The Lovely O.T.: Spooky Bats

Bats!

It's time to celebrate Halloween and we have been making spooky bats all week long! This spooky bat is a fun cutting and pasting activity that focuses on spatial awareness, body awareness, hand-eye coordination, fine motor control visual-motor integration.

Spooky Bat

Each student was given the body and head of their bat and after they cut out their oval shaped body and circular shaped head, they were given two pointy wings, circular eyes, triangular fangs and a moon shaped mouth. The paper body parts were presented one at a time and pasted in order.

Spooky Bat

Colony of Spooky Bats

Spooky Bats

Bat Template:

Bat Template

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat...

Each child attached a strip of black paper with tape on the back so they could fly their bats around the room while singing some favorite batty songs:)

Bat Song:

Bats Are Sleeping

(Sing to the tune 'Frère Jacques')

Bats are sleeping, bats are sleeping,

Upside down, Upside down

Waiting for the night!

Then fly around, Then fly around.

Writing Practice:
For my students working on higher functioning visual-motor integration skills, specifically written communication abilities, we then practiced copying spooky sentences about bats from the board. Working on attending to margins and applying proper capitalization, letter formation, spacing and punctuation. My students are very creative with active imaginations! It is cute to read their descriptions of their batty friends!

Writing Practice: Bats!

Bats

For my younger students, we had fun reading the book There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat by Lucille Colandro. She also swallowed an owl, a cat, a ghost, a goblin, some bones, and even a wizard! I joined the Scholastic Book Club so I have been purchasing some of my favorite stories to include in my treatment sessions:) Another favorite sing-along story we have been enjoying is The Spooky Wheels on the Bus . We have been enjoying this story while playing with our parachute and other sensorimotor therapy activities, such as hand print bats.

Hand Print Bats:

Hand Print Bat

My students had a blast exploring shaving cream and black paint to create these furry little creatures. First my students painted a black circle in the middle of the page, working on painting within circular boundaries and then place two hand prints to create bat wings:) We used a textured paint brush so not only did my students explore the tactile input of the sticky and smooth paint but they also experienced the rough textures and tickle input of the brush on their hands.

Bat with Hand Print Wings

This activity is great for students who are tactile defensive and have difficulty in exploring different textures. This activity is also a wonderful way for students to explore their environment throughout touch and sensation. Once the shaving cream paint was dry, we pasted on two eyes and a mouth with fangs.

Spooky Matching Boards:

I made these Halloween matching games last school year so I am unsure of where I got the images. I am sure I just Google searched 'Halloween matching' and found the images. I love this first matching game because as the kids build the spooky characters they are working on body awareness.