Blowing Activity for Oral Motor Skills

I had brought couple of thermocol ball which were at my mom's place, guessing I can use those in some craft activities with Medha. But the very next day we reached Bangalore, Medha happened to see those packets and remembered that those were used in my sister's marriage. (Yes, These are used by the bride and bridegroom in South Indian (Telugu) wedding ceremony for merriment and celebration after they are pronounced man and wife. Bride and groom sit facing each other and pour the mixture of yellow rice and candy pearls on each other's heads. Towards the end of this playful act, families and friends of bride and groom create competitive spirit between the couple screaming for their candidate to come out as a winner ! It is real fun to watch this joyous part of the wedding !! Medha also enjoyed this part a lot in my sister's marriage which happened in October.) And she insisted me to open the packet and give to her so that she can play. I gave one packet of them and she was very happy to touch them as they are soft. 

After some free play with the balls, she felt bored. And as I was little busy with the office work, I asked her to transfer those balls from one jar to another using sand play spades. She did that for some time and then felt bored again with this too and asked me to give her something else. 

Then suddenly some activity strikes in my mind. And I spread the balls around the room and asked her to blow them by using straw spoon into a pile I created using tape. As it was not a planned activity, I was running out of white paper tape, so I made it a triangle shape pile with normal cello tape. 

She loved this a lot and of course she had little tough time as balls are light and they are coming out of the pile while blowing outside balls.  

After some time she pulled her father also to do this along with her. I guess this is her first activity with her father apart from coloring. 

Variations:

• You could try this with Pom-Poms instead of thermocol balls as they are really good to blow with straws.
• You can also ask your kid to try creating some maze with blocks as shown below and ask them to blow thermocol balls/pom-poms in that maze towards exit. This will be great for moving body and burning calories. 

Benefits:

• Blowing games improve their mouth muscles functioning
• And they also improve respiratory system functioning.