Apr28

Safari

Posted on April 28, 2013 by jd785

Our groups went on Safari this week! Cara’s sister, who lives in Africa, sent us her actual safari pictures for our book—-how cool is that!

Sensory Group

If you are going on safari you are probably going to have to ride on an airplane to get there and when you ride on an airplane you can hear engine sounds and feel the engine vibrate.

Our vibrating tube gave us those same sensations. The tube is bendable and soft—-nice to cuddle with or wrap around your neck!

Our students loved it!

This addresses the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

When you are on safari you want to SEE the animals, not have them see you—-that’s why you might want to wear camo clothing!

We mixed brown, green, red and white dried beans and peas to make our camo box. It turned out pretty cool! Beans are always popular with our students, they particularly like burying and uncovering things in them. This week we put in a large letter S for “safari” for them to find.

2 different sized scoops were also included to add to the fun.

This activity helps build tactile discrimination and visual figure ground skills. It also addresses the math access point of recognizing differences in the sizes of containers.

It is especially fun if you are also wearing a camo hat 🙂

Our jungle box was filled with green shredded paper, raffia, chenille yarn vines, and green silk leaves. We put in a globe, wooden sun cut out, a little jeep, a variety of toy zoo animals you might see on safari and an old camera—-perfect for taking pictures of all those cool animals.

So much to talk about and vocabulary to learn!

Speaking of animals, some of them had buttons that when pushed made the animals growl. We have used these before and they are always very popular—-great for promoting finger individuation!

For our students who have significant physical disabilities—its always great to have a friend help you out 🙂

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

It also addresses the science access point of recognizing and responding to common sounds AND the science access point of sharing objects with a partner—-so sweet!

Our tiger pom poms are so bright and so very eye catching. Different colors and sizes—perfect for comparing and contrasting!

Lots of access points can be addressed with these colorful spheres including the science access point of recognizing 2 objects that are identical to each other …..and the math access points recognizing a common 3 dimensional objects and recognizing similarities and differences in the size of objects.

Is this a great box or what!!!!!

Colorful feathered birds are always a part of any safari! This box contained a variety of feather boas—-perfect for wrapping around you or shaking—-so soft and fluffy! We got these at the dollar store around halloween and totally got our money’s worth of fun out of them 🙂

The science access point of identifying common objects by one observable property—in this case color.

Uh oh—-beware of quick sand!!!!!

We added water to some cornmeal mix to make our quick sand and were pretty happy with the results.

As you can tell by our students expressions, this was some weird feeling concoction but they couldn’t resist sticking their hands right back in again and again—trying to figure it out—what inquisitive little scientists we have!

This activity addresses the science access point of exploring, observing and recognizing objects in the natural world.

The language access point of using body movement or nonverbal expressions to communicate preferences—-NAILED 🙂

We finished by rinsing our hands using Into the Wild by Bath and Body Works scented water—it had a really nice aroma but we suspect nothing like what the “wild” actually smells like ha ha.

Banana scented lotion that we found at World Market was the perfect finishing touch to help us remember our safari fun!

This activity addresses the science access points of recognizing one way people use water and recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

Fine Motor Group

On Tuesday for our art activity we made tiger masks!

We started by cutting, using our adaptive scissors, 3 strips of paper in half—to make 6 tiger stripes.

Cutting the paper addresses the science access point of recognizing a change in an object.

The stripes were glued onto our tiger mask. Prior to the activity, staff cut out eye holes in an orange paper plate (found on clearance after halloween—-score!) and glued a paint stick to the back. As we passed the masks out, we discussed their circular shape, of course 🙂

We asked the students to touch their noses and then gave them 1 black triangle nose to glue onto their masks. Then 2 orange ears were glued onto the head.

Eye hand coordination and spatial relations are addressed with this activity. Lots of math access points are addressed including recognizing common objects with 2 dimensional shapes and associating quantities with number names.

The science access point of recognizing one or more external body parts was also addressed.

Better watch out for tigers—-

GRRRRRR!!!!

On Thursday we read Cara’s book again, practicing passing the voice output to our neighbor for their turn. This addresses the science access point of sharing objects with a partner. For our art project, we continued our safari theme by making some monkey puppets.

First we passed 1 large brown circle to each student. They used our paper cutters to cut them in half—making semi circles!

These were then glued onto a paper lunch bag.

This activity addresses the science access point of recognizing a change in an object. It also addresses the math access points of recognizing a 2 dimensional shape and recognizing parts of whole objects.

Of course, it also promotes eye hand coordination and spatial relations.

We used our large hole punch to cut 2 brown circles for our monkey ears, which were glued to the top of the bag.

Then the finishing touch—2 big googlie eyes!

This activity addresses the science access point of recognizing a change in an object (as the circles are punched) and recognizing external body parts.

It also addresses math access points including matching one object to a designated space to show one to one correspondence and associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names.

Putting on those little googlie eyes also gives our students an opportunity to practice their pincer grasp skills.

