Jan27

Winter

Posted on January 27, 2014 by jd785

It is pretty chilly out there—-even in our part of the country 🙂 Perfect timing for this weeks winter theme! We explored a variety of wintery textures and scents in our sensory group. Our art projects were all about snowmen in our fine motor group, and in the language group we explored the concepts of warm and cold.

We also brought back our snowflake umbrella which was a hit in all the groups.

SENSORY GROUP

We made our snowflake umbrella by using packing tape to attach a variety of dollar store snowflakes to a clear umbrella. Then we strung silver and white beads, snowflake ornaments and white pompom yarn from the spokes and around the edge. It looks pretty fabulous—–if we do say so ourselves 🙂

Our students were quite entranced and loved watching the dancing snowflakes when the umbrella was slowly twisted back and forth.

The science access point tracking objects in motion is addressed here.

This artificial snow (a purchased powder with added water) is pretty fantastic, it looks and feels like the real thing—-especially when put into the fridge for a few minutes! It certainly had our students quite fascinated, they were not quite sure what to make of this interesting texture.

Just like the real thing, we were able to make small snowballs by grabbing a handful and squeezing it together—-FUN!

The science access point explore, observe, and recognize common objects in the natural world is addressed here.

We made more snowballs with our white Floam. This stuff with its’ slightly tacky texture is perfect for making snowballs because it molds and sticks together easily.

Of course, some of our students got even more creative 🙂

The science access point recognize a change in an object is addressed and the math access point recognize 3 dimensional shapes (sphere) are addressed in this activity.

More snow fun with our shaving cream and cornstarch mixture—-equal parts of both. This stuff is really just so COOL! It is squishy but can be molded and has such an interesting texture.

Recognizing that pushing an pulling an object makes it move is the science access point addressed here.

All that snow sure looks like fun BUT we don’t get many white winters around here. So as a nod to our Florida winters we HAD to include a box with sand!

We used our moonsand for this box. It is more dense than sandbox sand and more like the sand you would find on a beach. A round cookie cutter was included. Our students had fun using the cookie cutter to make circles in the sand. Some of them also went ahead and made some Florida “snowballs” 🙂

The science access point recognize a change in an object is addressed here. The math access points recognize a 2 and 3 dimensional objects is also addressed.

Brrr—-time to warm up by the fire! We made our “fire” by attaching colorful shiny ribbon strips to our switch operated fan. It was fun watching the smiles and giggles of our students as the ribbons fluttered and the breeze hit their faces.

Indicating awareness of air moving is the science access point addressed here.

We used the “chimney” scent from our Follow Your Nose Game to add to the sensory experience of this activity. We started by holding it near our students noses but then got the idea (thanks to Jimmy our new OT intern) to hold it behind the fan so the aroma really wafted around the room!

Recognize and respond to different types of sensory stimuli is another science access point addressed in this activity.

This pompom yarn would make a wonderful warm afghan to snuggle under on a cold winters day! Our students love its’ soft texture. Some of them like to drape it around their shoulders or heads while others just love to pull it apart or shake it around.

Then you have those who like to do BOTH 🙂

The science access points addressed here are use senses to recognize objects and recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes if move.

We made this discovery bottle by mixing a little bit of glitter glue, glitter, and snowflake confetti—-we were really pleased with the way it turned out. The snowflakes looked so pretty as they swirled and drifted around with the glitter.

Tracking objects in motion is the science access point addressed with this bottle.

Twisted peppermint from Bath and Bodyworks was our scent this week. Whether scooping water with our measuring cups (and addressing the math access point recognize differences in containers that hold liquids) or indicating which body part to rub the lotion on (addressing the science access point recognize external body parts)——it was the perfect cool aroma to help us remember our winter theme!

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday we started our group by talking about snow globes. We brought out our snowflake umbrella so our students could experience what it felt like to be in a snow globe.

They really got so excited when it was their turn to be under the umbrella and were very good about just touching (rather than pulling at) the dangling items.

Our students got to work on the art project by using a small circle punch to cut out pictures of their faces. This was a little tricky and they did need some help with alignment. To make it easier to use the punch, we had the students push down on the lever rather than try to pinch it. Either the way, it is still a great hand strengthening activity.

