Kids need physical activity and movement. Fun brain breaks for kindergarten and preschool are some of my favorite things to share about. To anyone working with children this is not shocking news. That being said, teachers, parents, and therapists today run into a problem. So much is demanded out of our children academically with test …
Working in pediatrics can be a lot of fun. What makes it fun is the fact that you get to “play” while working on important motor skills. Today I’m going to share some of my favorite pediatric core strengthening exercises that are so much fun that your kiddo may not even realize how hard they …
I love coming up with creative ways to work on balance exercises for kids. Balance exercises don’t always require standing on one foot. There are several different creative ways that you can work on balance exercise for kids. Today, I’m going to share with you some of my favorite ways to work on balance!
February is here! It’s a fun month for gross motor planning with a variety of different ideas to make movement fun all February long. With events such as the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day, February gross motor can be a breeze. I’m excited to share with you different February gross motor planning ideas to get …
Arctic animal yoga is one of my favorite ways to make movement fun during the winter months. I love adding stories to these themed movement ideas to make the movement ideas even more captivating for kids. The winter yoga and movement story has been such a hit I created a an arctic yoga story. Like …
Hello January! It’s the start of the New Year and the dead of winter. When I think of January gross motor and fine motor planning I think of all things snow and cold as well as a fresh start with the New Year upon us. I like to break January gross motor and fine motor …
With a background in physical therapy I work a lot on gross motor skills. What I’ve found over the years, is that I use a lot of fine motor activities to work on gross motor skills! Since fine motor skills and gross motor skills go hand in hand, it’s really no surprise that this is …
Fine Motor Activities To Work on Gross Motor Skills Read More »
If you are a regular reader of this website, you know how I’m all about making movement fun and meaningful for kids. I LOVE a good theme and love to incorporate movement in themes. It’s just more fun. In addition to the themes I’ve started to create stories to go along with the ideas. They …
Winter will be here shortly. Being from Minnesota, I always find it hard to believe winter starts in late December as the winter weather has already been here for a while! I’m excited to share a fun winter themed game that is perfect for the entire winter season and a fun winter movement game that …
Are you looking for a fun way to add movement and physical activity with a holiday theme? Need Christmas gross motor ideas? How about dancing like elves? The Jingle Jive is a fun game to create dancing routines during the holidays. The Jingle Jive is a great way to move and work on motor planning …
I love all of the different motor and sensory paths I am seeing out there. If you are a regular reader or have been looking through this website you will notice that I LOVE themes. That’s why I created the Santa Boots gross motor game that is perfect for Christmas! It’s easy to set up …
The holiday season is here and it is a busy time of the year. I want to take motor planning off your plate this month and make this a little bit easier for you. I’m sharing with you some of my favorite Christmas motor planning ideas. The Christmas motor planning ideas include both holiday themed …
If you are looking for a fun gross motor themed activity to try this December, Reindeer Games Camp is a must! It’s a really fun way to work on gross motor skills with a holiday theme. In reindeer boot camp the kids will see all the work the reindeer have to do to get ready …
I’m excited to welcome Nik Sell a school-based physical therapist to the blog today! He will be sharing some great options for supportive classroom seating for alternative and complex classroom seating needs. Sitting. Sitting might seem like a pretty boring topic. Most of us spend a great deal of our day sitting. In a meeting. …
Supportive Classroom Seating -Alternative and Complex Classroom Seating Needs Read More »
I love combining moving with learning and one fun way to do that is by doing shapes yoga for kids. The yoga poses are your traditional yoga poses with a twist to make them easy for kids to relate to shapes. It’s a fun way for kids to kinesthetically work on learning!
We are lucky that there are so many valuable resources available to us as therapists! Several of these resources are even created by therapists. I love creating resources myself, like the resources in the shop! I also love getting resources from other pediatric therapists. One of my favorite resources is e-books. I find them far more …
With Thanksgiving approaching it’s the perfect time to start thinking about Thanksgiving motor planning activities. I love Thanksgiving, I don’t like turkey, but I love that there are four days in a row that everyone in my family is home! We have several different fine motor and gross motor activities to do this year that …
Sports are something that my boys go crazy for. So much so that my 14 month old girl walks around the house holding a football card saying “football” and smiling. They love to bring their basketball, baseball, and football sports activity cards to daycare/preschool for everyone to do and everyone at daycare/preschool loves them. With …
One of my favorite ways to do therapy with kids was using a vertical surface. There are a ton of benefits to working on a vertical surface including wrist extension, spatial awareness, visual attentions, shoulder and elbow stability, core strength etc. That being said, I also LOVED to use vertical surface activities to incorporate gross …
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Who knows kids that are dinosaur crazy? Honestly, at my house they are not. I had made my oldest son’s bedroom a dinosaur theme and once he had an opinion that room switched to a sports theme. That being said I’ve worked with tons and tons of kids that LOVE dinosaurs. I started out with …