We celebrated Talk Like A Pirate Day this week!
Here’s a link to the book: Let’s Learn About Pirates
We learned lots of cool facts about pirates, such as who the most feared pirate was, what was REALLY in their treasure boxes, and what their most important rule onboard was. We have featured 3 students who took on the role as pirates this week and are on the front and back of the book.
Enjoy, or walk the plank! 😉
We learned all about Uncle Sam this week.
Here is a link to the book: Fun Facts About Uncle Sam
Did you know that Uncle Sam was actually based off of a real person? Our book tells you who the real Uncle Sam is, why he was called Uncle Sam, and how Uncle Sam became a symbol of the United States.
We have a couple of students who are decked out in their red, white, and blue on the front and back of the book also 🙂
We are traveling to space this week!
Here is a link to the book: Let’s Learn About Space!
The book goes over some pretty neat facts about space, like which planet could have life on it other than Earth, how long footsteps on the moon will be there, and also how much a space suit costs to make. Our book also features a couple of our students on the front and back who have traveled to space and back 😉 Enjoy!
After what seems like the longest Spring Break in the history of Spring Breaks, we are BACK!
Here is a link to our book this week: Time To Go Back To School
We’re excited about being back around each other and getting back to a schedule here at school! Our book has lots of pictures of students and staff around school. Things look a little different although we are trying to keep it as close to normal as possible. We are all trying to make sure to follow the rules like keeping our masks on and being socially distant from each other. The year might look different, but we’re going to make it the best it can be!
Well it has certainly been a different end to the school year! This will be our last post until we start back again in the fall. In anticipation of some free time with school over, our OT, PT, and SLP have come up with some activities for you to do at home since our students are Too Cool for School 🙂
We don’t have a central theme this time, it is simply all about FUN—-enjoy!
SENSORY
Our students always enjoy messy play with shaving cream but we recently found a way to make it even more fun—–add some jello powder! Just sprinkle some on top of the shaving cream and it becomes this cool substance—still shaving cream but more durable and moldable!
You really need to try it!
Another fun activity is making your own Discovery Bottle. There are lots of YouTube videos out there but the general instructions are pretty easy. You need any empty plastic bottle that has been well cleaned. Add a generous amount of clear glue, mineral oil, or baby oil. Add glitter and if you want—a few small beads or toys. Fill with water AND—this is important—-securely GLUE the lid closed!!! Now it is time to SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE.
At school, any time we shake something we sing along to that old KC and The Sunshine band song—always turns it into a fun time 🙂
Your child will have a blast but be sure to supervise carefully 🙂
GROSS MOTOR
Just as this 4th 9 weeks has been different, summer will be different too with the Summer 
Olympic Games being postponed. So, what if you had your own Summer Olympic Games with your family?
You could divide into teams or compete as individuals. Have each person or team come up with a team name or represent a country (you could even include some social studies by doing research about different countries, but it is summer so that is up to you).
Then choose your games or activities. There have been a lot of activities listed in previous posts that you could use or you can look online for others. Maybe even let each participant/team choose one or two activities, so you have a variety. Modify the activities as needed, so everyone can participate.
Finally, hold your Olympic Games. They could be held inside, outside, or a combination of the two. They could be held in one day, over a week’s time, or throughout the entire summer if you did one or two activities a week. If you do the later, you could “hold practices” to practice the skill to prepare for the “big day” much like an athlete would practice their sport.
It would also be fun to have family members that live outside of your home watch to cheer you on using FaceTime, Zoom, Teams, etc.
Lastly, come up with a way to keep points or score until the end of your Olympic Games. And of course, at the end of the games, have an award ceremony to recognize everyone’s achievements and to celebrate a job well done. Everyone will be a winner because you created, competed, and celebrated together.
Have a safe and wonderful summer!
FINE MOTOR
Two fun projects for you—one quick and easy, the other will take a little more time.