After punching out their faces, they glued them onto a snowman. The snowman was made using heavy card stock and glued to a card stock circle—–thanks again to Jimmy the intern!

In addition to eye hand coordination, the math access point recognize a 2 dimensional shape (in this case circle) is addressed.

Then we instructed the students to scoop 3 spoonfuls of artificial snow into a small clear plastic cup. We used our number chart to help our students identify the number 3. Most of our students still need help in this area.

The math access points recognize quantities 1 to 3 using objects, pictures, or number names and solve problems involving joining or separating sets of objects to 3 are addressed in this activity.

The adults hot glued the cup to the snow man base and VOILA—–a snow globe!

Our students were pretty fascinated with their creations and kept turning them around to watch the snow move about. Tracking the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled is the science access point addressed here.

Such cute little snowmen!

On Thursday we made melted snowman pictures. We have seen this art project all over Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for our students.

We started by discussing the colors (blue and white) in our project and asking our students to point to the color using our communication symbols.

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

Recognizing a 2 dimensional shape—-the rectangle paper—-is a math access point.

Then we used paint sponges to paint our mixture of glue, shaving cream, and fake snow onto the paper. We saw the idea for adding the fake snow on the Growing a Jeweled Rose blog—-such a great blog with so many creative ideas!

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

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

Next we added paper hats, scarves, triangle noses, and googlie eyes onto our mixture. The beauty of this project is that is doesn’t matter where they go as long as they are on the glue! Thanks to our volunteer Courtney for cutting out all the little pieces!

We also added the words “my melted snowman” to increase the literacy component.

The math access point recognize when an object is added to a situation is addressed in this activity.

TA DA!

These pictures are super cute—-and when dry the shaving cream and glue mixture will feel just like puffy paint!

LANGUAGE GROUP

Today our focus was on teaching the concept of cold versus warm. We had 5 different objects that were found around the room, such as metal spoons, scissors, and jars. We used 2 of each object. One of the objects was left out and the other object was put in the freezer or the refrigerator (i.e., one spoon in the freezer, one left out and so on).

We made a small board with the Boardmaker symbols for “cold” and “warm” on it. Each student got to feel an object and indicate if it was cold or warm using either their words or indicating the picture symbol.If the student had difficulty correctly indicating, we would place a warm object and a cold object on their cheeks and ask them to show which one was cold/warm. This helped them to decipher the difference a little easier.

The science access point recognize the temperature of items as cool or warm is addressed in this activity.

The language access point communicate about a selected object using nonverbal expression, gestures/signs, pictures, symbols, or words is also addressed.

After going through each object, we decided it was time to warm up with some hot chocolate—-of course for safety it will actually be “warm” chocolate! First we opened the package and let our students smell the chocolaty goodness!

This addresses the science access point recognize and respond to one type of sensory stimuli. They definitely recognized and responded to this scent 🙂

We emptied the chocolate powder into a cup and added water. This addresses the math access point recognize when an object is added to a situation.

Each of the students took turns stirring the mixture, addressing the science access points apply a push or pull to move an object and sharing objects with a partner.

And what good is warm chocolate without marshmallows! We drew out a number board with 1, 2, and 3 written on it along with dots under the numbers. The students chose how many marshmallows they wanted in their drink and we counted them out as they were put on the number line. We counted them again as they were dropped into the student’s cups.

In addition to working on pincer grasp skills, the math access point match objects to marked spaces to show one-to-one correspondence for quantities 1 to 3.

And, of course, it also addresses the language access point communicate a preference for familiar objects.

After tasting its yummy goodness, our students again used the Boardmaker symbols to indicate if the chocolate was warm or cold.

That is all for this week, join us again for more fun and learning—–Group by Group!

Jan19

The Places I Go Around School book

Posted on January 19, 2014 by jd785

The Places I Go Around School book

It’s literacy week here and the featured book is, Oh, The Places You’ll Go. We wanted to gear our groups around this theme and what better way to talk about places you can go then to talk about places you can go around school! We used our wonderful students as our models to show some of the places they go, like the art room, cafeteria, and the sensory room. A lot of our students were very captivated by the pictures in the book because of the familiar places and people. We hope you enjoy a little sneak peek at our school and some of the places our students go in it.

