Tag Archives: language skills

Feb25

Week 22—Mardi Gras and the Letter V

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Week 22—Mardi Gras and the Letter V

This week the theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups was Mardi Gras. Letter V was the theme for our Language Group.

Sensory  Group—Mardi Gras

Cara’s book “At the Mardi Gras Parade” had such bright colorful pictures that our students loved. We continue to encourage them to press the voice output device to help read the story.

Our first box focused on the Mardi Gras colors of purple, yellow, and green. We included yarn, garland, curling ribbon, feathers, beads, small toys, and crowns. We also included a little toy baby because of the Mardi Gras tradition of luck coming to the person who finds it in their piece of King Cake.

This box helps work on color identification skills. All the different textures explored properties of materials (science access point). Fine motor skills are addressed while reaching for, grasping, and releasing the different objects. And, of course, talking about all the different objects addresses language skills.

This was such a colorful box and we all loved it!

 

We continued exploring textures and colors

with our next box. Easter grass made a great stand-in for cotton candy that you might buy some from a street vendor while watching the Mardi Gras parade!

Its light and easy to grasp and Pulling the it apart encourages bilateral coordination.

 

 

 

There are lots of lights on the floats at the Mardi Gras parade so course we had to have some! We included some of our spinning light up toys as well as these battery operated lights we found at Target.

Our students had fun touching them or having them draped around their shoulders.

Looking at the lights encourages visual attending and tracking.

 

 

Our next box contained some purple“macaroons” that you might find at the French Quarter! Well, actually, its a substance called “Bubber”  which can be purchased from a variety of catalogs. It has the most amazing feel—light and silky just like a macaroon! The adults loved it as much as the students —-you just can’t stop touching this stuff!

 

 

 

 

BEADS! BEADS!! BEADS!!!

Of course we had to have beads, its Mardi Gras! We filled a box with them and to say our students loved them would be an understatement. Everyone had to grab one or two or a handful 🙂

The beads are excellent for addressing color identification and size comparisons. Their shiny texture makes them very eye catching when shaken and an auditory component is included when rolling across a table.

 

 

We looked for the letter M in our Mardi Gras rice—green, yellow, and purple of course! We loved the way it turned out, reminding us of a box of confetti.

 

Scooping, pouring, sifting—FUN!

 

 

 

 

 

 

King Cake is always served at Mardi Gras. Its yummy and topped with a sweet white sugar glaze that was easy to imitate with our oobleck!

Playing with the oobleck improves tactile awareness and provides a medium for practicing prewriting strokes—or you can have fun just watching it drip off fingers.

 

 

 

 

 

After playing with the oobleck, our students rinsed their hands in vanilla sugar scented water and then rubbed  on some hand lotion.

Everybody left smelling like sweet yummy King Cakes to remind them of all our Mardi Gras fun!

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Mardi Gras

On Tuesday, we read Cara’s book and learned about all the things we might see at the Mardi Gras parade. Then we decided to make some masks.

First we let our students choose whether they wanted a green or purple mask. We found these foam masks at Michaels on clearance after Halloween.

We counted the masks to work on one to one correspondence.

 

 

 

Then we added some

glue. Squeezing the

glue helps improve

hand strength

and eye hand

coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

Now for the fun part —decorating! We decorated the masks with feathers, glitter, sequins!

Our students had fun choosing which items to include on their masks. This student especially LOVED the glitter 🙂

A variety of fine motor skills are addressed during this activity from a pincer grasp to pick up feather to shoulder stability needed to shake the glitter.

 

 

 

 

 

Jeannie got some great pictures of her students holding their masks in front of their faces. They are going to look so cute in the yearbook.

Aren’t they just so bright and colorful!

 

 

 

 

 

Snack time comes after our fine motor activity and we just had to include a picture of this students spontaneous food art.

Isn’t it just fabulous—he was just so proud 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we read our Mardi Gras book again and then made some jester hats.

We started by letting our students choose which color to use for their hat band. After they made their choice, they practiced writing their names on their bands.

We made sure to reinforce color identification skills by naming the colors and encouraging our students to vocalize the color names when possible.

 

 

 

Then we used our paper cutters to cut out purple and green triangles. We really like using these paper cutters. They make it so easy for the students to cut straight lines and they really enjoy using them.

Identifying the triangle shapes addresses math access points.

 

 

 

 

We cut out yellow circles with our hole punches.

By either squeezing or pushing down on the hold punch our students are working on strengthening their hands.