Ta Da—-what cute little monkey puppets!

Language Group

We started out this week with Cara’s book. Although reading the book is new to this group, our students have been doing an EXCELLENT job of pressing the voice output device and sharing it with their friends.

As we read the book and use the voice output device (in all our groups) we address the language access point of listening for informative purposes (ex. following prompts, cues).

The book led us into our own safari. We put 7 different animals (a combination of plush and plastic ones) on the table. We asked the students to use their binoculars to find the different animals—-while wearing a super cool safari hat!

This activity addresses the science access point of recognizing a familiar objects enlarged by magnification.

It also addresses the language access point of responding to new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly.

After finding an animal, they had to match the animal up with a picture symbol of the animal. We used the carrier phrase “I see a ___” so the students could fill in the blank with the animal that they had seen. We used the PIXON communication board symbols for “I” and “see” to work on identifying different PIXON picture symbols.

This addresses the language access point of communicating about a selected object using pictures/symbols/words.

Pretty cool!

With our safari over, it was feeding time to feed the monkeys 🙂

We gave each student 3 bananas and counted as they were put into the monkey’s mouth one at a time—physically assisting our students as needed.

The activity promotes grasp skills and eye hand coordination.

In addition the math access points of recognizing when an object is added to a situation and recognizing quantities 1 to 3 using sets of objects.

What a great week, we had so much fun going on safari! Join us again next week—-we promise to bring lots to discover plus smiles, fun and learning—-Group by Group!

Apr21

Dinosaurs book

Posted on April 21, 2013 by jd785

Dinosaurs book

This week, we’re going prehistoric! We are learning about dinosaurs through sensory, fine motor, and language activities. They all LOVED the pictures in the book this week, taken by our very own OT, Joy! Each page has a different dinosaur and tells something about it. The students were asked, “when did dinosaurs live?” to which they answered, “dinosaurs lived long ago”. We are working on having the students pass the voice output device to the person who is next. It is still a hand over hand process, but the students are doing very well with it. Maybe in the next few weeks they’ll have it down! Enjoy the book.

Here is a link to the book: Dinosaurs Lived Long Ago

Apr21

Dinosaurs

Posted on April 21, 2013 by jd785

Dinosaurs

ROAR!!!! There were some dinosaurs roaming around around campus this week—you have to check out our visitors in Cara’s latest book. Kids love dinosaurs and ours are no exception! Hope you enjoy seeing how we carried out the theme throughout all our groups this week.

SENSORY GROUP

The land the dinosaurs ruled was filled with lots of vegetation so we filled this box with moss and leaves. We put in some plastic eggs and a variety of dinosaurs. Some of them had a button you could push to make them ROAR—needless to say, this was a huge hit!

We put in a variety of play food—meat for the meat eaters and vegetables for the plant eaters. Some fossils (playdough molds), a large letter D, and a bone shaped cookie cutter.

So much language and play included in this box—don’t you just love the action going on in this picture.

In addition to lots of fine motor skills addressed as students manipulate the various objects, press buttons etc., lots of access points are addressed. These include the science access point of distinguishing between a plant and an animal—if you are trying to feed your dinosaur, you know its an animal! It also addresses the language access point of selecting a familiar object to explore.

So while it’s not totally clear if dinosaurs became oil, we decided to go ahead and make a “fossil fuel” goo bag which was tons of fun.

It was made by mixing cooking oil and black paint and putting it in a heavy duty freezer bag, We then taped the bag onto a tray—and kept a supply of packing tape handy in case of slight rips. As the week went along and multiple classes participated in our groups—we did find DOUBLE bagging and TAPING worked best 🙂

While some of our students practiced prewriting strokes or even wrote their names— others were fascinated by watching the oil and paint swirl around—-so cool!

This addresses the science access point of applying a push or pull to move an object.

Dinosaurs are reptiles so they don’t have fur like mammals!

We used our plush fabric to represent mammals and we cut up an old green leather purse to make our dino skin. Our students enjoyed running their hands over the different textures, comparing and contrasting them.

This activity addresses the science access point of using the senses to recognize objects.

We wanted to convey the idea of dinosaurs sharp teeth without the item actually BEING sharp—this pin board seemed the perfect fit. It doesn’t really have pins, just small plastic dowels with rounded ends.

Our students had a blast with it, finding it utterly fascinating. They loved the impressions as they moved their hands and pushed against the pins.

Really, really, REALLY fun!

This activity addresses the science access point of applying a push or pull to move an object.

Our discovery bottle was filled with black glitter, sequins and orange colored corn syrup and we think it looks just like molten lava—something the dinosaurs may have encountered!

As the bottle is rotated or rolled, everything slowly moves around and is pretty fascinating to look at.

This addresses the science access point of tracking moving objects.

We included a variety of scents this week. From the “Follow your Nose” game we smelled pine, mushroom and fire scents which we thought would be similar to the ones dinosaurs might have smelled as they roamed around.

