Tag Archives: african american

Feb9

Local African American Leaders

Posted on February 9, 2020 by jd785

For Black History Month we are taking a look at some of our local African American leaders. Our sensory groups explored boxes related to each of the people featured in the book. Our fine motor group made a banner and the language group made a yummy recipe!

SENSORY GROUP

Our sheriff, Walt McNeil, wears a gold star on his chest.

The students used two different sized star shaped cookie cutters to make stars out of gold kinetic sand.

Science access point: recognize the larger of two objects.

Doris Maloy is our county tax collector.

Since Ms. Maloy has to deal with numbers all day, we mixed numbers 1-5 with dollar sign and colorful pasta.

Math access point: associate quantities with number names.

The students got to pretend to be doctors like Dr. Friall who is the chief medical officer at one of our hospitals.

We included some cute little patients and a variety of play medical instruments in this box.

Science access point: recognize a model of a real object.

Casanova Nurse is a meteorologist for a local TV station.

Weather related items filled this box, including a fan, rain stick, slinky rainbow…..

….craft foam sun flakes, and a thunder tube.

Science access point: recognize different types of weather conditions.

Coach Leonard Hamilton is leading FSU basketball to a winning season!

Students helped cheer on the team using colorful pom poms.

Science access point: distinguish between objects in motion and at rest.

Dean Anthony Jones oversees the math and science department at TCC.

Oobleck is a science experiment to begin with but when we add bath crackles it become even cooler!

Science access point: track the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled.

Joy Bowen is on our school board. In her spare time, she likes to go fishing with her family!

Our little pond contained 3 fish that squirted water when squeezed. We also included a net and measuring cup for scooping fun.

Math access point: recognize differences in size of objects.

We chose Bath and Body Works cucumber melon scent this week.

The scent reminded us of foods that Chef Shac, a Chopped champion, might prepare.

Science access point: recognize one or more external body parts.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

Due to scheduling, we were only able to have one fine motor group this week. The students made a banner using photos of our local African American leaders.

First, the students identified the color of the yarn.

Science access point: identify objects by one observable property, such as color.

Then, they chose a hero and glued the name UNDERNEATH their photo.

Math access point: recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship.

Next, they threaded their hero on to the banner using a big plastic needle attached to the green yarn.

Math access point: recognize the next step in a sequence of activities.

TA DA!!!

We are celebrating our local African American Leaders!

LANGUAGE GROUP

We made a recipe that we think Chef Shac would enjoy. Since we learned that Chef Shac started cooking using Bahamian recipes, we found a healthy and tasty recipe we think can represent the islands. Here’s the recipe we used: Let’s Make Mango Salsa

We started out measuring the mangos. Since the recipe said to cut up 2 mangos, we wanted to measure it out to see how much that would be. We found that it came out to 2 cups. A student HELPED to PUT them in the bowl.

Math access point: associate quantities with number names.

Next, we found out how much a half of a chopped red pepper measured out to, which was 1 cup. We PUT that in the bowl.

Math access point: recognize parts of whole objects.

When it was time to measure out 2 tbsp of onion, our students had to indicate which measuring spoon was the tablespoon. They were prompted to find the BIG one.

We measured out 2 tbsp of cilantro after that and PUT that into the bowl.

Math access point: recognize differences in size of objects.

When it was time to measure out lime juice, our students HELPED squeeze our hand juicer. Once we measured out the amount we needed for the recipe, each student got to try some lime juice.

They had to indicate whether it was SWEET or SOUR. Our students did the same when measuring out the lemon juice. We got some pretty great reactions 🙂

Finally, our students had to STIR up the ingredients.

They requested a plate, some salsa, and some chips.

Pretty yum!

Join us next time for more fun and learning—–Group by Group!

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Feb23

Famous African Americans at My School Book

Posted on February 23, 2014 by jd785

Famous African Americans at My School Book

To celebrate Black History Month, we wanted to showcase a few of the famous African Americans we have working at our school. We had done this last year as well with different people, so this is the second edition. We asked some of our coworkers about things that they liked, and from that we wrote the book and formed the sensory, fine motor, and language groups. After reading the first line on each page, we would ask our students, “who is this?”. The voice output would respond “this is a famous African American at my school,” the repetitive line. Again, our students labeled the people they knew and would point them out if it was someone from their own room. Such fun!

Here is a link to the book: Famous African Americans at my School (2)

Feb23

Famous African Americans at my School

Posted on February 23, 2014 by jd785

Famous African Americans at my School

We celebrated Black History month by spotlighting some very special members of our staff. Our students loved reading Cara’s book about some of the special people in their lives. In our sensory group each of the boxes were filled with items representing a staff member. Our fine motor and language groups honored staff members in their classes with special treats. Here is what we did:

SENSORY GROUP

Ms. Regina is one of our newest owls and when she is not helping keep our school clean, taking care of her children, OR studying she likes to go on nature walks.

