Category Archives: Uncategorized

Nov24

Thanksgiving

Posted on November 24, 2013 by jd785

It’s turkey time around here! Cara’s book explored directional concepts and our students had fun putting a stuffed turkey in the different positions from the book. We explored a variety of Thanksgiving related items in our sensory groups. We made cute little turkeys in the fine motor group and our language group went on a turkey hunt!

The social studies access points recognizing a past event and recognizing an activity associated with a national celebration are both addressed in all our groups this week.

Sensory Group

This first box was filled with Thanksgiving related items nestled in the silk fall leaves, gourds and pine cones. There were some dimensional felt pilgrims and a discovery bottle with beads to remind us of the Wampanoag tribe of native americans who feasted at the first Thanksgiving.

A toy car and toy airplane remind us that some people travel to their Thanksgiving feasts. A toy Tweety Bird and clown puzzle piece are like the big balloons and people on parade floats. A little football was included because that’s something people like to watch on tv after the big feast. It’s usually chilly this time of year so there was a tiny scarf and pieces of yarn!

Speaking of feasts—we had to include some play food and a grocery store “gift card”! And finally a cute plush turkey—-the symbol of Thanksgiving, along with the words HOME and FAMILY.

This box was filled with opportunities to address the language access point respond to new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly. It also addresses the science access point recognizing a model of a real object.

Corn was one of the items on the first Thanksgiving menu! We put in some play food to find and hide again in the popcorn kernels. One of the cobs actually could be broken apart into 2 pieces and then put back together—-great for bilateral coordination!

Whether running fingers through it or exploring the play food, our students really enjoyed exploring the contents of this box.

The math access point recognizing parts of whole objects and parts of sets of objects is addressed here. Solving simple problems involving putting together and taking apart small quantities of objects is another math access point addressed.

Our next box contained turkey feathers (a brown feather boa). This was fun to wrap around, wave in the air or just TOUCH—oh so soft!

Using senses to recognize objects is a science access point addressed here.

Of course, some of our students got quite creative—deciding our little stuffed turkey needed some more feathers 🙂

Just too cute!!!

The science access point: explore, observe, and recognize common objects in the natural world is addressed with this activity.

There are lots of big football games coming up around Thanksgiving and we have lots of fans around here! We included a variety of colors in this pom pom shaker box so everyone could cheer for their favorite team!

Our students LOVE the pom pom shakers and had the best time with them as you can see!

The science access points recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move and identifying objects by one observable property, such as color are addressed here.

We made some pumpkin pie scented playdough this week. Hmmm, it had such a wonderful aroma!

This turkey cookie cutter is very versatile—for either cutting out shapes in the playdough…….

OR being stuffed with it 🙂

This is a great activity for addressing hand intrinsic functions—strengthening, finger individuation, pincer grasp etc.

The math access point solving simple problems involving putting together and taking apart small quantities of objects is addressed in this activity.

The science access point recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed is also addressed.

Pumpkin pie needs some whipped cream! Shaving cream made a perfect stand in and as usual, our students had a great time squishing, smooshing—technical terms 🙂 —it about.

Recognizing that pushing or pulling an object makes it move is the science access point addressed in this activity.

Cinnamon pumpkin scented bath gel from Bath and Bodyworks made our rinsing water smell just delicious! Our students had fun playing with the different sized measuring cups.

Recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids (capacity) is the science access point addressed here.

The cinnamon pumpkin scented lotion left our students smelling like yummy pumpkin pies!

Recognizing one or more external body parts is the science access point addressed with this activity.

Recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli is another science access point addressed.

Fine Motor Group

On Tuesday we made some cute little turkeys. We started by discussing how we cut a circle plate into 2 pieces to make semi-circles.

Then we decorated the feathers using a variety of colorful markers. These fat markers are nice because they can be gripped at the top which is easier for some of our students. For our students with physical disabilities we used Joy’s adapted switch toy—-always a huge hit!

The science access points recognizing that the appearance of an object has changed and sharing objects with a partner are addressed with this activity.

The switch toy addresses the science access points tracking objects in motion and applying a push or pull to move an object. It also addresses the math access point of indicating a desire for more of an action.

