We celebrated the colors of our country this week—–between the Winter Olympics and Presidents Day we were in a patriotic frame of mind and thought this theme would be a fun way to finish out the month! Our sensory group boxes were filled with items that were either red, white, or blue. The fine motor group combined the colors to make fun art projects. The language group had fun sorting the colors.

 

 

 

SENSORY GROUP

So many fabulous things to discover in our red box! All sorts of shapes, textures, and things that made NOISE—-especially important for our students with visual impairments. There was paper shred, chenille ribbon, accordion tubes, stuffed animals, and a squeaky toy that was by far the favorite!

As with all our color boxes our students are engaging in the practice of science by exploring, observing, and recognizing common objects in the natural world. They are also exploring properties of matter and addressing the science access point identify common objects by one observable property, such as color.

 

 

Our white box had some wonderful textures including feathers, a dusting mitt, and some imitation sheepskin. A lovely soft box to run fingers through. We also put in some pompom yarn that was perfect for shaking and draping!

The practice of science is again addressed as the access point use senses to recognize objects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This blue box was also filled with more wonderful textures and items to explore. We included some shiny curling ribbon, basket filler, some kitchen scrubbers, and an accordion tube.

As students pulled the accordion tube apart and pushed it back together they worked on bilateral coordination. 

Forces and changes in motion were explored while addressing the science access point recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move.

                                                   LOOK at the concentration on the students faces—–fabulous!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

This red moon sand had a great tactile feel and is very moldable. A melon baller helped make it even more fun to explore. Discussing the little spheres that were made addresses the math access point recognize 3 dimensional shapes. Of course, even though it looked like a ball it didn’t quite act the same way——some of the students were quite intrigued when the balls didn’t bounce when dropped!

Exploring, observing, and recognizing common objects in the natural world is an access point related to the practice of science.

 

 

 

 

White flour filled our next box and it is pretty messy stuff—–we LOVE it! Spoons and scoops of different sizes were included for filling and measuring.

Develop understandings of addition and subtraction strategies are addressed as students solve problems involving small quantities of objects or actions using language, such as enough, too much, or more.

 

 

 

 

 

We dyed some navy beans blue for our next box and they turned out really cool! We found the instructions on the Fun and Home with Kids website. Everyone, including the adults, was pretty fascinated  by the blue hue! To also go along with this weeks theme, the letters U S A were hidden in the box for our students to find.

Finding the hidden letters addresses visual and tactile discrimination skills.

 

 

 

 

 

Forces and changes in motion are explored and the science access point recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move was addressed when playing with the white shaving cream. Since the shaving cream is naturally white, we had to include it as part of this unit!

As usual, our students made a mess and had a blast 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

We rinsed our hands in cherry scented water—-cherries are RED after all 🙂 We also put 2 foam puzzle dinosaurs in the water. Since one dinosaur was blue and one was red, colors could be discussed and the science access point identify objects by one observable property is again addressed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students also enjoyed exploring our discovery bottles. One was filled with blue beads and glitter while the other was filled with assorted red, white and blue beads.

As the bottles are turned the motion of objects is explored as the science access point track objects in motion is addressed.

 

 

 

 

 

We finished our session with some cherry scented lotion—-yummy! Our students loved the aroma and loved when it was applied to hands, arms, or ears 🙂

Concepts related to the organization and development of living organisms are explored while addressing the science access points recognize and respond to one type of sensory stimuli AND recognize one or more external body parts.

 

 

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday we started by counting out some grey rectangular paper—–counting the pieces  of course! We always ask to the students to sign their names by first identifying theirs from a choice of two.  Our students are emergent writers and we encourage them to “write” as we say the letters of their names out loud. Some of them are starting to say their letters along with us and stop writing after we say the last letter!

Using pictures, symbols, gestures/signs, or words to communicate meaning is a language access point related to the writing process.

 

 

 

 

Next we counted out 3 shapes, asking the students to point to the number 3 using our communication symbols. Then we asked them to point to or touch the circle (all our shapes came from a shape sorter toy).

Recognizing a common object with a two dimensional shape is a math access point. Recognize quantities 1 to 3 using sets of objects or number names is also a math access point.

 

 

 

 

 

To complete our art project we stamped blue squares, red circles, and white triangles.  We asked our students to identify the paint colors we were using, again using our communication symbols.

The students did a great job stamping the shapes, showing really nice eye hand coordination!

As they stamped, we counted to 3 aloud. We were really excited when some of them stopped stamping when we got to the number 3!

 

 

 

 

TaDa!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we made a color collage. We love doing collages——they are so much fun AND a great way to use up all those odds and ends hanging around the art closet!

In addition to eye hand coordination, pincer grasp skills are also addressed in this activity.

As items are added to the collage changes in matter are explored addressing the science access point recognize a change in an object.

 

 

 

Here’s to the RED, WHITE and BLUE!

                                                                                                          TA DA!!!!!!

 

 

LANGUAGE GROUP

For our language group, we focused on sorting and answering the question, “what color is it?”  Each of our students had a turn putting their hand inside the bag of goodies Joy put together.

There was a lot of reinforcement to not peek 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once an object had been pulled out, the student had to say what color it was——either red, white, or blue.  They could do this either verbally or by pointing to a communication symbol with the different colors.

Communicating information that tells about an object is a language access point related writing applications.

 

 

 

 

 

After labeling the color, the student then had to put it in the matching colored basket.

For some of our visually impaired students, we talked about how the object felt.  We used adjectives such as bumpy, smooth, soft, and hard.

 

Our students did a pretty great job with the sorting and identification of colors.  They sure do know the colors of their country!

Thanks for joining us again this week, it’s been a lot of fun—–hope you smiled along with us! Join us again next week for more fun and learning Group by Group.