These were some pretty funky scents and it was fun watching the different reactions we got—-giving our students lots of opportunities to communicate preferences 🙂

This addresses the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

Dinosaurs also roamed around in some swampy places—-so we made a green jello swamp. Totally messy fun with some dinosaurs, palm trees and a dinosaur cookie cutter.

This is a really different texture and as usual, some of our students dived right in while others were quite hesitant 🙂

Grasp skills are promoted as our students pick up the various items buried in the jello or use the cookie cutter.

Science access points are also addressed including applying a push or pull to move an object, distinguishing between a plant and animal, and identifying objects by one observable property—in this case GREEN jello.

Our play snow reminded us of how climate change may have caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. We were really excited about how well it lasted—we kept it re-fridgerated which may have helped!

Our students were really not quite sure what to make of it at first—-cold and wet, hmmmm??

So much fun to grasp and squish!

The science access points of distinguishing between items that are wet and those that are dry and recognizing objects as warm or cold are totally explored in this activity!

Finally we rinsed our messy hands in Juniper Breeze scented water and then rubbed the lotion on our hands. We added a large measuring cup and a small spoon for scooping and pouring fun.

As students play with the different scoops they are exploring the math access point of recognizing the differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.

In addition, as seen in this picture, the science access point of recognizing external body parts and the math access point of indicating a desire for more of an action or object is addressed.

So much fun today and a wonderful scent to help us remember the wonderful things we learned about the dinosaurs today!

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday we “discovered” some fossils! Ok so coloring all those dino skeletons was a little labor intensive prep but our students were so excited as they watched their fossils appear on the paper that it made it well worth it! Joy lightly sketched the skeletons and Jeannie’s assistants—she has some really nice assistants 🙂 —colored them in with a white crayon. We adapted this activity from a glue resist art activity we saw on Pinterest.

First we discussed what color paint we were going to use (showing them the container) and had them identify the color using our communication symbols.

They did a really good job!

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

Then we discussed the shape (rectangle) of our paper, counted its 4 sides…..

….and started painting! We used diluted brown paint (it needs to be watercolor like) and wide foam brushes. Our students got so excited as the bones became more visible! This was totally fun!

The math access points of recognizing a common object with a 2 dimensional shape and recognizing the sides of a square or rectangle were addressed.

This turned out pretty cool, right!

AWESOME!!!!!

On Thursday we continued our dinosaur theme by making a shape stegosaurus.

First our students chose what color stegosaurus they wanted from a variety of colors.

We used the communication symbols to increase literacy and to promote their ability to recognize two objects that are the same color which is a math access point.

Then they chose 2 squares which we cut into 4 triangles using our paper cutter and glued these to the dinosaur’s back.

Next we used our circle punch to cut out 2 circles which were also glued onto our stegy.

1 big googlie eye and our stegy came to life!

Bilateral coordination is addressed as the students use the different cutting implements. Pincer grasp, eye hand coordination and spatial relations are promoted as the pieces are added to the dinosaur body.

As the paper is cut the science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed. Discussing the different shapes addresses the math access point of recognizing a common object with a 2 dimensional shape.

Counting the various objects additionally (no pun intended ha ha) addresses math access points.

—Ta Da super cute!

Peace Love and Dinosaurs 🙂

LANGUAGE GROUP

We started group out reading Cara’s book. We are super excited to finally have all our groups totally integrated with the same theme and our students totally enjoyed her fun book—-really who can resist dinosaurs 🙂

We brought a variety of dinosaurs into the group, some of which also appeared in the book. The students got to hold them and compare them. They were especially excited when they found out that some of them made noise when squeezed!

While the book was being read, we had the students locate which dinosaurs they saw in the classroom that were also in the book.

This addresses the language access points of responding to a familiar person reading a book aloud and responding to referent objects used in routines.

It also addresses the science access points of applying a push to move an object and recognizing and responding to common sounds—-they got lots of practice with this one 🙂

After the book, we brought out a simple dinosaur puzzle. Students with fine motor difficulties took the puzzle pieces off of the board using our adapted puppy. He was made by hot gluing a shower curtain ring to his back and some velcro to his mouth. Other students took out the pieces using their hands. After taking them out, the dinosaurs were placed back on the board.

Picking up and placing the pieces back into the board addresses spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

Since the title of our book is “Dinosaurs Lived Long Ago”, we went over things that we see today versus things that were around during the age of the dinos.

The students got to pick from 2 different rows of Boardmaker symbols. Students used a communication board to request their choice by indicating “I want” and pointing to the row of pictures.

Of course, vocalizing is always encouraged as well!

Once they picked their choice, they had to cut out one of the pictures. We used adaptive scissors for the cutting.

After cutting the picture out, the students had to decide whether the picture went “here” (a picture of a neighborhood representing “now”) or “there” (a picture of a jungle representing “then”).