Next we glued down a toilet paper roll…..

and attached a pre-made turkey face with googlie eyes. We discussed the different parts of the turkeys face and pointed out those parts on ourselves—-recognizing external body parts is a science access point!

TA gobble, gobble DA!

Our Thursday art project was a pilgrim ship! This was constructed with cardboard, paper, and a wooden dowel—a true trash to treasure project!

We started by showing our students a bottle of brown paint and asking them to show us the color brown on the communication board. They did a great job!

Identifying an object by one observable property, such a color is a science access point.

Then we proceeded to paint the ship. We mostly used a variety of fat handled brushes to get the job done. A brush taped to a paint stick made for an excellent adaptation.

The science access points recognizing that pushing or pulling moves an object and recognizing a change in an object are addressed in this activity.

When the ship was painted we added a sail and some pilgrims and native americans (thanks to Sarah, our volunteer, for making them for us)! We added both students and staff faces to the figures—our students were pretty tickled with them.

For our Ta Da shot, our plan was to take a group shot of all our happy little pilgrims…..

Yes, lets try to get 5 little kids ALL looking at the camera and smiling at the same time—-yep, GOOD PLAN lol 🙂

Language Group

After reading Cara’s book we had our own turkey hunt! Cara made clues and hid laminated pictures of turkeys around the room.

Our students acted like pilgrims on the first Thanksgiving and searched for the turkeys using the clues they were given. Some examples of the clues were, “look UNDER the table; look ON the chair; look IN the box”. Our pilgrims did well with following the clues to find the turkeys. Way to go!

The last turkey was outside the door and BESIDE a tree located in the hallway. Lo and behold, the turkey brought a snack with him so that he wouldn’t be eaten!

This activity addressed the language access point respond purposefully to referent objects or pictures of objects or actions in a familiar read-aloud text.

The students enjoyed the cheeseballs and didn’t seem to mind that they weren’t getting a turkey dinner. We let the students request how many they wanted to eat by indicating on a number board if they wanted 1, 2, or 3. Our student with a visual impairment used a number stick to select his choice.

This addresses the language access point of effectively communicating wants, and needs using referent objects, gestures, signs, pictures, symbols, or words.

Yum! Even our turkey joined the feast 🙂

We won’t be having groups next week because of the holiday. We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Nov17

Rainbow book

Posted on November 17, 2013 by jd785

Rainbow book

The theme for this week follows the Unique Curriculum, Earth Space Science. The book goes over red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. On each page there are 3 different objects that are the color being targeted for that page. The students were asked to tell something about a rainbow. The repetitive line read, “a rainbow has different colors”. Some of our verbal students were able to name the different objects on the pages as well as the different colors. We looked around the room while reading the book to see if anyone was wearing each specific color. After reading the book, we had a color chart made using Boardmaker and we asked our students what their favorite color was.

Here is a link to the book: A Rainbow Has Different Colors

Nov17

Rainbow

Posted on November 17, 2013 by jd785

Rainbow

It was all about COLOR with our rainbow theme this week! Our sensory boxes were so vibrant—just beautiful. Due to a special school activity our fine motor group only had one art project but it turned out pretty fabulous. Our language group had a blast making rainbow toast! All the students enjoyed Cara’s book, in each classroom we discussed the colorful objects on each page and looked around the room to find people wearing the different colors.

SENSORY GROUP

Our primary color boxes were filled with a variety of textures and objects. Lots of things to look at and touch!

There were things to shake….

Pull apart…..

Explore and discover!

All our boxes addressed the science access point identifying objects by one observable property—-color 🙂

Individual items addressed the science access points applying a push or pull to move an object, tracking objects in motion, and recognizing common objects in the natural world through observation.

Purple Bubber filled this box. We have extolled the virtues of this stuff before but we can’t sing its praises enough. It’s so soft and squishy but dry—you just have to keep touching it!

We included a letter R (for rainbow) cookie cutter. While making letters the science access point applying a push to move an object is addressed.

It took a couple of hours to dye our pasta this nice vibrant orange but it was totally worth it. There was also a definite auditory component as the pasta trickled off fingers or was swirled around.

We included 3 orange items to find in the pasta. The items differed in size and shape from the pasta making it especially interesting to our students with visual impairments.

