We’re BACK!! We are so glad to be back at school and to see our students again. School started this week, but a little bit differently for sure. Our county is doing a hybrid model with some students “brick and mortar” and some digital. Here at Group by Group we are adapting our model to meet the changes we are all facing. You will notice smaller and fewer boxes in our sensory section—-no more sharing materials! We also are doing things a little differently in our fine motor and language sections. A nice addition has been our PT on board with gross motor ideas! Enjoy!

 

 

 

SENSORY

We used blue and yellow rice to represent the colors of our school. At home you could just use plain rice or any other sensory material of your choice.

 

 

 

 

Learning letters and numbers is a big part of the school experience so we added some for our students to find.

Science access point: use senses to recognize objects.

 

 

 

 

There were some laminated pictures of school buses, school houses, etc. that he students could push into black kinetic sand.

 

 

 

 

 

We chose the black sand to represent a road. At home you could use regular sand or play dough with toy cars and figures.

Science access point: apply a push to move an object.

 

 

 

 

 

Music is one of our favorite special areas so we let our students make their own using shaker bottles. We made our shaker bottles using soda bottles and beads (gluing the lids closed). At home you can use toy rattles or maracas—we just didn’t have enough for everyone to have their own individual instrument.

 

Science access point: recognize the change in the motion of an object.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shaving cream finger painting reminded us of another favorite special area—art! We used plastic plates so everyone had their own personal palette!

 

 

 

 

Whether at home or at school—- shaving cream is always fun 🙂

Science access point: recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move.

 

 

 

 

 

Washing hands is even more important these days! The students practiced washing their hands in water with our scent of the week—-apple from Bath and Body Works. At home you could use any kind of bath gel to add some fun bubbles and aroma to the activity.

Science access point: observe and recognize that people need water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The matching lotion applied to arms or hands left a nice sensory reminder of our activities.

Science access point: recognize one or more external body parts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GROSS MOTOR

This week we worked on campus mobility to familiar areas on campus using pictures as a clue.

Ambulatory students or students who are able to self propel their wheelchairs walked/rolled to a requested location either by name, using clues to figure out the location being described, or by using pictures.  Transitions between various surfaces, stairs, curbs, ramps, etc. were included when traveling to the requested location.

For digital academy students, you could work on moving around within the home environment.

 

 

For students who are unable to walk or roll themselves, we worked on reaching for, or pointing to, a requested picture of a location while sitting or standing to address balance.  For digital academy students, you could have students stand on a pillow to challenge their balance during the activity.

 

 

 

 

Students working on head control practiced lifting their heads to look at a picture or school related item.  For students working on head control at home, a song/music video about school could be pulled up on the computer to practice lifting their heads and/or maintaining an upright head position.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINE MOTOR

For the first project, the students added the letters of their names to craft foam school buses picked up at the dollar store. Of course we can’t show you our students real names so we made a model for them to hold up for the Ta Da photos.

First, the students identified the color of their writing utensil by pointing to communication symbols.

Science access point: identify objects by one observable property, such as color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They colored the letters using crayons or markers.

Science access point: recognize a change in the appearance of an object.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The letters were glued to the school bus using squeeze glue to work on hand strengthening.

 

 

 

 

 

Math access point: recognize when an object is added to a situation.

 

 

 

 

TA DA!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wheels on the bus go round and round.

 

 

 

 

 

For the second project the students painted masks!

First, they chose which paint color they wanted to use.

Science access point: identify objects by one observable property, such as color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, they painted their cotton masks—–the colors were so vibrant!!! After painting, we turned the masks over and patted them down with paper towels to blot excess paint.

Science access point: recognize a change in the appearance of an object.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TA DA!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our masks are cute, colorful and stylish 🙂

 

 

 

 

LANGUAGE

We made some really cute back to school snacks featuring our mascot, Hootie the Owl, this week in our language group!  This is the recipe that we used: Let’s Make Welcome Back Hootie Snacks

For this recipe, each person had to request each food item in order to put together their owl snack.  They had to request either verbally or by using their communication symbols.

Our students worked on spreading the peanut butter.  This was challenging for many of them, so they had to ask for HELP.

 

 

 

 

We talked about eyes next.  Each student had to make sure that they were given 2 banana slices for 2 eyes.  We talked about how the eyes go at the TOP.

Then, each student had to PUT a LITTLE bit of peanut butter in the MIDDLE of the banana slices in order for the chocolate chips to stay on.

 

 

 

 

They had to request 2 apple slices for the wings, 1 dried cranberry for the beak, and some Cheerios for the feathers.  If they WANTED MORE Cheerios, they had to request.

These were a HOOT to make and to eat!

 

 

 

 

 

We are so happy to see our kiddos again 🙂 Join us again next time for more fun and learning—–Group by Group!