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Paralympics book

Paralympics book

We were excited that the Olympics were going on this summer because we thought it would be a good theme for our groups.  We were even MORE excited when the Paralympics were going on after school had started and decided that it would be fun to use it as a theme instead.  Joy, having traveled to London this past summer, allowed me to use a few of her photos from her trip in the book.  The question we asked the students was “what are we doing in London?” to which they answered with the voice output device, “we are going to the Paralympics”.  We even passed around a massager so the students could see what it would feel like to be on an airplane.

Here is a link to the book:   We Are Going to the Paralympics!

Paralympics and Letter C

Paralympics and Letter C

This week the theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups was the London Paralympics and our Language Group looked at words starting with the letter C.

Sensory Group—London Paralympics

UnknownWe started as usual by reading Cara’s lastest book and using our voice output device to read the repetitive line.

You have to get on an airplane to travel to London!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownWhen we got to the page in Cara’s book about riding in an airplane, we all took turns with the massager to simulate the vibration you would feel on the plane. Some of our students really like the feel of vibration, others not so much.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownOur first box contained so many cool things. We included a double decker bus and british mailbox, wheelchair, a bag with the british flag, an athletic medal, strips of black fake fur (the soldiers guarding Buckingham Palace wear bearskin hats), some miniature sport balls, and a keychain with the 2012 logo among the rose petals (the british national flower).

We are addressing the access point of responding to new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly. We are also addressing the social studies access point of recognizing the cultural characteristics of a population.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownThe British flag banner was so much fun to drape around our students or to grasp and wave around. It also gave a chance to talk about the different colors.  This box also included some British coins we placed in an old spice container—-fun to shake and listen to them rattle.

Reach and grasp skills in addition to visual tracking as the objects move are addressed here. We are also targeting the science access points of pushing and pulling an object to make it move  and tracking objects in motion as well as the social studies access point of recognizing coins as money.

 

 

 

 

 

imagesMore red, white and blue with our rice but with a hidden surprise of the Olympic 2012 logo at the bottom. We also put the number 4—the Paralympics happens every 4 years!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesLook at this colorful collection— our next box filled with pompoms, yarn and ribbons in the colors of the Olympic flag. A great opportunity to work on color identification as comparing and contrasting shape, color and texture.

The pompoms have such a nice soft texture and are easy to grasp. Picking up the ribbon and yarn strands encourages pincer grasp skills.

This targets the access point of identifying objects by one observable property.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesThe British love their tea and our students loved exploring the aromatic tea leaves.Wonderful tactile input as hands slide around and sift through it. We put in some circular puzzle pieces, again in the Olympic colors. We are working on the access point of recognizing objects with 2 dimensional shapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownWe added red and yellow food coloring to our shaving cream—to make the olympic flame! So much fun practicing pre-writing strokes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesGold medals—-thats what all the athletes want to win. We made some terrific sparkly gold playdough and used circle cookie cutters to make our own medals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWe finished with some rose scented lotion to help us remember all the wonderful things we learned about the London Paralympics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—London Paralympics

After reading Cara’s book and taking turns reading the repetitive line on our voice output device we began our art project—we’re going to make an olympic flag!

UnknownWe counted out 6 pieces of white rectangular paper addressing one to one correspondence and the math access point of recognizing common objects with 2 dimensional shapes.

Then we took a toilet paper roll and stamped a ring. We emphasized stamping just 1 time before passing to the next student.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesAfter we stamped a ring with all 5 of the olympic flag colors we glued a strip with the 2012 logo at the bottom. We helped our students place glue in an “across” fashion addressing pre-writing patterns.

This also addresses the math access point of recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownPlacing the strip onto the glue encourages bilateral skills, eye hand coordination, and graded motor control.

Perfectly done as you can see here 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesTa Da—our olympic flag

Awesome!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesOnThursday we had our own mini paralympics in the sensory room then came back to the classroom to read Cara’s book before making an Olympic torch.

