FUNdamentals and Building Blocks Therapy is excited for the solar eclipse coming on Monday August 21st! We’ve got our glasses and LOTS of language and fine motor activities to celebrate this rare event. While many of our younger children may not fully understand (or understand at all) the rarity of this event, they can still enjoy outer space/solar eclipse language and fine motor activities based on it.
Our Pinterest page has loads of ideas to keep yourself busy over the weekend and Monday morning in preparation, but here we’ve listed our top 3.
- Galaxy playdough – this activity addresses fine motor strength, sensory play, and language expansion. Find some black playdoh (or make your own!), pipe cleaners, star cookie cutters, acrylic beads (like those at the bottom of vases), marbles, rocks, and glitter. This is where you can really branch off on your own. Roll out the dough and use the cookie cutter to make stars or push in the marbles or beads to create “planets in the galaxy”. Make balls of different colored playdough for planets and use the pipe cleaners to create rings around them. Create aliens with your materials. This is a great opportunity for imaginations to run wild!
- Marshmallow-toothpick constellations – OTs love marshmallow crafts and this one is a lot of fun! Use mini marshmallows and toothpicks to create constellations. You can do this two ways. One is to try to copy the design of a constellation for some visual-spatial work. The other is to have your child design and build their own constellation. In addition to working on their fine motor skills, they’ll be creating a name and design.
- Aluminum foil moon eclipse – again, this is both a fine motor and language activity. While the link shows just a foil moon, it’s pretty easy to adjust and make it an image of the solar eclipse. Draw circles, the yellow one slightly bigger than the foil one, and work on cutting with scissors to cut them both out. Then crumple the foil up to create that rocky surface of the moon, and glue it onto the sun. Use the picture on Pinterest to give a visual aid and ask your child to describe how his/hers is different and what steps he/she had to do to create the eclipse picture.
If you haven’t gotten glasses yet, the National Air and Space Museum has a reserve amount they are handing out ONLY on Monday morning. Michael’s, the craft store, still has some for $2. Otherwise, expect to pay A LOT for overnight shipping. Enjoy Monday’s rare solar eclipse and be safe!