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.