We passed around 7 pieces of rectangle paper—bright neon!

We always practice writing our names.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesThen we glued on a grey rectangle.

Again working on the math access point of recognizing a common object with a 2 dimensional shape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesNext we tore pieces of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper. Tearing paper is a great pre-scissor skill activity.

We dipped the pieces into glue and placed them onto the top of the triangle.

Look at that concentration—-love it 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWow look at those flames—

let the games begin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—letter C

UnknownFirst we Cleared the Clutter—a Comb, Card, Cup, Chip Clip, Car, Coin, Clock, Cord. The students got to Choose which item they wanted to put in the Container.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesthen we Closed the top—using both hands and squeezing

tightly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownNext we Clapped to make the Crab Crawl around the table. Our students just really loved this wiggly little guy and they all had to take turns holding it 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWe Colored aCardboard C using Crayons. Then Continued decorating it with Cotton balls working on our pincer grasp skills.

So darn Cute

—-and Creative!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sssh—its time to listen to Cara’s sound

game.

imagesimagesWe found some really Cool C words today.

“C” you next time—Group by Group!

Labor Day book

Labor Day book

We are celebrating all of the people who work this week in celebration of Labor Day.  The book goes over some of the jobs which kids may have more recognition with, such as doctors, teachers, and police.  As always, we start by showing the front of the book and having one of the students “read” the title which is also the repetitive line throughout the book.  The question asked before the student is given the voice output device is “What do we do?” to which they answer, “we celebrate workers on Labor Day”.  On the teacher page, we asked the students to identify their teacher and on the dentist page we asked the students to show us their teeth.   Happy Labor Day to all the laborers out there!

Here is the link to the book:  We Celebrate Workers on Labor Day

Labor Day and the Letter B

Labor Day and the Letter B

This week our theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor groups was Labor Day which tied in nicely to the Unique Curriculum unit on community workers. Our Language group looked at words starting with the letter B.

Sensory Group—Labor Day

imagesAfter reading Cara’s book “We Celebrate Workers on Labor Day” we began exploring our boxes. Our first box was filled with green paper shred and play money—thats why people work after all 🙂

We put in a variety of items representing different jobs, such as doctors, firefighters, a computer cord. We also put in other labor day related items such as a plastic hamburger (lots of people cook out on labor day). The burger made a squeaking sound when squeezed—-and it got squeezed ALOT!

Digging around for different items in the paper shred encourages figure ground perception skills and eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

 

imagesOur next box was filled with white cotton balls and wooden tongue depressors—well, actually popsicle sticks since we didn’t have tongue depressors but we were going for the same texture and they look pretty similar 🙂 This, of course, reminded us of doctors and nurses.

The popsicle sticks were quite the hit with some of our students. This box allows addresses the science access points comparing the different properties (hard/soft) of the materials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

images-141Our mixed beans looked just like a construction site, complete with a bulldozer. So much fun to bury hands into getting some nice proprioceptive feedback.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesShaving foam made a great stand in for the foam the firefighters use to put out fires. Its fun to practice prewriting patterns such as drawing up/down/across. It also allows our students to explore and respond to a “wet” texture which is different from the previous “dry” texture.

This addresses the science access point of recognizing

and responding to different types of sensory stimuli.

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownWe used our lighted toys while talking about police officers and ambulance drivers. The lights are fun to look at and pressing the button addresses fine motor skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownSince Labor Day is a holiday, some people go to the beach.

We used our soft sand and looked for the large letter L.

The shell made a great scoop, allowing our students to practice scooping skills or hold out their hands as the soft sand sprinkled down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWe ended the group with vanilla sugar scented water and lotion reminding us of ice-cream cones that we might have eaten on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Labor Day

UnknownOur students loved Cara’s book this week, community helpers are always a big hit—especially the firefighters! As our students look at and touch the different pages they are learning concepts of print which is one of their access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownOn Tuesday we made a firefighter hat out of a paper plate with a precut slit and added brim (we got the idea on Crayola website).