If you don’t have balls handy for your Olympic Game—-you can make your own!
Grab a piece paper, fold it in half, and crumple it up into a ball (this is a great activity for building hand strength and working on bilateral coordination). Have your child squeeze it really hard to make it as compact as possible. They can knock, drop, kick, or throw to make a goal/score a point!
Make ENOUGH paper balls to almost fill a plastic shopping bag. Tie the bag closed and VOILA—instant beach ball 🙂
Another activity to do with your child is to make a Summer Scrapbook! I did this with my children when they were little and it made such great memories. It is also a great way to practice writing and cutting skills. Here are a few suggestions for pages:
Stamp your child’s HAND and FOOTPRINT on a page on the first day of summer break. Then do the same at the end of summer.
Draw a self PORTRAIT and a picture of the SUN.
Pick favorite MOVIE, BOOK, TOY, TV, VIDEO GAME, PLACE, SONG etc. and have your child draw a picture about it. If your child needs to practice writing have them write a sentence as well.
Gather old magazines and have your child tear or cut pieces of their favorite COLOR and glue down to make a collage.
Of course, take lots of PICTURES and add them to the scrapbook!
LANGUAGE
We’ve had some summertime beach thoughts lately, so this week I’m including 2 different recipes that can hopefully quench your thirst for the sandy beach.
Here is the first recipe: Let’s Make Sonic Ocean Water This is a recipe that copies the Sonic ocean water drink. We made this with our students in 2018 so we included some pictures on each of the pages of them putting together the recipe.
Here is the second recipe: Let’s Make A Beach In A Cup We made this recipe in 2017 with our students so again, we have pictures of them carrying out the steps of the recipe.
While making these recipes, make sure to use your child’s communication system if they have one in place. We always emphasize core vocabulary words like PUT, TURN, HELP, WANT, MORE, AGAIN, and ALL DONE. Talk about how the ingredients feel: wet/dry, hot/cold, hard/soft. Talk about the taste of the recipes: good/bad, sweet/sour, like/don’t like. Talk about how the ingredients look when they are mixed together–how they can change from a liquid (milk and pudding mix) to a solid (pudding when it has set).
What’s most important is to have fun, be together, and always keep modeling and using language for your child/student. Repetition is KEY so repeat, repeat, repeat!
LITERACY
Books based on some familiar stories are always a hit—here are a few of our favorites!
We recommend this book from October 2015: Let’s Go To Neverland!
We also recommend this one from March 2019: Who Are The Characters In Aladdin
Finally, one more from December 2015: Who Will We Meet in Arendelle
Thank you all for following along with us this year. Please join us again in the fall for more fun and learning—-Group by Group!
Don’t forget to check you SPAM folder for a confirmation email if you want to follow us.
This week we are playing games! Our OT, PT, and SLP have come up with a variety of things to do. So break out the board games, gather everyone up, and have a fun family game night!
SENSORY
Here are two fun sensory based versions of games to play with your kids!
We often put a hidden picture at the bottom of our sensory boxes. The students have to push the contents of the box to see the picture. You can easily adapt this to an I-Spy game at home using magazine or old calendar pictures. Look for a picture with lots of different things to find and tape it to the bottom of your container (cookie sheet, roasting pan, casserole dish, storage box etc) and then add sand, rice, or oatmeal. See how many details they can “spy” as they move the contents around.
One of my favorite games to play with my students is What’s in Ned’s Head. Students reach into “Ned’s Head” and try to identify an object before they pull it out OR pull the object out and match it to a picture. You could make your own variation of the game and play Bingo by putting a variety of toys in a drawstring bag. Pick toys with different textures, shapes, sizes ex. balls, hand fidgets, cars, action figures etc. Make simple Bingo boards with names of the different objects. Have your child act as the “caller” and pull out one object at a time.
