Tag Archives: access points

Nov20

Week 12—Thanksgiving and the letter L

Posted on November 20, 2011 by jd785

This week our Sensory and Fine Motor groups had a Thanksgiving theme while the theme for our Language Group was the letter L.

Sensory Group—Thanksgiving

We started our session by reading Cara’s book “On Thanksgiving Day” using the voice output device to say the repetitive line.

Our first discovery box was filled with all sorts of Thanksgiving themed objects such as leaves, felt pilgrim faces, a scarecrow, big and little turkeys, soft orange and yellow yarn, hard gourds AND a plastic turkey leg 🙂

Math access points were addressed when discussing big and little turkeys as well as counting them.

Science access points were addressed comparing the hard gourds with the soft yarn.

Its amazing how much you can fit into one little box!

Our students really enjoyed searching through the box

to find their favorite things. Others got more creative and started dropping leaves on their teachers head as she was bending down to pick something up 🙂

Our harvest mix of beans (reminding us of soup that might be made with Thanksgiving leftovers) contained turkeys and T’s. We were able to work on matching colors in addition to counting.

Finding the letters and turkeys among the beans also addresses visual and tactile discrimination.

The beans were a huge hit in one of our middle school classrooms and as 3 students gathered around the box, one young man made sure to note “look we are sharing”. How sweet!

Our feather boas became soft turkey feathers………..so much fun to touch and drape around necks. For some of our students the soft feel of the feathers was especially enchanting.

We were also able to work on some visual tracking by picking up the boas and moving them around.

We picked up this soft pompom yarn in fall colors from Michaels. It reminded us of a soft warm blanket you might use while watching football games on Thanksgiving day.

It was fun to squish while talking about the properties of materials, a science access point.

Our students also enjoyed being draped with the yarn or working on their fine motor skills by pulling the strands up.

The pumpkin pie scented play dough had a wonderfully yummy aroma,

absolutely delicious but our students resisted the temptation

to sample it 🙂

Hand strengthening was addressed when squeezing the play dough and using our turkey and leaf cookie cutters.

We practiced writing the letter T in sweet potato pie puree, messy but fun!

The texture was a little challenging for our students with tactile issues but most of them at least got a finger in.

And rinsed our hands in Cinnamon Pumpkin (from Bath and Body works) scented water and finished with the lotion to bring Thanksgiving memories for the rest of the day.

Between the pumpkin pie playdough, scented water and lotion, it was quite the aromatic delight for lovers of all things pumpkin!

Fine Motor Group—Thanksgiving

On Tuesday we read Cara’s Thanksgiving book. Our students especially loved the pages with food and loved pointing to their favorites. After our story we made a little turkey that Jeannie designed.

First, we colored a an index card brown. As we passed out the index cards we counted them and discussed their shape, addressing math access points.

The index card was then set aside for a moment (after 2 holes were punched in the middle).

Next, we took a pipe cleaner (pre assembled by Jeannie”s

staff using a small pompom, tiny googlie eyes, a small piece

of pipe cleaner, and a small piece of craft foam) and began

stringing folded (with a pre punched hole in the middle

near the fold) cupcake liners.

Our students had so much fun picking out and counting

the colorful liners.

A quick twist of the pipe cleaner secures everything in place. Then the pipe cleaner is threaded through the holes in the index card to give it a base to sit on. A very cute turkey–sorry, no picture of it finished 🙁

On Thursday after reading “On Thanksgiving Day” again, we made pumpkin pies!

First we counted out 4 strips of orange paper for each student. We also counted the brown paper plates as we passed them out.

Our students tore the paper strips into small pieces, dropping

them into their bowl. Tearing the paper addresses bilateral

coordination and is a good pre-scissor skill building activity.

Our students worked on hand strengthening by squeezing glue onto the plate.

Then they practiced their pincer grasps by picking up pieces of torn paper and placing them on the glue.

We presented 3 spices (nutmeg, cloves, and pumpkin pie) and let our students smell them. After smelling each one they chose their favorite by either pointing or smiling and then got to shake it all over their plates.

Thanks to Laurie B. for this idea. Also the choice of 3 items correlates to our alternate assessment.

With the addition of a dollop of cotton ball “whipped cream” a delicious smelling, low calorie pumpkin pie——YUM!!!!

Language Group—-letter L

We shone a Light to show which puzzle pieces to Lift up. We especially Liked the Lunar moth, Ladybug and Lightning bug!

Holding the wand over the puzzle helps build shoulder stability. Picking up the puzzle pieces addresses following directions and eye hand coordination.

We also counted the puzzle pieces, working on math access points.

Next we Laughed while a squeezing a Little Lion and shaking a Large Lion.

Squeezing this finger fidget works on strengthening pincer grasp.

We hot glued a shower curtain ring to the Large Lion to make it easier for our students with physically challenges to grasp.

Next each student was given a precut Lion face (drawn by Joy) and a paper plate.

We counted them as they were passed out and discussed the circular shape of the plate.

Then our students were asked to make a choice of 3 markers to use when coloring both the lion’s face and paper plate.

Our students have different ways of communicating their choices, these include pointing, vocalizing, facial expression, or eye gazing.

For students with physical challenges, Joy attached markers to a switch toy with velcro. This allows our students to independently color along with their classmates.

Putting the toy in a box lid helps keep the toy contained.

