**I am editing/ adding to this since my orginal post in April of 2018.  It is now April of 2020 and we are in the world of distant learning and therapy.  I have added just a few more things to help my distant OT students.**

First, I will add my scanned in frog activites from my personal OT folder.  Some I have found on sights, some in books, and some I made.  Please click on these words……

Frog Activities scanned

In my part of the world, the end of April is always frog time!  This is because my town has a festival at the end of April called, Come See Me, and the mascots are frogs.  Therefore,  I always like to do frog things around this festival.  This means I have a whole box of frog stuff but here are a few of the things that I do.

Cutting Activities

Of course, I love to do a frog craft.  I have developed this one from other crafts I have seen. (printable below)  You will need a large circle for the body, two small circles/ ovals for the eyes, and two feet patterns with wavy lines.  In one version of this, I have seen it with the child’s hands for the feet.  However, for a student working on cutting skills using a pattern with a wavy line would be more appropriate.  Wavy lines are at the upper 5 year age skill level and cutting out a design, like a hand, is more in the 6 year old age skill level.  Circles are developmentally great for beginning at a 3 to 4 year range.  If you have a class of young kids, that would just be working on circle cutting, then go ahead and cut out extra feet for them.

 

In the link below, photo copy the eyes onto card stock white paper.  However, cut out the provided template for the body (circle) and the foot to use to trace or to copy onto green card stock paper.  Click on this link for your own template–

Frog cut out design

When kids cut, remember their arms should not lift up like wings flying!  Remind kids to keep their elbows down.  Sometimes, I will take a foam block and put it below their arm pit and tell the child, “Do not let it fall out while you are cutting.”  And remember, I love Fiskar kids scissors.  I will also use the cues, “the thumb lives alone in the little house/ whole and two fingers live together in the big whole/ house”.  Also make sure that the thumb is on top.

 

Pencil Mazes

I love pencil mazes.  They work on a student’s control of a pencil which is needed to control letter size and to write to a baseline.  In my scanned activities is one of my favorites from printactivities.com  Here is their link for some frog activities and a harder frog maze.

Printactivities.com Frog Printables

Here is an easier frog maze, for younger elementary OT students.

Easy Frog Maze click here

Draw and Write Frog Activities

I just found this YouTube video that helps to teach a child how to draw a frog.  Pause the video as needed.  Help as needed but try to not help too much.  The drawing does not need to be perfect!  The child just needs to see the shapes that come together to make something that looks like a frog.

Frog Drawing Lesson on YouTube

They can draw it on a blank piece of paper or use the adapted draw and write handwriting paper by Learning Without Tears.  Here is a sample of it.  If you like it please order it from the site.

Adapted Paper with Draw Space  You can have your child write inside the lines or write in the manner that Learning Without Tears teaches.  Either way works on control and this adapted paper is much easier on students with visual motor difficulties.  Have them copy or write 1-4 sentences on the topic of what they drew.

 

Fine Motor Activities Ideas

I found these frog cloth pins/ clips at a dollar store.  I use them on various things but on this day I used them on the cut of section of a laundry detergent bottle.  I will put the clips on the floor and have them hold the container with their non-dominant hand.  In the first picture, I have a student standing on yoga blocks and the clips are on the opposite side of their dominant hand.  This makes them work on mid-line crossing and balance while working their hand muscles.

 

 

 

I also found a frog sippy bottle at a dollar store.  I remove the mouth piece so I just have a small opening.  I decided this opening was a bit too large so I put some electrical tape over it and made a small whole in it for the kids to push brown pipe cleaners through.  I told them that they were worms.  If I could find some little plastic flies I would love to use as a tong task, to feed the frog! In the picture it is at the top left.

I have also found some small stretchy frogs at the dollar store.  I like to have the kids put them in or take them out of plastic screw tops containers.  One frog to each container.  Or you can do like I have also done, and have screw top jars inside of each other (in picture, top middle).

I also do frog puzzles, plastic jumping frogs toys (in picture, jump from one lily pad to another), and just plan old frog jumping with their bodies.  Also in the picture, is a squeeze frog that is normally used as a water squirting toy.  I have the kids use it to “blow” the cotton balls off of the table.  This is a great way to work hand muscles but it is actually hard to motor plan so you may need to do this with older kids.  I hope this helps give you some fun ideas using frogs.