Hula-Hoop T-Shirt Rug Activity

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center Masters of Occupational Therapy students completed some awesome media projects that I'm going to be sharing with you in a number of upcoming posts.

For the assignment, each student was given the name of a common household item, such as a paper plate.  They were instructed to design a creative, appropriate therapy activity for a patient with a specific diagnosis. They did an amazing job! This first media project was submitted by Ashleigh. Her item was a hula hoop. This activity works on ROM, stretching, visual motor skills, and motor planning skills.

Hula-Hoop T-Shirt Rug Activity

Materials Needed:

Hula-Hoop

6-9 t-shirts (without side seam)

1 Youth Large (used for spokes)

Scissors

Directions:

1)    Starting at the bottom of the shirts, cut the t-shirts in to 1-inch strips. Do not use the bottom strip that includes the seam. You will need 11 loops for the first shirt (youth large). Cut the shirt all the way up the trunk until you reach the sleeves. (The rest of the shirt will not be used)

2)    Using the 11 loops from the youth shirt, stretch the first one around the hula-hoop.

3)    Stretch the next loop onto the hula-hoop perpendicular to the first loop.

4)    Continue step 3 until all 11 loops are used.

5)    Push two spokes together to help create a weaving pattern.

6)    Wrap a strip of t-shirt around the 2 spokes (that you just pushed together) and pull it back through itself.

7)    Weave the strip over and under, keeping the two layers of the strips together until you reach about 5 layers. At the end of the loop, wrap another loop around and pull it back through on itself.

8)    Push the pieces down on the rug so that no spaces are seen, but do not pull it too tight because the rug will not lie flat.

9)    After the fifth layer, weave between each spoke individually. When you get to the spoke that was pushed together, separate it and keep one together and separate the other. Continue the over-under pattern until you reach the desired size of the rug.

10)  Cut the last loop and tie it to the closest spoke and tuck it into the rug

11)  Cut each loop (spoke) off the hula-hoop and double knot it.

The project above was completed by one of our Master's of Occupational Therapy students at
 The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.