Tag Archives: basketball

Mar10

Women in Sports

Posted on March 10, 2019 by jd785

March is Women’s History Month and this year we decided to take a look at some famous women in sports. The sensory groups explored boxes dedicated to some of the women featured in our book. Each box also contained a photo of the athlete. The fine motor groups made sports themed art projects and the language group hosted a sports event!

SENSORY GROUP

This box was filled with gold beads, reminding us of all the gold medals won by sprinter Wilma Rudolph.

Whether worn, shaken, or just explored the beads were a hit with the students.

Science access point: uses senses to recognize objects.

The students made their own basketballs out of orange Floam in this box dedicated to famous WNBA player Lisa Leslie.

Floam has a unique texture which many of our students find intriguing as they squeeze it into shapes.

Science access point: recognize a common three dimensional object.

Sarah Thomas was the first woman to referee an NFL game. There were black, white, and striped pompoms to sort.

Of course, the students loved exploring the soft texture also.

Science access point: match objects with similar observable properties, such as size, shape, color, or texture.

Jackie Joyner Kersee is ranked as one of the greatest athletes of all time! She donned red, white, and blue to compete in four olympic games!

Our colorful rice contained two different size measuring cups for scooping fun.

Math access point: recognize differences in size of objects.

Since Chloe Kim competed in the winter olympics we filled her box with some insta snow. We also put in a rake and shovel, so the students could make their own half pipes!

Science access point: recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move.

The students made tracks in shaving foam. We put in a little car for them to race around their track like famous race car driver Janet Guthrie.

The students had a lot of fun with this, especially when we made engine sounds as the car raced around 🙂

Science access point: recognize that an object can move in different directions, such as left to right, straight line, and zigzag.

Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim the English Channel—how cool is that! We put in some fish themed toys and pool noodles in her box.

The fish toys were especially fun as they had holes for water to drip through.

Science access point: recognize different containers that hold liquids.

Thinking of the flower blankets winning horses wear, we used Crabtree and Evelyn rose scent for our lotion this week.

While most of the adults were not fans of the scent, most of the students seemed to like the aroma!

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

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Wednesday the students made basketballs. We have done this craft before but since it fit our theme so well, we did it again 🙂

First, the students identified the shape of their ball and the color of the paint we were going to use.

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

Math access point: recognize a common object with a two-dimensional shape.

The students stamped UP and DOWN using a bubble wrapped kitchen scrubber.

Math access point: recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down.

The ball was glued on to a piece of paper and…..

TA DA!!!!

Let’s play ball!

On Thursday, the students made referee shirts.

First, they identified the color of their markers.

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

Then, they drew stripes on their shirts.

Some of the students used a switch operated drawing tool.

Science access point: recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move.

Ta DA!!!

These referees are ready for game day!!!!

Who is ready to play 🙂

LANGUAGE GROUP

Since we are talking about women in sports this week, we decided to have our own heptathlon!

We started out by having a parade of athletes.

Other students who were not participating were part of the crowd cheering everyone on.

For the first event, we had wheelchair relay races. These were so fun! Athletes racing had to WAIT until they saw the GO symbol and then they were off! We talked about going FAST.

The winner was the first to cross the pink ribbon.

The next event we held was the javelin. Our students had to THROW the pool noodle and see who could get it the FARTHEST. Some of our students needed a little more help than others with throwing 🙂

We had another throwing event: the discus. Again, our students had to THROW the “discus” and see which one went the farthest. We’ve got some competitive kiddos.

The 4th event was the pool noodle hurdle. Students had to step or jump OVER the pool noodles.

Again, some students required a little more help than others, but they made it through!

Next, we held the snowboard balance event. Students had to use good balance to stay up.

This was a difficult event, but they did wonderfully!

The 6th event, the trampoline high jump, was a fun event! Jumpers had to see how HIGH they could get while jumping on the mini-trampoline.

Lots of fun!

Our 7th and final event was the bean bag archery event. Students had to THROW the bean bags into the holes. Awesome job!

Throughout our events we had students use sentence strips to say, “my turn”.

We also had ones with positive statements on them like “you did awesome”, “great job”, and “way to go” so that our students could cheer each other on.

Finally, we had the medal ceremony. All participants received a medal or trophy for their hard work.

We are all winners!

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

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Apr2

The History of Basketball book

Posted on April 2, 2017 by jd785

The History of Basketball book

March Madness is here!! Lots of people get hyped up around this time of year due to all of the basketball games being played, so we decided to do a some research and find out a little more about the game of basketball. The book talks about WHO invented basketball, what the first pro game was, and how March Madness originated in the first place. We learned so many interesting things about the game of basketball! We do have one student featured in our book on our “THE END” page, so make sure to check it out!

