Pumpkin Time was the theme for both the Sensory and Fine Motor Groups this week. For our Alphabet Group, the theme was the letter I. All the groups were so much fun—see what we did!
Sensory Group—Pumpkin Time
We started by reading Cara’s book Trick or Treat. In addition to using our voice output device, the students got to take turns with these goofy finger puppets. Great for working on finger individuation.
For our water play and lotion, we used Pumpkin Pie Paradise (from Bath and Body Works). It had a really strong aroma that wafted all around the room. Everyone enjoyed the yummy, sweet scent.
We looked for the letter P in a mixture of orange colored rice and black beans. In addition to letter and color identification, we were able to discuss the concepts of big and little.
The picture really doesn’t do justice to how brightly colored the rice was. It was very eye catching.Here, one of our students who usually needs some assistance to engage with the materials, just dove on in with both hands.
We also made some pumpkin pie scented playdough to use with our bat and pumpkin cookie cutters. Pushing down on the cookie cutters addresses hand strengthening in addition to working on tactile desensitization.
Despite its rather yummy aroma, almost all our students were very good about not trying to eat it.
We also put some eyeball rings to squish around and find in some plain playdough. As these rings were pretty small, we did put the mixture into a double ziplock bag before our students began playing with it.
Our shaving cream ghost was a hit. For some of our students it is easier to work on a more vertical surface—-shaving cream is a perfect choice!
After the ghost was rubbed away, we worked on making vertical, horizontal and circular motions to address prewriting skills.
This sensory box emphasized the contrasting properties of materials—a science access point. We had rough pumpkin scrubbers and a smooth piece of orange fabric, hard beads and soft garland, big pumpkin bean bags and little black pompoms. We also put in black and orange yarn and a few halloween themed trinkets.
It was fun to see the items different students chose to interact with.
Fine Motor Group—Pumpkin Time
We started by reading Cara’s book and taking turns with the finger puppets again. The we made the cutest mummies using an idea we found at crafts.kaboose.com/juice–box–mummy.html
We started by tearing a piece of white paper into strips and glueing them around a juice box. Tearing paper is a wonderful pre-scissor activity, great for improving bilateral coordination.
Before we started tearing the paper, we discussed its shape (rectangle) and color.
We tore a small piece of black paper and glued it near the top of the box.
And then, we counted out 2 googlie eyes and glued them on the black paper—great for pincer skill practice (Joy being an OT, just had to mention that of course!)
Our artists always “sign” their work but we were particularly excited to see students emerging independence using his adaptive writing utensil.
And now here they are………
MUMMIES!!!
On Thursday we used punches to cut out 1 square and 2 circles (working on math access points and hand strengthening).
We cut the square into 2 triangles….
and glued them onto an orange paper plate (using our home made colored glue to help our students see where to place their pieces).
Then we added our circle and some rectangles—more math access points
…………………Let the trick or treating begin!
Alphabet Group—letter I
We started by putting an Iguana In and out of a jar. Unscrewing the jar works on bilateral coordination, palmer arches, and grasp patterns.
We then played the game “Whats in Ned’s Head”….
and found some really Icky things! On side note, this class is made up of all boys and needless to say, they absolutely loved this game. What can you say, boys will be boys 🙂
We then moved on to something a little more appetizing—Ice cream!
First we practiced cutting along lines to make our triangle cone. This student is using an adaptive squeeze scissors (available from a variety of catalogs).
The cone and a small paper plate were glued onto a piece of paper. Our students colored their plates with markers.
For our students with significant physical differences, Joy used velcro to attach a marker to a switch toy. By pressing a switch, the students were able to color also. Their classmates also enjoyed taking their turn, of course.
We finished by adding a few sequins for sprinkles.
I like It!! !!
Here are some of the I words we found today.
It was certainly another fun week, join us next time Group by Group!