GROSS MOTOR
Over the past few weeks, I have talked about a lot of different games you could play with your kids to incorporate gross motor skills, so this week I thought a fun activity would be to make your own board game and incorporate various gross motor activities into it. This could be done indoors or outdoors using a variety of materials that you have at home, as well as, for students with different ability levels.
Use painters tape, chalk, paper plates, construction paper, large boxes, etc. to make a path for your child to follow. Make lines straight, curvy, or zig zag for your child to walk, jump, or crawl on. A hop scotch path could be fun to incorporate into your path too.
Incorporate challenges for them along the way using pool noodles to step over or walk on (if they are cut in half), cones to weave through, streamers to crawl under/step over, hula hoops to step through or walk around, couch cushions to walk on to challenge their balance. You could incorporate different textures to such a bubble wrap, sand paper, carpet, tile, grass, sand, etc. and play bare footed for extra fun.
You could incorporate a targeting game that they have to master before they can continue to move along the path. For example, a ring/bean bag/ball toss to a basket/bucket/box. You could also include targeting skills focusing on kicking a ball into a box/basket/between 2 cones, throwing a ball to a target on the wall, or rolling a ball to a target (think bowling).
You could also incorporate a movement activity along the path. For example, jumping jacks, wall pushups, etc. Also, use various ways to move along the path (for example, bear crawl, frog jump, etc.).
Use a dice, number cards from a deck or cards, numbered strips of paper in a cup/bag to draw from to determine how many spaces to move forward (if you want to work on numbers). You could also work on colors or letters if you wanted to instead of numbers using colored pieces of paper or alphabet cards, as long as, colors or letters are incorporated into your path/game board.
Use the above ideas, ideas from previous posts, or create your own ideas to make your own floor or outdoor area board game. The most important thing is to get everyone involved and have fun! Have a good week.
FINE MOTOR
We are lucky enough to have things like an All Turn It spinner to adapt games at school, but there are still ways to simply adapt things at home.
Here are some ways to adapt board games for easier access:
Put dice into small snack containers. Let your child throw the container or knock it off their tray when it is their turn to roll.
Use a section of a pool noodle with a slit on the top to hold playing cards.
If picking up small cards (ex. Candy Land) is difficult, tape colored paper to match game pieces to the sides of a small box. Let your child throw or drop the container—the color on top is their card.
Limit the amount or which cards are used, for example with Memory use fewer cards or in Uno remove all the reverse/skip/etc cards to simplify the game to simple color matching.
Tape a small photo of your child to their playing piece to make it easily identifiable.
To exchange a small playing piece for a larger one that is easier to grasp, you can use an empty medicine bottle or spice jar. Adding some coins or play dough inside will make it more stable.
LANGUAGE
Here is a fun and engaging game that your child and you can play while working on the common core words GO and STOP. Here are the symbols that you can use: Red Light Green Light
You can take turns being the person in control of the “light”. Hold up the symbol for GO and for STOP whenever you are saying the words. You can also use the color symbols. It’s always fun to be able to control things that are happening so your kiddos should have a good time controlling the movement of people 🙂
For this game, you can either use either a Memory board game or these pictures: Memory game
Turn all the cards over face down and take turns choosing 2 cards at a time. Talk about if they look the SAME or if they look DIFFERENT.
LITERACY
We suggest this book from November 2018: Let’s Play Candy Land
We also suggest this book from September 2016: what-video-game-should-we-play
Join us again next time for more fun and home learning—-Group by Group!
Don’t forget to check your SPAM folder for a confirmation email if you want to follow us.
The weather is pretty nice outside right now and perfect for picnicking—-in your back yard, porch, or on your living room floor 🙂
Enjoy the activities our OT, PT, and SLP have come up with for you this week!
SENSORY
This week our focus is on tactile (TOUCH) input. For this activity you need sunscreen (if you are going outside) or plain lotion (if staying inside). If you are using scented lotion, be sure you let your child SMELL the lotion.
