Back to School Favs

Back to school sales are in full force in my neck of the woods!  I snapped some pictures of some of my favorite supplies for kiddos...and grown ups who love kiddos, to help you make that shopping trip fun and useful.

First of all, a decent pair or scissors to fit little hands.  My favorite every year are the Fiskars brand scissors and you can find them for $1-$2 during back to school sales.  They fit kiddos fingers and are intended for both righties and lefties.  Bottom line is that they actually CUT!  Please, please, do not buy your little ones the super cheap scissors that won't cut a darn thing.  Cutting is a pretty tricky skill for kiddos to learn and can be frustrating in the best of circumstances---cheap scissors that don't cut make the job oh so much more difficult.  You'll find both blunt and pointed designs.  I've never had an issue with any child using the pointed top scissors and I think it helps them when cutting small pieces.

Markers---kiddos LOVE markers!!  I really like the Crayola Pip-Squeaks for little hands.  Again, these are markers that fit their hands and are easy to manipulate.  They come in lots of colors and motivate kids to draw and create!  There are also "Pip-Squeaks Skinnies" that are obviously... SKINNY :-)   I've had students use both regular and skinny and both worked out just fine.

HIGHLIGHTERS!  Kiddos LOVE these too!  They are super cheap during back to school sales and are an excellent tool for practicing letter and number formation.  I'm not a fan of giving kids dotted lines to trace letters because it's just a lot to look at and there are dots everywhere that look choppy and disjointed.  You can print letters using a highlighter and the child can see exactly what the letter looks like without all of the dots.  It is easier for tracing and helps the student be more fluent.  On top of it, who isn't motivated by fun, bright colors?! For kids who have difficulty with line orientation (keeping letters on the line when writing), a simple highlighted line provides a visual boundary and you'll be amazed at how much more legible handwriting can be when letters actually sit on a line instead of running all over the page.

 
Mechanical pencils are great for helping students learn "appropriate pressure" for writing.  Kids who push so hard that it nearly puts holes in the paper can use a mechanical pencil to learn to use less pressure because the tip can break off quite easily.  I've found that it gives kiddos a good reference for how much is too much when pushing the pencil to the paper.  In addition, my students always consider it a treat to use a mechanical pencil because it's like a "grown up" pencil.

Elmers has some fun new glue sticks with GLITTER!  OK, they're a little more expensive than regular glue sticks, but oh my goodness, children LOVE GLITTER!  Other than the glitter, it makes things stick like regular glue but I'm a big believer in making the cutting, glueing, and writing as motivating as possible.  I can promise you my students will be excited to practice cutting and glueing in style!

These little dudes are called Stetro pencil grips.  I've had lots of parents and teachers put this their students' pencils when the child has a funky grasp.  The secret is that these won't do much of anything to help if you don't take the time to correct the grasp.  For example, have you had a student who wraps their thumb tightly around the pencil? It seems that the Stetro grip would fix that right up, however, the student simply wraps his thumb tightly around the Stetro grip around the pencil.  It would be MORE beneficial to re-train the grasp---use small pieces of crayon and pencil to get a tripod grasp; practice on a vertical surface, etc.
the soft grips below are popular too and the only thing these do is make the pencil softer.  There's nothing wrong with that!  Just don't expect that it is useful in correcting a poor grasp.  

So what the heck are these things you might ask?!   They are intended to be stretchy long erasers.  I saw them and thought "fidgets".  For $.79, you've got a socially appropriate, inexpensive classroom fidget for some of your kiddos who need a little something extra to hold on to to help them focus.  I found these at Target but I've seen them at Walmart, Walgreens, and the grocery store.

These are just a few of the things that popped out to me when I was shopping for my own kids last week.  Some of these items might  not be listed on the "required" list but can help make fine motor FUN!  Check out your local sales and get shopping!

Jen Dermody, OTR/L

Deck The Halls...

Deck the halls with holiday lights....Fa-LaLaLaLa...LaLa-La-La!  Thankfully for you there's no volume button for this post so you'll have to sing it yourself :-)   When I arrived at school today, the halls WERE decked with these festive holiday lights that were adorable and oh so very OT-ish! The students had to CUT out the lights, COLOR the letters, and STRING the lights together by LACING in and out of the holes they made using a HOLE PUNCHER.  Whew!  Those little fingers were workin' for this one and the kiddos were proud of their efforts.  Younger students admired the fun colors and holiday "lights" in the halls.  A whole bunch of them hanging together on the wall simply "lit up" the halls!   Here's a little peek~~

This is a good one to try at home too where you can challenge your little elves to hang LOTS of lights!  For pre-readers, the lights can be cut and laced without letters or you could spell out names of the children.  I've never met a kiddo who doesn't love to decorate for the holidays so take advantage of that enthusiasm!

Jen Dermody, OTR/L



Successful Snipping

Oh my goodness, the school year has picked up speed and we're well on our way through the 2nd quarter already!   New referrals are coming every week and the paperwork is piling up....I've got all sorts of things I want to share on Jen's OT For Kids but can't seem to find even a few minutes in the day to get it done :(  I promise to keep trying so be sure to keep checking back.

I did want to share a quick tidbit about getting kiddos to improve cutting skills without having to keep those darn scissors on the line.  Try playdoh!   Playdoh is awesome for a whole bunch of reasons but you'll see your "non-cutters" getting excited about using scissors when they have an opportunity to cut something other than paper.  Here you'll see one of my preschool friends who needs hand over hand assistance with cutting on a line having a grand ol' time cutting her playdoh into a bunch of pieces all by herself! 

Without any reminders she is using her left "helper hand" to hold the playdoh and snipping with her right hand.  Cutting paper is difficult for this sweet little girl who is often "FINISHED!" before we can really get practicing.  HOWEVER, she stuck with this activity for a much longer span and had lots of practice with the motor skills required to "open/close" the scissors. Along with the cutting, kiddos can roll the playdoh into balls or snakes and use lots of fun tools to dig into the fun.  

I promise to get a playdoh "recipe" on here soon so that you can make your own!  It makes a ton very inexpensively and is even better than what you buy at the store.  Kids LOVE to help make their own playdoh, plus you can pick and choose the colors and even the scents you want to use.  So much FUN!

Jen Dermody, OTR/L