Here is a link to the book: The Places I Go Around School

Jan19

The Places I Go Around School

Posted on January 19, 2014 by jd785

The Places I Go Around School

It was literacy week at our school and the general theme was “all the places you go”. We decided to focus on the all the places you go around school. Cara’s book was a huge hit—-our students loved seeing themselves or their friends faces in the book. Our sensory boxes were a lot of fun to put together, the fine motor art projects turned out so well, and our language group scavenger hunt was a blast!

SENSORY GROUP

The cafeteria is one of the favorite places around school—-that’s where all the food is after all 🙂 We filled the cafeteria box with paper shred and then added lunch related items including straws, play food, an ID card, and little tray.

The students had a lot of fun picking out their favorite food items and of course this led to lots of language opportunities. The straws we included turned out to be quite popular also—-placed into the milk carton or just waved about, our students loved them!

The science access point recognizing a model of a real object is addressed here. As with all our activities and boxes this week, the social studies access point associating a place with an activity in the classroom or school is also addressed.

We are so lucky to have a large sensory room at our school and needless to say it is one of the most popular places at school. Our students LOVE the sensory room and one of the favorite pieces of the equipment is the colorful ball pit!

Our colorful pompoms are round spheres just like the balls. We included 2 different sized pompoms in this box to compare or match. The plan was to address the math access point recognizing similarities and differences in size of common objects and the science access point to identify objects by one observable property, such as color…..

BUT kids being kids, the science access point of tracking falling objects was usually the one that was addressed 🙂

Music is another area that our students love to visit. We recorded a music clip on our voice output device and gave the students a shaker bottle instrument to jam along with the beat. We made the shaker bottle using a plastic soda bottle, adding some colorful beads AND hot gluing the lid on—-to at least slow down busy little hands 🙂

The science access points to recognize and respond to different types of sensory stimuli and apply a push or pull to move an object are addressed with this activity.

One of the most exciting places to go at school is the bus ramp BECAUSE that means it is time to go out for community based instruction. Like kids everywhere, our students enjoy riding the bus to exciting places.

For this box we added 2 different colored school buses to drive along black bean roads. We asked our students to find the bus that was the same color as the buses they ride, addressing the science access point to identify objects by one observable property.

Our students love making clay projects in art. Instead of clay, we brought back our green play dough from a few weeks ago. It still had the wonderful peppermint scent we had added and our students really enjoyed the aroma. We included 2 letter A (A for Art) cookie cutters.

The science access points recognizing an object by one observable property, applying a push or pull to move an object, and recognizing a change in an object are all addressed in this activity.

There are 3 playgrounds at our school—-how cool is that! Going to the playground is probably the number one favorite place of most of our students. So many fun things to do from climbing, to swinging to digging in the sandbox!

For our mini sandbox we taped a picture of a play ground (cut from a catalog) to the bottom of the box for the students to find as the sand was pushed aside. We also included a small measuring cup and spoon to practice scooping skills, bilateral skills and eye hand coordination.

The math access point solving problems involving small quantities of objects or actions using language such as enough, too much, or more are explored in this activity. Another math access point, recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids (capacity) is also addressed.

Probably THE most favorite place at our school is the pool! Our PE teachers do such a great job and it is such a therapeutic place for our students.

We used Bath and Bodyworks Dancing Waters scent in our water—-it is kind of hard to find chlorine scented bath products 🙂 We also included 4 foam swim noodle pieces and a measuring spoon. The students practiced their scooping and eye hand coordination skills again as they tried to scoop water into the noodle holes.

Math access points addressed here include recognizing two dimensional shapes such as a circle and using one to one correspondence to identify sets of objects with the same amount to 2 can be addressed in this activity.

We finished with the Dancing Waters lotion to help us remember all the fun we had! Our students really liked the soft aroma of this scent and enjoyed indicating where they wanted the lotion on their bodies.

As usual this activity addresses the science access points of recognizing one or more external body parts and recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli. It also addresses the language access point of adjusting body movements of nonverbal expressions to communicate desires or preferences.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

The playground was the theme for our Tuesday art project. We started by counting out rectangle shaped paper and using a sponge brush to paint on some glue.

The math access point recognizing a 2 dimensional shape is addressed. The science access point recognizing a change in an object is also addressed.

