Table Time Activity: Who am I? 3 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Skill Check
The goal this week is to learn more about community helpers/professions, improve motor skills, and promote language skills. Your child can work with you to complete each puzzle.
Growing My Skills
Your child can play alone to develop important independent working skills or you can work on expanding language by asking them to complete puzzle based on the profession (e.g., Find the doctor. What do you want to be when you grow up? Which one teaches you? etc.)
Floortime Play Activity: Community Helper Dress Up
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to spending time together in a playful, imaginative way. There should be limited structure and a lot of pretending.
Growing My Skills
Black/White Hats And Badges Printable OR Color Hats And Badges Printable.
Look through the different dress-up options together and get excited together about all of the fun choices.
Model wearing your hat/costume first; if your kiddo isn’t ready for pretend play you can have fun changing into the different dress-up materials and even singing the below poem as you go!
If your kiddo is ready to take their dramatic play up a notch, you can act out simple play scenes, such as “driving” the laundry basket to the “fire” and putting it out together!
Relaxation Time Activity: I AM Meditation
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to practice using positive messages as an everyday relaxation tool.
Growing My Skills
Read the book together.
Point at the pictures and emphasize those things that make you and your child unique.
Imitate the different things the people are doing in the book or label different characteristics of the humans you see.
Say the “I am Human” mantra to your child throughout your day to focus your attention on the here and now.
Discuss with your child the different things that bring them peace.
Creative Time Activity: When I Grow Up Coloring Pages
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is for your child to use fine motor skills while being creative with art.
Growing My Skills
Print out When I Grow Up coloring sheets.
Have your child pick the decide on a profession they want to be when they grow up.
Decorate!
Spend time talking about their future and what it will look like.
Movement Time Activity: Building and Construction (Heavy Work)
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to focus on using both hands at the same time, lift “building materials” above our heads and construct towers and obstacle courses.
Growing My Skills
Stack the blocks as high as you can reach by going up on your tiptoes!
Toss the blocks to your child to catch them before they place them on top.
After you build the tower, knock it down by kicking it with your foot or a ball!
Have your child lie on their back and pick up the block with their feet, then lift the block overhead to hand them to their parent to place onto the tower!
Use lots of different shapes and sizes of materials and challenge yourself to make an extra wobbly tower.
Mealtime Activity: Using A Fork
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to work on your child’s ability to pierce foods with a fork.
Children who are aversive to soft cubed foods can complete the same activity with cubes of PlayDoh!
Growing My Skills
Start with soft, cubed-shaped foods that are easier to pierce to build your child’s confidence.
Make sure they are holding the fork close to the bottom so it’s easier to maneuver, you can even place a sticker here as a visual cue.
You can start by modeling the action of piercing the food and let your child then finish the steps of bringing the fork to their mouth to eat.
You can work your way up to them completing the action of piercing the food with each bite.
If the child becomes frustrated or avoids practicing with food, practice this skill outside of mealtime using play-doh!
You can make it playful and create different food shapes out of play-doh.
Language Time Activity: Red and Green Choices
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to provide an opportunity for your child to increase use, expand, and improve understanding of language through play.
Growing My Skills
Read “No No, Yes Yess” book with your child (Depending on your child’s language skills, you can read the words from the page or use your own words to provide a simple description of the pages).
Focus on describing and talking about green choices (e.g., sharing, taking turns, using your words, listening to parents, calm and safe body) vs. “Red choices” (e.g., not keeping self to self, yelling, not sharing).
Use the crafting materials to create red and gree charts, and your child can then point to or label which category those actions fall into.
You can use the book to help identify whether it is a “red” or “Green” choice, or just provide verbal examples (e.g., “Sharing your toy with your brother.. is that a green or red choice?”).
For more complex receptive language skills, you can ask your child “why” questions (e.g., “Hitting your brother would be a red choice, why?” – Because it would hurt his body).