We filled her box with leaves, flowers, vines, and spanish moss—–things you always see on a walk in Florida. We put in some wildlife you might see including ducks, butterflies, birds, frogs, lizards. Bird sounds were also recorded on a voice output device to add to that outdoors feeling. It was a very attractive box which definitely invited exploration!

The science access point distinguishing between a plant and an animal is addressed here, helping our students learn about the organization and development of living organisms.

Recognize and respond to common sounds is the science access point related to the understanding of forms of energy.

Coach Brown helps our owls gain new athletic skills. In this blue and yellow rice (our school colors) we put in 3 different sport ball erasers. Since the erasers were a little small we encased them in some photo pockets sealed with packing tape. That kept them visible and able to be handled but avoided any safety issues. It worked really well and our students enjoyed discovering them in the rice—-and of course, burying them back in it 🙂

2 of the balls were round and 1 was oval shaped. Recognizing a common object with a 2 dimensional shape is a math access point.

Ms. Frankie loves the Denver Broncos! Her box had 3 pompom shakers in the Bronco colors of blue, orange, and white. We also put in a “bronco” that neighed when it’s button was pushed.

Our students love the shakers. Not only do they love shaking and waving them around but they also love the rustling sound they make.

Identifying objects by one observable property, such as color is the science access point related to learning properties of matter. Applying a push to move an object is related to learning about forces and changes in motion.

Ms. Jackie loves the colors hot pink and black. We filled her box with colorful hard beads and soft pompoms in different sizes. A great way to explore the properties of matter and the access point match objects by one observable property such as size or color. Working on the concepts “same” and “different” addresses the math access point recognizing similarities and differences in sizes of common objects. This relates to the understanding of geometry and measurement.

Of course, it’s also a great way to work on the science access point identify of external body parts—–as in, let’s put the beads over our heads 🙂

Ms. Metra likes to ride motorcycles with her husband. We put in 2 different motorcycles (one a toy and the other a puzzle piece) on our black bean highway.

The toy was a lot of fun because it was one of the kind that could be pulled back and released to drive along the table. Our students also enjoyed both submerging the motorcycles and their hands/arms in the beans—-they really do have a wonderful tactile feel.

Forces and changes in motion are explored as the science access point apply a push to move an object is addressed.

Grandma Daisy loves to eat sherbet ice cream! We made sherbet play dough by mixing lime gelatin and cornstarch then putting it in the refrigerator. Find the recipe here: http://blogmemom.com. It really looked like the real thing especially when it was scooped. Since it had been refrigerated it was a little hard and some force needed to be applied!

We discussed whether the sherbet was “warm” or “cold” which is a science access point related to properties of matter.

Ms. Shakelia’s favorite color is blue! We mixed blue food coloring with our oobleck this week AND added some blue glitter—–we thought she would appreciate that 🙂 The glitter also adds a nice visual element as it get swirled around with the oobleck as it moves.

As the oobleck goes from a solid to a liquid and back again our students explore changes in matter: addressing the science access point recognize that the appearance of a material has changed.

Ms. Sonya loves when things AND her students are sparkly clean 🙂 so to clean up after our messy play we used Crystal Waters scent that we found at the local pharmacy. Ms. Sonya also loves to cook so we thought an apple shaped sponge would be a fun addition and give the students an opportunity to work on hand strengthening by squeezing water out of the sponge.

Recognizing the water as a liquid is a science access point related to learning properties of matter.

The matching lotion had a light pleasant aroma which our students liked. Recognize and respond to one type of sensory stimuli (in this case olfactory) is a science access point related to the understanding of the organization and development of living organisms.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday we made a handprint peace dove. We started by showing the students the different colors of paper we had available and then asking them which color paper they would like to use for today’s project. They used communication symbols to make their choices.

The students either used eye gaze or pointed to the symbol to indicate their preference.

As we passed out the paper, we discussed its shape (rectangle) and how many sides it had. This addresses the math access point recognize common objects with 2 dimensional shapes.

Then we painted one of their hands with white paint. None of these students are particularly tactile defensive so this was not a problem. In the past we have had students with tactile issues and we adapted the activity by letting them paint a staff members hand instead.

Then we pressed our hands down onto the paper. Some of the students were able to do this part independently but most of them needed a little assistance.

The students were pretty excited to see their hand print appear on the paper! Recognizing a change in an object is a science access point related to the understanding of changes in matter.

Adults added a beak, legs and eye with a permanent marker and our dove was ready to carry its olive branch!

TA DA!

On Thursday we painted a picture frame for Ms. Celeste! She can use it to frame the beautiful picture she took for out book this week. We decided to paint it with her favorite colors of brown and rust!