Then we scooped crushed yellow cereal “sand” onto the glue. This activity promotes scooping skills and eye hand coordination. We also counted how many scoops each student put on their paper.

The science access point recognize a change in an object is again addressed. The math access point solve problems involving small quantities of objects or actions using language, such as enough, too much, or more is also addressed.

We precut a bunch of playground pictures from some old catalogs and let our students choose which one they wanted to add to their pictures.

Our students with physical challenges used eye gaze to indicate their preferences.

This activity addresses the language access points of responding to informational materials and using body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate preferences.

We love the way these turned out—–and so did our students!

TA DA!!!!!!!

On Thursday we chose the cafeteria as the theme for our art project.

We counted out rectangle pieces of paper and discussed the paint colors, red and yellow, that we were going to use with our big apple and small corn cob. A fork was stuck into the apple to make it easier for our students to handle—-it worked really well!

We started by stamping 1 red apple print.

Next 1 yellow corn cob print.

The math access point recognizing differences in sizes of objects is addressed, in addition to the math access point recognizing 2 dimensional shapes.

Then we asked our students ” what color comes next?”.

After we stamped another apple print, we again asked “what comes next?”.

We thought the students would need a lot of assistance with this BUT they did really well—-our students ROCK!

The math access point recognizing the next step in a simple pattern or sequence of activities is addressed in this activity.

TA Da!

So proud—-and rightly so!

LANGUAGE GROUP

Since we are talking about all the different places you go, we decided to have a scavenger hunt and find 3 different places around our school.

After reading Cara’s book, we looked at the directions for the scavenger hunt. We went over what we had to find FIRST, NEXT, and LAST. The directions had a picture of the places that we had to find.

The math access point to indicate the next step in a sequence of activities is addressed.

The social studies access point recognizing a picture of a location is also addressed.

FIRST we had to find the music room. On the way, we would stop and ask the students to show us the way to go. They would point in the direction we had to go.

NEXT we had to find the art room. Since our students go to art and music once a week, they were easily able to locate these rooms.

LAST we had to find the playground. Our students DEFINITELY know where the playground is! Once we got to the playground, we looked at the directions again and went over what places we had just found.

All done and time to play!

Another great week! Join us again, there is more fun and learning to come—-Group by Group.

Jan13

New Years Around the World Book

Posted on January 13, 2014 by jd785

New Years Around the World Book

We’re back to school after the break and it’s a new year! There are so many different traditions that people have for New Years, so we wrote about a few of them in the book for this week. Boy, are some of them interesting! After reading about each tradition, we asked the students, “why do they do this?” The voice output device was programmed with the repetitive line, “it’s new years around the world.” It is so interesting to read about all the different things that people do for New Year’s Eve. We hope you enjoy the book for this week, and Happy New Year!

Here is a link to the book: It’s New Year’s Around the World

Jan13

New Years Around the World

Posted on January 13, 2014 by jd785

New Years Around the World

Happy New Year! We all had a wonderful and restful winter break, coming back ready to greet the new year with some exciting and new group activities. For our first week back, we thought it would be fun to look at New Years traditions around the world—-there sure are a lot of different ones 🙂 Hope you enjoy seeing all the fun we had learning about them!

SENSORY GROUP

At the stroke of midnight around the world, confetti is tossed into the air! Our first box was filled with paper confetti, a clock, crazy glasses, and noise makers. We also included a glitter tube—-we thought the glitter looked like falling confetti. The voice output device in the box contained a clip of the countdown and people singing Auld Lang Syne. A peace sign was included to remind us that world peace is one of the things people hope for in the new year.

Also in the box was a toy suitcase because in Mexico people take a piece of luggage and run around the block; round play fruit—people in the Philippines eat round fruit for luck, and a toy plate because people throw plates at doors in Denmark—-all fun new years traditions!

There were so many different items to discover! It was fun seeing which items turned out to be favorites as little hands dug in and pulled out contents—-leaving trails of confetti across the table….and laps….and floor. We like to leave memories of our visit 🙂

Our students loved trying on the glasses, grabbing handfuls of confetti, and OF COURSE the noise makers! This was a really fun box!

The social studies access point of associating a celebration with an event is addressed in this and all our other boxes.