As usual, everyone wanted to use the switch to color also their pictures—and of course we Let them 🙂

After we finished coloring, we glued the pieces together to make a very Lovely Lion!

We finished as usual, by playing Cara’s listening game.

Lots of Laugh’s as usual!

Look at just some of the Lots and Lots of L words found today.

Its sometimes hard to collect all of them for our pictures, as our students really Like to examine them 🙂

What an awesome week! We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and we will see you afterwards for more fun and learning Group by Group!

Nov13

Week 11—Weather and the letter K

Posted on November 13, 2011 by jd785

Week 11—Weather and the letter K

Our theme for the Sensory and Fine Motor groups was Weather. Our Language Groups theme was the letter K.

Sensory Group—Weather

We started by reading Cara’s latest book “What is the Weather?” In addition to our voice output device with the repetitive line, we recorded the sounds of rain and thunder on some of the other devices which our students enjoyed.

Our music department let us borrow a rain stick and a drum that rumbles just like thunder when you shake it! Between using those instruments and turning the room lights on and off quickly, we had quite the thunder storm going on in the room 🙂

Not pictured but also used, were a hair dryer for wind and water spritzed into the air to softly rain down.

After the storm—-out came the rainbow!

Our students loved holding their hands out to “catch” the rainbow. As we moved the light around they were also able to work on visual tracking.

Back came the lights and on to our sensory boxes— we looked for the letter R in rainbow rice. It was so colorful and fun to scoop up with hands or spoon.

We explored the concepts of hard hail (white mardi gras beads) and soft snow (cotton balls). Properties of materials is a science access point.

And finally, we took dry sand and then used our spray bottle to make it wet—science access points again! Our students loved finger painting in the sand, practicing directional pre writing strokes.

Fine Motor Group—Weather

We read Cara’s book about the weather and had an awesome thunder storm! Then it was time to make some clouds.

We started by mixing glue and shaving cream.

Some of our students were very enthusiastic about the mixing part 🙂

Then we used sponge brushes to paint with the mixture.

Ta Da—-clouds! They dry like puffy paint with the coolest spongy texture—wonderful for our visually impaired students.

On Thursday, we read Cara’s book and had yet another thunderstorm. So fun! Then, we proceeded make windsocks.

We started with a rectangle (math access point) of wallpaper—we just love those wallpaper sample books!

The paper was inserted into a 3 hole punch and our students really enjoyed operating the lever. Actually, only 2 holes are needed but this hole punch is easier for our students to use.

Next, our students chose how many crepe paper streamers to add. Some of them chose 1 and then realized they wanted more which gave us the opportunity to work on addition!

The streamers were then glued to back of the paper.

While the adults taped the rectangle into a tube, our students chose the color of yarn they wanted to use as a hanger.

Once again, we are giving our students an opportunity to practice choosing from an array of 3 which is the format used on the alternate assessment.

Our students got the opportunity to practice lacing skills by pulling the yarn through 2 of the holes. To make it easier, we wrapped tape around the ends of the yarn.

Lacing addresses bilateral coordination and eye hand coordination.

For even more fun, we brought out the hairdryer and watched them flutter around.

Language Group—letter K

We pulled apart two love bugs and let go so they could Kiss. This toy helps work on shoulder stability, grasp and release skills.

These bugs were the bees Knees!

Next we worked with a shape sorter. We had to match the right Key to unlock the shape. This activity addressed visual spatial skills, wrist rotation and lateral pinch grasp.

It was really Kind of fun!

Then we cut out a Kangaroos that Joy drew onto index cards.

For our more advanced cutters, the outline was highlighted in yellow. Our students with more emergent skills simply snipped straight lines along the sides.

Joy drew two tiny Kites as visual cues for the hole punch (great for strengthening hand intrinsics).

Insert two fingers into the holes…

and your Kooky Kangaroo can Kick a ball with Knobs!

This activity works on separation of the sides of the hand and finger individuation. And, of course, the fun factor is pretty high 🙂

We finished by playing Cara’s latest listening game…

and looking at all the K words we found today!

We all had so much fun this week, please join us again for more excitement Group by Group!

Nov6

Week 10—Going to the Fair and the Letter H

Posted on November 6, 2011 by jd785

Week 10—Going to the Fair and the Letter H

The Fair is coming to town so it was the perfect theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. We made a little change this week and have renamed our Alphabet Group. It is now called the Language Group, to more accurately reflect its emphasis. In our Language Group, we are on letter H.

Sensory Group—Fun at the Fair

While the sounds and aroma of popcorn (thanks Ms. B) wafted through the air, we read Cara’s book “We’re Going to the Fair”. Our students enjoyed munching the popcorn while listening to the story. In addition to our voice output device, we added some finger puppet props that Nancy made.

After we finished the story, we started to explore our sensory boxes. Our students sifted through yellow cornmeal to look for cow and sheep puzzle pieces as well as the letters S and C.

The cornmeal has the most lovely soft, silky feel and our students really enjoyed it.

We looked for animals from the petting zoo in some hay. It had a really different texture from the cornmeal!

We turned off the lights while our students played with some of our lighted toys. There are lots of moving lights on the rides and booths at a fair.

The toy pictured here is activated by a little button that is helpful for working on isolated thumb movements.

This next one was a lot of fun. It is a spinning top that not only lights up but has siren like noises that are similar to those heard on the rides. As the top moved around the table, it allowed the students to work on visual tracking.