This box addresses both visual and tactile discrimination.

The science access point using senses to recognize objects is addressed here.

The math access point associating quantities with number names is also addressed.

We used dried split peas for our green box with a little scoop and also 3 green items to find—-including a Yoda figure which our students found pretty intriguing!

These peas feel so soft as fingers are run through them—very relaxing!

Responding to new vocabulary that is introduced is a language access point that can be addressed here. After all, it’s important that our students know their Star Wars characters 🙂

Finally, what do you get when you put all the colors together? A rainbow of course 🙂 We had to include our rainbow rice in this unit!

There were 3 letter R’s to find and a colorful rainbow picture taped to the bottom of the box.

Applying a push or pull to move an object is the science access point addressed.

We finished with Rain kissed Leaves lotion from Bath and Bodyworks—without rain you wouldn’t have any rainbows 🙂

A nice soft aroma and a fitting scent to remember all the colorful fun we had!

It also addressed the science access point recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

Fine Motor Group

These book dividers were cast offs from the media center—-score! We hot glued them to some dollar store sponges to adapt them for our students. Sometimes it does pay to be a hoarder 🙂

We used them to make sponge painted rainbows seen on the Teaching 2 and 3 year olds blog.

First we counted out pieces of rectangular paper (counting all four sides) and then practiced writing our names.

Recognizing the sides of a rectangle and recognizing objects with 2 dimensional shapes are math access points.

We pressed our sponges onto the paint trays and then slid them across the paper.

Applying a push or pull to move an object is a science access point.

It was kind of magical how the rainbows appeared. Our students were pretty excited about their projects—

Ta DA!

Recognizing a change in an object is a science access point addressed here.

Language Group

This week, we decided that it would be fun to make something edible—-food is always fun 🙂 Cara typed out directions for making rainbow bread, using a recipe found on food.com.

Recognizing the next step in a simple pattern or sequence of activities is a math access point.

We started out by pouring sweetened condensed milk into 6 clear plastic cups. Then, we went around the table and the let students pick out which color they wanted to add to the milk using a color board made with Boardmaker symbols. They used food coloring to add the colors. We discussed the fact that 2 colors were needed to make purple or orange.

Effectively communicating information, wants, and needs using pictures, symbols, or gestures is a language access point addressed here.

Next, we mixed the colors into the sweetened condensed milk. This was fun! Each student got their own cup and watched how the colors changed.

The science access points applying a push or pull to move an object and recognizing a change in an object are addressed in this activity.

We counted out the bread and the plates. The students then used the paintbrushes to “paint” the colors onto their bread. The colors looked so vibrant on the bread! Very cool.

After painting the bread, we toasted it and then got to enjoy the goodness! YUM!

Such a fun, colorful week we had! Be sure to join us again next week where there will be more fun things to discover and learn about—-Group by Group!

Nov10

Jukebox book

Posted on November 10, 2013 by jd785

Jukebox book

We decided to have the theme for this week be about the jukebox because the jukebox was invented in November 1889. This topic was SO much fun! We decided to have some of our students dress up and pose for different genres of music. Our models were a huge hit! The genres we picked were: rock, classical, oldies, musicals, opera, rap, and country. Joy did an AMAZING job taking these pictures. You really have to see them! After Cara read the first line on each page, we asked the students, “what should we do?” The repetitive line answered the question, “let’s turn on the jukebox!” On a Go Talk, Cara recorded a short clip of each genre and would play the clip of music that corresponded with the page being read. Our students LOVED hearing the music and seeing their friends. On the Powerpoint, Cara inserted music found in the Clipart audio files; however, these aren’t able to be activated if the book is uploaded in Slideshark. Get ready to dance, and enjoy the book!

Here is a link to the book: Let’s Turn on the Jukebox!

Nov10

Jukebox

Posted on November 10, 2013 by jd785

Jukebox

This was such a great week, our students love music so this was the perfect theme for them! We had fun coming up with sensory boxes that matched the different musical genres for our sensory group. The fine motor group had fun making musical instruments and we had a dance party in the language group!

SENSORY GROUP

These wands that light up when tapped made perfect “drum sticks” (found at Target) for our rock and roll box. Way fun, the sticks were perfect for drumming and the flashing lights reminded us of light shows at a rock concert! Needless to say, these were a huge hit with our students.

Recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is a science access point. In addition, recognizing the change in the motion of an object—-when the lights stop—is another science access point.

Our classical music box was black and white just like the keys of a piano. We added black beans to white rice to get the effect. A piece of sheet music was taped to the bottom of the box and we put a large letter M inside. Most of our students used their hands to explore the box—-they love the way the rice feels and looks as it shifts around. A few, however, used the large M kind of like a scraper to move large amounts of the rice and beans around.

The science access point of recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is addressed again with this activity.

As the sheet music and letter M are covered and uncovered the math access point of recognizing when an object is added to or taken away from a situation is addressed.

Our lava lamp discovery bottles were a HUGE hit with our students! One was filled with water, corn syrup, gold glitter, and some plastic jewels. The other was filled with water (tinted purple), green tinted corn syrup, cooking oil, glitter and some beads……

Totally groovy 🙂

The science access point tracking the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled is addressed with these bottles.

There are have been so many fabulous musicals and one of the most popular today is Wicked.

We whipped up some pretty wicked oobleck this week using green food coloring and black glitter. It was pretty thick so it slowly dripped down from fingers and took a little more effort to push aside.

In addition to color identification, the science access point tracking the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled is addressed again.

Opera singers always get roses at the end of the performance so rose seemed the perfect scent to put into our rinsing water. We used rose scented bubble bath we found at Target.

We included 2 different sized scoops to address the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids (capacity).

Solving problems involving small quantities of objects or actions using language, such as enough, too much, or more is another math access point addressed as students pour water from one container to another.

Rap singers like gold chains AND gold records! This box contained some hard gold beads and soft fluffy gold garland. Pretty, sparkly—very eye catching.

Fun to explore, fun to wear 🙂

Sorting objects by an observable property such as texture is a science access point addressed here.

A cookie cutter shaped like a boot, along with cherry scented playdough (we made it with kool-aid) —–perfect for a country music box!

Using just one shape gave the students an opportunity to work on counting, associating quantities with number names addressing math access points.

Of course, playdough is always a great activity for promoting hand intrinsic functions—we OT’s like stuff like that 🙂

We finished the group with some rose scented lotion from Crabtree and Evelyn. This is some pretty strong smelling stuff—you can smell it across the room so it’s VERY memorable!

Recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli is a science access point addressed here.

Communicating a preference for a familiar action such as holding out a hand for lotion is a language access point addressed.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday, after reading the book, Jeannie brought out a real guitar for the students to play. Everybody got a chance to strum the strings and our students loved the sounds they made!

Can you tell that the students totally had a blast 🙂

Sharing objects with a partner and recognizing common sounds are science access points explored here.

For our art project the students made their own guitars! We started by cutting out the words ROCK STAR from a piece of paper—-turning one piece of paper into 2 pieces of paper. These were taped onto our “guitars”

T0 prep the guitars, we flattened paper towel rolls and taped them to the back of these really colorful tissue boxes.

Recognizing a change in an object and applying a push or pull to move an object are the science access points addressed here.

The math access point is associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names.

The words were glued onto the box and then the students were given a choice of stickers to decorate their guitars.

These stickers were little so there were lots of opportunities to practice pincer grasp skills.

Using body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate desires or preferences is a language access point.

Then we asked the students to let us know how many strings (rubber bands) they wanted on their guitars. Putting the strings on the guitar required bilateral coordination and pincer grasp skills. Our students needed varying degrees of assistance for this step.

Again, the language access point using body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate desires or preferences is addressed.

Associating quantities with number names is the math access point addressed.

TA DA!!!

Our rock stars loved their guitars and had a great time making their own music 🙂

On Thursday we continued with our musical instrument theme by making drums! First we tried out a real drum—–so much fun!

The science access points recognizing common objects in the environment and recognizing and responding to common sounds is addressed with this activity.

We started our art project by passing out rectangular pieces of paper and helping our students to identify the colors red and purple using our communication symbols.

Identifying common objects by one observable property, such as color is a science access point.

Recognizing common objects with a two dimensional shape is a math access point.

Then we stamped stars and swirls with the paint. We made handles for the stamps by using double stick tape to affix plastic thread spools—-this worked out really well!

Recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed is a science access point.

Then we taped the paper around plastic coffee containers and added some glitter——we never pass up the opportunity to add glitter to a project 🙂

As we are shaking the glitter we are working on the math access point recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down!

We discovered that we needed to let the paint dry BEFORE letting our students play with their drums lol. When they were finally dry, it was time to boogie….

Dum diddy dum diddy dum….

LANGUAGE GROUP

We started the group reading Cara’s book. We have a few students in here who were able to name their friends who were in the book. It was very exciting for them 🙂

After reading the book, we went around with the Go Talk and let the students decide the genre of music they wanted to listen to. We put the pictures that were in the book on the Go Talk to keep it consistent for our students.

Communicating recognition of familiar persons in daily activities and communicating a preference for familiar persons, objects, or actions are language access points addressed.

We then had the students press a switch to activate the All Turn It spinner to see what kind of dance moves they would have to do. The different dance moves were: clap your hands, stomp your feet, spin around, tap your knees, nod your head, wave your hands in the air. We used iTunes for the clips of music, making sure that they were appropriate before we turned them on 🙂

The language access point responding to a technology resource is addressed with this activity.

This was definitely a fun group! Although only one student would pick a genre at a time, everyone had to participate in the dance moves. Some of our students really got their groove on!

Communicating information about familiar actions using non-verbal expression, gestures/signs, pictures, symbols, or words is a language access point addressed.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the fun we had this week. Join us again next week for more smiles, Group by Group!

Nov4

Things That Go Bump in the Night book

Posted on November 4, 2013 by jd785

Things That Go Bump in the Night book

It’s a spooooky week this week at school. The book takes a look at some different things that go bump in the night. While reading the book, we asked the students, “what are these things?” which the repetitive line replied, “things that go bump in the night”. For the powerpoint, we added some sounds found in the powerpoint clipart files on to some of the pages. Unfortunately, the sound does not work if you’re using the book with Slideshark. If you look at it straight from powerpoint, though, the sound is there. It’s a fun addition!

Here is a link to the book: Things That Go Bump in the Night

Nov4

Things that go Bump in the Night

Posted on November 4, 2013 by jd785

Things that go Bump in the Night

This week we explored things we imagine might be out there to scare us when its dark at night! It seemed an appropriate topic for this time of year 🙂 Our sensory items had a really high contrast of light and dark which was very visually appealing to our students. The fine motor group had a great time making some spooky art projects. The language group students used adjectives to compare items. We also made it fun by turning off the lights while reading our book in all our groups.

SENSORY GROUP

This first box was filled with black paper shred and assorted creepy crawlies! Some of the critters were black so they were hidden really well. Others were brightly colored and could be easily spotted. We also threw in some fun fur for an added textural component.

Our students explored the box in different ways, some sifted through the paper while others……..

had a different approach…….. 🙂

The most popular item in the box was the little vibrating spider toy. Pulling it’s string was perfect for addressing bilateral coordination!

Visual and tactile discrimination skills are also addressed here.

The science access point of recognizing common objects related to science by name was addressed.

Battery operated orange lights (found at Walmart) made for perfect glowing eyes peeking out from garland. We kept these in the box to add to the effect—our students were fascinated!

Recognizing sources of light is the science access point addressed here.

We used our green Floam and some Mr. Potato Head features to make our own aliens. This purchased Floam has a wonderful easily moldable texture that made it perfect for making silly alien creatures while working on bilateral coordination and hand intrinsic functions!

The science access point recognizing external body parts is addressed with this activity.

The letters B O O could be found in our black bean and orange rice box. This is one of our favorite rice boxes—-so colorful and eye catching! So much fun to sift and run fingers through.

For added interest, we taped a picture of a jack o lantern to the bottom of the box.

Visual and tactile discrimination is again addressed as well as literacy skills.

Black shadows can certainly make you jump! We made ours by bringing back our pirate playdough from a few weeks ago along with bat and cat cookie cutters. The black glitter we added to the playdough gave it an added shimmer which we loved and it really contrasted with the bright orange cookie cutters. Again, a terrific substance to squish and pound.

Recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed is the science access point addressed here.

