Green Zone Kite Puppet

Lee-Anne Bloom, OTR/L

This is what we are up to in OT this week:

Green Zone Kite Puppet
We cut (fine motor), put on a face (body awareness), assembled (more fine motor) to make a green zone puppet kite. The child named him Green Zone. When asked why his name was Green Zone, the student said, "because he is happy" (working on emotional regulation). He is showing he is happy by the smile on his face. We demonstrated what happy looks like by moving his body through the sky.
Pro Tip: Do this at home by making or drawing faces on things. Ask the child, "how is he feeling?", "what emotion word can you use?", "what zone is she/he in?"

Kicking the soccer ball to bowl and knock down the pins.
Using a "home base" and a soccer ball to kick the ball to knock over the bowling pins teaches visual motor integration, gross motor coordination, and body awareness. Standing and balancing on one leg will improve core strength need for an upright body position needed for table top activities. Kicking the ball towards the goal (a motivating goal that crashes) helps integrate vision and coordinate it with body movement.

Now the child picks up the bowling pins and tries to juggle them. This will help him with tracking, needed for reading and writing.

Pro Tip: Video your child using the "slo-mo" feature on the iPhone. This will allow both of you to enjoy watching the motor movements broken down into steps. Pretend to be the coach (or have the child be the coach) and explain how they could make the movement better. After viewing the video the child often will then try to perfect the movements so that it can be captured again.


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