OT Stuff That Works

There are three sheets with different scenarios to consider and a blank one for student or teacher to write in other scenarios for the student to rate. This activity increases ability of student to analyze their feelings and express them. Instead of numbers 1-5, students use faces showing excitement, happiness, calmness, sadness, and anger.

There are 4 choices for each add-in and 12 choices for the accent wall wallpaper. Have student choose each component to include in their room, color and cut them out and glue them in place in the order given.

Print on white or colored card stock and laminate for durability. Cut out tiles on light spaces between cards. Play with 2-4 players. Players each draw a card from the stack and place it on the table in front of them. Then they each take a turn drawing another card. Words must remain upright when placed. Match nouns to nouns...verbs to verbs...adjectives to adjectives. Have students identify the words they are matching each time as either nouns, verbs, or adjectives. Can play with matches to eit

Discuss different emotions for each page. Have students match emotions to the best of their ability...some expressions could suit several emotions. Have student identify the emotion under the faces on the left side before drawing the line to the one they feel matches the emotion best.

Have student color children and pick one child to represent themself. Cut out all of the children. Have them write their name and date at the top of the writing page. Then, have them glue the one representing themself first, to the left of the page. Direct them to keep a space between each other person as they put them on the line with feet touching the line (they will glue them in place, once they have correctly positioned each child on the line and gain approval for placement from the teacher

Have student read words that are present first, then return to the top and try to figure out what words to add to make sentences make sense. Great writing activity that addresses legibility, orientation of letters to lines, and ability to generate full sentences from partial ones.

Use with card showing and see who can copy the pose correctly the quickest or show the card for a few seconds and turn it over and see who can copy the pose from memory the quickest. Can also make it more difficult by showing two cards and then turning them over and having students do the first pose and then the second pose from memory.

Have student look at the pictures and determine what letter they all start with. Then have student write the names of each item on the lines under the item. Student can then color the pictures. Have student cut and paste at least 3 of the items onto the other sheet with correct placement on the vertical lines to create lowercase p's. You can also print more of the cut and paste sheets for students to cut out more or all of the items to glue in place. This is a good activity for dyslexic and dysg

Have student color each half a different color on both sides. (4 different colors). Fold in half so that the words are showing. Open the paper and cut lines from outer edges and stopping cutting where the lines stop (don’t cut all the way through). Fold sheet again and glue the words back to back. Start weaving with long piece from the fold. Once 7 squares can be counted, the weave is correct and can be pushed tightly toward the center and the end can be glued down. Make sure the edges meet pret

Spacer lines between letters and lines. This makes it easier for students to space letters and words well. Extra-large spacing between lines can help improve visual memory when copying words. Good OT activity.

Print on regular paper for fold and open option or card stock for puppet option. Color the page. For puppet, cut out along outer lines and cut the strap rectangles. Fold at top mouth line backward then fold forward till upper and lower mouth lines touch and crease behind. For puppet, make an additional backward fold along the bottom mouth line and attach with glue or tape at ends of the strap pieces. See video for how the puppet works.

Print on white card stock, color, cut and put thumb and finger through the hole to create a beak. Place a slice of bread between fingers and flap wings by bending wrist downward slightly and moving forearm up and down. See video.

Just a fun way to work on pencil precision. Can be made a competition between students like a track and field meet or Olympics. Two sizes. Use smaller size for students with better fine-motor control.

Print in color or black and white. Cut out figures generally and measure "rings" for fingers with the rectangle pieces adjust size and glue the ends, then glue the rings to the back of the figures. These have multiple purposes. Of course, there is the social acceptance aspect of having different races, genders, sizes, and abilities. It can work on finger isolation movements. It can also be used by Speech Therapists and counselors to work on use dialogue and modeling or acting out appropriate soc

Discuss with student how lines begin at home or bed and then go toward the goal. Show how b, d, p, and q have “faces” that face toward or away from the goal. Share the words that begin with each letter that also reveal whether that letter is aiming toward the goal or back to bed. Be animated in the description of each letter. Have student retell the description, then see if student can tell the word that goes with each letter without seeing the visual. Then, see if student can write each letter

This is a game I created to help my students learn the concepts of top, bottom, left and right on a 2-D paper. It also works on counting forward in each of these directions...which is another issue many of my student struggle with. Super fun and adaptable game. Students try to move to the different 9-square zones to collect all 12 of their cards. It's difficult because one doesn't always roll the correct direction to get to the number needed. So, this works on patience too. My own husband

Have student use a timer to time themself in completing each task. Helps keep students complete tasks and improve time on task.

Have student copy each letter directly below those given. Have student evaluate work and circle letters to practice. You may wish to write the practice letters first and have them imitate you. 1-2 practices is best per letter that needs refinement.

This activity can be done in many ways, but tearing painter’s tape and placing it in spaces is a great fine motor and even sensory motor activity. It is labor intensive and requires a lot of focus and precision. Perhaps allow your student to determine how much of the picture they will do with the painter’s tape.

If you have a large class and like to do small groups, you may have some students that naturally want to follow what other students are doing and just copy their work. Having multiples of the same task but with different criteria can help address this issue and develop more independence on the part of all students. This activity works on cutting and hole punching for fine-motor skills, while developing ability to count items correctly. Have students always start hole-punching from the left side