Beautiful coloured salt art ... the perfect homemade craft for your kids these school holidays!  You probably have what you need to create this in your house already!

What do you need to do?

This was a fun activity that produced a lovely result.  Mr 4 and Miss 7 worked together to do this activity (as I only had one bottle).  They both admire it now each time that walk by and are proud of what they have made together.  I gave Mr 4 smaller quantities of the salt than Miss 7.  They both did well to keep the salt on the kitchen bench top but you may want to consider using a tray during colouring if you are concerned about more salt ending up on the floor than in the bottle.

Here are some of the fine motor benefits of this activity:-
* bilateral coordination with folding and pressing the paper,
* hand strength with colouring in,
* eye/hand coordination with colouring in and pouring the salt, and
* grasp and manipulation of the chalk.

This was a really easy activity to set up and do together (appealing to both my school-age child and my preschool-age child). Of course you don't have to put your salt into a bottle.  You could pour it into a tray for rainbow sensory play... although I would recommend it for kids over 3 years of age as you wouldn't want your kids to consume this salt!

Have you tried salt art?

Special Note: Thank you for your support of Your Kids OT since I began just 8 months ago in February 2014!  I have been producing new content three times a week during these 8 months.  I use my own photographs and write/produce/edit all the work done on this website. I have decided to reduce the number of articles I produce to twice a week and will review this again in the coming months. 

Please continue to follow Your Kids OT on Facebook and Pinterest as I love to share content by other fantastic bloggers as well as other insights I find along the way.

I also love to hear from you! So comment below or on FB and let me know what you like about Your Kids OT! Which days of the week do you like to read this blog?


Thanks again!

Do you have a child starting big school next year? or did they just start (for my northern hemisphere readers)?

"Follow the Line to School" by Laura Ljungkvist is a clever picture book for kids.  It encourages your child to journey through the book by following the line (which can be traced with their finger).  The line travels around letters and pictures on each page to lead you to different aspects of school life including the classroom, the library, the playground, etc.

Starting school can be daunting for kids.  A new environment with new faces and new expectations. Reading books such as this one can help your child to prepare for school by becoming familiar with what they might see there.

Follow the Line to school is full of fantastic pictures and a few questions on each page to prompt discussion with your child about the school environment.  Along the way, you may also identify colours and letters, count objects and of course follow the line.  These are great "school readiness" skills to encourage.  

This book also encourages a number of visual perceptual skills such as eye-hand coordination, visual scanning, figure ground and discrimination skills.  

I would highly recommend this book and others in the "Follow the Line" series! They make a great gift too.  "Follow the Line to school" is available from the Book Depository.

Is your child looking forward to starting big school?

Are you looking for some simple writing prompts?  Here are some excellent resources that I have in the Your Kids OT shop.  Each page encourages your child to think, draw and to write.  There is a small picture on each page with a question to prompt imagination.  Prompting questions include "What is mum cooking for dinner?"  

There are currently 13 different writing prompts available including areas of interest such as aeroplanes, beach, breakfast, bus ride, clown tricks, dinner, fairy wish, helicopter rescue, ladder, pirate, stuck cat, triceratops and a wizard wish. You may purchase them individually or as a special bundle (always cheaper to buy in bulk).  Find these worksheets at the Your Kids OT Shop. 

If you find these resources useful let your friends and colleagues know!  Please do not make copies of the resources to share as your support of Your Kids OT assists me to continue this website and blog.

Thank you!

Don't forget to check out other popular products at the Your Kids OT shop!

This is a fun extension activity for those who love paper planes.  It is perfect for indoors when the outdoors just aren't so inviting or a perfect way to spend the school holidays!  

If your child doesn't enjoy planes maybe you could scrunch up newspaper to throw or throw something light like pom poms at the target?

Do you think your kids will like this target?  Don't forget to "pin it" for the next rainy day!

Enjoy this homemade activity? Try these too...

I have to start with some games that I have featured previously at Your Kids OT.  Did you read about these games?

And here are some more by other clever people on the web...

Here are the previous Freebie Fridays in case you missed them!

• Freebie Friday #1: Pre-Writing Printables
  
• Freebie Friday #2: Cutting
• Freebie Friday #3: Drawing
• Freebie Friday #4: Visual Motor Skills

These printable games will keep your kids busy during the school holidays!  Stay safe if you are travelling!

What is your favourite website for freebie printables? Let me know!

Have you tried adding spices to your playdough? Our sense of smell can be so strong, guiding whether you like something or not.  Adding spices to your playdough can really create a great multi-sensory experience for you and your child. 

My original {FREE} playdough recipe that I published here a few months ago has been downloaded more than 100 times on "Teachers Pay Teachers".  You can also get it from the YKOT Shop here.  It uses boiling water rather than cooking the playdough and it works!

Instead of adding food colouring this time we added spices (add a generous amount).  Mr 4 and I chose smoked praprika and cinnamon.  

Mr Potato Head came to play when the playdough was made.  Mr 4 loves this activity and it is a fun way to use your spiced playdough.  For more playdough activity ideas refer to this article.

Have you made spiced playdough? Let me know if you do!

