Table Time Activity: Good Food
Skill Check
This activity focuses on tasting food items and recalling information.
Growing My Skills
Follow the link to song.
Begin song, occasionally pause to label and identify healthy foods.
Find examples of healthy foods in your own refrigerator/kitchen.
Floortime Play Activity: Picnic Time
Skill Check
This activity focuses on healthy foods! The goal with this activity is to promote healthy eating and pretend play with some healthy foods to build awareness and comfort around less preferred healthy foods!
Growing My Skills
To expand on skills label vegetables versus fruits while playing, “watermelon! Watermelon is a fruit!”
Have one of their favorite stuffed animals or characters join you to promote pretend play.
Model feeding the stuffed animal and the stuffed animal really liking the fruit or vegetable.
If you have a pretend food set that Velcros, you can practice some fine motor skills by utilizing the pretend knife to cut the fruits or vegetables before serving them.
Cutting then pretend eating will add a 2-step pretend play sequence!
Relaxation Time Activity: Exploring Taste–Healthy Orange Pumpkin Snack
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to help your child engage and explore in the kitchen/with their food. While also exploring their taste sense.
Growing My Skills
Gather materials
Ask your child about their senses (where is your nose, mouth, ears, hands/fingers, etc.)
Ask your child if they can smell anything (model sniffing with your nose) ask your child if they can hear anything (model touching/listening with your ear, etc.)
Ask questions to connect the activity and your child’s senses, also ask questions while in the kitchen! What ingredients do we need? What do we do first? What do we do next? You can also incorporate senses questions into this activity! What does ___ smell/taste/feel like? Have fun while exploring new foods!
Creative Time Activity: Pinwheel/Breathing Craft
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to teach your child how to build/create their own calm down choices as coping strategies.
Growing My Skills
Gather materials.
Practice and model taking deep breaths before the craft (deep breath in through your nose and exhale through your mouth). Sniff the flowers and blow out your birthday candles” is a good verbal prompt!
Please help guide the child through this craft (hand over hand or prepping certain materials may be necessary) as it is more challenging (please see Pinterest link for step by step instructions).
After the craft is made, incorporate the deep breaths into playing with the pinwheel!
Movement Time Activity: Hokey Pokey
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to get your heart rate up while identifying your body parts for the “Hokey Pokey”!
Growing My Skills
Pull up the “Hokey Pokey” song on YouTube.
Listen to the directions carefully and follow along with the movements.
Your child may benefit from watching you do the moves at the same time.
Do it a few times in a row to really work on that endurance, or sing your own version but make it even faster!Mealtime Activity: “Healthy living” Baseball
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to play “healthy living” themed baseball. Each base is a critical part of healthy living: eating, sleeping, exercise, showering/keeping clean.
Growing My Skills
Throw a ball to your child, let them try to hit it with a baseball bat
The child will run around the bases of healthy living, feel free to act out the activities when you get to the bases. For example, peer or parent throws the ball to the child, the child hits with a baseball bat, the child runs to the “sleeping” base, then “eating,” then “exercise,” then “showering.” (Home base), then they’ve made a home run!
Tip: if they forget the bases, you can prompt them by saying “don’t forget to sleep!” You can tell your child “show me sleeping!” they can pretend to sleep, but then make sure they stand up and go to the next base. Don’t worry about the kids “striking out,” just make sure every base of healthy living is covered.
Language Time Activity: Healthy Living
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to target receptive and expressive language skills, through healthy living activities. This week talks about foods that make us healthy, how being outside is good for us, and being active keeps us strong. Your child can follow directions to action songs, identify items in nature, and label healthy foods.
Growing My Skills
Play “Let’s get fit, Count to 100” Youtube Video and follow movements.
Autumn leaf craft:
Make an autumn leaf from orange, yellow, green & brown construction paper. Or go outside and collect items like leaves, sticks, & acorns in your environment.
Can you find different colored leaves? Different size sticks?
Happy Tooth, Sad Tooth activity:
Sort the following food (ice cream, candy, french fries, milk, cheese, bread, donut, lollipop, cupcake, apple, carrot, egg) into healthy and unhealthy.