Rather than a quick slather, gently massage the lotion on to your child’s arms, legs, etc. concentrating on each body part as you go. Go slowly and talk about the body part you are applying the lotion to—perhaps even make up a little song to go with it!
GROSS MOTOR
Whether you have your picnic inside or outside include some games. There are many kinds of games you can play. I looked online and found lots. There are games for inside and outside. There are games that include water (for a hot day) and items that you have around the house.
Play some sort of a game where you have to throw an object to a target. Games like horseshoes, washers, corn hole, ring toss, or bowling. Use what you have from home to play your game. You could use bean bags, foam balls, swim rings, laundry baskets, boxes, cones, recycled plastic bottles, etc. If you want to challenge your child’s balance have them stand on a pillow while throwing objects to the target. If you are outside, you could use water balloons and buckets. These could all be played while sitting or standing. You could also play by having your child reach to place an object in a container while they are seated in their wheelchair or chair. Move the target up high, down low, to the side, forward, etc. to place the object in/on the target (bucket, box, cone, etc.). Have them cross midline and use both hands.
Also, include a game that requires running. Games such as relay races (there are many online that include water balloons and sponges if it is a hot day), freeze tag, red light green light, hide and seek, or kick ball. If your child is in a wheelchair and they can self propel their chair, have them push their chair to play the game. If they are unable to push their chair, have a sibling be their partner and move them as the game requires.
Try a game that involves gross motor movements such as sack races, hopscotch, and obstacle courses. Make your own hopscotch path using sidewalk chalk or hula hoops. You can also use sidewalk chalk, hula hoops, pool noodles, cones, etc. to make an obstacle course for your child to move through.
Maybe, end the day with a scavenger hunt to find a hidden sweet treat. Have fun and enjoy!
FINE MOTOR
Have fun blowing bubbles! If you are doing this inside, you probably want to have a towel handy to wipe up spills. As the bubbles drift into the air, encourage your child to follow them with their eyes. Ask them to catch them by waving their arms, clapping the bubbles between their hands, poking them with a finger, or even isolating the index finger and thumb to “pinch” the bubbles.
Hold the bubble container and ask your child to dip the wand in to work on eye hand coordination. If you are really brave, let your child hold the container——make sure to have that towel handy 🙂
Blowing bubbles is a simple but oh so much fun activity—-enjoy!
LANGUAGE
The weather is so beautiful right now and PERFECT for a picnic! Here’s an activity you can do inside or outside: What Should We Bring To The Picnic
Talk with your child about the different things that they might want to eat at a picnic. There are picture supports in the link above. You can use the picture symbols of food that are in the link or you can cut food out from magazines.
Since you won’t be too far from home while on your picnic, here’s a little recipe that doesn’t require many ingredients and will be yummy to have when it’s hot outside. Take a look at the recipe to see our students putting this treat together from 2018 🙂 Here’s a link to the recipe: Lets Make Strawberry Sorbet
LITERACY
We suggest this book from January 2015: The Little Brown Owl Makes a Healthy Snack
And this book from this book from October 2013: Who Did Alice See
Join us next time for more fun and home learning—-Group by Group!
Don’t forget to check your SPAM folder for a confirmation email if you want to follow us.
Distance learning continues with a fun unit about animals. We have done lots of animal themed posts in the past so it made picking photos from our library extra hard—-so many cute ones to choose from 🙂
Our PT, OT, and SLP have come up with some more fun activities for you to do at home—-enjoy!
SENSORY
Every week we make sensory boxes—our students LOVE them! It’s easy to your own animal themed box at home—-you can find the perfect material right in your kitchen such as rice, beans, pasta, oatmeal, popcorn, potato flakes, or cereal. Just remember if you have a child who likes to “taste”, make sure it is something that’s okay for them to swallow! Gather up some plastic animals and maybe add some measuring scoops and a funnel for extra fun 🙂
You might even try going out of the box and using dried coffee grounds, birdseed or even make a swamp out of green jello!
