This week our groups complimented the Unique Curriculum theme which explores things you see when you look up in the sky.
The students really loved all our activities and we got more than the usual super cute pictures—-our students really are quite adorable 🙂
SENSORY GROUP
After reading Cara’s book, we turned off the lights and looked up into the starry sky!
We made it by using twist ties to attach battery operated lights, beads, and some glow in the dark planets to a black umbrella—— SUPER easy! The battery operated lights were from Target and are usually on the shelves around holiday time.
Our students were all quite enchanted!
Associating stars with the night sky is a science access point. This activity also helps address the science access point of recognizing sources of light.
They also enjoy exploring this lighted moon. It had a rough surface as well as this fabulous glow–very mesmerizing.
Thanks Ms. Pam for letting us borrow it!
Associating the moon with night is a science access point.
Distinguishing light and dark is also a science access point that can be addressed with this activity.
When the lights came back on we began exploring our sensory boxes. This first one was filled with blue basket filler “sky” and lots of things found in the sky to discover.
We put in feathers, toy birds, bats, and butterflies for some of the animals you see in the sky. We also put in some toy airplanes .
Of course, we also included some cookie cutter stars and a crescent moon.
Weather related items included soft white pom pom clouds, grey craft foam storm clouds….
AND…….a fabulous stretchy rainbow slinky which ended up being the big hit of this box!
Exploring, observing, and recognizing common objects in the natural world is a science access point.
Recognizing models of real objects is also a science access point.
And yet more science access points….tracking the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled AND recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move!
Speaking of rainbows, our students really loved both looking at and touching our rainbow mat (found yet again at Target!).
As well as encouraging our students to touch the mat, we also discussed all the different colors that could be found in the rainbow.
Using senses to recognize objects is the science access point addressed here.
Our next box of Bubber reminded us of a beautiful blue sky! We love it’s soft tactile feel and it comes in so many cool colors, although we don’t have all of them—–YET 🙂
We included an airplane cookie cutter which helps build hand strength when pushed down into the Bubber. While fairly soft it does take some pressure to cut out a shape.
Recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed and applying a push to move an object are the science access points addressed in this activity.
We went from the blue daytime sky to the black night time sky with our next box. Lots of yellow craft foam stars were hidden for our students to find in the black beans.
The stars not only look different but feel different from the beans, making this a good activity for both visual and tactile discrimination.
Associating stars with the night sky is again addressed with this box.
Recognizing objects (the stars) that are identical to each other is another science access point addressed here.
We must admit the science access point of tracking objects in motion, as watching a few beans tossed into the air, was also addressed in each of our classrooms.
We have VERY understanding teachers 🙂
What’s a day without sunshine! This box was filled with sunglasses, yellow paper shred, a wooden sun, sun shaped manipulatives and yellow pom poms.
Whether shaking the paper shred, squeezing the pom poms or pushing and pulling apart the manipulatives ——-our students had a great time with this box!
The pom poms can be used to address the math access point of recognizing two objects that are identical to each other.
Applying a push to move an object and identifying objects by one observable property, such as color are the science access points addressed.
The science access point of recognizing that the sun is bright can also be addressed with this activity.
These sunglasses were the favorite item in this box. As you can see, our students had a lot of fun getting their cool on 🙂
Next we made our own fluffy clouds with shaving cream. Wonderful fun to dive into with both hands and squish around!
Using senses to recognize objects is the science access point addressed with this activity.
The language access point of communicating about a selected object using nonverbal expression is beautifully demonstrated in this picture—-pure joy!
After rinsing our hands in “rain kissed leaves” (from Bath and Bodyworks) scented water, the students took turns smelling the lotion and showing us where they wanted it applied.
The science access points of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli and recognizing external body parts are addressed here.
This had a nice soft scent that our students really seemed to like and to help them remember all the fun things we learned about today!
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Tuesday, for our art project we made a starry night time sky. We started by counting out 6 pieces of black rectangular paper. Some glue was poured onto the paper and then the students used paint brushes to spread the glue around.
The math access points of recognizing a two dimensional shape (rectangle) and recognizing differences in the length of the sides of rectangles are addressed.
Identifying objects by one observable property and applying a push to move an object are also the science access points addressed.
We added some sparkly silver glitter——our students LOVED shaking the glitter out!
What fun 🙂
Recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed is a science access point.
Next we let our students choose how many stars to glue onto their picture. We used these plastic glow in the dark stars we found at the dollar store.
These little stars were perfect for promoting pincer grasp skills.
Recognizing when an object is added to situation is a math access point.
Counting up to 5 objects is also a math access point.
Look at the milky way—-
TA DA!
These turned out really quite cool and looked striking in Jeannie’s hallway.
On Thursday we turned from night to day and constructed our wonderful sun!
We started by asking our students to show us the color orange using our communication symbols.
Then we asked the students to glue an orange circle onto their white rectangular paper.
Bulls eye—-nice eye hand coordination!
Again, the math access point of recognizing 2 dimensional shapes (rectangles and circles) is addressed.
Recognizing objects by one observable property (color) is the science access point addressed in this activity.
The rays of the sun were made by stamping hand prints using yellow ink. Fortunately none of our students have tactile sensitivity so we did not have to adapt this for anyone. All of them did a really great job of keeping their hands open so we could help them make their prints.
We counted the hand prints out loud as they were pressed onto the paper.
Recognizing the appearance of an object has changed is the science access point addressed here.
Yep, this looks pretty good 🙂
LANGUAGE GROUP
In this group, we talked about things that go UP in the air and things that go DOWN on the ground.
Using Boardmaker, we made 9 different pictures of objects: rainbow, sun, clouds, bird, airplane, moon and stars, person, car, and house. We had real objects to go along with the pictures as well, which seemed to be a hit with the students!
Each student was given a picture and asked if it was UP in the sky……….
or…….. DOWN on the ground.
One of our students used the arrow as a road for a car—-too cute 🙂
Effectively communicating information using referent objects, pictures is the language access point addressed in this activity.
After they told us or showed us if the object was something seen UP or DOWN, they glued the picture onto a piece of paper with grass and sky drawn on it.
Our students did so well with this activity……we were SO proud!
Communicating about selected objects using pictures is a language access point.
That is it for this week. We had so much fun and learned a lot about things that we can see when we look up!
Join us again next week, you KNOW it’s going to be fun—–Group by Group 🙂
Here is a link to the book: A Rainbow Has Different Colors
