We learned about Nobel Prize winners this week. This complements our student’s Unique Curriculum unit this month. The sensory group explored boxes with a variety of themes. The fine motor group made peace symbols and the language group made Peace Pizza!
SENSORY GROUP
The Nobel Prize is made out of gold. A circle cookie cutter matched the shape of the medal and our gold kinetic sand moves like molten gold!
Our students love this stuff—-and so do we!
Math access point: recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes, such as a circle.
Students loved twisting chenille stems into rainbows, peace symbols, or their own original designs.
Soft, bendable, bright, colorful—-a definite hit!
Science access point: recognize that pushing or pulling an object makes it move.
Rainbow rice represented the Rainbow Nation of Nelson Mandela. The colorful rice was very eye catching and there were different sized spoons and cups for scooping fun.
Math access point: recognize similarities and differences in size of objects.
Malala, the youngest prize winner, is from the country of Pakistan. We learned that they drink green tea there, so we filled her box with some green tea leaves.
This was the first time we have used this tea and our students found the aroma and texture of the tea very interesting. There was a scoop, small pot, and a picture of Malala in the box.
Math access point: recognize when an object is added to or taken away from a situation.
Students sorted red and white pompoms—–the colors of the Polish flag. Lech Walesa, another Nobel Prize winner, came from Poland.
Math access point: identify items that belong together to form a set.
The students were encouraged to draw circles—like a peace sign or Nobel Prize medal—in shaving cream.
Of course, most of them simply enjoyed the experience!
Science access point: apply a push to move an object.
Then again, some of them were a little more tentative 🙂
There were foam letters forming the word P E A C E in this week’s water play.
There were also a selection of funnels and scoops for pouring
Math access point: recognize differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.
Martin Luther King came from our neighboring state of Georgia. We chose Georgia peach as our scent and the students really liked the sweet aroma.
Science access point: recognize one or more external body parts.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Wednesday we made a Claddagh picture in honor of Irish Nobel Prize winner Betty Williams.
First, we discussed the shape of our paper and identified it using communication symbols.
Math access point: recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes.
The students glued a heart in the MIDDLE of the paper.
Next, they glued a crown at the TOP of the heart.
Math access point: recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship.
Then, the students got to pick what paint they wanted to use.
Science access point: identify objects by one observable property, such as color.
We squeezed a little paint into the students’ hands and asked them to rub them together to spread the paint around. Ms. Michelle and Ms. Joi came up with the idea of putting paint in old soap containers—-brilliant!
Science access point: recognize one or more external body parts.
Their picture was taped to an old oatmeal container which we handed to them, asking them to “squeeze it tight”.
Science access point: apply a push to move an object.
TA DA!!!!!!!!!
An Irish symbol of peace,
loyalty, and love.
On Thursday, the students made a peace sign symbol using this template: peace sign
First, the students identified the color of their background paper. We chose this color because we had a lot of it and wanted to use it up 🙂
Science access point: identify objects by one observable property, such as color.
Then, the students chose a marker and began decorating their peace sign.
Science access point: recognize a change in the appearance of an object.
They also used craft foam stamps and ink to decorate the peace sign. We attached the stamps to plastic thread spools to make them easier to grasp.
Math access point: recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down.
The peace signs were glued to the background paper and——–TA DA!!
We thank the PEACEKEEPERS!
LANGUAGE GROUP
We made a yummy peace pizza for this week’s language group. Here is the recipe that we used: Let’s Make A Peace Pizza
We started by talking about the shape of the pizza pan. We observed that the pan we were using was a circle and the pan in the picture on the book was a rectangle. Those shapes are DIFFERENT.
Math access point: recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes, such as a circle.
We had a student HELP open the Boboli pizza crust and PUT it on the pan.
Next, a couple of our students HELPed PUT pizza sauce on top. We had to SPREAD it out so that it covered the top of the pizza crust.
Science access point: apply a push to move an object.
Our students got to HELP SPRINKLE some cheese, making sure that it also covered the top.
Math access point: solve problems involving small quantities of objects or actions using language, such as enough, too much, or more.
Finally, we had one of our students HELP PUT the pepperoni into the shape of a peace symbol.
He did a great job!
Once the pizza was ready, we talked about where we would PUT it so that it could heat up. Students located OVEN on their boards. After the pizza was done cooking, we talked about how it was HOT.
After it cooled off a bit it was time to EAT!!!!
We cut the pizza and everyone shared it, just like peacekeepers!
Yum!!!
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Welcome to the After Party! Each week after the weekly blog featuring activities in the elementary department is posted, our sensory cart is parked in the media center where it is available for check out by the rest of the school.
Here are some photos from February carts!
The students made peace signs or other sculptures with chenille stems.
Some of them got quite creative.
We used gold kinetic sand and a circle shaped cookie cutter to represent the Nobel Peace Prize medal.
The students loved exploring the sand.
Nelson Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was from South Africa, also know as the “rainbow nation”.
Two different sized scoops added to the fun.
They sorted red and white pompoms, the colors of the Polish flag, in our Lech Walesa box.
They did a great job.
Malala is the youngest Nobel Prize winner.
Her box contained green tea and the letter M.
The students were encouraged to drawn peace signs,
circles, and other patterns were drawn in shaving cream.
They had a lot of fun, as usual.
Letters forming the word PEACE were scooped out of the water.
Different sized scoops were also included.
Peach scent reminded us of Georgia, where Dr. Martin Luther King was born.
The students really liked the scent.
Blue and yellow are the colors of the state flag. There was a map of the state and the letter O to find.
Hikers roamed the Blue Mountains.
This box contained lots of symbols and things associated with the state.
The meadowlark that whistled when moved was a hit!
Shaving foam letter O’s were fun to make. Hands were rinsed in our Crater Lake.
The ducks in it lit up when touching water—very eye catching!
With this unit, we talked about the different things we could do to show kindness to our friends-
—–such as sharing slime “candy”.
This was the first time we have used slime and it was a hit!
Another way to show kindness is to give someone flowers. 
There were a variety to explore in this box.
The leis were especially popular.
The students stamped hugs and kisses in red moon sand.
We put yellow food coloring in the shaving cream and asked the students to make “smiley faces”.
They had fun making all sorts of lines and shapes.
Our water play became a car wash.
Washing someone’s car would be a really nice random act of kindness!
This box represented “cooking someone dinner”.
There were pieces of play food to find in the dried pasta.
Buying someone a present is a really nice thing to do.
We included play money…
and a variety of things that would make a fun present.