The “here/there” picture symbols are taken from the PIXON 50 core vocabulary communication board that we have implemented into each class at our school. For the most part, the students did really well with indicating where their picture should go.

Such smart students we have 🙂

The language access points of recognizing referent objects, pictures or symbols used in classroom activities—responding to differences in referent pictures or symbols used in routines—-and effectively communicate information using referent pictures, symbols or words. WOW!!!

And here are some of the dinosaur related words we found today—-such fun!

Join us again next week for more fun, learning and great big smiles—-Group by Group 🙂

Apr15

Gardening

Posted on April 15, 2013 by jd785

Gardening

Well things got a little crazy this week with two school wide events and LOTS of IEP meetings. As a result, we ended up having to cancel most of our Sensory and Language Groups this week. We used month’s Unique Curriculum theme for our Fine Motor Groups which by some miracle were not impacted by the above events 🙂

Here is what we did…..

We re-read our Spring book which we thought went along with our gardening theme and then proceeded to begin our art activity—making a flower garden!

First we folded 2 cupcake liners and then used our adaptive scissors to make snips—counting each snip.

Oh yeah—-have we got this cutting business down or what?!!! 🙂

Folding and cutting the cupcake liners changes the way they look, addressing the science access point of recognizing a change in an object.

We glued the cupcake liners together and THEN glued them on top of a popsicle stick.

Pat! Pat! Pat!

Holding down the popsicle stick while patting down the cupcake liners promotes bilateral coordination.

Gluing the cupcake liners together addresses the math access point of solving simple problems involving putting together small quantities of objects.

Placing the cupcake liners ON the popsicle stick addresses the math access point of recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship.

Our flower was finished with a cute little yellow pompom glued right in the middle.

Pincer grasp skills and eye hand coordination is addressed during this activity.

The math access points of recognizing when an object is added to a situation and recognizing 3 dimensional shape (sphere) is addressed.

TA……

…….hey what happened to my flower?????

Once we gave the glue a chance to dry 🙂 , we planted our flowers and got our Ta Da’s.

This piece of pool noodle with a slit cut in it works perfectly as a planter.

We counted the flowers as we put them in 1,2,3,4,5!

And here is our little garden—doesn’t it look so cute!

On Thursday we continued our gardening theme by reading Cara’s book again then playing with these cute little bee puppets. Our students were pretty tickled with them 🙂

The 2 bees were different sizes giving us a chance to address the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of objects.

What fun!!

We started our art project —-making a bee, of course! First we cut strips of black paper with our paper cutter, counting each cut and then counting the strips.

Look at this concentration, don’t you just love it!

We also discussed the color of the paper, addressing the science access point of identifying objects by one observable property.

Then we glued the black strips onto our yellow circle.

And added some heart shaped wings (made from waxed paper) 2 googlie eyes and a triangle tail.

In addition to the math access point of recognizing 2 dimensional shapes, spatial relations skills are addressed while putting together our cute little bumble bee!

Ta Da!!!

Our students looked so cute as they made their little bees fly around—and also demonstrated the science access points of applying a push or pull to move an object AND recognizing a model of a real object!

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 🙂

Come by next week when we will be back in business with all our groups—its going to be SUCH FUN………

Group by Group 🙂

Apr7

Ocean book

Posted on April 7, 2013 by jd785

Ocean book

It’s national ocean week so we’re talking all about oceans. The book this week has the students answering a “where” question. There are pictures of different things that are seen in oceans. We asked the students, “where do we see this?” and the repetitive line answers “in the ocean”. Some of our little students showed us the picture on the page when we asked them “where do we see fish/sharks/etc.?” which is pretty clever 🙂 The pictures are so vibrant and some of our students were able to name what animals were pictured. So dive right in and enjoy the book!

Here is a link to the book: In The Ocean

Apr7

The Ocean

Posted on April 7, 2013 by jd785

The Ocean

This week our theme was The Ocean and we had so much fun learning about it in our various groups.

Sensory Group

We started with a box filled with blue basket grass, a shipwreck figure from a long ago aquarium, a piece of netting, sea shells, green chenille yarn that looked like seaweed, blue beads, pearls and a variety of sea life including a shark, dolphin, fish, lobster and a big spiky ball that looked just like a sea urchin.

This was a great box with interesting things to explore and discuss…..

…or just act silly with 🙂

Reach and grasp skills are promoted as the students explore the boxes contents. In addition visual and tactile discrimination skills are promoted.

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

This also addresses the science access point of recognizing a model of a real object.

The ocean has a sandy bottom just like our moon sand. We used our cookie cutters to make either the letter O for “ocean” or a starfish.

Since our moon sand is pretty dense, you have to push a little harder to make an impression—great for hand strengthening!

This box addresses the math access point of recognizing 2 dimensional shapes—a circle and a star.

Math access points can be addressed as the number of impressed shapes are counted.

