Spring activities suggested by our CTC Therapists that will help your child learn and grow!
Spring is the perfect time to get outside and play!
Here are some simple low-prep or no-prep activities to develop motor skills, cognitive skills, and language skills.
Silly Shapes
Collect different colors or shapes of flowers and leaves to develop fine motor skills for writing.
Try to draw the shapes you find.
Needed supplies: crayons and paper, chalk, or any other drawing tool!
Smash Flowers
Making Smash Flowers develops hand strength and coordination.
Instructions: collect flowers, place on paper with stem up, cover with plastic bag or parchment paper, smash flowers with hammer to transfer color to paper, remove plastic and flowers
Needed supplies: paper, parchment paper or plastic bag, hammer or mallet
Easy Cutting Practice
Cut grass blades with child scissors to develop bilateral hand coordination.
Instructions: See what different kinds of grass your child can cut.
Can they cut long pieces and short pieces? Can they make grass confetti?
Needed supplies: scissors and grass!
Disappearing Paint
Painting with water will develop motor skills for drawing and writing.
Instructions: dip brush or sponge in water and paint onto any outdoor surface (driveway, walls, porch), paint shadows, animals, letters, anything you can think of!
Needed supplies: water, cup, paint brush or sponge
Nature Man
The Nature Man activity encourages creative thinking and exploration of different textures in the environment.
Instructions: gather different items from outside (sticks, mulch, rocks, etc.) and organize them into the shape of a person
Needed supplies: various materials you can find in the woods/yard
Exploration Echo
Imitating sounds in nature address early language skills.
Instructions: Let your sillies out and make sounds like the animals around you. Buzz like a bee, woof like a dog, tweet like a bird!
Needed supplies: none!
Sensory Scavenger Hunt
Have a scavenger hunt to address language skills, abstract thinking, and attention.
Instructions: go exploring, find something with different colors or textures (soft, crunchy, wet, bumpy, firm, ridged, crackled, etc.) or find something for every letter of the alphabet
Go for a hike or nature walk, climb a tree, play in a creek, make mud pies, identify the plants and animals you find!
Needed supplies: only shoes… or not!
Activities List created by CTC Therapists-Carey Bradley, OTR/L, Christen Haig, CF-SLP and Catherine Dent, CCC-SLP
