This week we enjoyed talking about Spring in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. We finished up the alphabet with letter Z in our Language Group.
Sensory Group—Spring
So many things associated with spring in our first box! Scattered about in our colorful yellow grass were plastic eggs, a variety of bunnies, chicks and ducks (plush, felt, cookie cutters etc.), a little basket, play food, and some fun funky flower glasses. We also included a little clock to remind us about daylight savings time. Some of our students are really fascinated by clocks and had fun turning the hands on it! Others enjoyed finding the eggs and putting them into the little basket.
This box addresses the language access point of attending to informational materials.
As the colorful eggs are placed in the basket, math access points of solving problems involving small quantities of objects using language such as enough, too much, or more and associating quantities of 1,2 or 3 with number names are addressed.
Spring means colorful flowers everywhere and this box was filled with them. All different sizes and colors. We loved picking them up in handfuls, watching as they drifted back down and scattered on the table or on the students 🙂
This box addresses the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of objects. It also addresses the science access points of tracking objects in motion and identifying objects by one observable property.
Spring also means cute little caterpillars that turn into pretty butterflies. Corkscrew and bowtie pasta dyed with food coloring made for such a pretty box. This was a perfect box for sorting and discussing things that were the “same” and things that were “different”.
Recognizing objects that are the same is a science access point.
A favorite thing to do in the spring is to plant a garden—we planted 3 little carrots in our coffee ground “soil”. This was a super fun box and our students had a great time planting their carrots. They were so cute, sticking the carrots into the soil and then using the scoop to cover them up—we have quite the group of little gardeners here 🙂
This box definitely addresses the science access points of recognizing a model of a real object and recognizing that plants grow.
Some of us might go hunting for eggs to celebrate Easter. Our pretty green rice with dried lima beans looked just like a lawn scattered with tiny eggs—–isn’t it just so cute! There were 3 more colorful egg pictures to find at the bottom of the box as well as a giant letter E.
More math access points here: associating quantities with number names and recognizing 2 dimensional shapes (the egg pictures were oval shaped).
Who doesn’t love those cute and colorful marshmallow Peeps that you see everywhere in the spring! Shaving cream, cornstarch and yellow food coloring gave us a very similar texture. As the white cornstarch and shaving cream mixture turned yellow the students were able to recognize a change in an object—one of their science access points.
Its been fun to watch over the year as some of our students who were quite hesitant at first are now starting to interact with our messy play materials.
We rinsed our hands in Sweet Pea scented water and rubbed the lotion on our hands and arms. As always, we include our olfactory sense to help our students remember the things they learned today. The soft floral scent was perfect for our spring time theme.
Recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli is a science access point.
We found some fun spring themed temporary tattoos and thought that they would a fun finish to our group. The students got to pick which tattoo they wanted—-communicating a preference addressing language access points AND where they wanted the tattoo—addressing the science access point of identifying body parts.
In addition we addressed the math access point of rote counting as we applied the tattoos.
Everyone had to check out how they looked 🙂
Fine Motor Group—Spring
On Tuesday we made some beautiful spring flowers using these fun bunny and egg shaped chalks. They were perfect for our students little hands!
After the students finished coloring their flowers, they sprayed them with water to blend the colors. We were going for a watercolor effect but found out that the process works better on construction paper rather than the cardstock we used 🙁
Despite that, we had a great time and the students LOVED spraying the water and were so excited when their turn came. As the water made the picture look different the science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed. They also addressed the science access point of recognizing one way people use water 🙂
After we finished spraying our flower we glued it to a rectangular piece of paper. We pointed out that the rectangle had 4 sides addressing the math access point of recognizing the sides of a rectangle
Ta Da—
—-ready for spring!
On Thursday, after reading Cara’s book again we began our art project (we found this idea on Pinterest)—cute bunny noses!
Earlier in the day we pre-glued 2 white chenille stems to each craft stick—-we wanted to make sure the glue was dry before going to the next step.
After we counted (of course) the chenille stems we grabbed both ends and twisted them together. We adapted this activity by inserting the craft stick in a pool noodle to help stabilize it which worked out pretty well.
This activity addresses bilateral coordination and crossing midline.
Can’t help but notice the little photo bomb action by the students classmate 🙂
Then we added a little pink pom pom nose—perfect pincer grasp practice!
Identifying the pom pom as a sphere addresses the math access point of recognizing 3 dimensional shapes.
Identifying the color of the pom pom addresses the science access point of identifying objects by one observable property.
This activity also addresses eye hand coordination and spatial relations.
Hippity Hoppity 🙂
What cute little bunnies!
Language Group—Letter Z
Well we have really Zoomed through the alphabet this year!
We started our last letter of the week group by playing Cara’s sound game—working on recognizing and responding to common sounds, a science access point.
Next we unZipped a back pack and pulled out some Zoo animals—including Zebras!
Manipulating the zipper is a great bilateral coordination activity and discussing the animals addresses the language access point of communicating recognition of familiar objects.
The science access point of identifying external body parts was addressed in a fun way as we played with the beannie babies.
Then we got into a meditation groove with our Zen garden. The students had fun trying to draw Z’s in the sand.
To make it easier to manipulate, we adapted one of our sticks by taping it to a small ruler—worked like a charm 🙂
As the stick is manipulated the students are applying a push or pull to move an object which is a science access point.
We finished by decorating a letter Z with Zig Zag lines.
TA DA!
Another week done and we might be finished with the alphabet but there is more fun yet to come.
Join us next week, Group by Group!