October is here, and so is the pumpkin-everything season! If you’re looking for simple ways to bring a little fall fun into your therapy sessions, these fall fine motor activities are for you.
These seven easy, low-prep ideas use seasonal materials to help children practice fine motor coordination, hand strength, grasp, and visual-motor skills. They’re perfect for occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and teachers looking for engaging activities to use during the month of October.
1. Pumpkin Seed Scoop
Give little hands a workout with this simple scooping activity! Fill a shallow bin with pumpkin seeds or dried beans and have students scoop and transfer them into small cups using spoons or child-safe tongs.
Materials: Pumpkin seeds or dried beans, a shallow bin, spoons or tongs, and small cups.
2. Candy Corn Clothespins
Turn ordinary clothespins into a festive fall activity! Cut out paper triangles and color them with yellow, orange, and white stripes to resemble candy corn. Have students clip clothespins along the edges or use them to decorate their candy corn creations.
Materials: Paper, crayons or markers, and clothespins.
3. Spider Web Threading
Create a spooky spider web using a paper plate and yarn. Punch holes around the edge of the plate, then encourage students to thread yarn through the holes to make a web. Add plastic spiders or paper spider cutouts for a fun finishing touch!
Materials: Paper plates, yarn, a hole punch, and plastic or paper spiders.
4. Pumpkin Putty Dig
Hide small orange pom-poms or other age-appropriate objects inside orange therapy putty. Have students use their fingertips to pull the objects out. For an extra challenge, provide tweezers to pick up the hidden treasures.
Materials: Therapy putty, orange pom-poms, and optional tweezers.
5. Leaf Hole Punch Collage
Bring the colors of fall indoors with a colorful leaf collage! Give students fall-colored paper and a hole punch. Have them punch out small pieces of paper, then glue the colorful confetti onto a leaf outline.
Materials: Fall-colored paper, a hole punch, glue, and a leaf template.
6. Ghost Sticker Scene
Create a spooky nighttime scene using stickers! Draw or print a simple night sky, then let students peel and place ghost, bat, pumpkin, and star stickers wherever they choose.
Materials: Paper, crayons or markers, and seasonal stickers.
7. Eyedropper Potion Lab
It’s time to make a little Halloween magic! Fill small containers with different colored water and provide child-safe droppers and a muffin tin. Have students squeeze and release the droppers to transfer and mix different colors to create their own pretend potions.
Materials: Child-safe droppers, food coloring, water, muffin tins, and a tray to catch spills.
*Adult supervision is recommended for all activities. Choose materials appropriate for each child’s age and abilities, and avoid small objects when there is a choking risk.
Looking for more ways to make your October sessions easier?
Check out Emily’s Halloween Writing Prompts with Pictures or her Halloween Fine Motor Skills Mini- Flip Books for Occupational Therapy. These writing activities are an excellent resource for combining handwriting and written expression practice with fall themed lessons. The handwriting pages have been designed with visual boundaries for students who have difficulty with sizing and placement of letters. There are also visual picture cues for adding details to sentences. The fine motor mini-flip books are the perfect activity to target coloring, cutting, writing, and drawing for occupational therapy, special education, life skills, and speech therapy students!
Need More Fall-Themed Speech Therapy Ideas?
If you’re looking for Halloween-themed speech therapy ideas, Nicole’s Halloween Speech Therapy Articulation & Language Activities can help you spend less time searching for materials and more time working with your students.
Check out her Halloween speech and language activities for ready-to-use activities that you can use with your entire caseload!
Explore this Halloween Speech Therapy resource on My Website →
You can also shop this resource on Teachers Pay Teachers.
What are your favorite fall activities? Share your ideas in the comments. I’d love to hear what you’re using with your students this October!
Sincerely,
Emily
Leave a Reply