30 Ways To Use Household Items For Play

Not sure about you, but I don’t have a gazillion dollars to spend on play materials. As a teeny tiny private OT practice, I keep things really simple and practical. Most of my therapy materials are household items that my clients also have on hand, making home programs (and telehealth) a cinch! Thought I would share with you the supplies I can’t work without, and 30 activities you can do with just a short list of simple items laying around your house.

There are so many activities and games you can create with these materials.

Here are some ideas to get you started, that can easily be modified to meet your child’s abilities/age. These activities work on fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, visual motor integration, gross motor coordination, and sensory processing skills.

1. Pom pom sort: Use salad tongs to pick up and place pom poms in ice cube tray sorting by color, or make it a counting activity. Upgrade this simple activity with gross motor and core strength components by having the pom poms on the floor and the ice cube tray on a table or step stool.
2. Finger bowling: Roll playdough into small balls and flick the small balls toward lego towers. Add in core activation by playing this game on the belly.
3. Geometric buildings: Roll playdough into small balls and build 3d structures with toothpicks or broken pieces of dried spaghetti. Do this kneeling at a table to strengthen those core muscles!
4. Sensory snip: Roll playdough into snakes and snip with scissors. You can use the small pieces to roll into the small balls needed for #2 and #3.
5. Lego letters: Flatten playdough into a pancake and push legos into dough to make shapes and letters. You can do this standing, kneeling, or sitting on a peanut ball to make it a more whole-body experience.
6. Bug rescue: Freeze small bugs or animals in ice cube tray, pop them out into a bowl, and use an eye dropper or spray bottle with water to melt ice away and save the bug.
7. Straw beads: Cut straws into smaller pieces and string onto a pipe cleaner. If a pipe cleaner is too easy, go with string!
8. Pom pom drop: Untwist jar lids, use clothespin to pick up pom poms and place in jars sorting by color. You could decorate the jar with a face and make it “feed the ____.” Play around with the positioning of the pom poms and jars to increase the gross motor/shoulder stability/core strengthening potential.
9. Sticker line up: Write letters, shapes, lines, numbers on a piece of paper and tape to a wall or easel. Child peels stickers and places them on the pre-written shapes/letters. Using a vertical surface helps activate core muscles and builds strength in the shoulders while reaching up against gravity.
10. Puzzle unwrap: Parent loosely wraps puzzle pieces in tin foil or newspaper and child unwraps the pieces and places them in the puzzle board. Hide wrapped puzzle pieces around the room in high and low places to encourage a whole body experience. 
11. Spaghetti towers: Make a mound of playdough, stick in some spaghetti noodles, and stack the noodles with small beads, dried penne pasta, or O shaped cereal. 
12. Letter find: Write lines, shapes, or letters (whatever your child is working on) on post-its and stick them around the room. Send child on scavenger hunt to go find a shape or letter and bring it back to you. You could even have them do an animal walk to go find it that starts with the letter you request.
13. Belly bowling: Fill empty water bottles half way with colored water, set them up like bowling pins, have child lay on belly and using a rolling pin or a foam roller to push a ball and knock over the bottles. You can upgrade this activity by using a heavier ball (like a medicine ball) or bigger ball to increase the resistance and muscular effort needed.
14. Sensory tray drawing: Draw letters or shapes in a tray of rice/sugar/salt/with a q-tip.
15. Tape jump: Put 6 strips of painter’s tape on the floor like a ladder. Play jumping games like jumping on the lines, between the lines, on the side of the lines, skipping lines, backwards, sideways. Challenge them to come up with ideas!
16. Shaving cream letters: Put shaving cream on a window and draw letters and shapes. The vertical surfaces helps build shoulder stability and postural control. You can also have your kiddo stand on a step stool to challenge their balance a little bit.
17. Tape peel: Tape small bugs and letters to a window with painter’s tape, have child peel the tape and save the bugs.
18. Sensory bin: Hide legos, pom poms, and small bugs/animals in a plastic bin with dried beans/rice. Have child rely on their sense of touch to find the hidden items. You can have them close their eyes, or turn around and do it with their hands behind their back! That’s a challenge!
19. Pom pom wall drop: Tape toilet paper rolls to wall with painter’s tape and create a tunnel maze to drop pom pom’s into. Upgrade this activity by using salad tongs to pick up and drop the pom poms, and use a step stool to reach up to the top tube.
20. Cardboard jumping obstacles: Tape toilet paper/paper towel rolls to the floor and create soft obstacles to jump over.
21. Ball tunnels: Tape construction paper to the floor creating arches, roll balls through the tunnels while child lays on their belly.
22. Puzzle station: Hide the puzzle pieces in a sensory bin for child to find, then place in puzzle board. You could even challenge them by doing 2 puzzles at the same time!
23. Balloon races:  use straws to blow your balloon across the room and see who wins. You can do this laying on your bellies or crawling.
24. Balloon challenge: Keep the balloon in the air by hitting it with your foot, knee, elbow, or head.
25. Balloon juggle: Keep 2 balloons in the air at the same time.
26. Letter/shape match: Write letters/shapes/lines on post-its, and on a piece of paper. Have your child match them up. Upgrade this activity by sticking the post-its around the room for your kiddo to go find.
27. Playdough treasure hunt: Hide coins, legos, small beads in playdough and have your child try to find all of the objects. Challenge them to close their eyes and do this!
28. Coin sort: Use painter’s tape and create 4 squares on the floor or table, have your child sort coins and place one kind in each box. Or, sort coins into separate jars. Do this activity on the belly to target core and shoulder strength!
29. Toy line-up: Use painter’s tape to create letters, lines, shapes, zig zags, etc on the floor and have child line up Legos/bugs/pom poms on the tape.