Last week I chose OT activities that were all carnival themed! Check out my Carnival Pinterest Page for details about the activities below and other ideas!
For my telehealth students I spent hours creating a fun and engaging carnival PowerPoint. I added it to the FREEBIES: Activities section of my website! We had fun riding the rides, playing games and winning prizes, and eating unhealthy (but pretend) carnival food! The beautiful thing about this PowerPoint is that I was able to use it for multiple sessions, which decreased planning time! There was no way to get through all of the activities in only one session! Some students loved it so much we are now doing it for a third session!
For my in-person students we had 2 different types of therapy sessions. One included creating a popcorn craft like this:
It incorporated cutting, fine motor dexterity, and writing skills! I drew the white box shape for them and they cut it out. Some students drew the lines and colored within the lines. Other students simply colored in the lines that I drew for them. We ripped and wrinkled papers for popcorn. We used yellow paper for butter popcorn, white for plain, and orange for cheese popcorn. It was super fun and, of course, I had some real popcorn to share!
The 2nd session incorporated fun, OT-related, carnival games that we used as centers! We played:
1. Basketball: I used double sided velcro to attach SOLO cups to a board. I used orange pom poms as mini basketballs. We worked on wrist extension and gentle throws!
2. Tic Tac Toe Bean Bag Game: They stood on the trampoline to get some sensory input and took multiple attempts to get 3 in a row until their time was up!
3. Knock Down the Cups! They sat or laid prone on the platform swing to throw bean bags at a pyramid of 6 Solo cups. They also were in charge of restacking the cups.
4. Popcorn Pickup! They used a pair of pronged claw tongs to pick up real pieces of popcorn and put them in the popcorn container.
Who doesn't love a good carnival...especially when it's OT related?!