If your child attends a NSW public school then they will be learning NSW Foundation Font.  The letters formed are very different to the Spalding Method I have just mentioned, with letters forming eclipses rather than circles and lines being on a slight slant.  

Regardless of the font your child is learning, a clock face can be invaluable in teaching starting points. 

I use a clock face in conjunction with other techniques when teaching letter formation.  Did you read my previous post about "Letter Families"? {I'll wait while you take a quick detour}.....  "Magic C" letters are taught with a starting point at "1" when I'm working a child learning with NSW Foundation Font. {Note: In the Spalding Method Magic "C" letters are called "clock face letters" and start at "2"}. 

The child places their finger on "1" and traces around the clock (anticlockwise) to form a "c".  This helps the child to plan how to write this letter - finding a starting point, planning the direction to draw and where to finish the letter. They can also visualise what the letter may look like.  

It is helpful to use a multi-sensory approach too!  Bring in the playdough to form letters, trace it in a tray of rice or sand, draw it in the air, use pipe cleaners, etc.  

At first, you may place these tools directly on top of a  clock face picture {ie. place the playdough on "1" and form it into a "c"} and then over time a verbal reminder may be sufficient to help the student plan how to form a "c".   Use the same verbal prompt for a starting point at "1" when it comes to writing the letter.

Depending on your child, you may want to use the clock face for other letters as well. It can also be useful for teaching "e" starting at "9", "m, n, p, r" starting at 10.

What font do your kids learn at school?

Have you ever used a clock face to teach handwriting?  Try it today!

Hours of Lego fun here!  Which is your favourite?

Enjoy your weekend!

SO...when you need some colour in your life it is time to colour pasta {do you think someone could turn that into a song?}.  It wasn't as difficult or time consuming as I thought it might be.  Start by picking a warm day...it helps the pasta to dry faster!

What do you need to do?

How do you use this?

• Colouring the pasta was an activity in itself.  As you can see by the photos, Mr 4 was very involved with all the steps.  He loved squishing the food colouring around to cover the pasta.
  
• I set up the coloured pasta with several different strings.  I tied a piece of pasta to the ends of the string so that when Mr 4 started threading {lacing} the pasta didn't fall off the end.
  
• Mr 4 also likes to sort the pasta into colours.  Help the matching by using containers of the same colour as the pasta.
  
• The pasta becomes "pretend food" for cooking.
• The blue pasta has been used in rice play {notice the textures in the rice} to add water for the dinosaurs.
• Use the pasta with rice, playdough or kinetic sand.

WARNING - any necklaces or bracelets made must be worn by parent or therapist (or other) 
of child who has taken the trouble to make it!

Have you coloured pasta before?  How do your kids like to play with coloured pasta?

Note:  I am now on holidays and may be slow to respond to emails.  I'm hoping to post articles whilst I'm away but sometimes these things don't always work.  Thanks for your patience. Don't forget to check out the archives at www.yourkidsot.com. You can find articles grouped into categories for easy access!  Thanks for your support!

Dexteria Jr is one in a series of apps by Binlary Labs Inc, designed in collaboration with Occupational Therapists.
 
Dexteria Jr. includes hand and finger exercises that are designed to help develop fine motor skills and handwriting readiness. Dexteria Jr is designed with children 2-6 year olds in mind (ie. preschoolers), however I have found it great for older kids who are continuing to work on pre-writing skills such asfluency and pencil control.

Dexteria Jr contains 3 main activities which contain various levels within each activity.  These activities are "Squish the Squash", "Trace and Erase" and "Pinch the Pepper".

Trace and Erase is a series of paths that require fluent motion of the finger to draw. There are 29 levels with a progression from straight lines, diagonals, zig zags to more complicated paths with multiple turns.

At each level, the user needs to start at the green arrow and draw along the path to the star (ie. trace). The next step is to drag the eraser along the previously drawn path to reveal the ipad screen underneath (ie. erase).  When all the lines or paths have been erased then it is time to pull a funny face and have your photo taken.   Each time the photo is "distorted" like looking at those funny mirrors at amusement parks.  Kids really love this aspect of the app and it is a motivating factor in finishing the paths.

I like to encourage the use of a stylus with this app as I think you can achieve even more goals in a therapy session. You can encourage a dynamic pencil grasp, pencil control, eye-hand coordination and visual perceptual skills.  

I would highly recommend this app for parents, teachers and therapists.  It targets fine motor and pre-writing skill development.  With the additional use of a stylus this app can be used well beyond the pre-school years that it was designed for.  I have found that I use this app the most often, in relation to the other Dexteria apps available. Whilst they have merit, this app has the fun, variety and skill focus that is of the most use to me as therapist.

Here is a video demonstrating the use of the app produced by the developers.  If you are receiving this post via email, you may need to click on the title of this post (which will take you to a live web page) before being able to view the video.

Have you tried Dexteria Jr.? What do your kids think of it?

Note:  This app is not currently available for Android.  I noticed that the original Dexteria app is available for Android. Please contact the developer for information about this app becoming available for Android users.   


This article contains affiliate links.  I have not received remuneration for this article and all opinions are my own.