We started by talking about the color we were going to paint the hat and asked our students to show us the color “red”.

…….let the painting begin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesOur firefighter emblem was added. Squeezing the glue

addresses hand strengthening and putting the

emblem onto the hat, eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

images-280Aren’t they super cute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday after reading our book, we continued with the firefighter theme and made a fire engine.

images-282We counted out 7 big red rectangles, learning to recognize 2 dimensional shapes—-one of our math access points.

Then we used our paper cutter to cut 2  strips of yellow paper.

We glued them down on the paper horizontally, telling the students to put the pieces in an across direction addressing spatial concepts. Recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship is a math access point.

 

 

 

 

 

imagesAfter cutting a bunch of smaller yellow strips we glued them

in an “up and down” direction to make the rungs of the

ladder. We made sure to have some additional precut

strips for those students who were ready to move onto the

next step.

 

 

 

 

 

imagesThe fire engine was finished with 2 black circle wheels and 1 small yellow rectangle—with we counted, of course 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesDoesn’t it look fantastic! Our students loved gluing their own photos in the drivers seat. We used a cartoon picture for this photo, but you get the idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—Letter B

UnknownWe started By Blowing Bubbles. For our students who couldn’t blow, they practiced Bilateral coordination Bursting the Bubbles Between their hands. Our student with a visual impairment enjoyed the feel of them on his Bare arms:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownThen we put some felt Balloons on a Button (Joy made this with

a large button, some ribbon and felt—found from the

crafty stash). What a fun way to practice fasteners!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesNext we made some Binoculars. We cut along a line to make 1 piece of paper into 2 pieces (fitting in those math access points). We got the paper from a wallpaper sample book. Our students used a variety of adaptive scissors and paper cutters to complete this step.

We taped the paper around toilet paper rolls and

stapled them together.

 

 

 

 

UnknownThe students LOVED their Binoculars and were so cute holding them up to their eyes

……..as they looked for Blue Birds, Bison, Butterflies, Bees, Billy goats, Boxers, Black Bears, Bunnies, Bats, Bulls, Bullfrogs, and Boars.

We knew all those Beanie Babies we had saved would come in handy one day 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWe finished with Cara’s sound game

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesAnd, of course, looking again at all the B words we found today. Oh Boy, did we have a great time. Be sure and join us next week Group by Group.

Back to School and Letter A

Back to School and Letter A

We are so excited to be back at school and starting our groups! We have some changes—new students, different classes—-the usual for a new school year but the fun and learning factor remains the same 🙂  To start the new year our theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups was Back to School. The theme for our Language Group is letter A.

Sensory Group—Back to School

We read Cara’s new book using our voice output device for the repetitive line. Responding to a familiar person reading a book aloud is an access point related to print concepts.

imagesOur first box included school related items such as paper shred (we use a lot of paper at school), straws, a little hat (we get new clothes), a school bus, a plastic combination lock, a mini backpack, a play food milk carton, a spoon, a ball and the word “Friends” as well as some little people.

Lots of things to talk about to help vocabulary development!

Pincer grasp skills and visual figure ground skills are addressed while picking up small pieces of paper and straws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesThe big yellow school bus is the ultimate  symbol for back to school. This box contains a variety of yellow items to compare and contrast for science access points related to properties of matter.

Items in the box included pom poms, curling ribbon, school bus puzzle pieces, plastic shapes, and easter grass.

We can also count the items addressing math access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownOur school mascot is the owl and this feather boa looks just like owl feathers. So soft to touch and great for calling awareness to various body parts.

Interacting with with the feathers targets the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesBack to school also means time for art class with Ms. Judy!

Every year she does some fabulous clay projects with the students. So we made some playdough with sparkly sequins. We used our ABC cookie cutters to go along with our back to school theme. We wanted a darker brown more clay like color for our playdough but as you can see, it didn’t turn out that way—-still lots of fun anyway 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesMusic class with Ms Jen and Ms Brenda is always a favorite place and our shakers helped us make some music during group.