Here is a link to the book: The History of Basketball

Apr2

The History of Basketball

Posted on April 2, 2017 by jd785

The History of Basketball

With March Madness going on we thought it would be fun to learn a little bit about the history of the sport. The sensory group explored boxes related to different facts about the sport. The fine motor groups made basketball themed art projects and the language group played an adapted version of the game.

SENSORY GROUP

James Naismith invented the game of basketball. This box was dedicated to him and had lots of Canadian symbols since that is where he was born. We included a toy stethoscope because not only was he a PE teacher but he was also a physician—-how cool is that!

Recognize a model of a real object is a science access point that can be addressed with this activity.

Using Koolaid we made our play dough a nice bright basketball orange. The students could make balls, stamp letter B’s, or just squish and squeeze the play dough. They throughly had a good time.

Recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is a science access point.

Basketball is played with 2 teams consisting of 5 players each.We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to reinforce some math facts with this box! There were 5 blue and 5 red items for the students to explore and sort——-or shake 🙂

The math access point solve simple problems involving joining or separating small quantities of objects can be addressed here.

There were more opportunities for sorting with this box filled with beads in the colors of the NBA—-red, white, and blue! Of course, it was mostly an opportunity to wear or shake the beads!

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

In 1936 basketball became an Olympic sport. Using giant fluffy chenille stems the students had fun making circles, joining them together, and taking them apart. The chenille stems also provided another opportunity to discuss colors.

Recognize when an object is added to or taken away from a situation is a math access point.

The students were encouraged to draw circles/balls in this orange tinted shaving cream.

Recognize an object with a two-dimensional shape is a math access point.

We put some foam numbers in our water play this week. The students got to “score” by scooping up either 2 or 3 points!

Associate quantities with number names is a math access point.

Since the original hoops were actually peach baskets, peach was the obvious scent to use this week for our water play and lotion! Our students are getting pretty good at using the Pixon board to tell us where they want the lotion.

Recognize one or more external body parts is a science access point.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday the students made their own basketball playbooks!

We started with a rectangular piece of paper with a basketball court sketch and some X’s and O’s drawn on it by Ms. Zenia the fabulous OT intern!

Then the fun began! The students got to operate a switch activated drawing tool to illustrate their play calling. There were certainly some interesting strategies planned 🙂

Distinguish between objects in motion and objects at rest is a science access point.

TA Da—-game on!

On Wednesday the students made paper plate basketballs!

We started by identifying the shape of our plates and color of our paint using communication symbols.

Recognize an object with a two-dimensional shape is a math access point. Identify objects by one observable property, such as color, is a science access point.

Then the students stamped their plates with a dish scrubber. We emphasized stamping UP and DOWN.

Recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship is a math access point.

TA DA—-time to play!

LANGUAGE GROUP

We had our own tournament today in honor of March Madness. We used an All-Turn-It spinner that had 2’s and 3’s all around it to signify the points that basketball players make during a game.

Both adults and students got to be in the tournament. We started out by picking 2 names out of a bag. These 2 people would play against each other.

We had communication boards in front of each student so that they could convey “my turn”. The 2 “players” took turns and had 3 times each to press the switch and see what points they got.

We used a white board to write down the points that each player made. Once they each went 3 times, we added up the scores and talked about who had MORE points.

Once we figured out who the winner was, the next 2 players competed and so on until we finally had an overall winner.

This group was so great today because it gave the adults a great chance to model the use of the communication boards while they were playing the game. Everyone got so excited, too, when we had to go into overtime if the players tied.

Finally, we had a winner!

Of course, we can’t NOT have a little snack in this group so we summed it all up with some basketball shaped Vanilla Wafers 🙂

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

Mar27

March Madness book

Posted on March 27, 2016 by jd785

March Madness book

March Madness is in full effect right now, we decided to go ahead and do a theme about it since we haven’t ever really touched on this topic before. We learned some pretty neat things about March Madness, such as who the winningest team is and also which team has had the most NCAA tournament championship wins. Since we’ve been trying to get pictures of our students in each of our books, we feature our own basketball team on the front cover of this book and added in a picture of another student on the back cover. We hope you enjoy!

Here is a link to the book: It’s Time for March Madness

Mar27

March Madness

Posted on March 27, 2016 by jd785

March Madness

It is that time of year——time for March Madness! So we are all about the NCAA basketball tournament this week! Our sensory groups explored basketball themed boxes. The fine motor groups painted their basketball themed art projects. The language group made bouncy balls!

SENSORY GROUP

Lots of college teams compete in the tournament and UCLA has won the most championships! This box contained pompoms and beads in the team’s colors—–blue and gold. In addition to the color, the items can be differentiated by texture.

