This week we looked at some of the jobs at our school. We have done this theme before, but looked at different jobs this time. The sensory group explored boxes related to the people in those jobs at our school. The fine motor groups made thank you cards for the people in our book and the language group had a special guest help them make a tasty treat.
SENSORY GROUP
Ms. Latoya, our assistant principal, graduated from FAMU. This box is dedicated to her alma mater. It is filled with the colors and symbols of the university. There were shaker pom poms, beads, and a football—-go Rattlers!
Identify objects by one observable property, such as color, is a science access point that can be addressed in this activity.
Nurse Caitlin likes the beach and Nurse Linda likes the color pink—–so their box is a pink beach 🙂 Pink rice and some seashells to make up this fun filled box.  We also added their initials and a big pink scoop!
Scooping up the rice and watching it fall back into the box addresses the science access point: track a falling object.
This box was filled with purple kinetic sand (Ms. Alexis’ favorite color) and the letter R for “registrar”. Ms. Trenisha loves elephants and we think she would really like the cute pink one we included here.
Recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move, is a science access point.
The fun box was filled with birdseed and there were 3 little birds to find hidden in it—- Ms. Courtney’s favorite animals are birds! We haven’t used this box of birdseed in a while and the students really enjoyed feeling it on their hands.
Associate quantities with number names is a math access point that can be addressed with this activity.
Ms. Lorry is from Chicago, also known as the “windy city”. Our students had breezy fun with a little hand held fan. Ms. Lori is from New York, which is filled with bright lights—-sort of like our little light toys!
Recognize and respond to different types of sensory stimuli is a science access point.
We put our fake spaghetti strands into oobleck this week to make our version of fettuccine alfredo—-Ms. April’s favorite dish! This was a lot of fun and our students were really intrigued with the differing textures.
Recognize that pushing and pulling an object (contact force) makes it move, is a science access point.
Hands were rinsed in our little water garden, complete with watering can—-Ms. Leslie loves to garden. The fact that the little floating flowers in it were lighted, made it even more fun!
Track objects in motion is a science access point.
Ms. Jane has been involved with Girl Scouts for years. We found these Girl Scout cookie scented lip balms—-perfect to leave our students smelling like yummy cookies! The students got to choose between Samoa, Tagalong, and Thin Mint scents. Turned out that Samoa was the most popular! Of course, we used the balm on wrists NOT on lips 🙂
Recognize and respond to one type of sensory stimuli is a science access point.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
We wanted to thank all the staff who appeared in our book this week so the fine motor groups both contributed to the making of the thank you cards for them.
On Tuesday, the students identified the rectangular shape of the paper we were going to use.
Recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes is a math access point.
Each student squeezed pink, purple, and turquoise paint onto their paper and folded it over.
Distinguish between objects that are wet and objects that are dry is a science access point that can be addressed in this activity.
Then they rolled over the paper with a rolling pin—-great for bilateral coordination!
Recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move, is a science access point.
Ta DA!!!
Some pretty magical results!!!
On Wednesday, the students again identified the rectangular shape of the paper used for making our cards.
Recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes is a math access point.
The students used a paper cutter to cut each piece of the previously painted paper into 4 pieces! They also cut green pieces of paper in half to make the base of the card.
Recognize parts of whole objects and parts of sets of objects, is a math access point.
Then the students began assembling the cards by gluing a colorful front onto the green card bases.
Recognize a change in an object is a science access point. The math access point recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, is also addressed.
TA DA—-a colorful thank you to our wonderful staff members!
Thank you for helping us grow and learn 🙂
LANGUAGE GROUP
This week’s language group was extra special today! One of our nurses here at school, Jill, came in to bake some of her Blonde Brownies for us!
Here is her recipe: jills-blonde-brownies
She started out by talking about what we always do first before cooking, which is to wash our hands! Next, she measured out a cup of Bisquick. Our students had to indicate that they wanted to HELP by raising their hand, by touching the symbol for HELP, or by verbalizing. Since we needed 2 cups, our students indicated that we needed MORE to put in the bowl.
Then, we added the brown sugar. Again, our students had to tell us if they wanted to HELP.
One off the most fun parts of putting all of the ingredients in the bowl was using the EZ Cracker Egg Cracker! Since the recipe called for 2 eggs, 2 different students got to use the Egg Cracker. Once the egg was placed, our students had to SQUEEZE the handle which broke the eggs without getting it all over the place! Super cool!
We added 1 cup of oatmeal and 1 cup of chocolate chips and then STIRRED it all together.
While it was baking, we had another surprise guest, Ms. Maureen, the music intern. She stood in for our music therapist (Brenda) since she was teaching another class at the time. Maureen played several songs for our students and gave them shakers so they could participate as well.
They had SO MUCH FUN!!! And not just the students but the adults as well!
When the music was done it turned out the brownies were too so we all enjoyed our special treat from Jill!
THANK YOU so much to Jill and Maureen!!! You made our day 🙂
Another great week! Join us again next time for more fun and learning Group by Group!