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

Here in the South, eating black eyed peas on New Years day is an annual tradition. Our students loved running their hands through the peas or seeing how many scoops it took to fill their hands.

In addition to practicing scooping skills, the math access point recognizing when an object is added is addressed.

The math access point of solving problems involving small quantities of objects or action using language, such as enough, too much, or more is also addressed.

Don’t you just love the intent look of concentration on this students face 🙂

Our soft, crumbly cloud dough reminded us of the Armenian bread that is baked for good luck. Now that sounds like a very yummy tradition!

Cookie cutters with the numbers 2014 were included for the students to stamp impressions into the cloud dough.

In addition to number recognition, the science access point recognizing a change in an object is addressed.

In Spain they eat 12 grapes to celebrate the new year—one for each stroke of the clock at midnight.

We filled our “grape” box with big, soft, purple pom poms and small, hard purple beads. This box was so vibrant and colorful, really quite pretty!

The science access point of recognizing 2 objects that are identical to each other can be addressed with this box—-that is if you can pull the students attention away from those fabulous purple beads 🙂

Our light up toys flashed bright colorful lights just like fireworks that light up the skies during new year celebrations. We included 2 different kinds of light toys. Some of them were activated when struck, others when a button was pushed.

Some of our students preferred one toy over the other, others like this student here demonstrated some nice bilateral coordination using both at the same time!

Applying a push to move an object and recognizing sources of light are science access points addressed in this activity.

Speaking of fireworks—what could be more fun than firecracker oobleck! We added pop rocks to our oobleck for super popping fun. Ok, this is totally cool and fascinating—-a must try!

Tracking the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled is a science access point addressed here.

The science access point recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli is also addressed.

In Scotland they waft the scent of juniper around the house to rid it of any germs! Lucky for us we found some Juniper Breeze bath gel at Bath and Bodyworks! Made it pretty easy to decide the scent for this week 🙂

We included a couple of measuring cups with our water play to address the math access point recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.

The Juniper Breeze scent had a nice soft aroma and our students all seemed to really like it. They all anticipated their turn to smell the lotion and the students are getting very good at indicating on which body part they want the lotion.

The science access points recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli and recognizing one or more external body parts are addressed with this activity.

We finished the group with fireworks—-of the bubble wrap kind that is! This is a great time of year to find scraps of bubble wrap and our coworkers gave us plenty of donations. We just laid pieces on the floor and had our students run, stomp, or roll over it. It really does sound like firecrackers, especially when the wheelchairs rolled over it.

The kids totally had a blast and yes——- so did the adults 🙂

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday we made fireworks pictures! We started by discussing the different colors of paint we were going to use and asked the students to identify the colors using the communication symbols. The students have been doing so well when given a choice of 2, that we decided to make it a little harder by giving them 3 choices. This also helps prepare them for the alternate assessment which is in a 3 answer choice format.

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

We counted out pieces of black paper, noting that it was a rectangle and also counting how many sides it had. Recognizing objects with 2 dimensional shapes and identifying the sides of a rectangle are math access points.

Then we began stamping our fireworks. The stamper is a toilet paper roll with slits cut into it (we saw this idea on Pinterest). The paint colors popped on the black paper and our students really got into it!

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

LANGUAGE GROUP

After reading Cara’s book, we worked on putting the months of the year in the correct order. The chart that we used had a picture for each month in case the student needed a visual prompt to match the word to.

Each student was given 3 different months to choose from when it was their turn. The months presented were read aloud to the student and they chose which month was the correct month. If they were unable to find the correct month with just auditory feedback, they could use the picture signifying the month as a visual prompt.

We had such a high success rate with this activity! The students in Mrs. Robin’s class know their months of the year well. Rote learning had taught them the order of the months and since Mrs. Robin goes over the months of the year each day in her class, these students were able to put the months in order with minimal prompting. So cool!

After putting the months of the year together, we got the number chart out and began the New Years countdown. We gave our students noise makers, crazy glasses, party hats and…..of course we pulled out the bubble wrap again!!!!

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

This week was so much fun, keep following us, there are so many more exciting things to learn and discover—-Group by Group!

