S is for Sand

This is officially S week.  Or maybe I should say it’s the first week of the letter S.  Lately I’ve been taking two weeks to do each letter because I just can’t pull it off in one week.

Today we worked with sand – colored sand – all kinds of colored sand!

In imagining this activity, I just couldn’t picture giving Noah (6 – DS) and Bella the big jars of colored sand to pour onto their pages, so I opted for a collection of salt and pepper shakers from the dollar store.  Those were a BIG hit!  (What child wouldn’t want to finally be able to turn a salt shaker upside down and sprinkle away?)

Here’s how to do it:

Supplies:

1. Black construction paper or cardstock
2. Liquid glue (you know, the old-fashioned kind that comes in a bottle, NOT a stick
3. Colored sand in salt shakers
4. Paper plate.
5. White paint pen, chalk or crayon

Directions:

1. Use the white pen to draw a simple design on the paper (if your child is able, allow them to do the drawing).
2. Give the glue to your child and have him trace over the portion of the design  he wants the first color of sand to cover.
3. Have your child shake the colored sand over the glue.
4. Dump excess sand from paper onto paper plate.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 with the next color.
6. Allow to dry.

Here’s the drawing:

Here’s Noah’s finished project.   He really did a good job of attempting to trace the design with the glue – and the black paper makes it look so cool!

(note:  You can get colored sand at your local craft store – Michaels or Hobby Lobby.  I’m not sure whether you can get it at Wal-Mart – maybe.)

Related articles

• Colored Sand Art (lets-explore.net)

O is for Octopus

It’s always a challenge to keep Noah motivated during anything that resembles a speech therapy drill.  Now that his speech therapist and I have gotten more comfortable with each other, I’m slowly returning to working with him on his speaking words at home.  I can’t claim this idea as my own, but I am at a loss to remember where I got it from.

You know those little reinforcement stickers for patching torn holes in binder paper?  Well, they just happen to be perfect Os.

For this activity, I printed off a copy of an octopus coloring page that you can find here:  http://childstoryhour.com/coloringanimal.htm.  I never know how much Noah  is picking up as far as the printed word, but unless I have proof he’s not picking up anything, I’ll be writing out words every chance I get.  That’s why I added O and octopus at the bottom of the page.

If you’re just looking for fine motor or occupational therapy practice, help your kiddo peel and stick the stickers onto the page and you’re done.

But if you’re like me and desperately trying to capture every possible opportunity to multitask, use the reinforcement stickers as a reward during drills.  I had Noah go through his Kaufman cards – he had to say the word on a card three times and then he got to use a sticker.  So, we covered phonemic awareness, fine motor skills and speech drills all in one 10-minute activity.  I just LOVE it when that happens!

In-Hand Manipulation – Coins

Here’s a shot from last week when we were working on the letter N.  We did our usual alphabet letter in painter’s tape on our Pergo, and I had the Littles hold about five nickles in their palm of their dominant hand.  They had to use only the fingers and palm of that hand to move the nickel (N is for nickel) between their thumb and index finger and then place it on the N.  This type of activity is the easiest I know for getting those little hands into a perfect Pincer grasp.  Another occupational therapy at home idea for our kiddos struggling or practicing fine motor skills.