Doesn’t this pink Floam look just like coral! This is the first time we used this material and everyone was pretty fascinated. It looks sticky but doesn’t FEEL sticky. Its pretty cool and can be molded or squished easily—lots of fun.

It is non-toxic but we made sure to watch for any exploratory “tasting” and made sure to re-direct any motions in that direction 🙂

This is great material for promoting reach and grasp skills.

The science access point using senses to recognize objects is addressed as students touch and squeeze the “coral”.

Our discovery bottles were a lot of fun. The first one we have used before and it was filled with some colorful jewel like shells.

In addition to being pretty to look at, it could be rolled or shaken making a satisfying noise.

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

We made the second bottle by putting a little plastic submarine (found at the dollar store) and some Dawn detergent and water. When shaken the sub floated around and looked really cool!

When shaken to produce the foam, the science access point of recognizing an action as fast or slow is addressed.

When holding the bottle the sub can be tracked, again addressing the science access point of tracking moving objects.

Discovery bottles are so easy (and cheap, which you know WE love) to make and are endlessly fascinating—-we love them!

This pom pom yarn has a variety of blue shades—-just like the ocean. Our students loved this yarn and had so much fun touching, shaking and draping it.

In fact, some of them got just plain silly with it—-kids will be kids after all 🙂

The yarn is touchable and soft, perfect for our students who might have tactile aversions.

It also addresses the science access point of tracking objects that are pushed or pulled.

We used Ocean scented products from Bath and Body Works—-with a name like that we HAD to use it! In our water we put 3 fish: 1 big one and 2 little ones. The little fish are also squirters so they made for lots of splashy fun.

The fish can be counted and since the fish are different sizes, the math access point of recognizing differences in the size of objects is also addressed.

The little fish squirt water when squeezed so they are great for increasing grip strength.

As you can imagine, there were lots of giggles with this activity 🙂

The highlight of our group was an underwater tour—-or at least our version of one! We used packing tape to adhere strips of clear garbage bags, blue paper and paper whale silhouettes to an umbrella.

On the inside we hung curling ribbon, beads, and some fish.

It turned out really great—-we were actually quite proud of ourselves 🙂

Lots of visually interesting things to look at as well as touch inside the umbrella BUT we added an extra auditory component—-

—-we taped whale and dolphin sounds (found on Sound Bible) onto our voice output device……….SO COOL!!!!!!

Did we mention how much fun our students had 🙂

While the scent doesn’t exactly smell like the ocean, our Ocean lotion did have a very pleasant scent that all our students seem to like!

This activity addresses the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

After our students have a chance to smell the scent we give them the opportunity to communicate their desire to have some lotion rubbed on their hands or arms. This addresses the language access point of adjusting body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate wants and needs.

What a lovely aroma to help us remember what we learned about the ocean today.

Fine Motor Group

On Tuesday we made some oysters (another great Pinterest idea).

We started by passing out and counting our circular paper plates.

After writing our names on the back we painted them purple (hmm—isn’t that Jeannie’s favorite color!)

Identifying objects by one observable property (in this case color) is a science access point.

Recognizing a common object with a 2 dimensional shape is a math access point.

We mixed a little glue in with our paint so our glitter would stick. You know how we love to add a little sparkle to our projects!

Asking the question “is that enough?” addresses the science access point of solving small quantities of objects or actions using language, such as enough, too much or more is a math access point—-

—-of course, with glitter the answer is always “MORE” 🙂

After folding our plate in half we added a pretty white pom pom pearl.

Nice pincer grasp and eye hand coordination practice!

As the plate is folded in half it changes shape—-addressing the science access point of recognizing a change in an object.

Everyone was pretty tickled with their oyster—

……………………TA DA!!!!!!!!

Honestly, can our students be any more adorable 🙂

On Thursday we gave our students a choice of three different fish shapes. Then we tore and crumpled pieces of tissue paper (recycled present paper).

The pieces were dipped in glue and applied to the fish.

Tearing and crumpling the paper again addresses the science access point of recognizing a change in an object.

Lots of fine motor skills addressed including eye hand coordination and pincer grasp.

They turned out so cute and colorful. Our students took turns glueing their fish onto our underwater scene.

We cut it out of an old cardboard box and painted it green earlier in the week.

This activity addresses eye hand coordination and spatial relations skills.

Doesn’t it look fantastic—or should we say FINtastic 🙂

Language Group

We started by playing with a magnetic fishing puzzle. Our students used their communication boards to indicate that it was their turn.

As the various sea creatures were “caught” we wrote the names down on our sticky notes and put them onto the table—-giving the students the opportunity to address the language access point of responding to new vocabulary.

This is also a great activity to promote shoulder stability and eye hand coordination.

Then we played the “over” or “under” game. The students chose a strip of board maker symbols, indicating their choices using either gestures, body language or communication boards.

After using the adaptive scissors to cut off a square…

they told us whether it went “over” the water or “under” the water and glued it in the appropriate place on our picture.