Glowing purple ooze (oobleck with purple tinted tonic water) looked pretty fabulous under our black light!

We added some pop rocks candy (we were inspired by the folks on the Growing a Jeweled Rose blog who added it to finger paint) and our ooze became pretty spectacular—-think rice krispie cereal on steroids! Not sure who was more impressed, the students or the adults 🙂

Recognizing that pulling or pushing an object makes it move is the science access point addressed in this activity.

We used Bath and Bodyworks Twilight woods scent to finish. In our water play we had 2 different size measuring cups for scooping and pouring fun—-and addressing the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.

The lotion has a light soft scent—not scary at all 🙂 and our students really liked it.

The science access point recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli is addressed with both these activities.

FINE MOTOR

On Tuesday we made some mummies! We started by talking about the color of out mummy (black) and the color of our paint (white). All of our students correctly picked the colors we asked them to identify. Oh yes we were proud!!

The science access point recognizing common objects by one observable property, such as color is addressed here.

The language access point communicating information about objects using non-verbal expressions, gestures/signs, pictures, symbols, or words is also addressed.

To begin our art activity we put our mummy IN a clear lidded box. Then we scooped out marbles covered in white paint, counting as we dropped them 1 at a time into the box.

This is a fun way to work on eye hand coordination and scooping skills!

This also addresses the math access points of associating quantities with number names AND recognizing common three-dimensional objects, such as balls (spheres).

Then we closed the lid and…..shake shake shake!

Totally fun way to address the science access points of applying a push or pull to move an object and tracking objects in motion.

We opened the lid and took our mummy OUT of the box and added 2 googlie eyes—giving us a chance to practice pincer grasp skills.

This activity addresses the math access point associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names.

It also addresses the science access point recognizing a change in the appearance of an object or material.

Hmm, lets check this out——-

—yep, he’s pretty cool!

For our art activity on Thursday we made great big eyeballs! We started by comparing the different size circles and asked our students to show us the big one.

Recognizing common objects with 2 dimensional shapes, such as a circle is a math access point.

Recognizing the larger of two objects is a science access point.

We used assorted markers to color red veins on the big circle (dessert size paper plates). Of course we counted the plates and discussed their size and color as we passed them out.

Our students then chose which color they wanted their eye to be using our communication symbols. Some of our students touch the symbols, while others used eye gaze.

Using body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate desires or preferences is the language access point addressed here.

Next we used a circle punch to cut out a small black circle.

The science access point applying a push or pull to move an object is addressed here.

We compared the different sized circles again and began assembling our eyeballs.

This activity works on eye hand coordination and graded motor control—you don’t want to crumple up your circles!

The math access point of recognizing the next step in a sequence of activities is also addressed.

Somebody is watching you….

…..spooky!

LANGUAGE GROUP

After we finished Cara’s book we stayed with the spooky theme using the iPad app Spooky Box (it was free)—just for fun! Our students enjoyed listening to the different sounds and we had fun watching their reactions 🙂 We do need to note that some of the sounds are a little intense, so be sure to prescreen them!

For our ACTUAL learning activity—– we focused on using adjectives to describe two different objects. The students used Boardmaker pictures and put the adjectives in the appropriate column to describe the objects. They did need a little bit of help with this, but over all, they did well.

Communicating information about familiar objects using pictures or symbols is a language access point.

The first object we explored was some mystery green play dough that Joy had made using a recipe from the Growing a Jeweled Rose blog (this is a great site filled with all sorts of ideas and recipes, we love it!).

The other object was a yellow and blue ball with fringes all over it.

Identifying objects by one observable property and recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli are science access points addressed with this activity.

Some of the adjectives used were: hard/soft, heavy/light, cold/warm. Mrs. Robin got out a scale for us to use when working on heavy/light so the students could see which one was heavier.

So neat!

Recognizing objects as warm or cold and sorting objects by weight (heavy and light) are science access points.

We also used vinegar and sprayed each of the objects. We smelled the vinegar first.

Some of students found the aroma intriguing—-others let us know by their gestures, not so much 🙂

Communicating preferences for objects is a language access point.

The play dough reacted with the vinegar because of the baking soda in it and that made it bubble up, while the vinegar made the ball wet (and STINKY!). We then asked the students to choose an adjective (bubbly/wet) to describe the objects after vinegar had been sprayed on them.

