Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! We celebrated his birthday this week for Read Across America! Our sensory groups explored colorful boxes inspired by Dr. Seuss books. The fine motor groups made Seuss inspired art projects and the language group made a yummy snack to finish off the week. It was tons of fun and everyone LOVED the book we made to go with this unit—–be sure to check it out!
SENSORY GROUP
This box was filled with lots of Seuss (or Seuss like) items including the ABC book and a fabulous hat! The base of the box was shredded paper—-because Dr. Seuss wrote books back when they were all paper!
The language access point attend to familiar literary forms (ex. picture books) can be addressed here.
The Grinch is one of our favorite characters! The students used green float to form their own Grinch figures using a plastic ornament and some hands from a play dough set. Ok so the Grinch didn’t have purple hands in the original story but we still think they worked pretty well 🙂
The science access point recognize one or more external body parts can be addressed here.
We used some sawdust as the base of our Zoo box. There were a variety of animals and a little zookeeper to help take care of them. In addition, we put a picture of a lion at the bottom of the box and asked the students to find the animal that was the same as the picture.
Match animals based on a given shared characteristic is a science access point that can be addressed here.
We thought our shaker pom poms kind of looked like the tops of Truffula trees! Colorful, eye catching and so much fun to shake! We haven’t brought these out for a while and the students were pretty excited to see them again!
The science access point distinguish between objects in motion and at rest can be addressed here.
The students also got a little goofy and had fun pretending to be Truffle trees by putting the pom poms on their heads.
                                        Pretty fun stuff 🙂
The students found the letters A B and C in colorful pasta. We put in 2 of each letter so the students could match them. Of course, it was also fun to just put hands in too!
Match objects by on observable property, such as shape is a science access point.
With a Dr. Seuss unit, you HAVE to have oobleck! Gooey, drippy, always fun!
Recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move, is a science access point.
There were 2 blue fish to find in our bubble filled water play. These fish were especially fun since they squirted water when squeezed—-there were lots of giggles with this 🙂
Recognize two objects that are the same size or color is a math access point.
We used Bath and BodyWorks apple scented bath gel in our water play and again for our lotion this week. This was a perfect scent to help us remember all the fun we had this week and was a hit with the students.
The science access point recognize one or more external body parts is addressed here.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Tuesday, the students made their own puff balls and became little Who’s to dance on them!
After discussing the circle shape of the puff ball and identifying it using communication symbols we mixed together shaving cream and glue.
The math access point recognize when an object or material is addressed here.
The students painted the mixture onto a purple circle. This thick gooey mixture dries like puffy paint—-so cool!
Recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is a science access point.
We added a little glitter and then each student put a cutout pictures of themselves to the puffball.
The math access point recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down, is addressed here.
Ta Da———-Â super cute!!!!!!
On Wednesday the students made a Horton inspired elephant!
First we discussed the shapes we were using and asked them to identify a circle using communication symbols.
Recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes is a math access point.
The students cut their circles in half using a paper cutter addressing the science access point recognize that pushing or pulling an object makes it move.
Then we looked at how the 2 half circles could be put back together to make a circle.
The math access point recognize parts of common objects can be addressed here.
The elephant’s trunk started as a RECTANGLE which the students then folded an crumpled to give it some dimension!
Recognize a change in an object is a science access point.
Then the students began assembling their elephants—-a big circle face, 2 half circle ears, a rectangle trunk AND 2 big, round googlie eyes!
Recognize when an object is added to a situation is a math access point.
TA Da!
Some of Horton’s cute relatives!
LANGUAGE GROUP
We made an apple treat today in honor of the book 10 Apples up on Top. Here is the recipe that we used: lets-make-an-apple-delicious-dessert
We used Pixon communication boards throughout that had fringe vocabulary focusing on cooking.
We also used super large symbols such as the symbol “turn” when it was time to turn the page of our recipe book.
We started out by crushing up graham crackers using a rolling pin. We broke this part up between a couple of students, so after the first student crushed them a bit our students had to indicate that we needed to crush them up MORE.
Once the graham crackers were finished, we put them in a bowl and POURed melted butter on top. Our students helped STIR the ingredients together then we PRESSed them into a baking pan.
Next, we combined some whipped cream and cream cheese. Again, our students helped STIR the ingredients together. When finished, we SPREAD half of the mix over the graham crackers in the pan.
Then, we put some apple pie filling on top of the whipped cream mix! Â We ended up pureeing the apples since some of our students have special diets.
We finished it up by SPREADing the rest of the whipped cream mix on top of the apples and sprinkling some graham crackers on top.
Our delicious apple dessert was a hit——–YUM!!!!!
We all had a blast this week! Join us again next time for more fun——– Group by Group!