The lights came back on and we talked about all the different booths you might see at the fair. In some of them, you might pick up rubber ducks or knock down bowling pins to win a prize. You might win a sparkly necklace or a cuddly teddy bear. You might go into a fun house and look at yourself in a mirror.

Our students really enjoyed sifting through the various objects to find their favorites. It also gave us the opportunity to discuss properties of the materials (a science access point).

Soft easter basket stuffing made for perfect cotton candy. It came in a variety of delicious colors and was so much fun to pull apart while working on bilateral skills.

Some of our students “made” cotton candy by squishing cotton balls, water and blue food coloring. This is a great activity for strengthening hand intrinsics. When finished, it really does resemble cotton candy!

We also double bagged samples of our sensory boxes for our students with problematic oral exploration issues to allow them to safely explore the materials.

Finally, we rinsed our hands in water with a delicious vanilla sugar scent and finished with vanilla sugar scented lotion so we could all leave smelling like yummy funnel cakes and remember our visit to the fair!

Fine Motor Group—Fun at the Fair

On Tuesday, we started by reading Cara’s book and using the adorable finger puppets Nancy made. Finger puppets are wonderful for working on finger individuation and placing them on/off addresses bilateral skills.

After we finished the story, it was time to make cotton candy!

We started with a poster board rectangle glued to a popsicle stick and some cotton balls. We discussed the shape of the poster board and cotton balls (math access points).

Our students chose an ink color from a choice of 3 ( giving them practice for choosing from an array of 3 in our states alternate assessment)….

then we dabbed our cotton balls onto the stamp pad. This step works on pincer grasp and eye hand coordination skills.

Then we glued the cotton balls onto the poster board. Counting the cotton balls as they are placed addresses math access points.

Next we sprayed water and food coloring onto the cotton balls to make a stick of yummy cotton candy! It looks good enough to eat!

Squeezing the trigger works on hand strengthening and is a great pre-scissor activity.

On Thursday, after reading Cara’s book again and having more fun with the finger puppets, we made a ferris wheel.

First we used a paper cutter to cut rectangles. Our students really like using the paper cutters and it is exciting to see some of our students start to use them independently!

Next we counted out 2 precut construction paper circles and glued them to the rectangle to make a ferris wheel gondola.

Then we turned it over and the students turned it over and glued a precut silhouette of themselves to the back, to “sit” in the gondola.

We handed out a big paper plate with small one attached (working on those math access points again!) to the back with a brad.

Our students were each given a set of pre-assembled gondolas of each of their classmates which they then glued, along with their gondola, to the large paper plate. Due to privacy concerns, the sample we have photographed was made with magazine cutouts but as you can see, it looks very cute and when the small plate is held it spins quite nicely—-and addresses bilateral skills!

The yellow wheels are vinyl that the vision teacher prepared for our student with a visual impairment to make his gondola.

Language Group—letter J

We squeezed the bulb to make these spiders Jump across the table. These furry Jiggly, Jittery spiders sure elicited lots of laughs and squeals 🙂

Squeezing the bulb helps strengthen hand intrinsics.

Next, we used our tongs to pick up Jungle animals and put them in a Jar.

This activity addresses bilateral functions and eye hand coordination.

Then our students chose a piece of paper from an array of 3 (again, due to the alternate assessment, we like our students to have 3 choices when possible).

……Just wait and see what we are going to make!

We proceeded to fold the paper in half and then folded the corners down. We added dots to give our students visual cues.

Almost done…..

two more folds to make wings……

…………….and here is our Jet!

Our students had so much fun launching their Jets and seeing whose flew the farthest (slipping a math access point into our language activity!)

We finished by playing Cara’s listening game. Cara records the sounds on the computer and the students try to guess the sound and point to the correct picture.

Just a few of the words we put on our post its today. As usual, our students enjoyed picking up or pointing to the post its as we wrote down “J” words during our session.

We had so much fun this week! Please join us next week for more fun and learning Group by Group 🙂

Oct30

Week 9—Pumpkin Time and the Letter I

Posted on October 30, 2011 by jd785

Week 9—Pumpkin Time and the Letter I

Pumpkin Time was the theme for both the Sensory and Fine Motor Groups this week. For our Alphabet Group, the theme was the letter I. All the groups were so much fun—see what we did!

Sensory Group—Pumpkin Time

We started by reading Cara’s book Trick or Treat. In addition to using our voice output device, the students got to take turns with these goofy finger puppets. Great for working on finger individuation.

For our water play and lotion, we used Pumpkin Pie Paradise (from Bath and Body Works). It had a really strong aroma that wafted all around the room. Everyone enjoyed the yummy, sweet scent.

We looked for the letter P in a mixture of orange colored rice and black beans. In addition to letter and color identification, we were able to discuss the concepts of big and little.

The picture really doesn’t do justice to how brightly colored the rice was. It was very eye catching.Here, one of our students who usually needs some assistance to engage with the materials, just dove on in with both hands.

We also made some pumpkin pie scented playdough to use with our bat and pumpkin cookie cutters. Pushing down on the cookie cutters addresses hand strengthening in addition to working on tactile desensitization.

Despite its rather yummy aroma, almost all our students were very good about not trying to eat it.

We also put some eyeball rings to squish around and find in some plain playdough. As these rings were pretty small, we did put the mixture into a double ziplock bag before our students began playing with it.

Our shaving cream ghost was a hit. For some of our students it is easier to work on a more vertical surface—-shaving cream is a perfect choice!

