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Unlock the secret to managing a caseload of 60-80 students weekly while maintaining occupational therapy goals and your sanity. The key? Organization, planning, and strategic preparation. This year, I’ve adopted a game-changing approach – planning by season. Imagine saying goodbye to daily, weekly, or monthly prep stress.
My secret weapon? Two-gallon bags where I store meticulously curated seasonal and holiday themes. Year after year, I enhance this treasure trove with fresh activities and materials to keep the excitement alive.
As an occupational therapy assistant collaborating with five skilled occupational therapists, I’ve become the go-to idea person. Oddly enough, I find joy in the preparation process, and I make sure there’s always enough to share.
Picture this: a dedicated bin brimming with fine motor activities for each month of the school year. These are not just ordinary activities – they serve as quick and effective solutions for fine motor and visual perceptual warm-ups or complete occupational therapy sessions. Dive into a world where preparation meets innovation, making the therapeutic process seamless and enjoyable.
Join me on this journey of efficiency and creativity, where organization becomes the cornerstone of a fulfilling and effective occupational therapy practice. Elevate your sessions and maintain your sanity with tried-and-true strategies designed for success.
What is in the bin?
Theraputty and beads, colored pom-poms, and mini erasers to sort into a disposable muffin tin, pony beads to sort into plastic paint pallets with tweezers or on to matching pipe cleaners, Wikki Sticks, pop beads, and colored paperclips to match to card stock. I also made gel bags, sticker sorts, and button sorts.
Printables: I chose a variety of worksheets and activities related to the season from my store. You can grab seasonal sets that include pages from many of my resources here.
I also included gross motor warm-ups. These were printed and laminated but can easily be shared on-screen during a virtual session.
I also include things like extra paper, pencils, pencil sharpeners, purple glue sticks, spring-open scissors, stylus and dice.
Some of the crafts I included have templates and for others, I needed to prep the materials depending on the level of the student. I made simple templates for the fox, button tree, ugly sweater, and Baby Yoda which you can access in my free resource library. I have an ugly sweater resource in my TpT shop if you are interested.
During a session, students can choose a warm-up activity and craft they want to do.
Hope you found a few ideas that will work for your students.
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 CreativeCOTA LLC resources can be found on TPT, BOOM Learning, Made by Teachers, Classful, and Your Therapy Source.
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.
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.
Cindy@CreativeCOTA.com
