I normally do “Mat Man” activities in September with the start of school.  This year, I decided it would be a great transition to make monsters or do monster activities with my students to transition from making people in September to my Halloween unit in October.  I have really enjoyed what I figured out to do with my kiddos this week.

The first thing, I decided to figure out was how to make a monster to use within a gross motor or for a fine motor task.  I searched other blogs and tried one idea but my daughter and I voted this craft down.  Therefore, I came up with my own monster to “feed”.  I took a Kraft parmesean bottle and proceeded to turn it into a monster.  First, I took masking tape and covered the clear part of the bottle with many small pieces of tape.  Then I painted over the tape. Next, I took an orange foam sheet and cut out feet, arms, horns, and mouth/ teeth.  I used a hot glue gun to secure them all.  For the teeth, I pushed out the half circle plastic lid part, used it to trace out a mouth with teeth. Then I glued this into the container.  The horns are glued in the area where the threads for screwing on the top.  I did make note of where the top of the head would be, when to top is screwed on, and just glued the horns at the last section of the threads. Then I glued 3 google eyes over the circle marks on the top of the container.  This week, I have had kids lay over a therapy ball and wheelbarrow walk out to get sparkle pom poms (sparkle cookies :)) to feed the monster.  He/ she was a big hit with the kids, teachers, and me!

I used the letter M, m, or T (monsTer) for my lower level students to work on forming. My higher level students sounded out the word monster or other descriptive words and then wrote these words.

Finally, I had the students make a cut out craft monster for them to take home.  I gave the student a choice of from various shapes and bright paper to cut out the head and then something different for the body. This year, I found eye stickers at Michael’s and they were perfect for the eyes.  I cut out choices for different types of mouth, nose, horns, arms/ hands, and legs/ feet.  Then they glued it all together.  Honestly, the student ones look much better than the adult made ones, the way that they cut and decorate make it look more like a silly monster.

Years ago, I found this monster making kit.  It uses a type of putty and provides the body parts for the kids to put into the putty to make a blue monster.  This is always a favorite of kids and OT.  It is also perfect to use as a reminder of the Mat Man song they learned last month.  I tell the kids that the monster does not have ears but horns.

A preschool teacher, that I work with, did this monster craft with her kids this week. I love it too!

I have had a lot of fun with my monsters this week.  I hope it will inspire some creative fun for you and your kids.