After the ghost was rubbed away, we worked on making vertical, horizontal and circular motions to address prewriting skills.

This sensory box emphasized the contrasting properties of materials—a science access point. We had rough pumpkin scrubbers and a smooth piece of orange fabric, hard beads and soft garland, big pumpkin bean bags and little black pompoms. We also put in black and orange yarn and a few halloween themed trinkets.

It was fun to see the items different students chose to interact with.

Fine Motor Group—Pumpkin Time

We started by reading Cara’s book and taking turns with the finger puppets again. The we made the cutest mummies using an idea we found at crafts.kaboose.com/juice–box–mummy.html

We started by tearing a piece of white paper into strips and glueing them around a juice box. Tearing paper is a wonderful pre-scissor activity, great for improving bilateral coordination.

Before we started tearing the paper, we discussed its shape (rectangle) and color.

We tore a small piece of black paper and glued it near the top of the box.

And then, we counted out 2 googlie eyes and glued them on the black paper—great for pincer skill practice (Joy being an OT, just had to mention that of course!)

Our artists always “sign” their work but we were particularly excited to see students emerging independence using his adaptive writing utensil.

And now here they are………

MUMMIES!!!

On Thursday we used punches to cut out 1 square and 2 circles (working on math access points and hand strengthening).

We cut the square into 2 triangles….

and glued them onto an orange paper plate (using our home made colored glue to help our students see where to place their pieces).

Then we added our circle and some rectangles—more math access points

…………………Let the trick or treating begin!

Alphabet Group—letter I

We started by putting an Iguana In and out of a jar. Unscrewing the jar works on bilateral coordination, palmer arches, and grasp patterns.

We then played the game “Whats in Ned’s Head”….

and found some really Icky things! On side note, this class is made up of all boys and needless to say, they absolutely loved this game. What can you say, boys will be boys 🙂

We then moved on to something a little more appetizing—Ice cream!

First we practiced cutting along lines to make our triangle cone. This student is using an adaptive squeeze scissors (available from a variety of catalogs).

The cone and a small paper plate were glued onto a piece of paper. Our students colored their plates with markers.

For our students with significant physical differences, Joy used velcro to attach a marker to a switch toy. By pressing a switch, the students were able to color also. Their classmates also enjoyed taking their turn, of course.

We finished by adding a few sequins for sprinkles.

I like It!! !!

Here are some of the I words we found today.

It was certainly another fun week, join us next time Group by Group!

Oct24

Week 8—Nocturnal Animals and the letter H

Posted on October 24, 2011 by jd785

Week 8—Nocturnal Animals and the letter H

Our theme this week was Nocturnal Animals for our sensory and fine motor groups.

For both of these groups we started by turning off the lights and closing the blinds to darken the classroom. This illuminated moon was pulled from the schools science kit. Our students were very attentive to the light and loved running their hands over the bumpy surface. It was a huge hit.

We then read Cara’s book “Creatures of the Night” using a flashlight to additionally highlight the pages. We also used it to highlight the voice output device as each student took their turn activating the device—-or holding the light for a friend!

Sensory Group—Nocturnal Animals

After reading Cara’s book we put some Tonic Water in a cup and held a portable black light (purchased from Wal Mart in their Halloween section). It has an amazing glow! Our students poured the water onto cornstarch…..

amazing, glowing oobleck—-WOW! Our students were absolutely enrapt (and so were the adults).

When we finally tore ourselves away from the oobleck, we rinsed our hands in some scented water.

We searched in some black beans to find the letters O and B to match with our owl and bat.

We explored fur (a strip of fun fur cut into pieces) and feathers (a feather boa picked up at Joann Fabrics). This box also contained some black pompoms (another soft texture) and some black mardi gras beads (a hard texture) in addition to a plush owl and some rubber bats. Discussing all the different properties of these items addresses a variety of access points.

Fine Motor Group—Nocturnal Animals

We started our fine motor activity with some precut bat wings (drawn by Joy). We counted them as we passed one to each student. (Math access point).

Then we put some glue (colored with food coloring) in the middle of the wings. This student worked very hard to squeeze the glue all by himself (demonstrating improving shoulder stability and hand strength) and was very proud of his efforts.

Each student was given half of a precut styrofoam ball which they then placed on top of their glue dot. Prior to handing the balls out, we demonstrated how two halves make a whole. Addressing math access points again.

Then—lots of black paint and two googlie eyes later—some very awesome bats…..

Ta Da!!!

On Thursday we made an owl. We started by giving our students a choice of 3 strips of paper. Since our state Alternate Assessment is given in a 3 choice format we try to give our students lots of practice.

This paper was from a give away wallpaper sample book. Sorry for the blurry picture—those little hands move quite fast 🙂

We then flipped the paper over and trimmed it using our adaptive scissors.

The paper was glued and taped around a prepared toilet paper roll (notice the dimpled end).The precut wings (we counted 2 for each student) were taped on. We used tape because our glue needed a little help on the wallpaper. The students really enjoyed using tape.

We counted out 2 googlie eyes and 1 triangle nose (more access points). We really got a chance to work on pincer grasps while completing these finishing touches.

These owls are just so super cute!

Thanks to Nancy for finding this idea on the happy hooligans website. http://happyhooligans.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/adorable-owls/

Alphabet Group—letter H

We started by Holding a Heavy Hound with our Hands and Heaving Him around the group. This activity worked on upper extremity strengthening, trunk rotation, and social skills.