Have fun!
GROSS MOTOR
So, this week, you can try moving like animals would move.
Use some books around the house that have animals in them and as you read the book talk about how the animals move and have your child do the same movement as the animals in the story. Some of my kids’ favorite animal books were Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See or From Head to Toe.
You could also look up different animals online, watch how they move, and have your child copy the animal’s movement. You could also use movies with animals in them, and as you watch the movie pause it to act out the animal’s movements. A family favorite of ours was The Jungle Book.
Some movements that my kids and I came up with are the bear crawl, crab walk, frog jump, bunny hop, elephant walk, inch worm, duck walk, fly like a bird, swim like a fish, slither like a snake, swing through the trees like a monkey, stand on one leg like a flamingo, waddle like a penguin, kick like a donkey, cat/cow stretch. Just to name a few, but I am sure you all can come up with some more.
If your child is unable to do the movements independently help them to move their arms and legs to mimic the movements or you or a sibling do the movements and have them chose between a choice of two or three of which animal movement you are acting out. This can be done in supported positions (standing or sitting) to work on balance and strengthening.
Have fun moving like some of our animal friends. Animal sounds are optional! Have a great week!
FINE MOTOR
Here is a fun way to practice writing strokes!
Draw some spiders on a piece of paper. Have your child start at the TOP and draw a DOWN line to the spider. Proficient writers can then turn the paper sideways and write the word SPIDER on the line—-making sure letters touch the line and are aligned correctly.
Draw an animal on a piece of paper. Have your child start on the LEFT side and draw ACROSS to create a fence. Proficient writers can write the name of the animal on a line. Again, making sure letters touch the line and are aligned correctly.
Draw a fish on a piece paper. Have your child draw CIRCLES to make bubbles. Proficient writers can write a letter in each bubble—-making sure the letters stay within the bubbles.
LANGUAGE
Here’s a fun animal themed recipe for you to make at home! Here’s the recipe: lets make a zebra striped parfait
When you’re putting all the ingredients together, you can talk to your child about things like:
LITERACY
We recommend reading this book from May 2018:Let_s Go To The Zoo!
And this book from September 2017:On Old McDonald’s Farm
Join us again next time for more fun and home learning—–Group by Group!
Don’t forget to check your SPAM folder for a confirmation email if you want to follow us.
Our distance learning themes continue with more fun at home OT, PT, SLP activities—-and a sprinkling of old photos 🙂
This week we thought it would be fun to have a dance party!
SENSORY
A dance party has to have something to LISTEN to so pick out some music. A lot of our students love Kids Bop but there is a world of music out there—-maybe try something you haven’t listened to before! Does your child like it LOUD or SOFT? FAST or SLOW? What instruments do they prefer—DRUMS, GUITARS, HORNS?
Since it is a dance party, play with lighting—-dim the lights or turn them off completely and use flashlights, maybe put up some twinkle lights!
FINE MOTOR
Let’s make some paper chain party decorations! You will need paper of your choice—construction paper, notebook paper, wrapping paper, junk mail flyers etc. and tape, glue, or a stapler.
Start by cutting the paper into 2 inch wide strips. You probably want it to be at least 8-10 inches long.
For students who need assistance to use classroom tools: if you have a scrapbooking paper cutter, have your child help by pushing or pulling the handle. If you don’t happen to have one of those, sharply crease the paper and have your child help hold while you tear along the crease.
For students who are learning to use classroom tools: draw lines on the paper and ask them to “cut on the road”.
For students who are proficient with classroom tools: have them draw their own lines using a ruler.
Once all the strips are cut, begin assembling by joining one strip together to form a ring. Slide the next strip through the ring and fasten it into a circle. Continue adding strips until to have the length you want—-or run out of paper, whichever comes first 🙂
Drape your festive paper chain over the mantle piece, over bookshelves, pictures etc.
