These fun activities using magazines are the perfect simple additions to your therapy practice, classroom, or home!
If you have a bunch of old magazines lying around, they can inspire so many creative activities for kids! Here are five ways to entertain your child while building strong visual and fine motor skills along the way.
These activities are perfect for a therapy session or just for play at home!
Play “I Spy”
Have your child seek items of a designated color throughout the pages of a magazine. Finding items that are red, blue, green, yellow, etc. will have your child’s eyes tracking and jumping across the page just the way they should! Try the same game with variations: seeking different letters, looking for things in different categories (e.g. animals, foods, people, etc.). Try this fun twist on I Spy!
Make a Collage!
Give your child some cutting and gluing practice by allowing him to create a collage that represents himself. Let him find pictures that describe things he likes, or how he looks, etc. Have him practice cutting skills by cutting the pictures out, and then show him how to glue the pictures onto paper, creating a special collage. Then, sit down and listen to him explain why he chose the pictures he did.
Have a Treasure Hunt
Ahead of time, place different 10 stickers on the pages of a magazine and have your child see if he can find all 10 of them. Make it more challenging by calling out which specific sticker you would like him to find (e.g. “find the dinosaur sticker”). Those Super Fingers will be all fired up, flipping and turning through those thin magazine pages!
Make Confetti!
Let those little fingers have some fun! Have kids tear pages out of a magazine (awesome practice for tearing open packages and containers in the lunchroom!). How tiny can they make the pieces? Tear up lots of little pieces and set aside for a surprise confetti party when dad walks in the door from work! Afterward, glue the pieces together to make a beautiful mosaic!
Make a Fan!
Folding a page of a magazine accordion-style to make a fan is a fabulous fine motor challenge. Kids will have to fold, flip, and manipulate the paper to get it just right. For a smaller child, allow him to simply practice folding the page in half and then in half again, until they have a small square.
For Virtual Sessions:
Try any of these activities during your next virtual therapy session! Simply request that the parent/caregiver has some old magazines on hand during the session. Then, lead the child through any of the activities described above, modeling and providing instructions as you go!
Skill Areas Addressed:
Fine motor skills, visual motor integration, visual perceptual skills, motor control, coordination, bilateral coordination
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