We used our tongs to pick up Halloween colored pompoms out of a House. We counted each students Haul to see How many pompoms they picked up. Tongs are wonderful for building eye hand coordination and pre scissor skills. Counting out the pompoms also addresses math skills.

Next we placed Happy face stickers on our House (drawn by Joy). Peeling and placing the stickers is great for promoting pincer grasp skills. We gave our students directions on where to place the stickers, for example “on top” of the roof to work on spatial concepts and following directions. Of course, we counted all the stickers when we finished.

Here is a Happy Haunted House 🙂

We finished by playing Cara’s listening game and looking at all the words we placed on our post its. Joy forgot to take a picture of the words this week, but we really did find lots of H words!

We had so much fun this week! Join us again for more fun Group by Group.

Oct16

Week 7—Bugs and the letter G

Posted on October 16, 2011 by jd785

Week 7—Bugs and the letter G

Our themes this week were Bugs for our sensory and fine motor groups and the letter G for our alphabet group.

Sensory Group—Bugs

We started our group by reading Cara’s book “Bugs are Everywhere” using our voice output devices to answer the question “where can we find bugs?” We also passed around a canister of mushroom scent from the Follow your Nose game. That unusual scent really fit our theme.

Nancy found this cool black light flashlight which we used to make the centipedes glow in our bin of spaghetti worms. It was very eye catching in addition to targeting some of the science access points.

The cold spaghetti worms had an interesting texture. Some of our students reveled in the texture while others were very hesitant.

The black light also made our green spider web glow. Our students had fun pulling apart the web to find the spiders. Pulling apart the spider web promotes bilateral coordination and strengthening while picking out the spiders helps the students work on their pincer grasp.

We made dirt out of dried coffee grounds (thank you Joi B and other teachers for saving yours for us). Our students looked for the letters B U G and all sorts of bugs. Identifying the bugs addresses science access points while counting the number of bugs found addresses math access points.

The coffee grounds have a soft, dry feel and were very popular. The grounds do retain their coffee aroma but it is not very strong or overwhelming.

Next we finger painted directional lines in our green and glittery oobleck. Practicing the motor movements of lines, letters, and numbers in the oobleck helps build motor memory.

The glitter was also very eye catching as it got swirled around the oobleck.

Our vibrating ladybug pillow (purchased from the Beyond Play catalog) was a huge hit. By squeezing or pushing down on the pillow, our students could activate the vibration component. We targeted more math access points by describing the lady bugs shape (round) and size (big).

For our water play and lotion we used the Juniper Breeze scent. Its woodsy kind of scent reminded us of the outdoors—-where we might see lots of bugs. We also used the mushroom scent from the Follow you Nose game (from Flaghouse catalog). It also reminded us of places we might find bugs.

Fine Motor Group—Bugs

We read Cara’s book “Bugs are Everywhere” and used our voice output device to answer the question “where are bugs?” Our students loved identifying their favorites!

Before we started our fine motor activity, we used some 3 dimensional overlays of bugs with our light box. These were in our schools science kit. These were especially useful for our students with visual impairments, but all the students enjoyed them.

Now to begin making our own spider web! Our students began by scooping 3 marbles out of black paint and placing them on a piece of white paper we had placed in a plastic box with a lid. A nice eye hand coordination activity.

We also discussed what color paint we used and counted the marbles (one to one correspondence, a math access point).

Our next step was to close the lid and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! Students were so excited when it was their turn to shake the box—great for bilateral coordination and improving shoulder stability.

We feel that the clear box made the activity especially engaging.

Next we added some glitter! Bilateral skills are called for to turn the container so the holes are on the bottom. Holding and shaking the glitter addresses grasp skills and shoulder stability.

And the final touch—a black foam spider sticker to crawl around the web!

On Thursday we read Cara’s book again and began making some more bugs!

We started by giving our students their choice of tissue paper— saved from presents past 🙂

The brightly colored paper was very engaging for our students and it was fun to see their choices.

Next, we tore the tissue into small pieces. This is a great bilateral coordination activity.

Our vision teacher helped her student learn to crumple his paper by cupping her hands around his.

Next we got out the pre-made bug skeleton. Notice the indentation at one end.

We were able to count six legs!

After crumpling their paper, our students dipped the pieces in glue and placed them onto the paper roll (working on eye hand coordination and following directions).

With the addition of googlie eyes and antenna (great for working on pincer grasp skills) our bugs came alive.

Wow—-look at this bunch of colorful bugs!

Alphabet Group—letter G

We started this Great day by stringing Gigantic beads. The super large openings and long tip make this bilateral coordination activity much easier for our students.

Then we used our Green Grabbers to Gobble Green Globs! Manipulating the trigger of the grabber calls for the same hand movements used to manipulate scissors. While picking up the pompoms and placing them in the bowl works on shoulder stabilization and eye hand coordination. Counting how many pompoms are gobbled addresses math skills.

We started our next activity by snipping Green paper Grass. We had to Go slowly along the line and remember to stop at the dot. In the photo, the student is using an adaptive squeeze scissors. These are available from a variety of catalogs.

After setting the Grass aside, our students colored a billy Goat Gruff head that Joy drew. In this photo you can see how this student has nicely progressed to coloring the details of his picture.

We Glued down the Goats head and Grass (working on finger intrinsics to manipulate the glue stick, visual spatial skills and following directions) on to a lunch bag.