Recognizing a change in an object and assisting with investigations with a partner are science access points addressed here.

Hope your week was as great as ours—- filled with treats not tricks 🙂

Join us again next week for more fun and learning—-Group by Group!

Oct27

Seasons book

Posted on October 27, 2013 by jd785

Seasons book

We decided to make the theme “Seasons” since that is the upper elementary Unique theme for this month. The book had changed back to the students answering a question after a line is read. We would ask them, “how many seasons are there?” The preprogrammed voice output device had “there are four seasons” programmed for the children to answer with. The pictures in the book were all found on google images and are nature scenes. The students seemed really captivated by them and it was easy to see the change between seasons. The second to the last page is a little different than the other books we’ve read. We asked our students what their favorite season was and they were able to point to the picture or vocalize their answer.

Here is a link to the book: There Are Four Seasons

Oct27

Seasons

Posted on October 27, 2013 by jd785

Seasons

This week our theme followed the Unique Curriculum unit some of our classes were learning about this month. Lets dive right in and explore all our fun activities……

SENSORY GROUP

We started with winter—and a wish for snow! We don’t get a lot of that stuff down here in Florida but we can still dream…..

Assorted snowflakes (paper, ornaments, etc), white pompom yarn, white and silver beads along with twist ties and clear packing tape turned a clear umbrella into a winter wonderland—-pretty darn magical, if we do say so ourselves 🙂

This really was a great experience for our students, they really loved it!

Exploring, observing, and recognizing objects in the natural world is the science access point addressed in this activity.

No winter wonderland is complete without snow! We made ours using cornstarch and shaving cream. Adding the cornstarch gave the shaving cream some texture and allowed it to be shaped into small “snowballs” if desired.

This was totally fun messy play, with MESSY being the operative word—–our students dived in and this stuff got everywhere 🙂

Bilateral coordination is addressed when making snowballs.

Applying a push to move an object and recognizing and responding to different stimuli are the science access points addressed with this activity.

Spring is such a colorful time of year with plants growing and flowers blooming. In this box, we sprinkled some dried bean “seeds” into our colorful green rice—and taped a hidden surprise of pictures of colorful plants just waiting to bloom as the rice was swept away. The picture was actually a piece of wallpaper from one of those wallpaper sample books that someone always seems to be giving away

We also put in the letters W (winter), F (fall), and S (spring, summer)

This box helps address visual and tactile discrimination as well as fine motor skills for picking up the little “seeds”.

Recognizing that pushing or pulling an object to make it move is a science access point addressed here. In addition, the science access points of recognizing the leaf and flower of a plant and recognizing that plants grow can be addressed.

Our second box was filled with our caterpillar and butterfly pasta—-now this is one COLORFUL box! It’s also a wonderful box for sorting concepts of same/different and counting activities—-lots of math access points covered, including:

Solving problems involving small quantities of objects using language such as “more”, recognizing objects that are identical to each other, recognizing when an object is added to (addition) or taken away (subtraction) from a situation, recognizing two objects that are the same size or color……

It’s amazing all the learning you can fit into one little box!

Fall has so many pretty colors with the changing leaves and colorful gourds and pumpkins that are seen everywhere.

Our students loved picking up and shaking the leaves as well as watching handfuls of them drift down. Others found a couple of scarecrow friends.

This was another great box for visual and tactile discrimination, so many things to explore!

The science access point of exploring, observing, and recognizing common objects in the natural world is addressed here.

Recognizing models of real objects is another science access point addressed.

Fall also means colorful warm sweaters and blankets—at least to look at in the stores, NO WAY is it cold enough to need them here yet 🙂

This soft pompom yarn has such pretty fall colors and is just so touchable—-wouldn’t it make a fabulous blanket or poncho!?

Our students had a great time with this yarn, draping it around themselves or just shaking it. Pulling it apart is a great way to work on bilateral coordination!

Recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli is a science access point addressed here.

The science access point of recognizing clothing worn by humans in different seasons can also be addressed.

In the same box, we also included a shaker bottle filled with acorns. Our students love shaker bottles—-it’s always fun to make noise!

