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Plate what? Skating on plates? You bet! We’ve been enjoying a cold weather activity inside the classroom this week….ice skating. Sort of. Instead of ice skates we’ve been using paper plates. This is an easy, inexpensive and fun way to work on gross motor coordination. With some clients, it can also be used as a calming intervention. There’s no need for fancy paper plates by Chinet 🙂 The inexpensive ones work perfectly. Simply put a paper plate under each foot, add some skating music and skate away! You can use a pushing or shuffling motion and then add arm movements. It’s amazing to see how creative clients can be…skating in pairs, adding twirls, going backwards, jumping around – X Games style. Favorite tunes for this activity include: “Skating” by Vince Guaraldi Trio from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”; and “The Skater’s Waltz” by Emile Waldteufel.
Here’s how to adapt this activity: clients can hold plates with hands and use them as movement props; staff members can push clients in wheelchairs around the room to the music.