GROSS MOTOR
At the dance party, have a dance off with your child. Take turns showing off your moves and then have the other person mimic them. For students whom can independently move, they can move their arms, their legs, or their wheelchair. It doesn’t matter, just move.
For students whom need more assistance with movement, move their arms with hand held assistance or push their wheelchair around in different directions (linearly-forward and back, rotation-clockwise and counter-clockwise, or adjust the tilt of the wheelchair). Dance until you can’t dance any more.
Enjoy the party!
LANGUAGE
Here are some communication symbols that can be used during your dance party: Dance Language
You can either keep all of the symbols on the single piece of paper, or you can cut the symbols out to hold them up to your child. Most importantly, HAVE FUN!
LITERACY
We recommend reading this book from November 2013: Let’s Turn on the Jukebox!
Join us again next time for more fun and home learning—-Group by Group!
Don’t forget to check your SPAM folder for a confirmation email if you want to follow us.
Distance learning continues and we hope everyone out there is doing ok. Our SLP, OT, and PT have some more fun activities for you. This week we are going with a COLORFUL theme!
Once again we pulled some photos from our library 🙂
SENSORY
Let’s make OOBLECK!
This is a pretty messy activity so you might want to go outside for this one. Where ever you choose to do this, definitely have a basin of water, hose, or sink nearby! It you follow our blog regularly you know that oobleck is one of our favorite sensory experiences and SO easy to make at home—-all you need is cornstarch and water!
Mix 2 parts cornstarch and 1 part water and pour onto a cookie sheet. Put a few drops of food coloring on one side and a few drops of another color on the other side. Let your child dive right in with BOTH hands! Talk about the colors they SEE and watch the oobleck change colors as the food coloring swirls and mixes together.
So much fun 🙂
GROSS MOTOR
To address gross motor skills, make up some games to play to work on color identification and incorporate motor movements. For example, you could place different colored pieces of construction paper or objects on the floor and ask your child to go pick up a certain colored piece of paper/object and bring it to you.
Have them change the way they travel to the colored paper/object. For example, use movements like crawl, crab walk, bear crawl, hop like a bunny or frog, log roll, walk backwards, side step, etc.
The skill could also be worked on while sitting, by presenting two choices and having your child reach for a requested color. This could be done in supported sitting or independent sitting. You can make it even trickier by moving the choices around (up, down, out to the side, forward, etc.) or having them reach with a certain hand. Hopefully that gives you a few simple ideas to try.
Enjoy!
FINE MOTOR
We saw this idea on Pinterest and we were totally inspired! You will need a black permanent marker, regular kids’ markers, and a paper towel folded in HALF. We found that the cheaper paper towels work best! You will also need a cookie sheet with a layer of water. This activity gets a little messy so you may want to go outside for this one too 🙂
For students who need help using or are learning to use classroom tools: draw an outline their initials or name in block letters with the BLACK permanent marker. Go over the outline a few times!
For students that are more proficient writers: have them draw a word of choice.
OPEN the towel up—you will see a faint outline of the design that was drawn on top.
Use DIFFERENT colored markers to FILL IN color each letter on the bottom half of the towel.
If your child can’t do fill in coloring, just have them add color to the bottom half of the towel—the end product will be great either way!
Once you have finished coloring, fold the top back over and place the paper towel on the water—–and watch the magic happen!
The colors will bleed from the bottom sheet onto the top sheet—-HOW COOL IS THAT 🙂
LANGUAGE
You can download this simple color board to point to the different colors that you are targeting. Here’s the link: color board
Some fun activities to incorporate color:
LITERACY
We recommend reaching this book from April 2018: Look At The Colors Of The Rainbow
Here is another book from February 2016: The World is Full of Color
Join us next time for more fun and home learning—–Group by Group!
Don’t forget to check your SPAM folder for a confirmation email if you want to follow us!