
Who doesn’t love a good seasonal craft?! As a school-based occupational therapist (OT), I LOVE a good craft. Simply Special Ed has so many adorable, easy-to-use and super engaging visual crafts that I love to use. They are especially engaging and motivating for my students in self-contained classrooms. I love how easy they are to adapt/differentiate based on student’s strengths and needs. This blog is designed to help you work smarter, not harder while you and your students enjoy some fun visual crafts for the winter season!
Prep Once & Reuse!
With 60-90 students on my caseload at any given time, I love to have things ready to go and easily prepped! I tend to keep parts of the visual crafts from year to year. I review a craft and laminate parts that seem reusable. For example, the visual directions or the material list. Students can check things off with a dry erase marker. Some of my students don’t collect their own materials, so this sheet isn’t needed for every student. I sometimes even laminate and use velcro on the sequencing pages to reuse!
Each Craft Includes:
- Step-by-Step Visual Directions [laminate & reuse!]
- Materials Checklist [laminate & dry erase OR one for each student]
- Craft Sentence (Cut & Paste) [print]
- Sequencing Worksheets [laminate & use velcro OR one for each student]
- “Let’s Review” Survey [print – I like to send these home to families!]
Target Goals with Crafts!
School-based OTs work on a variety of things [check out this blog to see what a “day in the life” could look like!], but many of them could be addressed while working on visual crafts! For example, crafts address:
- Fine motor skills
- Executive functioning
- Bilateral coordination and scissor skills
- Tactile sensory processing
- Following directions/multi-step directions
- School tool use
- Handwriting [and prerequisite skills]
- … and more!
As pictured above, this craft can address a student is writing on handwriting or copying skills! With legibility components related to a 3 lined paper structure as part of the goal, I added lines to the sequencing sheet. There is an option to cut and paste the steps, but it can easily be adapted! I love how easily everything can be up- or down-graded to meet the needs of all students!
Most of the crafts involve scissor skills as well. I love the shape reindeer because it can be used for progress monitoring as many of my kiddos have goals to cut developmental shapes! There are a variety of shapes, sizes and complexities to meet the need of all the students. I might even have students work together to complete the task and assign roles based on their goal areas.
Co-treat with Speech Therapists!
There are so many skills built into these activities! As they say, many hands make light work. It just makes sense to utilize these visual crafts in a “co-treat” setting. Lately, I have been collaborating with our behavior specialist on cooking and craft groups monthly in our autistic support classrooms! Just because these visual crafts are for “December” doesn’t mean you can use some of them throughout the other winter months. Also check out the January visual crafts or the year-long bundle!
My speech therapist colleagues love the “Let’s Review” Survey that comes with each craft! It is an easy way for them to target comprehension goals. I love to send it home with the craft so that parents can see what the student did and their thoughts on it! Historically, I have run a “Friday group” with the speech therapist in my multiple disabilities support (MDS) and/or autistic support classrooms using many of these resources. This works for all levels! My high school self contained students LOVE these crafts, and the visual directions with real pictures make it easy for them to be independent. We love to target problem solving and functional communication [asking for materials] through these types of projects! The possibilities are endless!
Looking to try visual crafts for free?
If you want to try a free visual craft, this FREE pizza visual craft is definitely a crowd pleaser! It’s perfect for any season, and the students always love it! I blogged about this visual craft and how it works on fine motor skills here!
I’d love to hear how you are using visual crafts in your classrooms this winter! Comment below! If you need more inspiration, check out my blog on other winter fine motor activities here for some other creative ideas for the classroom this season! Speaking of good themes, I also have a blog that includes 5 fine motor activities with a candy cane theme if you are looking for additional activities this winter!
Happy Holidays, friends!
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