7 Free OT Resources for Back to School

Who doesn’t love a FREE worksheet or printable? Teachers Pay Teachers has some amazing school-based resources, and some of them are absolutely free. I did some sleuthing on TPT to find the best ones, so you don’t have to!

Here are 7 Free OT Resources that you can download or bookmark today, and you’ll be that much more prepared for the first day back.

1.) School Based Fine Motor Screening from Kids Master Skills

This fine motor screener is easy to use, well thought out, and so thorough for a free resource! In addition to what you’d expect in a visual motor or fine motor screener, it also includes a section on postural control and shoulder stability. A few of the tasks included in the screener are tracing, folding paper, cutting with scissors, and drawing a person. This is such a great resource to have on hand for informal screening!

2.) Pencil Handwriting Checklist from Miss Yoga loves OT

This pencil-shaped handwriting checklist is adorable! It prints 10 to a page (in color). It’s compact and easy to give to students as a reminder for word spacing, legibility, adherence to the baseline, and placing punctuation at the end of the sentence.

3.) Fall & Halloween Cutting Straight Lines Worksheets

Okay, full disclosure: This is a Learning Tree Resource, but I stand by it and am too excited not to share this with you! If your kids are learning to cut a straight line, these are fun! The gray “buffer zone” around the dashed line has a dual purpose: to act as a visual cue for the child and for the therapist to measure accuracy (within 1/2”, 1/4”, or 1/8”) at a glance.

4.) Count Back to School Number 1-10 from CatandMeDigital

I love this cut-and-paste worksheet set, and it appears others do too since it has nearly 150 positive reviews! The graphics are cute and the format is intuitive. I absolutely love that it targets multiple skills; students color, cut, paste, and count in one activity!

5.) Short A CVC Words Worksheets from Adapting for Autism

This printable targets so many skills at once- reading, tracing, copying, writing, and matching. It includes 4 different versions to support students with varying levels of skill in writing and reading.

6.) Fall Leaves Color Sort Sensory Bin Freebie from Our Blessed Homeschool

Bring on the fall-themed activities for the littles! Students sort and match small colored leaves to large leaf-shaped color mats. It’s listed as a sensory bin task, but you could also incorporate the little cards into a playdough activity. If you wanted to work on shoulder strengthening, you could mount the color mats to the wall. Hide the cards in plain sight around the room, and you’ve got yourself a visual scanning scavenger hunt.

7.) Instagram Post Writing Prompt from Jessica Giovino

Although it isn’t fall-themed, this Insta printable is a fun draw and write worksheet for older students working on handwriting. I like that it’s so versatile. Some back-to-school writing prompts that would work for this are ”The Highlight of my Summer” or some spooky Halloween-themed creative writing!

If you are a therapist or parent looking for research-backed tips, easy-to-use developmental resources, and free tools to support kids, I’d love for you to join the email newsletter!