And here is our billy Goat Gruff Grazing on his Green Grass. Isn’t he Gorgeous!

We ended our session by playing our Guess the sound Game. Our students always look forward to seeing what Cara has come up with this week!

Lots of G words this week. We do go through quite a lot of post-its but our students really love picking up the individual words and its so easy for us to pick up the word while we are speaking or attach it to an object

Hope you join us again next week for more fun Group by Group!

Oct9

Week 6—Washington DC and the letter F.

Posted on October 9, 2011 by jd785

Week 6—Washington DC and the letter F.

This week Cara did not write a book, our Sensory and Fine motor groups read the book “Let’s Visit the President” from the Unique Curriculum.

Sensory Group—Visiting Washington DC

We recorded the sounds of a jet taking off and marine band playing “Hail to the Chief” on our voice output device to add an auditory component while reading our book. Other props included a dog house (from a line in the book). We used scratch and sniff cards with scents of oil and gas which might be associated with travels in a plane or car. We added the scent of cherry blossoms for our water play and lotion.

We had a collection of lighted toys to remind us of the varieties of flashing lights seen in a city. These were especially attractive to some of our students with a visual impairment and great for visual tracking.

We searched for big and little W’s in white rice and lima beans. We noted that the grains of rice were little, while the lima beans were big. These are all access points.

We finger painted the letter W in white shaving cream. The shaving cream (or any of our sensory box items) can be placed in a ziplock bags if oral exploration is an issue.

Our box of cherry blossoms was made by pulling the petals off dollar store silk flowers. Hidden among the blossoms were small people figures (there are lots of people in Washington) and inset puzzle pieces of cars, houses and airplanes. In addition to searching for the hidden treasures, our students loved picking up handfuls of the petals and watching them drift down (another great visual tracking activity). We got some lovely smiles as the soft petals drifted down over them.

Fine Motor Group—-Visiting Washington DC

We read “Let’s Visit the President” from the Unique curriculum and our students especially enjoyed the “jet” sounds made by the voice output device. Then we proceeded to make a map of the United States, identifying Washington DC and our state capitol.

First we used our adaptive scissors to cut our paper strips (with the words Washington DC and Tallahassee) and set them aside.

Our students chose which color paint they wanted to use by pointing to a communication board we made with some construction paper.

We counted out sheets of yellow construction paper and discussed its shape (rectangle) targeting math access points. We then painted (go fairly goopy on the paint) our students RIGHT hands with the paint color of their choice. Its important to paint the right hand. If you don’t, you quickly realize your mistake (as a couple of us did) when you proceed to the next step! We also found it helpful to assist our students with thumb abduction.

Before proceeding to the next step, turn the paper into a horizontal orientation with the thumb portion pointing downward.

We used our purple glue (made by adding food coloring to regular white glue) to help our students locate the approximate geographical locations of Tallahassee and Washington DC. Working on pincer grasps to pick up the paper, our students placed them on the glue. We continued to work on pincer grasp by counting and peeling off star stickers (one to one correspondence–a math access point).

The final product——TA DA!

On Thursday we read our book again and talked about who lives in the White House.

We cut out our sentence strips using a paper cutter and set them aside.

Next we counted out 2 white card stock rectangles (working on math access points). Then we glued a picture to each rectangle. We used glue that we colored with food coloring. The colored glue helps our students see where they have placed the glue and to identify where to place their paper. Squeezing the glue also helps build hand strength.

We glued our sentence strips to the appropriate photo. We added a highlighted “Who” to the White House photo. “Who” is a new word from our Meville to Weville reading curriculum.

We then glued the rectangles back to back onto a paint stick.

And the answer to the question is……….

President Barack Obama!

Our students really loved lifting their signs overhead and getting lots of Ta-Da’s for their efforts. Just so much fun!

Alphabet Group—letter F

We Fanned our Faces with battery operated Fans. Operating the fan addresses isolating thumb movements.

Next we went Fishing. We asked the students to Find Four or Five Fish. This activity works on shoulder stability, eye hand coordination, and graded motor control. It also addresses math access points and color identification.

For our students with motor differences we used a fishing set that had a soft, easily grasped rod with a velcro tip. By swiping their rod across the pile of fish, our students were easily able to catch their share.

For our Final activity our students Found Four pink dots and drew vertical lines From each dot. We like using markers because of their vivid colors, low friction which makes it easier to make marks, and the larger diameter allows for an easier grasp. This activity addresses math access points and handwriting skills.

Next, our students stamped Four Fragrant Flowers. Joy made the stamp by cutting a flower shape out of some leftover foam and used double stick tape to attach it to a dish scrubber purchased at the dollar store. The rounded handle of the dish scrubber makes it very easy to grasp. Our students had to remember to place their flowers at the top of the “stem” (working on spatial concepts) and to stamp just one flower on each stem, counting to 4 again.

Fabulous Fragrant Flowers!

For our students with significant motor difficulties, Joy attached a marker (using velcro) to a battery operated toy they could access via a pressure switch placed by their temples. As the toy moved around, our students were able to scribble along with their classmates.

This was a huge hit, and needless to say, everyone got a turn (or more than one) to join in the fun as seen in the picture here 🙂

Some of the Fantastic, Fabulous F words we Found this Friday—-so many we couldn’t Fit them all into the picture!

Join us next week as we make learning fun Group by Group.

