doh and press a toothpick down in the pancake sticking upwards. Using buttons with holes in the middle, stack them as high as you can. (To make this more difficult, time yourself and try to beat your record.) (K-5)
Separating Pom Pom / Play Doh activity: Using a spoon, have your child scoop pom poms one by one and put them into a muffin pan according to color. If you do not have pom poms or want to grade up the activity, have your child make play doh balls of different colors and sizes. You may also use tongs to work on pincer grasp. (PK-5)
Find the hidden gems: Using play doh, slime, or theraputty, hide various items within it (legos, marbles, coins, etc.) and find the items hidden within and put them in a container. Time yourself and try to beat your score! (K-5)
Visual Motor:
Practice tossing/catching balloons, try to keep the balloon off the ground for a total of 10 times in a row by either batting the balloon back and forth to one another or solo by using opposite hands. (for younger kids, they can try for 5 times using both hands) (PK-5)
Go outside and pop bubbles! Make sure to use your pointer fingers and pop as many bubbles as you can in a set amount of time. (PK-5)
Using a piece of cardboard, cover it with regular copy paper and tape it down. Use push pins to make different mazes or shapes to have your child draw through or around. (K-5)
Make a rainbow ladder! Draw two vertical lines with space on both the outside and the inside. On the outsides make color dots that match on each side of the line. Have the child connect the corresponding color dots to make a rainbow ladder. To upgrade, mix the dots on the sides instead of straight across or write out the name of the color on the outsides of the lines.
(PK-1)
Handwriting:
- Gather a dry erase board, dry erase markers, and Q-Tips. Write out your alphabet using all uppercase letters (PK-K) and then erase them using a Q-Tip following the order and lines you would use when writing the letter. To upgrade this activity, write uppercase and lowercase letters (grades 1-2). Another upgrade would be to write your spelling words or a sentence on the board before erasing it with Q-Tip (grades 3-5).
- Go outside, with your parent or guardian's supervision, with chalk and write as many shapes and letters as you can in 60 seconds! (PK-2). If you are in grades 3-5, look over your spelling words and go outside and write as many as you can remember in 60 seconds on the sidewalk or driveway.
- Go outside and find some sticks and flat/smooth rocks. If you have a paintbrush, gather that, otherwise a Q-Tip would also work, and a cup or bowl of water. Using the sticks, make as many letters or words as you can. Dip the paintbrush, or Q-Tip, in water and draw letters or words on the rocks. They will dry and then you can start over! (PK-5)
- Make a big pancake with your Playdoh. Draw letters in Playdoh using a dowel rod or pencil. Then take cut up segments of straws and stick them in the Playdoh. If you do not have straws, you could use sticks from outside, marker caps, or other things you may have a lot of around the house! Then, take the pieces out, ball the playdoh up, and make another large pancake to start over! (PK-2) A downgrade would be to have a guardian draw the letter in the Playdoh first
Life Skills:
- Take your dirty clothes out of your hamper and help sort it by color and place separate piles in the laundry room to help your family member wash clothes (PK-5). To make this activity easier, just make piles for black, white, and red and set all other colors to the side (PK-1). To upgrade this activity, put a pile of clothes in the washer and, with help, start the load of laundry (grades 2-5).
- Pick out an outfit to wear for the day based on the weather outside. Get dressed all on your own! Now, go show your family what you picked out for the day! (PK-5). To upgrade this activity, pick an item with a zipper, another item with a button, and shoes that you must tie.
- Gather hair ties or rubber bands and a dice. Practice putting the hair ties or rubber bands on your foot and up to your ankle. Once you feel you have mastered this, take all the hair ties or rubber bands back off (PK-K). Now, let’s make it a game! Roll the dice. The number you rolled is how many you should put on and then take back off (K-1). To upgrade this activity, use actual socks instead of the hair ties or rubber bands! (1-3)
- Make a sandwich for lunch with bread, your favorite deli meat, cheese, and whatever else you like on it! Pick out a healthy snack to go with your lunch such as an apple, grapes, or carrots. Pour yourself a cup of water. Once you finish eating, take your dishes to the sink and wash them and put them away, or place them in the dishwasher! (K-5) To downgrade this activity, have the child assemble their lunch with the supplies already out and ready for them.
Oculomotor:
● Go to https://www.puzzles-to-print.com/word-searches-for-kids/ and complete a wordsearch (K-5)
● Write out the alphabet (either each letter on a sticky note, or cut apart each letter with scissors with parental supervision) and scatter the letters around the room. Starting with “A”, find each letter in alphabetical order and place them in order (K-2)
● Toss/catch a medium ball with letters of the alphabet written on it (See picture below). Toss ball to a masking/painter’s tape X that is made on the wall. Catch the ball, trace the letter on the ball, and say the letter out loud. (PK-3)
● Slap Tap Game: This game works on motor coordination as well as oculomotor. When your family member holds up a letter on a notecard, sticky note, or piece of paper, complete the corresponding movement.
“p” = right arm up
“b” = stomp right foot
“q” = left arm up
“d” = stomp left foot
You may also place the letters on the floor in front of you, read the letters from left to right, and complete the corresponding movements. For example: p b q d d b p q
To make the game trickier, you can combine letters to put two body part motions together (see below picture) or add music during this activity (grades 3-5)
Cool Down:
- Find a balloon and blow it up using deep and long breaths
- Give yourself a big bearhug and hold it for 10 seconds
- Blow bubbles in a cup of water in the sink
- Complete a puzzle while listening to music
*** for a list of other activity ideas, videos, and websites scroll through the fine motor, sensory, life skills and technology tabs***
We miss you all!! Have fun with these lessons and stay healthy! Now go wash your hands :)