Classes here at school get to go on Community Based Instruction, or CBI, each week. There are different places that they go. Sometimes it’s a store, sometimes it’s the park. The book shares some pictures of our students at some of the different places they visit. Check it out!
Here is a link to the book: Let’s Go On CBI.
Our older students have the opportunity to go out into the community on a regular basis to practice independent functioning, communication, social, and academic skills. We call this Community Based Instruction. Our sensory groups explored boxes related to the different community locations. The fine motor groups made some fun art projects and the language group made frozen treats you might buy while out and about!
SENSORY GROUP
Students used cookie cutters to stamp B U S into school bus yellow moon sand.
School buses are used to transport the students to their various CBI destinations.
Science access point: apply a push to move an object.
Blue and white rice represented one of the most popular CBI locations—— Walmart! There was a picture of a bus and another of a Walmart store to find at the bottom of the box.
There were also two different sized spoons to use for scooping fun!
Math access point: recognize differences in size of objects.
Another popular location is the Publix grocery store. Here the students purchase food/snacks for themselves or classroom activities.
We put a variety of fun food items—–some of which made noise when squeezed!
Science access point: recognize and respond to different types of sensory stimuli.
When going shopping, the one thing you need is MONEY!
There were different play money coins to find buried in this box of multicolored beans.
Science access point: recognize coins as money.
Sometimes our students get to participate in sporting events—-such as bowling or basketball.
We thought that making balls out of bright yellow Floam would be a great representation of those activities.
Math access point: recognize a common three-dimensional object.
Messy play represented the Community Arts program. We put some drops of food coloring in the shaving foam and let our artistic students mix it together.
This was a lot of fun but made for some multi-coloring fingers when done 🙂
Science access point: recognize a change in an object.
Many of our parks have a lake or water feature. Our water feature contained the letters C B I to scoop up. We also included some fun scoops.
Messy hands sometimes made some very colorful rinsing water!
Math access point: recognize differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.
Bath and Body Works vanilla sugar scent reminded us of some yummy Publix cookies 🙂
It was definitely a hit!
Science access point: recognize one or more external body parts.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Wednesday the students made a CBI map.
First, they identified the shape of their paper and the color of their marker.
Math access point: recognize an object with a two-dimensional shape.
Science access point: identify objects with one observable property, such as color.
They used the black marker to scribble roads on their maps.
Science access point: recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move.
Next, they used a paper cutter or scissors to cut out some of the most popular CBI stops.
Science access point: recognize a change in an object.
They glued the pictures and a school bus (cut from the Ellison machine) on to their maps.
Math access point: recognize when an object has been added to a situation.
TA DA!!!
We are ready……..
……..let’s go on CBI.
On Thursday the students made chicken nuggets—-a favorite treat to pick up on CBI.
First, the students identified the number 3 and the shape of our plate.
Math access point: associate quantities of number names.
Math access point: recognize an object with a two-dimensional shape.
Next, we mixed some rice krispies into our paint to give it texture and painted our 3 nuggets.
Science access point: recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move.
Since it is nice to have a little dipping sauce, we tinted some corn syrup and dripped a little of that on to the nuggets 🙂
The corn syrup will dry to a glassy finish.
Science access point: track objects that fall to the ground.
TA DA!!!
Chicken nuggets—-YUMMY!!!
LANGUAGE GROUP
Since shopping can tire us out, we made our own icees using this recipe: Let’s Make Strawberry Lemonade Icees
First we PUT 6 cups of ice into the blender. We talked about the ice being COLD and why it was cold.
Each student got to HELP PUT some ice in the blender.
Next, we PUT some water into the blender. We were going to TURN it on, but we saw that something was wrong.
Our students had to indicate that we needed the top on first. We turned it on to crush up the ice some.
Then, we added some lemonade mix. We observed that the color of our ice water was changing to a DIFFERENT color.
Finally, we PUT some strawberries with sugar into the blender. Time to mix it up!
Each student got to HELP press the switch to TURN on the blender.
Once it was ALL DONE, each student had to request an icee by indicating and/or saying WANT or DRINK. They would also have to indicate that they wanted MORE.
Students told us if they thought the drink tasted SWEET or SOUR.
These were very tasty! A good treat for all 🙂
It was a great week! Join us again next time for more fun and learning—–Group by Group!
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It was back to school but spring break vacations were still on our minds with our New York City theme. It is a popular vacation spot and such an exciting place to visit——we had so much fun planning the different group activities! Our sensory group activities included a trip to Time Square, the fine motor group made art projects related to New York City symbols, and the language group explored tourist destinations on the Smart board.
All our activities focused on looking at the world in spatial terms and the social studies access point associate an object, picture, or symbol with a location.
SENSORY GROUP
We started our tour with the most exciting place in NYC—-Time Square! We put 5 strands of battery operated lights on our umbrella and it really gave a fabulous “Time Square” effect. Needless to say this was a HUGE hit, our students really loved all the lights and could hardly wait for their turn!
The lights were attached using good old twist ties and we used velcro to attach the battery packs as they were a little heavy.
The science access point recognize sources of light is addressed in this activity.