We learned all sorts of new vocabulary, communicated choices, and responded to referent pictures used in routines—all sorts of language access points addressed today AND it was a lot of fun!

That wraps up another week. Join us again next week for more fun and learning, Group by Group 🙂

Apr1

Spring book

Posted on April 1, 2013 by jd785

Spring book

The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and spring has sprung! It is always so nice to see more color after a winter of cold days and bare trees. The book touches on some of the different things that spring brings with it, like flowers blooming and birds laying eggs. After reading about what we can see, we asked the students “why?” to which they responded (activating a voice output device) “spring has sprung”. The pictures in the book are so colorful this week and the students did such a great job taking turns activating the voice output device and more and more of the students are focusing on the book while it’s being read.

Here is a link to the book: Spring Has Sprung

Update: The link above was actually the book I wrote LAST year, apparently with the same title! The books are different, with the exception of the title and the repetitive line. I felt like I should put this one in the blog as well since this is the one we really read 🙂

Here is a link to another Spring Has Sprung book: Spring Has Sprung!(2)

Apr1

Spring and Letter Z

Posted on April 1, 2013 by jd785

Spring and Letter Z

This week we enjoyed talking about Spring in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. We finished up the alphabet with letter Z in our Language Group.

Sensory Group—Spring

So many things associated with spring in our first box! Scattered about in our colorful yellow grass were plastic eggs, a variety of bunnies, chicks and ducks (plush, felt, cookie cutters etc.), a little basket, play food, and some fun funky flower glasses. We also included a little clock to remind us about daylight savings time. Some of our students are really fascinated by clocks and had fun turning the hands on it! Others enjoyed finding the eggs and putting them into the little basket.

This box addresses the language access point of attending to informational materials.

As the colorful eggs are placed in the basket, math access points of solving problems involving small quantities of objects using language such as enough, too much, or more and associating quantities of 1,2 or 3 with number names are addressed.

Spring means colorful flowers everywhere and this box was filled with them. All different sizes and colors. We loved picking them up in handfuls, watching as they drifted back down and scattered on the table or on the students 🙂

This box addresses the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of objects. It also addresses the science access points of tracking objects in motion and identifying objects by one observable property.

Spring also means cute little caterpillars that turn into pretty butterflies. Corkscrew and bowtie pasta dyed with food coloring made for such a pretty box. This was a perfect box for sorting and discussing things that were the “same” and things that were “different”.

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

A favorite thing to do in the spring is to plant a garden—we planted 3 little carrots in our coffee ground “soil”. This was a super fun box and our students had a great time planting their carrots. They were so cute, sticking the carrots into the soil and then using the scoop to cover them up—we have quite the group of little gardeners here 🙂

This box definitely addresses the science access points of recognizing a model of a real object and recognizing that plants grow.

Some of us might go hunting for eggs to celebrate Easter. Our pretty green rice with dried lima beans looked just like a lawn scattered with tiny eggs—–isn’t it just so cute! There were 3 more colorful egg pictures to find at the bottom of the box as well as a giant letter E.

More math access points here: associating quantities with number names and recognizing 2 dimensional shapes (the egg pictures were oval shaped).

Who doesn’t love those cute and colorful marshmallow Peeps that you see everywhere in the spring! Shaving cream, cornstarch and yellow food coloring gave us a very similar texture. As the white cornstarch and shaving cream mixture turned yellow the students were able to recognize a change in an object—one of their science access points.

Its been fun to watch over the year as some of our students who were quite hesitant at first are now starting to interact with our messy play materials.

We rinsed our hands in Sweet Pea scented water and rubbed the lotion on our hands and arms. As always, we include our olfactory sense to help our students remember the things they learned today. The soft floral scent was perfect for our spring time theme.

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

We found some fun spring themed temporary tattoos and thought that they would a fun finish to our group. The students got to pick which tattoo they wanted—-communicating a preference addressing language access points AND where they wanted the tattoo—addressing the science access point of identifying body parts.

In addition we addressed the math access point of rote counting as we applied the tattoos.

Everyone had to check out how they looked 🙂

Fine Motor Group—Spring

On Tuesday we made some beautiful spring flowers using these fun bunny and egg shaped chalks. They were perfect for our students little hands!

After the students finished coloring their flowers, they sprayed them with water to blend the colors. We were going for a watercolor effect but found out that the process works better on construction paper rather than the cardstock we used 🙁

Despite that, we had a great time and the students LOVED spraying the water and were so excited when their turn came. As the water made the picture look different the science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed. They also addressed the science access point of recognizing one way people use water 🙂

After we finished spraying our flower we glued it to a rectangular piece of paper. We pointed out that the rectangle had 4 sides addressing the math access point of recognizing the sides of a rectangle

Ta Da—

—-ready for spring!

On Thursday, after reading Cara’s book again we began our art project (we found this idea on Pinterest)—cute bunny noses!