Comparing and contrasting the differing sounds of the jingle bells and dried peas addresses science access points related to properties of matter.

In addition, as the bottles are moved they can be visually tracked  which is a science access point related to motion of objects. As our student push or bat at the bottles they are exploring access points related to forces and changes in motion.

 

 

 

 

 

imagesOur rice is in our school colors of yellow and blue. We  tucked in an owl puzzle piece to uncover, as well as the letter S.

Scooping the rice also lets us practicing scooping skills. Our students love the rice box, its always one of their favorite things to explore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesAnd OOBLECK—because back to school means time for Sensory Group again!!! We could write sonnets about this stuff, we just love it 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesFinally, we rinsed our hands in apple scented water and rubbed with apple scented lotion—apples for the teacher!

So much fun to be back at school 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Back to School

imagesWe read Cara’s book and enjoyed seeing students faces light up as they recognized various classrooms.

After we put on paint shirts (working on dressing skills), we passed out rectangular pieces of paper (recognizing 2 dimensional shapes is a math access point) with painters tape initials .  As we passed the papers to the students, we discussed these were the first letters of their name—learning the first letter of your name is an important literacy skill related to the access point of responding to names of familiar persons!

The students chose which color paint they wanted to use.

Using the communication board gives a chance to practice color identification in addition to making choices.

We used foam brushes to paint all over the paper.

 

 

 

imagesThen we pulled the tape off—a great opportunity to practice pincer grasp

skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesTa Da—-look how cool all the letters look!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, after reading our book it was time to get on the bus!.

imagesWe started with a strip of yellow paper and asked each student to cut 3 pieces, counting out loud as each piece was cut.  This addresses color identification and math access points. We used our number strip to point to number 3.

Ms.Melissa signs for our student who is hearing impaired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesThen the pieces were dipped in glue and placed on the bus.

This activity promotes pincer grasp skills and eye hand

coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWe added 2 black wheels….

circles of course!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWith the school bus colored we needed to add some riders of course!

We held up staff pictures and asked “who is this?”,  then glued them onto the bus. Repeating this with the student’s pictures.

We finished with a chorus of “The Wheels on the Bus”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—Letter A

UnknownWe started by using our Animal tongs to pick up some red Apples (pompoms) to put in Assorted bowls

We also used a number chart to count the Apples, addressing one to one correspondence (math access point).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownThen we Added An Animal to the String.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWe made Aliens by using shapes with Angles.  The black lines seen in the picture are the cutting lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWe Added googlie eyes

And Antennae.

Note, the fabulous pincer grasp 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesThey looked

Awesome!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownCara’s sound game was lots of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UnknownWe wrote a lot of sticky notes today—–what a lot of A words we found!!!

Please join us again next week, Group by Group 🙂

Sensory Room part 2

Sensory Room part 2

Once a week Joy travels to a regular elementary school in the district to work with Ms. Alice’s students. Alice is such a creative teacher and she and her staff work hard to provide a variety of sensory experiences for her students.  One of the coolest things she has done is to turn her office space into a mini sensory room!

She had a swing mount attached to one of the ceiling beams and ordered a platform swing and net swing. Her students get so excited when its time to go “swing”!  On their tummies and moving the swing around with their arms they are working on neck extension, shoulder stability, palmer sensitivity, and visual tracking while picking up objects such as letter cards that are increasing their academic skills.

imagesFor reading time, the students go into the “cave” that Alice made with plastic tarps that are taped together and inflated with a fan. Her students just love this!

 

 

imagesimagesHere is what the opening looks like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesAlice and Robin—–you guys are AWESOME!!!

Sensory Room part 1

Sensory Room part 1

We run the Fine Motor group twice a week in Jeannie’s classroom and each time we go to our sensory room before beginning the group. In the sensory room our students are able to engage in a variety of movement activities to help build body awareness, strength and endurance. As students engage in the activities it also allows for choice making and language opportunities.

imagesThis view shows the fabulous mural that some college students

painted for us. We also have a crash pit—great for

proprioceptive and vestibular input. There are also

two swing mounts which we can hook up our

different swings.