The science access points recognizing and responding to common sounds, recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli AND applying a push to move an object are all addressed here.

Discussing that acorns turn into oak trees also helps relate to the science access point recognizing that plants grow.

That’s a lot of science in one bottle!!!

Summer means going to the beach! We put in 3 seashells and 1 starfish for our students to find in our summer fun sand box. We used fine soft play sand that our students really loved touching.

Whether addressing the science access point of tracking objects in motion or the math access point of associating quantities with number names—–this is a great box!

Other access points addressed include for math: recognizing objects that are the same size or color and for science: recognizing common objects related to science by name.

Finishing up summer, our scent this week was Bath and Bodyworks aruba coconut. It was a wonderful summer aroma for our warm water play which included 2 colorful squirter fish. You would be hard pressed to find a more fun way to work on strengthening grip skills 🙂

Identifying objects by one observable property such as color and recognizing materials as warm or cold are science access points addressed here.

We finished with a little lotion, addressing the science access point of recognizing external body parts. This scent was a real favorite with the students and they left smelling like they had spent a day at the beach!

FINE MOTOR GROUP

For our art activity this week we made seasonal trees using torn tissue paper (our usual stash from presents past). Our tree trunk came from a reproducible in the book Apples, Apples Everywhere by Peggy Hundley Spitz OTR which can be purchased from Flaghouse.

On Tuesday we made our spring and summer trees. We used pink and purple paper for spring and green paper for our summer trees. On Thursday we used brown and orange for the fall trees and white paper with silver swirls for the winter trees.

We started by asking the students to match the communication symbols with the different paper colors. You may have observed that the literacy component for this student might have been improved if we had actually presented the words right side up 🙂

Recognizing two objects that are the same color is a science access point.

Responding accurately and consistently to referent objects or pictures used in routines is a language access point.

For each tree, we tore and crumpled up the paper. This is a great activity for addressing bilateral coordination and the students really had fun with it!

Recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed is a science access point.

The crumpled paper pieces were then dipped in glue………

and placed on the tree. This activity addresses pincer grasp skills and eye hand coordination.

We also counted the pieces as they were applied—-of course!

Recognizing that the appearance of some plants in the environment changes throughout the year is a science access point.

TA DA!!!!

Our students were pretty pleased with the way their trees turned out—–can you tell 🙂

LANGUAGE GROUP

We started off the group by reading Cara’s book and asking the students to point to the picture of their favorite season.

Communicating preferences using non-verbal gestures is a language access point.

After the students had indicated their favorite season, we used some of the boxes and objects from the sensory group as props.

For summer we used the sand, autumn we used the box of leaves, spring we used the green rice, and for winter we used the umbrella. What a hit!

This activity addresses the language access point of exploring and interacting with the functions of selected objects.

Next we played a memory game. We made cards using Boardmaker symbols and laminated them.

The pictures on the cards were: summer, autumn, winter, spring, beach, rake, mittens, and bird. They were presented with 4 pictures at a time which were turned over, face down. Each student took a turn and flipped over 2 cards at a time.

Using referent objects or pictures from a familiar read-aloud story is a language access point.

PIXON picture symbols for “same” and “different” were presented to the students and they were asked if the cards they flipped over were the same or different. Some of our students required some assistance figuring it out, but for the most part, they did pretty well.

Using pictures, symbols, gestures/signs, or words to communicate meaning is a language access point

This week turned out to be so much fun! We hope you enjoy seeing what we did as much as we enjoyed experiencing it! Please join us again, Group by Group.

Oct20

Alice in Wonderland book

Posted on October 20, 2013 by jd785

Alice in Wonderland book

We are SO excited about the book this week because the models in the book are some of our very own students—and a guest appearance by Ms. Kim’s daughter! We decided to have Alice in Wonderland as a theme this week because Mad Hatter Day occurs in October. This week, the students get to ask a question, “who did Alice see?” Each page asks and answers the question, going through 8 different characters in Alice in Wonderland. Since the pictures in the book were people familiar to the students, they were really attentive and enjoyed looking at all of the pictures of their friends. Joy did SUCH a great job posing the students and taking their picture. You definitely can’t miss this one! Enjoy!

Here is a link to the book: Who Did Alice See?