Earlier in the day we pre-glued 2 white chenille stems to each craft stick—-we wanted to make sure the glue was dry before going to the next step.

After we counted (of course) the chenille stems we grabbed both ends and twisted them together. We adapted this activity by inserting the craft stick in a pool noodle to help stabilize it which worked out pretty well.

This activity addresses bilateral coordination and crossing midline.

Can’t help but notice the little photo bomb action by the students classmate 🙂

Then we added a little pink pom pom nose—perfect pincer grasp practice!

Identifying the pom pom as a sphere addresses the math access point of recognizing 3 dimensional shapes.

Identifying the color of the pom pom addresses the science access point of identifying objects by one observable property.

This activity also addresses eye hand coordination and spatial relations.

Hippity Hoppity 🙂

What cute little bunnies!

Language Group—Letter Z

Well we have really Zoomed through the alphabet this year!

We started our last letter of the week group by playing Cara’s sound game—working on recognizing and responding to common sounds, a science access point.

Next we unZipped a back pack and pulled out some Zoo animals—including Zebras!

Manipulating the zipper is a great bilateral coordination activity and discussing the animals addresses the language access point of communicating recognition of familiar objects.

The science access point of identifying external body parts was addressed in a fun way as we played with the beannie babies.

Then we got into a meditation groove with our Zen garden. The students had fun trying to draw Z’s in the sand.

To make it easier to manipulate, we adapted one of our sticks by taping it to a small ruler—worked like a charm 🙂

As the stick is manipulated the students are applying a push or pull to move an object which is a science access point.

We finished by decorating a letter Z with Zig Zag lines.

TA DA!

Another week done and we might be finished with the alphabet but there is more fun yet to come.

Join us next week, Group by Group!

Mar17

St. Patrick’s Day book

Posted on March 17, 2013 by jd785

St. Patrick’s Day book

Get ready to put on some green, because we’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this week! The students asked us the question this week which was “what do we see on St. Patrick’s Day?” The book explores many different things that are associated with St. Patrick’s Day, such as four-leaf clovers, leprechauns, and even a pot of gold. At the end of the book it talks about how people wear green so the students were asked to identify people in the room who were wearing green. It was a bunch of fun and the students really enjoyed it.

Here is a link to the book: What Do We See On St. Patrick’s Day

Mar17

St.Patrick’s Day and Letter Y

Posted on March 17, 2013 by jd785

St.Patrick’s Day and Letter Y

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups and looked at words that start with letter Y in our Language Group.

Sensory Group—St. Patrick’s Day

After reading Cara’s book about St. Patrick’s Day, we got our celebration going with the sound of a rousing irish jig recorded on a voice output device.

Our little leprechauns are usually very responsive to music and this was no exception—- who can resist an irish jig after all! This upbeat music was very appealing to them and they got so excited when it was their turn to press the switch.

This activity gave the students lots of opportunities to gain practice with cause and effect skills. In addition, using technology resources to support learning and responding to rhythm in familiar songs are language access points.

As you can see, we couldn’t resist added a FEW select props to add to the fun 🙂

St. Patrick’s Day is all about the color green! We put in some easter grass, beads, leprechaun hats, curling ribbon, shamrock garland, silk shamrocks, kitchen scrubbers, green manipulatives and toys—-so many things to discover! Reaching for and grasping the different items helps build fine motor skills. In addition, since all the objects are the same color, visual discrimination skills are addressed.

With boxes like this, it is always fun to see what items are particularly appealing to the individual students. The shiny curling ribbons and strands of silk shamrocks were enticing to some of them. While others had fun with the little hats and silly glasses we put in the box

Exploring, observing, and recognizing common objects is a science access point. Recognizing objects by one observable property, such as color, is also a science access point.

Our next box contained our rainbow rice—-rainbows are a symbol associated with St.Patrick’s Day and our rice is just so colorful and pretty!

We put in a large letter I (for Ireland) and taped a picture of a shamrock to the bottom of the box. Two different sized measuring spoons were also placed in it. While some of our students like to sift through and pick up handfuls of rice—and yes occasionally toss it 🙂 —others prefer to use the spoons. We have found that many of our students especially seem to like covering and uncovering the objects we have put in our boxes.

In addition to object permanence, letter recognition, tactile and visual discrimination, this box addresses the math access point of solving simple problems involving putting together and taking apart small quantities of objects. It also addresses the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers.

Our leprechaun box was totally fun—great for comparing colors and textures! First we put in some soft orange yarn just like a leprechaun beard. Then we added his pot of gold (aka shiny mardi gras beads).

Beads are always a favorite with our students. They love looking at them, shaking them—-wearing them 🙂

Others got quite creative with the yarn—making not just beards but wigs also. Our students are sure creative!

This box addresses the science access points of identifying objects by one observable property.

Super cute and lots of fun!

When you think of Irish food you can’t help but think of POTATOES!