We also pulled out our battery operated spinning lights so that students could put on their own light show. The science access point apply a push to move an object while also working on fine motor skills is addressed.
NYC is filled with skyscrapers. Our students made their own cityscapes using Duplo blocks to make “building” impressions in moon sand. The blocks shape made them easy for our students to hold and manipulate—-they worked perfectly!
Again the science concepts of forces and changes in motion are addressed as students apply a push to move an object.
Bright yellow and black taxis are EVERYWHERE in the city and a great way to get from one destination to another! We put some soft yellow pom poms and hard black beads in this box to compare and contrast. The colors gave this box a pretty striking contrast and most of our students found it intriguing.
As the students sort the items they can address the science access point recognize 2 common objects that are identical to each other. They can also address the math access point recognize 2 objects that are the same color.
Central Park is one fabulous place a taxi might take you! Besides lots of grass, the park is filled with trees and flowers so we put silk ones on a layer of basket filler. We also included a bunch of animals—–zoo animals, butterflies, dogs, ducks, squirrels, birds—–you can find all of them in Central Park!
With all that walking, you might want a snack and a NYC hotdog would certainly hit the spot 🙂 The play food hotdog usually elicited smiles when found in the box.
Recognize the leaf and flower of a plant are science access points that can be addressed in this box as students explore organization and development of living organisms. Recognize a model of a real object is another science access point addressed.
Another exciting thing to do on a NYC vacation would be to see a Broadway Show. For this box we brought back our Wizard of Oz discovery bottle with it’s green glitter and red Barbie shoes! Music from The Wiz—-found via a Youtube clean video search—- was recorded on our voice output device.
As the students turn and shake the bottle tracking objects in motion, a science access point, is addressed.
Our students—–and teachers 🙂 had a blast rocking out to “Ease on Down the Road” from The Wiz and showing their moves.
Attending to sounds from various sources is a music access point addressed.
Our students searched for the letters N Y C in rice. As the rice was shifted aside, a picture of one of the biggest symbols of not just NYC but our country was revealed——the Statue of Liberty! This box didn’t have a lot of rice, so it made it especially easy for the hidden items to be revealed.
Recognize a symbol that represents America, such as the Statue of Liberty is an access point related to the understanding of structure and functions of government.
Finally, the scent of the week—–APPLE, of course 🙂 A fitting end to our tour of the Big Apple. A fabulous yellow ducky floated in our scented water and the students had a great time using the big apple sponge to give him a shower.
Explore, observe, and recognize objects in the natural world is a science access point addressed in this activity.
Our students enjoyed this week’s scent and as usual, we gave them an opportunity to communicate where they wanted the lotion.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Tuesday our art project focused on the Statue of Liberty! We started by making the torch. The first step was using our paper cutters to cut green paper into a rectangle shape.
Once again, working on the math access point, recognize a 2 dimensional shape and the science access point recognize a change in an object.
Then we taped the rectangle to a toilet paper roll and ROLLED!!!! Our students did a great job and showed such concentration.
This was great for working on bilateral coordination.
Time for the really fun part—–stuffing tissue paper in the top to make our flame! Our students certainly did a great job demonstrating the science access point apply a push to move an object!
Prior to the group, we had cut the center out of a paper plate and stapled on some green paper that we had freehand cut for the statue’s crown.
Ta DA—–welcome to New York City 🙂
For our art project on Thursday we used apple stamping to decorate a cityscape!
We started by gluing a precut cityscape—-here is the pattern Joy drew SKMBT_42314032815140—–onto a piece of white rectangular paper. In addition to the math access point recognize a 2 dimensional shape, the science access point recognize a change in an object is also addressed.
Then we discussed the different paint colors we were going to use and asked the students to choose which color they wanted.
Recognizing an object by one observable property, such as color is the science access point addressed. Using body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate preferences is a language access point addressed.
Little hands and big slippery apples are not a good combination so we stuck a fork into the apple which made it so much easier for our students to handle!
So did we count the numbers of apples stamped?
OF COURSE 🙂
Recognize when an object is added to a situation is a math access point.
Ta Da! These cityscapes turned out pretty fabulous—-the Big Apple never looked so good!
LANGUAGE GROUP
After reading Cara’s book about the sights to see in New York, we decided to take a closer look with a virtual tour. We had the students gather around the SMART board for this group. We printed out some pictures of places from our book, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the Brooklyn Bridge.
These pictures were put on an All Turn It Spinner so that our students were able to pick a place to go.
Cara found a couple of websites with virtual tours of New York. The one she had planned on showing, www.airpano.com, didn’t end up working on our SMART board; however, it has an amazing virtual tour. Instead, we used http://newyork.arounder.com. This was also a virtual tour, but wasn’t an eagle eye view like airpano.
Our students loved being able to experience seeing New York with a 360 degree tour. We used different adjectives to talk about what we were looking at. We commented on the TALL building, the LONG bridge, and the BRIGHT lights.
Developing an understanding of language concepts related to linear measurement is addressed here.
The final consensus was that we all wanted to travel to New York on our next CBI trip:)
Hope you enjoyed our geography themed activities this week! Join us again for more fun and learning Group by Group!