Sep24

Week 4—Fall and the Letter D

Posted on September 24, 2011 by jd785

Week 4—Fall and the Letter D

Our themes this week were Fall for the sensory group and fine motor groups and the Letter D for the alphabet group.

Sensory Group—Fall

We read Cara’s book “Its Beginning to Feel Like Fall” using our voice output device.

While reading the book, we took turns shaking a leaf garland to listen to the “rustling leaves”. We also used a hairdryer to simulate the cool fall breezes.

We looked for the letter F hidden in assorted dried beans. Our students really enjoyed the varied colors of the beans.

We looked for soft squirrels, hard pumpkins and strands of soft yarn in the fall colors of brown, yellow and orange. It was fun to watch our students pick out their favorites. Some of our students on the autism spectrum were particularly drawn to the colorful yarn strands.

We found some silk leaves at the dollar store.

We used the hair dryer to blow the leaves away to reveal the word FALL that was taped to the tray. Blowing the leaves (great for visual tracking) was a huge hit and our students loved gathering them all back up (working on grasp patterns and eye hand coordination). Yes, it was a little chaotic but lots of fun!

Joy made brown playdough using coffee and whole wheat flour. We used cookie cutters to make fall leaves.

Corn flakes made a delightful crunching sound, just like dried leaves.

We finished up with water play using Spiced Apple body wash and then Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin lotion from Bath & Body Works. Lovely scents reminding us of the fall season.

Fine Motor Group—Fall

We started by reading Cara’s book, shaking the leaves, the cool breeze from the hair dryer and stroking the soft squirrel.

We tore pieces of tissue paper into small pieces. A great bilateral coordination activity.

We talked about the shape of our paper and number of leaves (drawn by Joy) which are both math access points. We added food coloring to our glue to help our students differentiate the designated areas on which to glue their tissue paper. We found this to be very helpful.

Our student with a visual impairment glued silk leaves onto his paper.

On Thursday we continued our Fall theme.

We cut brown yarn into small pieces. Many of our students use adaptive scissors, such as this tabletop version. We set the yarn aside.

The students then painted a squirrel (drawn and precut from poster board, by Joy) with brown paint. We like these brushes made with larger handles that are easier to grasp.

We then squeezed some glue onto the tails and the students practiced their thumb/finger grasp patterns by picking up the yarn and dropping it onto the glue. A googlie eye was the finishing touch! We talked about the color brown and that the paint and the yarn were the “same” color.

After the paint and glue dried, Jeannie practiced number skills with the students by counting the number of squirrels they had made.

The Alphabet Group—Letter D

We used our home made playdough again. We rolled it out into long snakes, working on graded fine motor control.

We joined the ends to make a Donut.

Next, our students Decided how many bones to feed the Dog. We like giving our students choices of 3 as they have to choose between 3 answers when taking the alternate assessment. This activity also works on number identification and as we count the bones out: one to one correspondence.

Then we used tongs to pick up the bones and feed the Dog. This toy was purchased from the Lakeshore company catalog. Tong activities are great for building pre-scissor skills and eye hand coordination.

For our students whose motor difficulties preclude tong use, we adapted (hot glueing a plastic shower curtain ring) a toy Dog. Loop velcro was glued to his mouth and hook velcro to some of the bones. Linda Burkhart (if you ever get a chance to hear her speak—don’t miss it!!!) originally came up with the idea.

For our next activity, we put Dots (round stickers) on a Duck Drawn by Joy. Peeling off the stickers works on developing a pincer grasp.

Placing the sticker on the students thumb was a way to adapt the activity for those students with increased muscle tone.

Delightfully Decorated Dotty Duck!

We played Cara’s sound matching game. She used Boardmaker pictures to make the board and computer generated sound bites.

Our students really enjoy the post-its. We try to pick up the post-it or point to it each time we repeat a word and the students really enjoy watching the array of words build up during the session. We also try to give them opportunities to identify some of the words.

Wow, another week gone by! Please join us next week for more fun Group by Group!

Sep17

Week 3—Red, White and Blue, USA and the Letter C

Posted on September 17, 2011 by jd785

Week 3—Red, White and Blue, USA and the Letter C

This week our themes were Red, White and Blue for our sensory group, Symbols of our Country for the fine motor group. We chose these themes to follow the Unique Curriculum, which our county uses. The topic for this month is government. In our alphabet group, we are on letter C.

Sensory Group—Red, White and Blue

We read Cara’s book “Symbols of Our Country” and talked about who was wearing red, white or blue shirts. Then the students voted on what color to make the oobleck.

We like to give our students choices of 3 items because when they take our Alternate Assessment they are given an array of 3 choices.

We counted how many votes each color received. Then we talked about which color got the most votes. Dani, one of our teachers, suggested that we use cold water for blue oobleck and warm water for red oobleck so that we were also addressing one of the science access points regarding temperature.

We made the oobleck (one of our all time favorite substances) by adding water to cornstarch and adding koolaid for color. If you are wondering why our oobleck doesn’t match our vote tally its because we actually do our sensory group in 4 different classrooms during the week and ended up with pictures from different groups.

We rinsed our hands in cherry scented water and used cherry scented lotion as we talked about cherry pie as a symbol of our country. We would have preferred to use rose scents, as our book discussed the rose as a symbol of our country, but were unable to locate some in time for our group. We have learned to be flexible !

