Potato Painting

Here's yet another fun way to get the kids painting.  Use a cut potato, or apple, to make circles on paper.  Have the kids make designs with the potatos. 

IEP or 504?

Here in Pennsylvania, we have IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) and 504 plans in our education system.  IEPs help your child through specially designed instruction that can take the form of direct treatment, consultation and/or observation.  Your child is seen for therapy sessions with a service provider.  504 plans can support your child with what they need to be successful in school without the need for direct intervention, i.e. attention/focus supporting strategies, transportation or self-care supports, or adaptive equipment/modification needs.  Children with 504 plans are not showing any developmental delays, but may be struggling physically or academically anyway.  I'd like to open the comments section here with your experiences with 504 plans.  My older son has one to support his needs related to attention and focus, and I have to say it's working out very well this year in 4th grade.

Coffee or tea squirrel craft

Here's another fun, easy craft involving lots of senses!  Print out a squirrel outline, paint him all sticky with glue and sprinkle tea or coffee grinds on for his fur.  If your child dumps out the whole tea bag in one spot, more fun using pincer grasp to spread it out.  Not to mention all the fine motor work picking those little pesky tea spots off your hands!

A wall worthy fall leaf craft!

Easy to do and the process is a lot of fun!  Put some shaving cream in a tray and squirt a blob of paint in it, let the kids swirl it into the shaving cream with a paintbrush or popsicle stick, the more fall colors, the better!  Then take a cut out paper leaf (tagboard works really well) and press it lightly into the mix... if it's tempera paint, it will come out kind of like sponge painting, if you're brave and it's acrylic paint, it will come out more swirly.  The tricky part is then gluing them onto a piece of construction paper...

Fall craft

Since there are lots of leaves falling outside, here is a fun craft to do with the leaves.  Have you child color, or draw if your child is able,  a tree and glue on real leaves!  It's cute, and works on fine motor control and school readiness skills.

More painting

Yet another fun way to paint- use yarn to make stripes on paper.  Here, we use a picture of a zebra and black paint to make it's stripes, but you can use any color paint, or many different colors, to make fun designs.