Dec15

Christmas Traditions book

Posted on December 15, 2013 by jd785

Christmas Traditions book

The holidays are in full swing now, and continuing to follow the Unique curriculum for this month, we are talking about Christmas traditions. The pictures in the book this week were given to us some of our co-workers as well as some by Joy and Cara. There are so many different things that people do as their Christmas traditions, but we only touched on a few of them. After reading what the tradition was on each page, we asked our students, “what is this?” to which they replied using a voice output device, “this is a Christmas tradition.” We have to say that the last tradition is probably our favorite—- you’ll have to read the book to see what it is 🙂

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Here is a link to the book: Christmas Traditions

Dec15

Christmas Traditions

Posted on December 15, 2013 by jd785

Christmas Traditions

It was a busy week with a special program affecting our group schedule a little but we still had fun exploring our Christmas Traditions theme! Cara used pictures submitted by staff members for her book and our students really enjoyed looking at the pictures and labeling things they saw—-such as the Christmas tree and Santa Claus. Our sensory boxes were bright and colorful with lots of Christmas related items to explore. The fine motor group had two cute projects and the language group went on a Christmas parade!

Sensory Group

Colorful lights are a Christmas tradition that we find decorating trees and houses. We put 2 sets of colorful battery operated lights and some shiny garland in this box. The garland reflected the lights and made the box even more eye catching—–and mesmerizing 🙂

This one was a favorite!

This addresses the science access point recognizing sources of light.

This box was filled with plastic pine branches and holly leaves. We also put in some red garland, shiny beads, and a little Christmas stocking. All sorts of fun textures and items to explore! Of course, we had to include a couple of Santas, a little elf, a wrapped present, a nutcracker, and some jingle bells—all traditional Christmas symbols.

We also included a voice output device with the song Jingle Bells—-it got played ALOT 🙂

Science access points addressed include recognizing common objects related to science by name, such as plant and recognizing a model of a real object.

This activity also addresses the social studies access point, associating a celebration with an event, such as a holiday.

Red and green are considered Christmas colors. We put shiny, hard beads and soft, round pom poms in this box.

Lots of opportunities to compare and contrast materials. It addresses the science access point identifying common objects by one observable property, such as color. It also addresses the science access point recognizing two objects that are identical to each other.

The math access point recognizing a 3 dimensional object (sphere) is also addressed.

Red and green are also the colors of our rice box—-red rice and green split peas! Wow, this was such a pretty box—so eye catching! Hidden in the box were 3 letter C’s to find. We also taped some Christmas tree wrapping paper to the bottom of the box—-a fun picture to find as the rice was pushed aside.

In addition to tactile and visual discrimination skills, the science access point of applying a push to move an object is addressed.

A giant Christmas tree cookie cutter was used with our peppermint scented green playdough. Although is smelled pretty yummy, our students did a really good job of refraining from tasting it!

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

As more than 1 tree is formed, the science access point recognizing two objects that are identical to each other is also addressed.

We swirled red food coloring into our “candy cane” oobleck. It turned out pretty cool—starting out with swirling color and ending up a delightful pink!

As usual, our students loved playing with it—oobleck is simply amazing stuff 🙂

The science access points recognizing a change in an object and recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move are addressed here.

This week, we found our scent at Joann’s—-Gingerbread!

We used the water to rinse the oobleck off our hands AND address the science access point recognizing water as a liquid.

As well as the science access point observing and recognizing that people need water —to clean off oobeck, of course 🙂

The matching lotion smelled very yummy and after the students had smelled the lotion, we asked them which body part they wanted the lotion rubbed on. This scent was a real hit, ALL our students loved it!

This activity addresses the science access point recognizing external body parts and the language access point communicating a preference for a familiar action.

Fine Motor Group

On Tuesday we made some super cool reindeer using floor puzzle pieces. We have done this before and we liked them so much, we decided to do it again! Our super volunteer, Sarah, glued the pieces together for us.

We started by using our sponge brushes to paint the reindeer brown.

Recognizing a change in a object is addressed as the white puzzle pieces become brown.

Next we asked our students to find their eyes, then put 2 round googlie eyes on their reindeer. Placing the googlie eyes helps to promote pincer grasp skills.

It also addresses the science access point recognizing external body parts.

Rudolph needs a bright shiny red nose, of course! We added a cute pompom noses after asking the students to find their own nose.

Again, this activity addresses pincer grasp skills and identifying external body parts.