 

 

 

 

imagesThe college students also constructed these sensory boards which have such awesome tactile and visual things to explore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesThe jump and play island (purchased from Southpaw catalog)

is a very popular piece of equipment. The combination

of vestibular and proprioceptive input is so

important!

The hanging bolster is great for hitting or

practicing karate kicks 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

images

And what child can resist a ball pit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

imagesWe are also lucky enough to have a “quiet” room with our

various lighted equipment.  For some of our students

this is a favorite space.

So yes, we KNOW exactly how lucky we are BUT see our next post to see what one creative teacher has done on a much smaller budget 🙂

Building a Group

Building a Group

This is what Cara says about getting started:

As with anything new that is started, there are some frustrations which go along with the process of building groups.  When we started the groups this year, we knew that they would be different from the ones we had last year: different students, different times, varying topics.  At the beginning of the year, we had to become familiar with the ways in which each group would work.  The great thing about these groups is all of the support that we give to each other and get from the teachers and the instructional aids.  Without this support, these groups would truly not be possible.

Jeannie’s class was one of the groups which was the most challenging at the beginning of the year.  There were times when we all thought, “is this really going to work out?”  We still had those kind of days as the year progressed; however, the students began to understand what was going to be asked of them: sit at the table, listen to the book, complete the activity, and have snack.  To get students with varying disabilities to follow this order is a challenge in itself, but sticking to the routine has helped tremendously.

We decided that having 3 different groups works well.  The sensory group is for the more profoundly disabled who may not be able to do fine motor activities as well.  With all the students we talk about the items in the boxes and encourage exploration and communication. We describe the properties of the items to promote language. We ask them questions about what is in the boxes, for example how it feels or if they like it. We also have them verbalize (if they are able to) the repetitive line in the books.  The fine motor group is for the kids who have emergent skills in using scissors, paint, glue, and color (with assistance if needed, of course).   The language group is a mixture of kids who are presented with a language based activity as well as either a fine motor or gross motor activity.  The dichotomy between the groups is ALWAYS fun to watch!

The biggest key to having varying groups is preparation!  Joy and Cara come up with the group topics for each week of the month and try and come up with ideas throughout the month.  Joy came up with an awesome idea of putting a giant white board in her room where she’s able to write down any ideas that come to her!  We’ve found that relying on our memories for ideas for the groups is not always the best idea 🙂

To conclude, forming groups may be challenging and a lot of work goes into them, but the final result is very gratifying for everyone.

The Fine Motor Group

The Fine Motor Group

This is what Jeannie says about the Fine Motor Group:

The best thing about The Fine Motor group is the fun. The students really enjoy and have fun participating in the reading portion and in the making of the final product.  All of the students are involved and engaged in the reading activity by taking turns reading using the adaptive communication device. The students then become engaged in the art project that produces a product that corresponds to what they have just read. This gives more meaning and understanding to the book.

The way their faces light up when they finish their project and get their “ta da’s” makes it all worthwhile.

UnknownOne other thing that makes the group special and increases the collaborative effort is our vision teacher, Melissa. She  works

 

 

Unknownwith one of the students in the classroom during the Fine Motor group and her support has been invaluable! Thanks Melissa 🙂

Fun Friday

Fun Friday

We finish the week with our Language Group in Robin’s classroom. We cram a LOT of activities into a 30 minute group but its lots of fun! Joy started the group as a fine motor group based on Robin’s “letter of the week” theme.  When Cara came on board we added more of a language/literacy emphasis. We are still tweaking the group but feel its combination of action and games is particularly successful. We have found, for this class, changing the activities frequently and writing the words on the post-its helps keep the students interested and engaged.

It gets pretty wild at times but a great way to end a week of learning —-a Fun Friday 🙂

UnknownRobin and her assistants Arlene and Candy—we couldn’t do it without them!