Tag Archives: Free Activities

Straws Galore Fine Motor Activity: Free Activity of the Month

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If you’re searching for cost-effective, hands-on ways to build hand skills, look no further than Therapro’s Second Hand Therapies cards. This versatile set of 40 activity cards features creative tasks using recycled materials, including the engaging straws fine motor activity, Straws Galore. With each card highlighting hand functions, difficulty levels, and needed materials, they’re perfect for therapy sessions, classrooms, or home use. Straws Galore encourages scissor use, bilateral coordination, patterning, and more—all through the fun of making colorful straw jewelry.

Below is a sample of Straws Galore, one of the activities in Second Hand Therapies.

When using straws to make jewelry, not only are the kids using fine motor skills, they are practicing their scissor skills, eye hand coordination, color recognition, size differentiation, counting, learning patterns, and so many more skills.

Materials:

  • Straws of varying sizes and colors
  • Yarn, pipe cleaners, or embroidery thread
  • Tweezers
  • Medium-Sized Bowls

Directions:

  1. Hold the straw with your non-dominant hand. Use your dominant hand to cut the straws into small to medium-sized pieces. Collect the pieces in a bowl.
  2. String the straw pieces onto yarn or pipe cleaner as though they were beads.
  3. Practice removing the straw pieces using tweezers for pinch strength development.

Variations:

  1. Instead of jewelry, make letters with the straws. Have the child spell his name.
  2. Get creative and make animal silhouettes.
  3. Give the child a challenge. What can you make with 3 pieces of straw?
  4. Sprinkle glitter on the bowl containing the straw pieces for an added color fest!
  5. Use different scissors, such as scrapbooking scissors, for different edging on your straw pieces.

What did you make with your straws?
A Spider made from straws, and example of a Straws Fine Motor Activity
Name spelled with straws, and example of a fine motor activity that can be done with straws
A animal shape made with straws

👉 Explore Therapro’s Second Hand Therapies and bring purposeful play to your practice.

Whether you’re a therapist, educator, or caregiver, this resource empowers you to creatively support fine motor development using low-cost, easily sourced materials. The Straws Galore activity is just one example of how these cards combine fun and function. Start building engagement, independence, and essential skills today—one recycled material at a time.

Make Your Own Goop: Therapro’s Free Activity of the Month

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Therapro’s Sensational Fun activity cards feature over 100 creative, safe sensory experiences—perfect for parents, teachers, and therapists. As a standout, the Make Your Own Goop activity delivers a tactile, proprioceptive, and kinesthetic feast. This goop behaves like a solid when squeezed and flows like a liquid when released, offering quick, easy-to-make fascination and rich sensory stimulation for curious hands.

Materials:

  • 1 cup of cornstarch
  • 1 cup of water
  • Medium plastic bowl
  • Spoons

Directions:

  1. Place one cup of cornstarch into a bowl.
  2. Pour water into the bowl slowly and stir continuously until the cornstarch is fully saturated (you may need more or less water, so add a little water at a time).
  3. The mixture is ready to use once the cornstarch resembles a thick paste and becomes difficult to stir.

CAUTION: DO NOT EAT THE MIXTURE.

Activities:

  1. Give your child a scoop of goop. When he squeezes tight and then opens his hands, it drips out in unexpected ways! Does it feel cool or warm?
  2. Play charades by making shapes or animals with the goop. Can your child guess what you’ve made? Give him hints: draw details in the goop!
  3. Fill a larger container with goop and submerge your child’s feet. What does it feel like? Does it make a sound?
  4. Place the goop on a cookie sheet, have your child spell his name.
  5. Add food coloring and make colorful goop! Mix food coloring and guess what colors you can make.
  6. Make it an olfactory sensation as well- Add a sprinkle of your favorite Fruit Flavored drink mix (Kool-Aid®)

Have fun! Below are some pictures of our Cherry Scented Goop.

Child's hand in goop from Make Your Own Goop activity
Childs hand mixing goop in the Make Your Own Goop activity

Ready to explore even more engaging sensory experiences? Discover all 100+ activities in Therapro’s Sensational Fun cards—each designed to spark curiosity, develop skills, and bring joy to your therapy sessions or home play. Check out the full collection here: Therapro Sensational Fun Activity Cards.