Counting and identifying the circle shapes—more math access points!

 

 

 

Next, we taped the triangles to the band in an alternating pattern.

After 3 triangles, we asked the students to pick which color in the pattern came next.

Sequencing is another math access point. Putting the triangle beside the previous one addresses spatial relationships.

 

 

 

We added a yellow circle to the point of each triangle. Picking up the circle promotes a pincer grasp and placing it on the glue promotes visual spatial skills.

Its starting to come together!

 

 

 

 

 

Our hats are all done!

Time for the Mardi Gras parade 🙂

 

 

Language Group—Letter V

We started our group by talking about the letter of the week and we practiced forming the letter V with our fingers.

Making letters and other signs gives our students an opportunity to practice finger individuation skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we made Vertical

lines on the magna

doodle to practice

pre-writing strokes.

We Voted on

which line was the longest!

 

 

 

 

We opened the Velvety bag by pulling apart the Velcro.

Then we reached in and pulled out one of the Vehicle beads.

Reaching into the bag and pulling out a bead without seeing it helps address tactile discrimination.

We purchased the bead set at Target.

 

 

 

He put a vibrant Van on

the string—Vroom Vroom!

After everyone had  a turn, we counted  the beads, working on one to one correspondence.

We really like this bead set because the end is a wooden dowel which makes it easier for our students.

 

 

We started our next activity with a Vulture that Joy drew—thanks for the inspiration Ms. Cathie 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students tore black paper into Very small pieces to make “feathers”.

Tearing the paper helps improve bilateral coordination and pincer grasp.

The feathers were glued onto the Vulture working on eye hand coordination and visual spatial skills.

 

 

 

We like this View of the Varmint 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We played Cara’s latest sound game.

This game addresses listening and language skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished by looking at our V words. The post -its work so well in our group. Sometimes it hard to write down the words fast enough! Another advantage of them is that they are easy to move around and stick to different objects. They are also easy for our students to pick up and point to.

 

 

 

 

What an awesome week, we really enjoyed it! Please join us again next time for more fun Group by Group.

Feb20

Week 21—Black History, Presidents Day and the Letter U

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Week 21—Black History, Presidents Day and the Letter U

This week the theme for our Sensory Group was Black History, the theme for our Fine Motor Group was Presidents Day, and the theme for our Language Group was the letter U.

Sensory Group—Black History 

We started by reading Cara’s book and learning about some African American inventors. Then we began exploring our sensory boxes inspired by their inventions.

We turned off the lights and shone a flashlight through some plexiglass panels.

We chose red, green and yellow—traffic light colors! The lights really caught our students attention and there were lots of smiles when the light landed on them.

We didn’t have a green panel so we used a yellow and blue one put together, giving us the chance to explore a science access point. This activity also addresses color identification and visual tracking skills.

Thank you Garrett Morgan  for inventing the traffic light!

 

 

 

 

 

After turning the lights back on we voted on what color to make our shaving cream. We presented three circles (red, yellow, green) and our students  communicated their choice by vocalizing, eye gaze, or pointing to a circle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We counted the votes and discussed which color got the most votes, addressing math access points.

It was fun seeing what colors the different classes chose!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time to add the food coloring and mix it up!

The shaving cream has a nice tactile feel and is a great sensory medium to practice making pre-writing strokes (after you get tired of squishing it between your fingers of course).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We rinsed hands in grape scented water  (to remind us of the grape jelly that would go with the peanut butter we’ll discuss later).

A large syringe makes a great stand in for a super soaker, which was invented by Lonnie Johnson. Operating the syringe addresses bilateral coordination and is lots of fun! Our students also loved it when we squirted the water on their hands to rinse off the shaving cream.

After hands were dried we rubbed our hands with some Cool Citrus Basil scented lotion. The scent reminded us of George Standard who invented the refrigerator  to keep our citrus cool.

 

Now, more things to explore….

 

 

We scooped handfuls of potato chips (actually corn flakes) and crunched them up. Squeezing the chips addresses grasp skills. There is also an auditory component with that satisfying crunch and of course the rough texture adds a strong tactile sensation to this activity, increasing body awareness.

Thank you George Crumb for inventing yummy potato chips!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next box was filled with “freshly mown” green easter grass. We added other items related to our inventors including hair curlers, play refrigerator items, red/green/yellow circles, lawn mower and clock puzzle pieces, and a comb. We named the inventors as we discussed each of the items.