Our students were thrilled with their reindeer!

Time to run, run Rudolph—-

TaDA!

On Thursday, our students turned into little elves!

We started by discussing the color of the paper we were going to use. Our students did a great job of finding the color green. We were so excited when we realized that everyone had answered correctly!

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

Then we used our paper cutters and electric scissors to turn our green rectangles into triangles!

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

The math access point recognizing 2 dimensional shapes is also addressed.

Time to add some decorations—working on pincer grasp and eye hand coordination skills!

Of course, we counted each decoration as it was added to the hat.

We glued the hat onto our pre-made faces, made from paper plates (thanks again Sarah!).

Elves ready and reporting to work 🙂

HO HO HO

Language Group

After reading Cara’s book, we made Christmas cards for the other elementary classes. The students got to pick what they wanted on the front of the cards by activating the All-Turn-It spinner. The pictures on the spinner were: Christmas tree, Santa Claus, bells, angel, reindeer, snowman, and an elf.

Our students did so well watching the spinner and they are also learning not to hit the switch but to push it to activate it.

The language access point, use technology resources to support learning is addressed here.

After finishing up the cards, we dressed our students up with different Christmas props. We let them look in the mirror to see themselves which is always fun to do. The different props we had coincided with the different pictures that were on the spinner. We talked about putting things “on” and trying not to take them “off”.

Responding to specific information about familiar objects and routines is a language access point addressed here.

We also made sure everyone had some jingle bells 🙂

Time for a Christmas parade! We went over who was “first” and who was “last” then we turned on some Christmas music, rang bells, and paraded through the halls to deliver the cards. SO FUN!

Surprisingly, the props stayed on our students the entire time! The students in the other classrooms loved watching our language group parade around their room!

The math access point, recognizing the next step in a simple pattern or sequence of activities is addressed here.

Responding to familiar persons is a language access point addressed.

It’s been a great celebration these past 2 weeks, but now we’re all ready for a break! Since next week there are only 2 full days of school, we decided not to have groups. We’ll see you in 2014 with some more fun Group by Group!

Dec13

Oops!

Posted on December 13, 2013 by jd785

Oops!

Someone—who shall not be named 🙂 —-accidentally hit the wrong button and published our Christmas Traditions post before it was finished!

Please excuse our oops and look for the completely Christmas Traditions post, complete with VERY cute pictures of our students 🙂 on Sunday evening.

Dec8

Hanukkah book

Posted on December 8, 2013 by jd785

Hanukkah book

We got to celebrate Hanukkah with our students this week. The book looks at the different things that are done during Hanukkah, like lighting the Menorah, playing dreidel, and eating latkes. The repetitive phrase “during the 8 days of Hanukkah” answers the question “when do we do this?”. The pictures in the book, all from google images, really stood out against the blue background. More and more of our students really attend to the books, which is such a great thing to see. We hope you enjoy!

Here is a link to the book: During the 8 Days of Hanukkah

Dec8

Hanukkah

Posted on December 8, 2013 by jd785

Hanukkah

This month the Unique Curriculum unit looks at some different holidays celebrated in the winter. Hanukkah is one of the holidays that our students are learning about so we chose it for our theme this week and Cara wrote another great book that all the groups enjoyed! The social studies access point addressed in this unit is recognizing that people from diverse backgrounds make contributions.

SENSORY GROUP

Our first box was filled with blue and silver basket filler, curling ribbon, garland, and chenille strands. In it we placed some dreidels, pictures of Hanukkah related items, and stars. We included some gold bead gelt and some play food donuts! Lots of wonderful textures and shapes to explore!

Some of our students had fun trying to make the dreidels spin, while others loved shaking the colorful textured strands.

They all had fun listening and dancing to the dreidel song that played when the voice output device we had included in the box was pressed!

This box addresses the language access point responding to new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly.

It also addresses the social studies access point associating a celebration with an event, such as a holiday.

And finally, it also addresses the science access point recognizing and responding to common sounds.

We put 2 different size stars and a dreidel cookie cutter in our blue moon sand. This moon sand has a great texture, it’s easy to push the cookie cutters into but still firm enough to hold the shape.

This box addresses the science access point recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move.

