Feed The Ghosts

We are huge fans of themed therapy activities for Halloween, and this ghost feeding one is so fun to get the kids involved in. This activity can help strengthen pincer grasp and finger isolation. You can also add clothes pins, tweezers, or tongs to pick up the pom-poms for grip strength. You even have the option to turn this into a color recognition game.

Materials Needed:

• Box (We used a recycled amazon box), but a shoe box would also work

• Ghost Printable (Click here to download for free)

• Box Cutter

• Scissors

• Tape

• Pom-Poms or Cotton Balls

• Markers/Crayons (optional)

Step 1: Print Halloween ghost printable for free! Using scissors cut out the mouths of all the ghosts.

Step 2: Tape one side of box closed to make a flat top. You will want to leave bottom open so you are able to get pom-poms out. Place ghost paper on top of box and trace where the holes will be. Using box cutter, carefully cut holes into the box.

Step 3: Tape the ghost paper on top of the box so that the mouths line up with the holes. Have your child work to pick up pom-poms or cotton balls and feed the ghosts by pushing them into the box.

*Therapy tip: Try making the holes in the box a bit smaller than your pom-poms so that your child has to isolate their index finger to push it inside the box.

Step 4: As an optional extra step have your child color the ghosts to match pom-poms. Then they can practice feeding the ghosts matching colored food! So “Boo-tiful”

Scavenger Hunt

While we are all spending most of our time at home lately, that does not mean that daily outside walks are canceled! We put together this fun outdoor scavenger hunt activity to take with you on your next family walk (while practicing social distancing of course).

Spotted the fire hydrant!

Taking a marker along is a fun way to sneak in some fine motor practice as well. He rocked his check marks!

The great thing about scavenger hunts, is they really get kids to pay attention to the details of their environment. Searching for the items on the list is a great way to challenge visual scanning and boost their observational skills. Don’t forget to take a marker along so they can check off their finds as you go! This can also be a fun activity to incorporate with speech goals. As you walk work on pointing towards objects, identifying them, practice making their noises, or talk about colors. This activity is so great to tailor to your child’s current speech level. For an extra challenge celebrate each find with an exercise (try jumping jacks, frog jumps, or marching in place). Such a fun way to take advantage of movement time outdoors, while encouraging learning and talking in a relaxed and natural environment. To make searching even more exciting check out our post on how to make binoculars out of recycled toilet paper rolls, this will help kids get excited about searching!

If outdoor walks are not available to your family at the moment, we also created an indoor scavenger hunt option for you. You can still work on all these skills indoors or while looking out the window! Happy searching!! Click here for our scavenger hunt pages.

So proud of all of his finds today! The bunny might take a few walks to find, but we will be keeping our eyes out.