We started by showing the students the brown paint bottle. We presented the communication symbols and asked them “which one says brown”. Almost all the students answered correctly!

Identifying objects by one observable property such as color—–yep, we’ve got that one!

Then we got out the paint brushes and started painting. They all manipulated their painting tools well! The students did a great job but the hole in the middle of the frame was a little confusing for them and so they needed a little redirection at times.

As the frame is painted, the students track the movement of the brush as it is pushed or pulled——this is a science access point related to the understanding of forces and changes in motion.

The we shook on some rust colored glitter for a little additional sparkle 🙂

As the glitter was applied, it changed the appearance of the frame. Recognizing a change in an object is a science access point related to the understanding of changes in matter.

It turned out really fabulous and Ms. Celeste loved her picture frame!

LANGUAGE GROUP

Since Grandma Daisy works in the room where we do our language group, we based our activity on her favorite food: SHERBET ICE CREAM! In her honor, we decided to make sherbet sundaes.

The focus for the group today was requesting and informing. The students were provided with visuals of the numbers 1-5. They had to tell us how many scoops they wanted in their bowl. As Cara scooped the sherbet out, we all counted.

Counting from 1 to 5 using objects of pictures is a math access point related to geometry and measurement.

Because we were making sundaes, of COURSE we needed some toppings. First we discussed the different toppings and discovered that one of them made NOISE!

Our students with visual impairments were very good at recognizing that the items were nearby—–a science access point related to the understanding of earth in space and time.

Cara made a board that showed the pictures of each topping that was provided: magic shell sauce, whipped cream, and sprinkles. The student whose turn it was would point to the picture of the topping they wanted, verbalizing what it was if they were able to. Cara then put just a little bit of the topping in the bowl.

The PIXON pictures “more” and “all done” were located on the page as well. Our students were able to convey if they wanted more of the topping or if they were all done with it. For the most part, they wanted MORE!

In addition to language/communication aspects of indicating “more” and “all done”, these concepts are also math access points related to representation of quantities.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy their sundae!

YUM!!!

Another great week—-thanks to all the staff members who allowed us to put their photograph in our book! And a great big thank you for all they do to make our school such a great place to be.

Join us again next time for more fun and learning——Group by Group!

Feb25

Black History Month book

Posted on February 25, 2013 by jd785

Black History Month book

This week we are celebrating black history month by recognizing the famous African Americans in our school! This went over SO well with our students! The book incorporated many familiar faces which was very exciting for our students to look at. This week, the title was different than the repetitive line. The book has one interesting fact about each person in the book. After the fact was read we asked the students, “who is she?” to which they replied “she is a famous African American at my school”. It worked out nicely that all of our famous African Americans were female 🙂 Also, each of the facts about the famous African Americans was incorporated into the sensory boxes as well. Enjoy!

Here is a link to the book: Famous African Americans

Feb25

Black History Month and Letter V

Posted on February 25, 2013 by jd785

Black History Month and Letter V

In our Sensory and Fine motor groups we celebrated Black History month in a personal way by learning more about some special people at our school. Our students LOVED finding the familiar faces in Cara’s famous African Americans book! In our Language Group we looked at words that start with Letter V.

Sensory Group—Black History Month

Our first celebrity is Ms. Joi, one of our elementary classroom teachers, and her favorite color is PINK!

We made this totally pinkalicious box in her honor. It was filled with easter grass, curled ribbon, silk flowers, beads, kitchen scrubbers, plushy animals (flamingo, pig, and fish), paper strips, and other assorted toys. If it was pink—we put it in the box 🙂

The science access points of identifying objects by one observable property and exploring, observing, and recognizing objects in the natural world.

This box also gives our students the opportunity to address the language access point of selecting a familiar object to explore.

Ms. Mary is one of our paraprofessionals and HER favorite color is red. We filled her box with some fabulous red things including a feather boa, blocks, garland, silk rose petals, bead, kitchen scrubbers, garland, ribbon, and assorted red toys. This was a great box totally red and fun filled!

As with our other color box, lots of different textures and items to compare and contrast. The fabulous feather boa (found at the dollar store at halloween!) was quite the popular item—our students loved it 🙂

Some pictures of musical instruments were hidden beneath the blue and yellow (our school colors) rice…in honor of our next celebrity, our music teacher Ms. Brenda.

We put in spoons of different sizes to address the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers.

Visual discrimination is addressed as the rice is moved aside and its fun to see how excited they get when a hidden picture is revealed!

Ms. Carolyn is our new dean and we are so excited to welcome her to our school. Our school mascot, the owl, seemed a fitting theme for her box!

We used our “owl” feather boas. So very soft and touchable—-fun to wear OR wave around also! Our students really love these boas, they are irresistible.

