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Improving Learning with Occupational Therapy: A Toolkit of Fun Activities
Occupational therapists play a key role in supporting elementary special education students by making learning fun and meaningful. Having a set of well-designed activities isn’t just helpful—it’s essential for student success. This blog post shares a collection of activities that build important foundation skills. You’ll find ideas to support fine motor, gross motor, visual perceptual, and social-emotional development—all in one place.
Engaging Activities for Skill-Building: Activities like “Lite-Brite“, gross motor or yoga dice, and Emotion block puzzles seamlessly transform therapy into play, refining both fine and gross motor skills. These interactive tools also serve as catalysts for social-emotional learning, fostering emotional intelligence through engaging, hands-on experiences. Visual perceptual activities such as Spot the Difference and scavenger hunts become vital components in this toolkit, enhancing cognitive abilities in a purposeful and playful manner.
Each activity in this toolkit is designed to build skills through play. While they may look like simple games or crafts, they help students improve motor skills, emotional regulation, and more. For even more ideas, be sure to visit the Free Resource Library and download additional tools to support your sessions.
Whether you are brand new to occupational therapy or have been practicing for years I hope you find a few new ideas on my list.
Check out this and many other downloads to add to your tool kit in the Free Resource Library.
What is in your OT Tool Box?
I work in 4 elementary schools and a middle school each week. My students are diverse. I work with students with autism, mild learning disabilities as well as physical disabilities. I love finding and creating fun activities for writing prompts, and activities to work on fine motor, gross motor, and social-emotional learning.
My Occupational Therapy Cart
Most of the things on the list below are in my rolling cart at the moment. I have a weekly theme and change up my crafts, printables, fine motor, and visual perceptual activities and store them in a 2-gallon ziplock bag. I love finding small and mini versions of games for travel. My pencils, tweezers, pens, small dice, scissors, crayons, glue and so much more fit in this awesome pencil case.
- iPad loaded with my Boom cards, digital activities and a variety of apps
- Muffin tin and things to sort (pom poms, beads, mini erasers)
- Color sorting cups
- Beads and pipe cleaners
- Tweezers
- Strawberry hullers
- Wiki sticks
- Rapper snappers
- Shower puff (play catch and eye tracking)
- Racket balls (bal-a-Vis-X)
- Printed roll and write for each season and holiday
- Follow the Directions Activities
- Roll and Draw Activities
- Diamond Dotz
- A variety of lined paper styles with a centerline
- Variety of Furby pencils and fun erasable pens
- Printed Motor games in several styles
- Button sorts
- HWT flip crayons
- Spring open Scissors
- Purple glue sticks
- Stickers for sorting
- Construction paper
- Scratch paper and tools
- Large foam dice
- ABC dice
- Magnet letters
- Story Cubes and Roll a Story
- Tall tales
- Yoga dice
- Gross motor dice
- Conversation cubes
- Small whiteboard and skinny dry-erase markers
- Kinetic sand
- Letter stamps
- Shaving cream
- Small cookie sheet
- Clipboard
- Watercolor paints
The following games:
- Blink
- Mini Lite Bright
- Left Center Right
- Cobra Paw
- Kluster
- Deck of cards
- Spot it
- Pass the Pigs
- Mini Uno
- Emotions blocks
How about you? Do you have a backpack, bag, or cart? Are you only in one school? What do you have in your occupational therapy toolbox? If you have something I don’t, I would love to hear from you.
Email me at Cindy@CreativeCOTA.com if you have any great ideas I have not included.
Occupational Therapy Tools and Activities
Occupational therapy activities are not just games; they’re fun engaging ideas used by school-based therapists to create a fun learning experience. Every tool in the occupational therapist’s tool kit has a purpose. The journey may be different for every student, but with the guidance of school-based therapists, each student can be successful.
About the Author
I am a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) and have been working in a public school system for more than 25 years. My resources can be found on TPT, BOOM Learning, Made by Teachers, Classful, and Your Therapy Source. I appreciate your interest wherever you wish to shop.
My mission is to help you find creative ideas to incorporate fine motor, visual perception, gross motor, and social-emotional learning into your lessons.
I hope you consider signing up for my Free Resource Library with your Email. I send out emails about once a week and share resources, tips, and planning ideas for your classroom or occupational therapy needs. Hopefully, these help your students work on building their skills in a fun and engaging way.
Thank you for your interest in my resources and ideas. I hope you will consider following my journey on TPT or wherever you wish to shop.
