It is getting a little cooler (in our case, emphasis on LITTLE) and that means it is the time of year for fall festivals. Ours’ was just so much fun we decided that it would be a perfect theme for us—-and a way to relive all the fun!
Our sensory groups explored boxes filled with a variety of textures and scents of fall fun. The fine motor group painted a fall tree and the language group made some yummy festival food.
SENSORY GROUP
This box had lots of textures and objects related to a fall festival. There was hay and a truck for the hayride, colorful fall leaves, and some little “students” to enjoy the fun. We also included a football, pie, scarecrows, and pumpkins!
Recognize a model of a real object is a science access point.
Everyone had fun playing Bingo while eating yummy chili! So,we combined the two for this box—–adding numbers to our dried bean mix.
In addition to number identification and sequencing, both visual and tactile discrimination skills are also addressed!
Associate quantities with number names is a math access point.
Popcorn was another fun treat that we enjoyed at the festival. There were 3 upper case and 1 lowercase letter “f”s to find in our popcorn box.
Recognize quantities 1 to 3 using sets of objects is a math access point.
At our fall festival, we had a big bubble machine blowing bubbles everywhere—–there is something about bubbles that always make you smile 🙂 Instead of the machine during group, the students had to blow their own bubbles.
Of course, not all the students could blow the bubbles themselves but they sure had fun watching them drift by or trying to catch them!
Track objects in motion is a science access point.
One of the highlights of this group was our fall fun umbrella—-it is one of our favorites! The students loved looking at and touching the colorful leaves. They also had fun watching them waft to and fro as we slowly twirled the umbrella.
The science access point track objects in motion can be addressed with this activity.
The dessert booth is always a favorite at any festival. We made some chocolate cloud dough to remind us of all the yummy treats to be found there! A cookie cutter and large scoop added to the fun.
Recognize and respond to different types of sensory stimuli is a science access point.
We turned our water play into a fishing booth—–complete with fishing pole! The students really had a blast with this one and operating the fishing pole really works on bilateral coordination!
In addition to being counted, since the fish were different colors the science access point identify objects by one observable property such as color, can be addressed.
Bath and Bodyworks pumpkin was the perfect scent for our water play and lotion this week. The students REALLY liked this one 🙂
Recognize one or more external body parts is a science access point.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
Due to Veterans Day holiday we only had one fine motor group this week but it was a really fun and colorful one! For our tree painting project we used the super cool stampers made from fringed craft foam rolled and secured with rubber bands——thank you for the idea Ms. Kim! Here is the template for the tree:tree template
We started by discussing the 3 different colors of paint for our project—–red, yellow, and orange—and asking the students to identify the number 3.
Associate quantities with number names is a math access point.
The students were encouraged to stamp with UP and DOWN motions but of course, they all had their own techniques—-whether using 1 or 2 hands 🙂
Recognize a change in an object is a science access point.
TA DA——
fabulous fall foliage!
LANGUAGE GROUP
We had a very special visitor help us out with the language group this week! Our very own Jeannie! She came in to help the class make a sweet dessert that could be sold in the bake sale at a fall festival.
We made edible haystacks using this recipe: Let’s Make Edible Haystacks
First, our student helped pour some chow mein noodles into a medium sized bowl.
We then poured an entire bag of butterscotch chips into a smaller, microwaveable bowl. We talked about the different sizes of the bowls; which bowl was BIGGER and which was SMALLER. Then we heated the butterscotch up so it would melt.
Recognize differences in size of objects is a math access point.
While we were waiting, we brought the fall umbrella around so our students could look at it—-it was a HIT!!!
Once the butterscotch was melted, Jeannie poured it into the chow mein noodle bowl. Each of our students got a turn to stir it up until the noodles were all coated with butterscotch.
This was a great opportunity to address the math access point solve problems involving small quantities of actions using language, such as enough, too much, or more.
Finally, each of our students got to spoon out ONE sponful of the mix onto a piece of wax paper. We found that if we waited a little bit longer for the mixture to cool, it would form more easily into a “haystack”.
Match one object to a designated space to show one-to-one correspondence is a math access point.
Once they were all nice and cooled off, our students ate their haystacks. YUM!
Join us again next week for more fun and learning—–Group by Group!