As hands glide along the feathers, the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of stimuli is addressed.

Grandma Rosie is from the British West Indies—a beautiful tropical place full of sandy beaches. We made our own little beach for her 🙂

We added a seashell and a small spoon and our students had a great time scooping up the sand and filling the shell. What a fun way to address eye hand coordination!

The shell was really big which get us the opportunity to discuss the science access point of recognizing objects that are big. Also discussing the amount of sand (ex. “a lot” or “a little”) as it is emptied into the shell helps our students associate quantities with language—a math access point!

Our Occupational Therapy intern, Ms. Joia is a student at FAMU. FAMU’s colors are orange and green, so we made some fabulous green playdough to roll into snakes—her school mascot! We added a variety of orange tools to decorate the snakes.

Rolling out and decorating the snakes is a super fun way to work on fine motor skills and eye hand coordination.

As the playdough is either rolled or squished between fingers—the science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed.

Ms. Anita is another one of our celebrities. She is a para-professional and comes from England. We made some oobleck and sprinkled it with some blue and red glitter to show the colors of England’s flag.

Oobleck is one of the BEST substances to use to explore the science access point of recognizing a change in an object! It changes from liquid to solid and back again with just a touch—how cool is that!

Ms. Louise, our head custodian, keeps our school sparkling clean. We rinsed our hands in “Clean Waters” scented body wash and then used the companion lotion.

Presenting the aroma to our students gives them the opportunity to recognize and respond to one type of sensory stimuli.

Letting us know (by vocalizing, body movements or gestures) that they want to continue the activity addresses the math access points of indicating a desire for more or less of an action or object.

We generally take smiles as a “yes” 🙂

Fine Motor Group-Black History Month

Ms. Anita, just had surgery so we decided that we would make her a “get-well-soon” picture for our Tuesday art project.

We started with a large rectangular shaped piece of paper—addressing the math access point of recognizing two deminsional shapes.

Then the students took turns making straight lines for the stems of the flowers we made. Imitating directional lines is a prewriting skill and some of our students are getting really good at it!

Each student was asked to make 3 strokes—which we counted, of course 🙂

Then we took our adapted stampers to make flowers. Joy made them by cutting up foam and kitchen sponges. These were attached either with double stick tape or hot glue to the handles made from kitchen scrubbers or an empty spool.

We did find that we had to “stamp” on the pad a lot to get enough color to show up on paper, so adults helped “prime” the stamp.

The students were asked to either point to or hand us the picture card to indicate which color flower they wished to stamp. Effectively communicating wants and needs, with prompting, to a familiar person is a language access point.

To make the flower garden come to life, students were asked to stamp at the “top” of a line—addressing spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

As the flowers were stamped we discussed which ones were the same color. Recognizing two objects that are the same color is a math access point.

This was a lot of fun, our students REALLY enjoyed stamping their flowers!

Ta Da!

Feel better soon Ms. Anita!

On Thursday, we decided to thank all our celebrities by making a copy of their picture from Cara’s book to give to them. It had to be decorated first, however 🙂

We started by glueing the SMALL rectangular photo onto the LARGE rectangular piece of paper—addressing the math access points of recognizing similarities and differences in size of common objects and recognizing two-dimensional shapes.

Then we used our paper cutters to cut 4 strips of paper.

Using quantities to 4, represented by objects is a math access point.

We glued the strips to each of the sides of the photo helping to address the math access point of identifying the sides of a rectangle is a rectangle.

This activity also addresses spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

And here is one of our finished portraits!

Ta Da!

Language Group—Letter V

We started by playing Cara’s sound game.

There were some Very interesting sounds to be heard as we work on the science access point of recognizing and responding to common sounds.

Then we tried on a Vest—-are they still in Vogue?

A fun way to work on dressing skills and the science access point of recognizing body parts!

Next we cut some Vintage wallpaper into strips and……

Voila, we made a V 🙂

Working on prewriting patterns and spatial relations in this activity.

We also listened to Violin—not Viola :)— music on our Voice output device. We think we were listening to Vivaldi!

Recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli and responding to common sounds are science access points.

Responding to a technology resource is a language access point.

One more thing to do—make a Volcano!

Using baking soda and Vinegar to make a Volcano is so much fun—a total MUST DO!!!

We made our mountain by putting a small nesting cup into the spout of a wide mouth funnel. We used a small spoon to scoop baking soda into the cup—addressing the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers.

Then we poured some vinegar (tinted with food coloring) onto the baking soda, making a not so Violent eruption 🙂

The science access points of recognizing a change in an object and assisted with investigations with a partner is totally addressed with this activity!

We finished by looking at some of the V words we found today.

We had a Very good time this week, join us next time…

Group by Group!