Learning at Home through PLAY for PreK-1st Graders

Patria Lincoln Posted On Mar 19, 2020 | Math

As a School-Based Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA/L), the school closures have steered us in an unprecedented direction. we are doing our best to create at-home programs that are engaging and stimulating to our students, but also fun and easy for our parents to incorporate into their day with all of the other changes and uncertainty. One of the most requested ways we are asked to do this, is to suggest and recommend fun games parents can play with their children at home!

For those preK-1^st graders, maintaining and continuing to work on their fine motor, visual motor, and visual perceptual developments along with getting enough gross motor movements daily, will be an important task.

Alphabet Marks the Spot

Alphabet Marks the Spot hits all of those areas in one fun game! The game is great for those who have multiple children in the same age range to play together and practice turn taking. Even for those who only have a single child working on the skills, it is a fun way to engage with your child, while working on gross motor skills and all of the visual motor & perceptual areas. An added bonus is that the game also works on letter sounds & spelling which is an emerging skill for our young learners!

From letter identification, color recognition, visual tracking and scanning, to visual perceptual matching skills – this game has it all! For those who do not have rote memory of the letters yet, you can always draw out the letter for them and turn it into a pure matching task. Blocking out some of the grid so that they are required to scan a smaller area, is a great way to adapt the game to varying skill levels!

Peg Friends Stacking Farm

Another fun game with simple setup that will entertain the little one forever is the Peg Friends Stacking Farm. This game works on a lot of the in-hand manipulation skills (finger isolation, coordinated palm/finger movements, etc.) while also challenging the kiddo’s visual perceptual matching, and body schema skills. Finding the matching head to body for each animal, putting them together, then placing the whole structure into the peg grid – it seems simple, but is a very skill loaded task for our little learners.

I always recommend adding a gross motor component to activities whenever possible, especially in times like these when we are all hauled up in the house. Placing the head pieces and the body pieces across the room from each other can make for a very fun relay game. Running across the room to find the matching piece, then running to another area of the house to place them in the pegboard. The little ones will be entertained for hours. To up the challenge, you can try placing the body piece in the pegboard first, then having them run to find the head piece from memory!

Alphabet Acorns

Alphabet Acorns is a fun way to work on opening and closing a container, as well as filling it with color matching items. For those who are already working on letter sounds, as well as upper and lower case letters, this is a great cognitive and motor planning task of completing the sequence. Find the objects that start with the letter on the acorn, place them in the container, and find the matching lowercase lid. For those who do not quite have the letter recognition yet, you can simply work on the color component by finding the objects of the matching color!

Related Posts You Might Enjoy

Patria Lincoln | Posted on Sep 10, 2019

DIY Fall Sensory Bin!

Fall is here! Which means I get to put together one of my most favorite sensory bins of the year. Who can resist the smell of apple cinnamon and pine cones mixed with the texture of corn kernels, right!?

Every year I try to add in components that align with the developmental stage my daughter is in. Being almost 3, she is refining her fine and visual motor skills every day, so we added in lots of fine motor challenges and visual perceptual options this year. Toddlers also seek independence in everything they do, so sensory bins are always a great task to get them involved when putting it together.

Fall Sensory Play 4

Sensory Bin Materials

First, we gathered all of our goodies. For this bin, we are using corn kernels, play apples, pine cones, flat marbles, and play leaves as our main “ingredients”. You can control the amount of scent you include in your bin by sprinkling apple pie spice, or adding cinnamon sticks. My daughter does not have any aversions to scent, so we went with pre-scented apples and pine cones (you can often find these in the fall section of your local craft store!).

Fall Sensory Play 7

Next, I had her scoop and pour the corn kernels into her bin, and add in all of the goodies. I let her play for a while and explore the different scents and textures. She loves to explore using kitchen utensils (spoons, bowls, funnels, cups, etc) – she made our whole family some apple soup with a side of leaves and pine cones for dinner! All of this is working on their imagination skills which is fantastic for this age.

Then, the fun begins for me! Here are some fun challenges I incorporated into our purposeful play!

Fine Motor

Corn kernels are awesome because when a toddler plays with it, they are naturally practicing their pincer skills just picking them up and moving them around! I also love to incorporate various tongs, tweezers, and clothespins for her to use while she picks up apples or “catches” leaves.

Fall Sensory Play 8

Visual Motor

Sorting tasks are always a big hit. I had her sort out red apples, green apples, yellow leaves, and green leaves. You can also work on patterning or visual model copying. For my daughter, I lined up a couple objects (red apple, green leaf, pine cone) and had her find the matching objects in the bin and line them up in the same order.

Fall Sensory Play 5 Fall Sensory Play 6

Stereognosis

This is a high-level perceptual skill that I love to throw in when planning activities. Stereognosis is the ability to perceive an object from touch – sensory bins are perfect for this because you can hide a pine cone underneath the corn kernels, have them dig in, and see if they can find the pine cone only by touch. I can’t tell you how intrinsically motivating and fun this is for them, all while working on some amazing developmental skills.

Fall Sensory Play 3

The thing I really love about sensory bins is that they are easily adaptable to any age group. If your little one is younger, try adding the corn kernels to a clear bottle with some leaves and pom poms and have them roll it all around. Watch them in awe as they see the goodies move all around inside the bottle and hear the sounds of the kernels as they slide!

Save it for later!

Patria Lincoln | Posted on Aug 1, 2019

DIY Beaker Creatures Volcano!

Patria Lincoln | Posted on Apr 20, 2018

Celebrate Astronomy Day with Kids

Each year Astronomy Day is celebrated worldwide. The stars have fascinated humanity for literally centuries, and even to this day captures the imagination of kids of all ages. Celebrate this event with them this year and don't worry if you don't own any expensive telescopes. These DIY activities use real life discoveries to inspire your little astronomers!

Track the Phases of the Moon

Bone sticks from across Europe and Africa dating back as long ago as 35,000 BCE that tracked the moon’s phases. Use a simple number line with your kids to track the phases of the moon over the course of a month, from full moon and back again. Do it for several months and see what patterns they begin to observe.

Depict a Celestial Phenomenon

A celestial phenomenon is a astrological event that involves one or more objects. The earliest example depicted was discovered in Germany in 1999. The Nebra Sky Disc dates back to 2000 BC and it depicted a star cluster, phases of the moon and the rising sun.

Use a black paper plate, or even just black paper, and encourage your children to depict their own star formations. If they can’t stay up to observe them at night, project some indoors with this Shining Stars Projector.

Astronomy to Keep Time

The Chinese astronomers kept detailed observations beginning about 600 BC, for the primary purpose of timekeeping. Their records allowed them to predict eclipses, and include the first record of events such as supernovas and comets.

On the other side of the world, the Mayans developed their own astronomical tables for predicting the phases of the moon, eclipses, and the appearance of the other planets. They used these and the cycles of the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and constellations to establish the Mayan calendar.

All of the above astronomy was without a telescope, and you can still observe these astronomical events with your kids today. Check out this astronomy calendar and pick a full moon, eclipse, planetary event, or meteor shower to observe as a family.

Try this simple astronomy experiment to help kids as young as preschoolers understand what makes night.

Just because ancient astronomers did all of this without a telescope doesn't mean your little ones have to! All of the above activities can be done with the naked eye but if you feel like shooting for the stars check out Learning Resources Big View Telescope. How will you celebrate Astronomy Day?