In our case we used dried potatoes and we included 3 little snakes hidden among the flakes. St. Patrick was supposed to have driven all the snakes out of Ireland but apparently these little guys got overlooked 🙂

Potato flakes are soft and slightly crunchy. They have a very cool feel that is different and pretty irresistible! We also included a large measuring spoon which is helpful for practicing scooping skills but most of our students preferred to use their hands.

The math access points of associating quantities up to 3 with number names and solving simple problems involving joining or separating sets of objects up to 3 are addressed with this box.

To liven up our shaving cream and make it into “St. Patrick’s Day shaving cream”, we put green and gold glitter sparkles in it. Shaving cream is always such fun and our students love putting their hands into it and “scribbling” around. Some students had fun practicing their prewriting patterns of straight lines or circles.

Recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli is a science access point. This activity also helps address tactile desensitization.

One of the reasons there is so much green in Ireland is all the RAIN! So when we found this Rain Kissed Leaves scent from Bath and Body Works we knew it was the perfect scent to tickle our olfactory sense and help us remember our St. Patrick’s Day fun.

We rinsed all the shaving cream off of our hands in Rainkissed Leaves (from Bath and Body Works) scented water. Our water started off pretty clear with some bubbles but soon turned white and soapy as hands were rinsed…..just a perfect opportunity to address the science access point of recognizing a change in an object—how cool is that!

After our hands were rinsed our students had the opportunity to explore the scent some more with the lotion.

Using their body movements or nonverbal expressions our students communicated their desires and preferences—its not hard to guess what he is communicating 🙂

This activity also addresses the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

Fine Motor Group—St. Patrick’s Day

We had too much fun painting with corn syrup last week —-so we HAD to do it again 🙂

We started by asking our students to show us the picture card with the color green. Our students are getting so good at choosing the correct color. We are so proud of them!

Communicating information about objects using non-verbal expressions, gestures, symbols or words and responding to referent pictures used in routines are language access points.

Identifying an object by one observable property (in this case color) is a science access point.

Then we painted our precut shamrocks with delightfully gooey corn syrup tinted with green food coloring.

We are so proud of the progress our students are making—learning to handle writing utensils and developing eye hand coordination.

Isn’t this student doing such a great job!

Then we glued the shamrocks onto a rectangular piece of paper, but not before adding some gold glitter—since we can never pass up the opportunity to add a little sparkle to our projects 🙂

Each student got to pick the color paper that they wanted which addressed the language access point of using nonverbal expression to communicate preferences.

This activity also addresses the math access point of recognizing 2 dimensional shapes.

Our shamrocks are so shiny and sparkly we love the way they turned out.

Of course, we couldn’t end the group without saying a big…….

…………..TA DA!!!!!

On Thursday we read Cara’s awesome book again. The students really enjoyed the bright colorful pictures and were excited when it was their turn to activate the voice output device.

Responding to a familiar person reading a book aloud, attending to print materials by touching, looking, or listening, and responding to a technology device are all language access points addressed EVERY week when we read our books!

Our art project was so much fun—making a leprechaun beard! We used our picture symbols again but this time asked our students to pick the color orange—then got to work!

First we painted some precut paper plate rim pieces (these were left over from a previous project, sometimes Joy’s hoarding pays off ha ha) with a mixture of orange paint and glue. On an added note, we also taped a popsicle stick to the back of the plate to make it easier for the students to hold.

Then we cut some pieces of orange yarn and sprinkled the pieces on top—addressing both fine motor and spatial relations skills.

The science access point of recognizing a change in an object is also addressed as the different items are added.

Top of the Mornin’ to you from some little leprechauns—–pretty darn cute!!!!

Language Group—the Letter Y

We started out by listening to Cara’s sound game. Towards the end of the alphabet, it gets harder to find different words and sounds—but we made it happen 🙂

As our students played the game, we told them “it is Your turn”.

Recognizing and responding to commons sounds is the science access point addressed here. In addition, the language access points of communicating recognition of familiar persons or objects and responding to familiar print media are also addressed.

After the sound game, we got out a bumpy Yellow ball. Some of our students requested the ball using their static communication boards—communicating their wants is a language access point!

We had so much fun tossing or rolling the ball back and forth Yelling ” Yay” each time it was caught. A totally fun way to work on eye hand coordination as well as turn taking skills—-is it my turn or Yours?

Next we made some Yo Yo’s! We started with small circular paper plates (discussing the shape addresses the math access point of recognizing 2 dimensional shapes) and also counting them out aloud—we NEVER pass up a chance to practice counting 🙂

After coloring them with markers we taped a piece of Yarn to the back.

Ta Da! Here is a homemade Yo-yo!………. Yeah!!

Our students were really tickled with them and had a lot of fun moving them around—-addressing the science access point of tracking objects moving up and down as well as the science access point of recognizing an action as fast or slow.

We finished by looking at some of the Y words we found!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from all of us here. Next week we’re off for spring break but we will be back soon for more fun and learning…..Group by Group 🙂