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This escape room was co-facilitated by our favorite speech therapist, Ms. Sweet of Sweet Speech Therapy. This one was a very quick concept and set up- we grabbed the supplies and thought it through for about 15 min beforehand, and then one person set it up with the other went over the two topics with the group. We completed the activity with a group of eight 3rd-5th grade students. The goal was to introduce them to the concept of the 4 color zones, introduce the concept of expected and unexpected behaviors, and have them practice by placing examples of faces/emotions (from the Zones workbook) and behaviors (from teachers pay teachers based off the Social Thinking program) into the proper category. We set up the gym with an area of "the river" (cones surrounding unrolled blue yoga mats) that they had to travel on "boats" (scooter boards) to collect social skills challenges, keys in a few easy screw open containers, and the face/emotions and behavior cards. The other area was the "plains" next to the river where they could go freely doing an animal walk of their choice (they chose mostly bear walks, frog jumps, or crawling) to collect scattered face/emotion and behavior cards. They could bring back only one at a time. We passed out keys to students who were placing items in the right category, we saw working as a team, or if they completed a social skills challenge. (Pink post it notes) From left to right: plains for animal walks with scattered cards, river for scooter boards, and sorting emotions into category of "green zone"
below: social skills challenges (these were hidden in easy to open containers around the room, like a fake hollow book)
left: treasure chest with Lakeshore Learning Locks right: thought bubbles and expected/ unexpected/ zones categories
Thoughts from the woods on a hot, sunny day.   Everyone is headed back to school, but summer colors are still out in the forest. Here is a short mindfulness activity that can be done during any transition. The goal of this activity is to observe and notice things around you that are the colors of the rainbow, in rainbow order (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). When I do this on my own walks, I repeat as many times as the walk allows. With children three times through the rainbow without repeating objects is a good start, and can be expanded or shortened depending on age and diagnosis/attention span. These pictures are from a rainbow walk in the woods, but this can be done in hallways, the car, or walking to school. Today with 4 middle school students and 30 minutes we were able to successfully complete a second round of a handwriting heavy escape room- this time with a Zombie theme. If you are interested in a free detailed tutorial to create your own OT escape room, please see our resources page.
Easy activity to develop fine motor dexterity and use up your piles of silly bands. Put some silly bands in a clean plastic jar. Sit in a circle with the children you want to participate. Have the first child unscrew the lid of the jar, reach in and get a band, loop it around the outside of the jar, screw the lid back on, and then pass it to the next person in the circle.
Make an Ocean Bottle (blue) or a Lava Bottle (red)! Pick an empty bottle (we used the baby oil bottle because it has a kid resistant lid, but any bottle will do) and fill it halfway with baby oil. Next, you will fill it close to the top with water. We made the kids do this part with an eye dropper to work on their pincer grasp. When they started to complain we gave them a “boost” with a turkey baster. When they got enough water in their bottle, they were allowed to pick red/yellow food coloring for a “lava” bottle or blue/green food coloring for an “ocean” bottle. The adults put the food coloring in or heavily supervised the kiddos putting it in. Then you put the lid on, or hot glue it on if it is not a child resistant lid, shake it up, and enjoy! Important note: Baby oil is VERY DANGEROUS and OFTEN DEADLY when inhaled or ingested. Please supervise children when working around baby oil. The adults handled all of the baby oil and insured that the lids were closed and sealed, and that the kids understood that they were not to open their bottles.
Brain Break List
Tic-Tac-Toe Open Mic Chicken Dance Spin x 3 Dance Party Pop! Zoom! 20 Jumping Jacks Follow the Leader 10 sit-ups Rock-paper-scissors 10 push-ups Repeat after me song High Cincos Telephone 10 Ball explosions Simon Says Jump Rope Sign Language ABC’s Donkey kicks Kangaroo Hops Shake your Blues Away Crab Walks Seal Walk Army Crawl Bunny Hop Inchworm Walks Elephant Walks Wheelbarrow Walks Hop on one foot Yoga Dog Yoga Cat Yoga Tree Bear Walk Frog Jumps Over, Under, around and Through Jumps x 10 Shake your body Song Jog in place Stop Drop and Roll Freeze Game Play air guitar Knee Lifts x 10 March in Place Yoga Bridge Yoga Table Yoga Mouse Yoga Do Nothing Doll Yoga Candle Yoga Shark Yoga Hero
A homemade chart for helping children self-regulate, based off of the excellent Zones of Regulation and Alert Program. * The child this chart was done for a young child who mainly has problems with a “high engine”. You could include a ’ ___ makes my engine higher’ section for a child with different needs, or "tools to change my zone" with older children.  An excellent TEDx talk by our favorite nature OT. |
AuthorMs Amy has 10 years of experience as an OT and believes in educating the community to empower parents and teachers to recognize the difference between typical and atypical development and sharing creative ideas to facilitate age appropriate skills. She wants to be a resource for children and families of all abilities. Archives
February 2021
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