Colouring within the lines

Occupational therapy

﻿Hi, I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We're here to support any approaches you might already be using, And then you work, you might have already been set. We know that this lesson, is going to be going out to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure about anything or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team in today's lesson, We're going to really be putting together all the skills that we've worked on, over the last three modules. And we're going to be working on colouring in within the lines. Why do we need to practise colouring within the lines? Well, it helps us get better at controlling our hands, and starting to know how much force we need to use, in just the right direction for things such as writing letters, drawing, or using a knife and fork. A lot of the skills I needed, to be able to colour within the lines. As we get better, we can do better pictures with more details or add more colours in. Pause the video now to get the items you will need some plain paper, and different coloured pens or pencils or crayons. Restart Once you're done. for our first activity we're going to practise colouring with just one colour. So draw yourself a really simple shape, or you can ask an adult to do it for you. Once you have your shape, pick one colour and have a go colouring it in. You'll see in the next video, how I always start by tracing the outline, before then colouring. So when we kind of ran in with just one colour, I like to start, and just kind of run around the edges, because I find that gives me, better idea of where the shape starts and ends and then you can very carefully just do little pieces, little bits at a time. Now you can see my left hand is holding, and then you can simply just repeat this. If you want, you can very carefully, make longer lines. So the trick is done to lift your pen up or crayon up each time. you can see my crayon is still down. I've Just shifted my hand, Okay? Alright. If I would go into colour in this cross, I would do exactly the same. So I would start by going around the edges, okay? And... I would then do each section, little bit at a time. Then I would move my hand and I would do the next section slowly and carefully, Okay? I could then do the edges for the next uum parts of the picture, and then simply do a little section at a time, before you have to lift your hand. Now, lift your hand , and colour, okay? This is a bit of a big bit. So I'm going to do it in two sections right. Now where it can get a bit tricky, is if we have made big shapes to colour. An easy way to do this is to simply, divide that picture. So you can, with very like marks, simply just divide that picture into four, Okay? and as always, we're going to start by just going around the border. If you go on the line, that's also fine. So do one section, take your hand off, having a little rest and then continue, Okay? So you can see when you're doing small sections, it means your work will be neater, and to be able to have breaks. So your hands won't get tired if you muscles aren't that strong yet. You can see this hand is still holding the paper really firmly. Right. So now we've done the edge, and let's simply start with one section. We're just going to make our lines like that. If you find that that's too big , you can simply do a smaller section, okay? you have to crayon up, and do the sanction underneath it. You can even go across , and then do the next bit. Yeah. And this is how you will continue, when you have to do bigger shapes. There are the circles you can colour in, or there's a big cross. Pause the video now, to try colouring in with just one colour. Take your time, work carefully, and restart once you're finished. Now, let's practise colouring with different colours. So either by yourself or with the help of an adult, draw a picture that has different parts. You could also choose some pictures from colouring books, but make sure that they're not too complicated, or have too many parts in them. A good example could be a tree with some apples in it or a person wearing some clothes. Remember as always take as long as you need to, and work really carefully. And as you get better, you can try colouring pictures with more details, and more parts. In the next video, You'll see that I'm colouring in a flower, as well as a tree with apples. So almost like that, but not quite. When we are doing pictures, then we've thrown ourselves or that we find in the book. I like to start by making the border or the edge for each part. Okay, so I've done that bit. I'm going to do that, alright? Now what I want to do, is do the little petals and you can see, I'm going to do the border around them first. because that means, that it's easier for me to know, which space I'm colouring in, okay? So do that, And then just as we showed, there we go. and again, one more little pink one, and then you can change the colour. I've got a red one, puppy red here, and again do the edges, and then you can colour in each of those sections. Okay. Something else you can try is, a picture like a tree, for example. So as always, I do the edges first. Okay. No, with something like this. I'm going to do the edges, because those are going to be apples or fruit outside the lines, okay? And because you are going outside, you don't have to be very precise because the rest of it is going to be green. Yeah, and now we can colour it in the little sections. Even the whites for the pelats We're going to use later for our apples, because I've made an Apple tree. Okay. You can then do is skip the red for your apples and then go inside. And there you go. So that helps you to colour neatly, by doing the outlines first. And then of course you can do trace the lines for the tree trunk. And again, if she was struggling to make very slow, long movements, then you can do little sections at a time, I'll finish those later. Now, pause the video to try colouring with different colours, Restart once you're finished. If you find this activity quite tricky, maybe you can concentrate on just staying within the lines and try and make it closer and closer to being within the lines, Okay? Don't rush and don't try more complicated pictures, before you're really ready. Make sure that you get to doing realy simple, straight forward pictures before moving on to more complex ones. As a tip, If you find that you're pressing too hard through your pencil or your crayon, try pushing a piece of sandpaper under your drawing paper or some bubble wrap. And this is a really good way to know when you're pressing too hard. You could also try using paint to practise in a different way. Remember do the best for you Take your time, have fun and practise, practise, practise. If you'd like to please ask your parents or carer to share pictures of your amazing colouring on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging at Oak national and #Learn with Oak. See you soon.

Colouring within the lines

Colouring within the lines

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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