I started out by first collecting sticks in my backyard. If you have a lot of time, you could have the kids collect their own sticks, but my time is limited. I had 3 or 4 different types of wire edged ribbon for the kids to use, and I had them cut all the same lengths of the ribbon and we trimmed it at the end. I wanted them to be able to tie easily, so I didn’t want the ribbon to be too short to tie.

Then you just tie the ribbon in knots onto the stick. One group had some gold ribbon to go at the top as a star. You either have the kids fix the uneven ones if they can, or you go back and even things up so that there is equal amount of ribbon on both sides of the knot.

I then cut the ribbon in a tree shape. Some kids I had do this on their own, some kids I cut one side, and had them do the other side to match, and some kids I cut for them due to time constraints. Some turned out fluffy, and others were more Charlie brown tree like, but every single one was beautiful. I had some Styrofoam balls, and cut a flat side to them, then we just stuck our sticks in the Styrofoam to make them stand up.

I love this project so much, I am going to modify it to use at different times of the year. Expect to see this one again in different colors. Since the ribbon has wire edges, it makes it easy to practice the tying.

Materials:

• Sticks/twigs
• 3-4 different wired edged ribbon
• Styrofoam balls
• Scissors

We put the chocolate cream mixture into a pastry bag and filled the strawberries.

While we were at it, we decided to pit some of the cherries and fill them with chocolate too.

They were soooo yummy.

Really delicious, and so easy to do spur of the moment.  You can bet that I will be doing it again, and the nesquick mix was great to add the chocolate flavor.

On another note, my daughter came in second in her Junior High spelling bee, and now has to go to the county spelling bee.  What is funny about that is that she has a history (meaning she has done it before) of throwing the spelling bee.  When she is up there, she just decides that she is done, so she misses a word on purpose.  This time, the only reason she even entered is because it was extra credit for english class.  Then, a good friend made her promise not to lose on purpose.  Well she didn’t lose on purpose, and now she has to take a day during her spring break to go to the county spelling bee.  She is not thrilled about that.  She is also not thrilled that she has to study spelling words during lunch with the english teacher.  Oh well.  I am proud of her for her success. 

Have a great Holiday season.

Ingredients

• 24 ounces frozen dinner roll dough
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Directions

1. The night or several hours before, grease and flour a 9 or 10 inch tube pan. Mix brown sugar and pudding mix together. Mix white sugar and cinnamon together. Place frozen dinner rolls in pan a layer at a time. Sprinkle brown sugar and pudding mix over first layer of rolls. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon mixture over the brown sugar and pudding mixture. Spread half the nuts and melted butter over first layer. Repeat with the next layer.
2. Place on counter over night. Do not cover. Next morning bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 30 minutes. Let stand a few minutes and turn pan over onto serving platter.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 350 | Total Fat: 11.8g | Cholesterol: 21mg

As I was making them, I was thinking about the therapy involved.  You could only do these if you are in the right setting.  You would have to have a kitchen, and the whole process takes a while, so the therapist would need to do some prep.

You first bake a simple cake from a mix, and let it cool.  Put the cake into a large bowl and crumble it up.  Then you mix in a container of cream cheese frosting.  You mix it in until the crumbled cake will stick together in the shapes that you form.  Then you use your hands and form it into shapes.  We did balls and Christmas trees.

This part is like playing with play doh, but you get to eat it afterward.  It is sticky, so it makes a good sensory activity, and you use fine motor skills to mold the shapes.  It is important to put the shapes into the refrigerator or freezer for a bit so that they are cold when you dip them into the candy melts.  In fact, it would work well to do this activity in stages, and leave the cake shapes in the refrigerator until the next day, and dip them during the next session.  This activity would definitely be a multi session activity, and you could freeze them one week, and dip them the next.

The next step is to dip the cake balls into melted chocolate.  I used candy melts that I purchased at Michaels.  You can melt the chocolate/candy in the microwave, following the directions on the bag.  Use a deep microwaveable bowl.  I first dipped the end of the lollipop stick (also purchased at Michaels) into the chocolate and inserted it into the ball.  Once I did that to all of the balls, the first ones were dry and ready to dip.  You want to have some wax paper ready, and I put my pops into glasses to dry.
Some people stick them into a piece of styrofoam.  The styrofoam is probably easier, but I didn’t have any.  Next, I just held the balls by the stick and dipped them into the melted chocolate until they were covered.  Lift it out and let the chocolate drip off, then place it in the cup to dry.

It is a messy activity, and would be best broken up into a couple of sessions.  I was obviously not going for perfection in my shapes or my dipping.  They are really yummy.  I did a search on Amazon just to see what they had, and I found a Cupcake POP Mold .  That might make it easier for some clients, but I prefer the hand molding method.  Bakerella has detailed directions on how to make them, and she is careful with her molding and dipping.  She has some beautiful cake pops, and a whole book on them.

Materials:

• Cake
• Frosting
• Lollipop sticks
• Chocolate or candy melts
• Wax paper
• Styrofoam or glasses to dry pops in
• Refrigerator or freezer

Skills:

• Fine Motor
• ADL – Home Skills, Cooking
• Sensory – Tactile

You use graham crackers in place of the gingerbread, and use frosting to stick the pieces together in the shape of a house. 

Then you can decorate it with a multitude of candy decorations.  Spreading and knife skills are worked on when putting the frosting on the graham crackers. 

Fine motor skills are used to place the candy decorations on the house.  It can also be a good sensory experience. 

Visual perceptual skills and motor planning are used when figuring out how to get the building to stay up, and where to put the candy pieces.

Materials:

• paper plate
• graham crackers
• frosting
• candy for decorating
• butter knife

Skills:

• fine motor
• visual perceptual
• ADL knife use
• sensory, tactile
• motor planning

On a funny note, we are free of dragons.  My son is having a friend sleep over (they are nine years old), and they are having a nerf gun battle.  The dragon in the hallway has been killed many times.  So has the monkey in the kitchen and the Orca on the couch.  We will be safe from plastic animals tonight.

On a household note, I made the Pumpkin Bread Pudding from the showdown between Pioneer Woman and Bobby Flay.  It was delicious, but I am not into cooking.  I have cooked more just making that than I usually do in a week.  Makes me tired just remembering it.  I was quite proud of myself though.  Then on her blog she talks about the fact that her 11 year old daughter made it by herself.  I was impressed that I made it by myself.  Huh.