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

Blue and white rice represented The University of Kentucky which has had the most WINS of any university—–how cool is that! We put in the letters N C A A for our students to find and there was a little picture of a basketball player at the bottom of the box.

Match objects by an observable property, such as size, shape, and color—-in this case the letter A’s—is a science access point that can be addressed here.

Everybody has a favorite team to cheer for so we put a bunch of colorful shaker pompoms into this box. Of course we made sure to include some in the colors of our favorite teams 🙂

We also included a goofy fan hat for the students to wear and our fans had a blast with this box!

Initiate a change in the motion of an object is a science access point.

The students had fun with this bright orange play dough—–very eye catching! We encouraged them to try to roll the play dough into balls or to use the cookie cutter to cut out letter B’s.

Recognize changes in observable properties of materials is a science access point.

This year the final four games will be held in Houston, Texas so we dedicated this box to the state. We used paper shred in the colors of the state flag (red, white, and blue) and put in a big white “lone” star that is also seen on the flag. We also included a cowboy, horses, and cows—-other things we associate with the state.

There was a fun little cowboy hat (thanks Ms. Kim) which our students

—–and teachers :)—–thought was lots of fun.

The science access point recognize a model of a real object can be addressed with this activity.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was founded by President Teddy Roosevelt so we went “all american” with some red and blue glitter sprinkled into our oobleck this week 🙂 As usual the students had a blast with it and those little bits of sparkle made it even more inviting!

Recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is a science access point.

We went with a “sporty” scent for our water play, hands were rinsed in Old Spice Denali scented water. You may notice we even tied our circle shaped bowl into the theme—-rather clever, if we don’t say so ourselves 🙂 Since getting the highest score is the object of the game, we included some numbers for our students to scoop out and SCORE!

Recognize quantities 1 to 3 using sets of objects, pictures, or number names is a math access point.

Instead of lotion this week we used some Coca Cola scented lip balm. We figured all that cheering would make any fan want a nice cold soda! The students loved the scent which we applied to wrists, ears, or hands—–NOT lips of course!!

Recognize and respond to one type of sensory stimuli is a science access point.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday our students painted paper plate basketballs.

First we discussed the shape of our plate and asked the students to identify a CIRCLE using communication symbols.

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

Then students also used communication symbols to identify the color ORANGE.

The science access point identify objects by one observable property, such as color is addressed here.

We wrapped some bubble wrap around a scrubber sponge and encourage the students to stamp UP and DOWN.

Recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down is a math access point.

Ta DA—–

let’s play some B-Ball!

On Wednesday our students made some basketball jerseys using paper bags.

First the students identified the color of our paint using communication symbols.

Identify objects by one observable property is a science access point.

Then they started painting their “jerseys”.

Recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is a science access point.

Next they identified their number and placed it on the wet paint.

Associate quantities with number names is a math access point.

TA DA—-

put me in coach——

—–I’m ready to play!

LANGUAGE GROUP

To celebrate March Madness, we made our own bouncy balls! We actually used 2 different recipes so that we could COMPARE them to see which one worked better. These are the 2 recipes that we used: DIY bouncy balls Since both of these recipes contained borax, we VERY closely supervised our students!

We started by asking our students to choose which 2 colors they wanted the balls to be (since we were making 2 different recipes).

After we tallied up all the votes, we discussed which 2 colors had the MOST votes: blue and pink it was!

Compare quantities using language, such as more, less, or the same is a math access point.

We started with the first recipe in the link above. Our students helped us POUR the ingredients into each of the different cups. We observed the white glue change colors when we put in the food coloring. When we poured the glue mixture into the cup with the borax/water, we observed the glue becoming solid—–how cool is that!

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

Once we took the glue mixture out of the water, we had to squeeze the water off and form the ball (this was done by an adult). After the ball had hardened somewhat, everybody got to touch it!

Recognize 3-dimensional objects, such as balls (spheres) is a math access point that can be addressed here.

Then we made the next recipe. We talked about how the amounts of ingredients were smaller and how the steps were DIFFERENT. We also got some good math skills in by discussing how we needed 2 half tablespoons to make 1 whole tablespoon while measuring out the ingredients.

Distinguish half from whole using objects is a math access point.

Once both balls were made, we compared the 2 by bouncing each of them. Before we bounced them, though, we HYPOTHESIZED which one we thought would bounce higher. Although they bounced about the same height, we think the blue one (from the first recipe) went a little bit higher! The students loved this part of the activity 🙂

Distinguish between objects in motion (kinetic energy) and at rest is a science access point.

Thanks for joining us this week for March Madness and we hope your bracket did well 🙂

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