We also recorded the sound of a lawn mower (invented by John Burr) on our voice output device and placed it in the box. Our students thought it was a lot of fun to reach it to “start” the mower.

This box had a variety of textures, shapes, and colors to discover and explore—addressing the science access point: differing properties of materials. Reaching for and grasping the different objects addresses fine motor skills. Naming the objects improves language skills.

 

 

 

We scooped some popcorn kernels  and searched for the letter B—for Henry Blair who invented a corn planter.

Our students loved burying their hands in the corn and also watching the kernels as they were dropped from the scoop.

Lots of opportunities for visual tracking, eye hand coordination and finger intrinsic skills with this activity.

 

 

 

 

We made patterns in cornmeal with a comb (we found this idea on the preschool rainbow website) encouraging visual tracking.

The hair comb was invented by W.H. Sam.

The cornmeal also has a wonderful silky feel that we have explored before, its really hard to resist playing in it.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we played with some peanut butter play dough (we made sure to check that no one had a peanut allergy before we made it). This was wonderful stuff and smelled just like a peanut butter cookie—it was really hard to resist sampling 🙂

Using the cookie cutters or pulling the play dough apart helps strengthen hand and finger intrinsic functions.

Thank you so much George Washington Carver, we love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches—YUM!!!

 

 

 

Still one more box! This one contained red, yellow, and green pom poms (traffic light colors). We kept the box simple, with the items all having the same shape and texture, to highlight their similarities and differences.

Reaching for the soft pompoms gives our students opportunities to work on grasping skills and eye hand coordination. Discussing the differing colors helps improve language skills and color identification. Counting the pompoms helps work on one to one correspondence.

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Presidents Day

This Tuesday we learned about some of our presidents by reading Cara’s latest book. After we finished the book we started our project.

First some of our students cut out some squares with a circle penny (math access points).

We used our mounted table top adaptive scissors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Others cut out orange rectangles

—-with a little help from their

friends 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And still others cut out some brown triangles (yet more math access points!)

We did go ahead and  precut some triangles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We set all these shapes aside and counted out rectangular pieces of paper. A small rectangle was drawn on the paper to help our students see where to place their glue.

Of course, squeezing the glue helps increase hand strength and eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we placed stacked popsicle sticks on the glue and put the brown triangle on top…

can you tell what we are making yet?

We have a couple more pieces to add 🙂

This activity promotes eye hand coordination, following directions and spatial concepts. Counting the popsicle sticks can also add a math component.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is, Lincoln’s Log Cabin

…we think its move in ready!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we read Cara’s book again and started our next presidential project. First we put on paint shirts (old t-shirts) which gave our students an opportunity to work on dressing skills (Joy, the OT, really likes this!).

We used 2 different colors of blue to paint a large poster board. Since our students have emerging skills we have a variety of tools for them to use.

This student is using a kitchen scrub brush which has a handle which works perfectly for him.  And, incidentally, adds great texture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also had a variety of other brushes for our students to use. Since we were trying

to cover a large area, these foam brushes (or surgical scrub brushes)  work perfectly!

The large area also allows for larger arm movements addressing shoulder stability. Working together on the same project also encourages social skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

Our student with a visual impairment added some fluffy cotton ball clouds.He really enjoyed pulling them apart and patting them down onto the glue.

Hmm, looks like we need to add a little something…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How about George Washington crossing the Delaware, with Jeannie’s

class!

Joy drew the figures and cut them out of poster board, adding photo faces of the students and staff. Our students took turns putting glue onto the back of the boat and patting it down.

We have to protect our students privacy, so for this  picture we covered our students faces—- but they are so cute!!!  The staff members are really quite good looking the bunch also 🙂

The students had so much fun finding their pictures and also pointing to the staff members.

 

 

 

Language Group—Letter U

We started by pulling some Unusual animals out of a shopping bag. Each student’s animal was Unique.

The words Up and Under were written on an index card and when presented with the word, the students had to follow the directions.

Either by holding their animal Up or Under the table!

Look at us, working on shoulder stability, fine motor, language and literacy skills at the same time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we guessed which cup the Unicorn was Under. We found that  Unmatched cups do not work well for this game 🙂

This was so much fun and all the students had to have a turn moving the cups around (addressing bilateral coordination and visual tracking and spatial skills). This was also a really good activity for practicing turn taking and following directions.

The Unicorn was made by placing a sticker on a bottle cap.

 

 

 

 

 

Moving on to our next activity, we cut out 3 Ugly bugs! The bugs were just clip are pictures we put on a grid.