It also addresses the math access points of recognizing differences in size of objects and associating quantities with number names.

Since Hanukkah takes place in the winter, we had to include our blue cuddly pom pom yarn in our next box! So much fun to drape or shake…..

some of our students really had a blast with it 🙂

It addresses the science access points identifying common objects by one observable property, in this case the color blue and tracking objects in motion!

Our waxy Wikki Stix feel just like candles, which are lit for 8 nights during Hanukkah. Our students had fun twisting and bending them into different shapes.

We also included a discovery bottle filled with cooking oil and gold glitter, like little flames dancing around.

This bottle turned out so fabulous with all the gold glitter swirling around—- seriously COOL!

The science access points addressed are applying a push to move an object and recognize the change in the motion of an object.

Potato latkes are often served during Hanukkah celebrations. We just love the interesting soft, crunchy texture that is kind of irresistible. We hid the letter H and the number 8 in the potato flakes for our students to find.

Explore, observe, and recognize common objects in the natural world is a science access point addressed in this activity.

Donuts are another treat eaten during Hanukkah—- so we used shaving cream which is KIND OF like the cream inside of a real donut 🙂

The science access point recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is addressed as our students push and smush the cream around.

We rinsed our hands in some vanilla sugar scented water and used different size spoons to practice scooping….of course, taking some time out to do a little splashing around also 🙂

Using the different size scoops in the water addresses the math access point recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.

Then we used the vanilla sugar scented lotion to leave the group smelling like yummy donuts! The science access point recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli is addressed with the lotion.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday we learned about dreidels and made one for our art project! We started by using our paper cutters and switch adapted electric scissors to cut out the 4 symbols used on a dreidel. We found the symbols online and enlarged them on our copier.

We counted the symbols as they were cut, addressing the math access point associating quantities with number names.

Then we glued 1 symbol on each side of our blue cube. Thanks again to our wonderful volunteer Sarah who covered and assembled these boxes. We also want to thank Noah who cut the dowels for us—-couldn’t have done it without them!

We discussed the shape of the boxes and the paper color.

Recognizing common 3 dimensional objects, such as cubes, is a math access point addressed here. A science access point addressed is recognizing objects by one observable property such as color.

Ta Da—check out these GIANT dreidels—— AWESOME?!!!!!

On Thursday, we continued with a dreidel theme, decorating a dreidel shape cut from cereal boxes (thanks to our volunteer Mackenzie!)

We started by discussing the paint colors we were going to use and used our communication symbols to see if our students could identify the color blue.

Identifying common objects by one observable property, such as color……

NAILED!!!!! 🙂

Next we used a textured roller to paint our dreidel. Using the roller is a fun way to work on bilateral coordination!

It also addresses the science access point of applying a push to move an object.

Then we continued to decorate the dreidel using some sponge stamps dipped in blue paint.

Painting the dreidel addresses the science access point recognizing a change in an object.

We finished by adding some glitter—-for a little bit of sparkle 🙂

TA DA!

Another fabulous dreidel….

AND some fabulous smiles!

LANGUAGE GROUP

As with all the groups, we started off by reading Cara’s book. Our students are getting so good at attending to the book and activating the voice output when it’s their turn! Responding to a technology resource is a language access point.

For our activity, we decided to play dreidel with our students. Of course, they had to start with some chocolate gelt so we counted out 3 pieces for each student. Then we asked students to put one piece of gelt into the pot to start the game.

Since it can be pretty hard to get the dreidel spinning, we adapted it for our students by printing out pictures of each side of the dreidel and taping 2 of each onto an All Turn It spinner.

The students took turns pressing the switch to activate the spinner. It was exciting for them to see what they got! The sides and meanings are: Shin-put one more token in the pot, Nun-do nothing, Gimmel-take all the tokens from the pot, and Hay-take half of the tokens in the pot. This was a great game for following directions and turn taking!

It was so much fun and the gelt was very yummy!

It also addresses the language access point of attending to pictures or informational materials. It also addresses the science access points recognizing when objects have been added to or taken away from a situation.

The students had several chances to use their counting skills as well—-addressing the math access point associating quantities with number names.

After the game, we decided to put on some music—– since this class has so many talented dancers 🙂

Join us again next week and we will continue learning about winter celebrations, Group by Group!