Our themes this week were Bugs for our sensory and fine motor groups and the letter G for our alphabet group.
Sensory Group—Bugs
We started our group by reading Cara’s book “Bugs are Everywhere” using our voice output devices to answer the question “where can we find bugs?” We also passed around a canister of mushroom scent from the Follow your Nose game. That unusual scent really fit our theme.
Nancy found this cool black light flashlight which we used to make the centipedes glow in our bin of spaghetti worms. It was very eye catching in addition to targeting some of the science access points.
The cold spaghetti worms had an interesting texture. Some of our students reveled in the texture while others were very hesitant.
The black light also made our green spider web glow. Our students had fun pulling apart the web to find the spiders. Pulling apart the spider web promotes bilateral coordination and strengthening while picking out the spiders helps the students work on their pincer grasp.
We made dirt out of dried coffee grounds (thank you Joi B and other teachers for saving yours for us). Our students looked for the letters B U G and all sorts of bugs. Identifying the bugs addresses science access points while counting the number of bugs found addresses math access points.
The coffee grounds have a soft, dry feel and were very popular. The grounds do retain their coffee aroma but it is not very strong or overwhelming.
Next we finger painted directional lines in our green and glittery oobleck. Practicing the motor movements of lines, letters, and numbers in the oobleck helps build motor memory.
The glitter was also very eye catching as it got swirled around the oobleck.
Our vibrating ladybug pillow (purchased from the Beyond Play catalog) was a huge hit. By squeezing or pushing down on the pillow, our students could activate the vibration component. We targeted more math access points by describing the lady bugs shape (round) and size (big).
For our water play and lotion we used the Juniper Breeze scent. Its woodsy kind of scent reminded us of the outdoors—-where we might see lots of bugs. We also used the mushroom scent from the Follow you Nose game (from Flaghouse catalog). It also reminded us of places we might find bugs.
Fine Motor Group—Bugs
We read Cara’s book “Bugs are Everywhere” and used our voice output device to answer the question “where are bugs?” Our students loved identifying their favorites!
Before we started our fine motor activity, we used some 3 dimensional overlays of bugs with our light box. These were in our schools science kit. These were especially useful for our students with visual impairments, but all the students enjoyed them.
Now to begin making our own spider web! Our students began by scooping 3 marbles out of black paint and placing them on a piece of white paper we had placed in a plastic box with a lid. A nice eye hand coordination activity.
We also discussed what color paint we used and counted the marbles (one to one correspondence, a math access point).
Our next step was to close the lid and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! Students were so excited when it was their turn to shake the box—great for bilateral coordination and improving shoulder stability.
We feel that the clear box made the activity especially engaging.
Next we added some glitter! Bilateral skills are called for to turn the container so the holes are on the bottom. Holding and shaking the glitter addresses grasp skills and shoulder stability.
And the final touch—a black foam spider sticker to crawl around the web!
On Thursday we read Cara’s book again and began making some more bugs!
We started by giving our students their choice of tissue paper— saved from presents past 🙂
The brightly colored paper was very engaging for our students and it was fun to see their choices.
Next, we tore the tissue into small pieces. This is a great bilateral coordination activity.
Our vision teacher helped her student learn to crumple his paper by cupping her hands around his.
Next we got out the pre-made bug skeleton. Notice the indentation at one end.
We were able to count six legs!
After crumpling their paper, our students dipped the pieces in glue and placed them onto the paper roll (working on eye hand coordination and following directions).
With the addition of googlie eyes and antenna (great for working on pincer grasp skills) our bugs came alive.
Wow—-look at this bunch of colorful bugs!
Alphabet Group—letter G
We started this Great day by stringing Gigantic beads. The super large openings and long tip make this bilateral coordination activity much easier for our students.
Then we used our Green Grabbers to Gobble Green Globs! Manipulating the trigger of the grabber calls for the same hand movements used to manipulate scissors. While picking up the pompoms and placing them in the bowl works on shoulder stabilization and eye hand coordination. Counting how many pompoms are gobbled addresses math skills.
We started our next activity by snipping Green paper Grass. We had to Go slowly along the line and remember to stop at the dot. In the photo, the student is using an adaptive squeeze scissors. These are available from a variety of catalogs.
After setting the Grass aside, our students colored a billy Goat Gruff head that Joy drew. In this photo you can see how this student has nicely progressed to coloring the details of his picture.
We Glued down the Goats head and Grass (working on finger intrinsics to manipulate the glue stick, visual spatial skills and following directions) on to a lunch bag.
And here is our billy Goat Gruff Grazing on his Green Grass. Isn’t he Gorgeous!
We ended our session by playing our Guess the sound Game. Our students always look forward to seeing what Cara has come up with this week!
Lots of G words this week. We do go through quite a lot of post-its but our students really love picking up the individual words and its so easy for us to pick up the word while we are speaking or attach it to an object
Hope you join us again next week for more fun Group by Group!