We searched for the letters USA in rice. Joy added a couple of teaspoons of rubbing alcohol, some drops of food coloring and a cup of rice into a ziplock bag. She mixed the ingredients then sprinkled them out onto a paper towel to dry, which took less than 1 hour. Repeat for each desired color. It was a nice effect and we had some students who rarely engage become very participatory with the rice.

And finally, we explored the concepts of hard and soft (a properties of materials access point) in addition to colors using mardi gras beads and pom poms. This box was a real hit with our students!

Fine Motor Group—-USA

We read Cara’s book Symbols of our Country and Jeannie brought out an american flag that the students were able to look at and touch. We then proceeded to make our own flags. First we handed out a sheet of white paper. We talked about its color (white) and shape (rectangle).

We then cut red strips using a paper cutter and then counted how many we had cut.

We then cut out some blue rectangles. Many of our students used our adaptive table top scissors to do this. Again, we discussed what shape we were cutting.

We assembled our flag placing our red strips in an “across” manner (visual copy/prewriting skill) and putting our blue rectangle at the top. This was finished off with some star stickers. We discussed the shape as a math access point. Peeling of the stickers was great for facilitating a pincer grasp. We always have the students hold up their finished product while the table gives them a big “Ta-Da” and this student was especially proud and excited about his work which he was able to complete with very little assistance.

On Thursday we continued our theme by making Uncle Sam beards after reading Cara’s book again. For the beard we used a triangle shape and cotton balls. We learned about shapes and the concept of soft. We also talked about the colors red, white, and blue.

We started with a precut triangle with a slightly concave top. The students then glued on cotton balls.

We counted how many cotton balls were on the beard and also reviewed the concepts of hard and soft. We then put chenille stems through the holes, working on eye hand coordination.

We used the chenille stems to hook the beard around our ears. We borrowed a fantastic hat from Brenda, our music teacher. Jeannie’s students had a great time posing with their beards and hat.

Alphabet Group—-Letter C

We Clapped our hands to make the Crab wiggle. The sound sensitive toy was purchased from tfh Special Needs Toys.

We then played catch. We used a soft ball that was easier to grasp for our students

The students Chose what Color ink they wanted and rolled their Cars over it. Then they proceeded to make Curves on a large brown paper grocery bag.

We opened the bag to make it a Container. We Crumpled paper (a great activity for working on palmer arches, strengthening hand intrinsics and bilateral coordination) and placed it in the bag.

We Closed the bag with Clips (we wrapped the handle of the clip with a rubber band to make it easier to open)

and……

Colorful Clothespins

to make……..

a Comfortable Cushion for our Cool Cat!!

Cara made a sound matching game. Our students had so much fun trying to match the sounds they heard on the Computer.

And finally, we Counted all the C words that we wrote on our post its!

Please join us next week for more fun Group by Group!

Sep11

Week 2—-Apples and the letter B

Posted on September 11, 2011 by jd785

Week 2—-Apples and the letter B

This week our themes were Apples for our sensory and fine motor groups and the letter B for our alphabet group.

Live and learn and BACK UP EVERYTHING!

Sensory Group- Apples

We read Cara’s book Apples Apples for Me. We recorded the sounds of an apple falling from a tree and someone crunching an apple on one of our sequencers. On the other we recorded the repetitive line “Apples, Apples Just for Me”. As we read the story the students were able to participate by activating the switches.

Prior to the session we used templates from Autumn Activities: Apples Apples Everywhere by Peggy Hundley Spitz, OTR and purchased from Therapro to make Apple glasses.

They were pretty goofy and a lot of fun!

We searched for letter A’s hidden in “apple seeds”. Dried black beans are a great stand in for real apple seeds.

The beans have a great tactile feel and searching for the hidden letters addresses object permanence.

Joy made apple scented playdoh. She substituted apple juice for the water called for in the recipe. The scent was a little light but the red food coloring made it very eye catching.

We finger painted letter A’s in applesauce.

We used Country Apple body wash from Bath and Body works to give our water an apple scent and then put in some realistic plastic apples.After drying their hands, we rubbed them with some of the Country Apple lotion so our students could smell yummy all day and help remind them of the lesson.

Our students who are able to tolerate oral tastings got to try some applesauce with caramel syrup—-a mini caramel apple!

Squeezing the syrup and holding the spoon works on bilateral and eye hand coordination. Squeezing also works on hand strengthening.

Fine Motor Group—-Apples

On Tuesday we made apples using a craft idea from Autumn Activities: Apples Apples Everywhere by Peggy Hundley Spitz, OTR and purchased from Therapro.

We used a paper cutter to make strips of red and green paper. Our students really loved using it.

The green strip is folded in half and then stapled to the ends of the red strip . We talked about the shape (circle) that was formed—a math access point.

The students hung their apples on the tree.

Then we all sat down for a crunchy apple snack!

On Thursday, our Fine Motor group continued the apple theme by making great big red apples.

We crumpled scrap paper and stuffed it into a red paper lunch bag (purchased from Target). Crumpling paper is great for working on hand intrinsics.

Of course, we counted the bags as we handed them out.

We wrapped a pipe cleaner “worm” around the top of the bag—great for bilateral coordination.

Then we counted out 2 google eyes and glued them to our worm. During this activity we incorporated lots of access points by having the students work on math by counting apples and google eyes, work on colors: red, green, and yellow, work on shapes: lines and circles and of course following directions. The students really enjoyed this actitity.

The finished product——-Ta Da!