As Usual, our students Used a variety of scissors according to their skill levels. We really like these adaptive squeeze scissors as they are relatively inexpensive, durable, and available from a variety of catalogs.

 

 

 

 

Then we crumpled some scrap paper and put it into an Utterly plain brown paper lunch bag to make a rock. We just rolled it closed.

This activity helps to work on bilateral coordination and strengthening hand

intrinsics, as well as eye hand coordination—-and its so much fun to crumple paper!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then glued our 3  bugs to the bottom of our rock.

Be careful when you pick up that rock—-UH-OH Ugly bugs!!!!

Our students (all boys in this class) thought it was great fun to pick up the rocks and “scare” the adults. Needless to say, lots of eeks and laughs ensued 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

We did stop playing with the bugs long enough to

play Cara’s sound game. Some pretty Unusual

sounds today!

 

 

 

 

 

And, of course, we looked at the U words we found today.

What a great week! We hope you are enjoying the activities as much as we are, and please join us again Group by Group.

Feb12

Week 20—Valentines Day and the Letter T

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Week 20—Valentines Day and the Letter T

We had so much fun in our Sensory and Fine motor groups with our Valentine theme this week. The letter T was the theme for our Language Group.

Sensory Group—Valentines Day

We read Cara’s Valentine book and used our voice output device for the repetitive line “Its Valentines Day” and then began exploring all our sensory boxes.

Our first box was filled with pink and white rice and we put in the chip board letters L O V E. The letters were big and glittery and very eye catching.

The letters gave us the opportunity to pick out the individual letter V for valentine as well as make the word “love” and discuss the concept as related to Valentines day.

We found some cute heart shaped measuring spoons, which helped us work on shape identification (a math access point)——- and they were just so darned cute 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

We searched for some heart shaped rings and letter V’s in cloud dough sprinkled with red glitter (it doesn’t show up that well in the photo but it really sparkles in person).  We found the recipe online and it has this super soft feel that is both powdery and moldable. Pretty awesome stuff that even the adults can’t resist!

Searching for the rings and letters addresses tactile discrimination skills. Counting them addresses math access points. Squeezing the dough promotes grip strength.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentines are made from paper, so we brought back our box of red shredded paper from a couple of weeks ago. The deep red is very eye catching.

The paper is fun to grasp, crumple, shake, wiggle fingers in,  and watch drift down when dropped. It also provides some auditory stimulation as it rustles and crackles.

Of course, we discussed the color of the paper addressing color identification skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We filled a couple of bottles with foam hearts, beads, sequins (and a little red glitter). These were all tiny valentine related items too small for our explorers but great for visual discrimination skills. We glued the caps back on to make sure they were safe for our students.

The bottles could be rotated adding an interesting movement component encouraging visual attention and tracking. Of course, they were also fun to shake promoting motor skills and adding auditory stimulation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next box was filled with valentine related items including silk rose petals, paper valentines, heart shaped items(candy box tops, ornaments, bangles, etc), garland, and ribbons.

Reaching and exploring encourages fine motor skills and properties of materials discussion, a science access point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our final box was filled with large, soft pink and red pompoms and small pink and red mardi gras beads (we do love those beads). More opportunities for discussion of properties of materials! We also discussed the shape of the pompoms and beads, addressing math access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished by finger painting in chocolate pudding. The dark color was a nice contrast with our tray and of course, it has the perfect finger paint consistency.

We gave our students the opportunity to taste the pudding but kept it as a separate activity. It also allowed them to practice their language skills, requesting “more”—-they got lots of practice 🙂

We rinsed our hands in cinnamon red hots scented body wash. Then we rubbed strawberry scented lotion on our students right arms and chocolate scented lotion on their left arms for increased body and language awareness.  Lots of yummy valentine scents to remind us of Valentines Day!

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Valentines Day

We started our Tuesday group by reading Cara’s book. Our students had so much fun looking at the pictures and everyone pressed the voice output device independently!

Then we began our love bug craft! First we crumpled scrap paper and stuffed it into a red lunch bag (we found these at Target). Our students really love crumpling paper, and just had so much fun.

This is a great activity for strengthening hand intrinsics and eye hand coordination. For students who can hold the bag themselves, bilateral functions are addressed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We twisted and taped the end (to give it a tail) and helped the students tape pipe cleaner antennae to the other end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students were given a choice of either purple, white or pink hearts for the bugs face. The hearts were precut on the ellison machine.

We really do try give them as many chances as we can to practice selecting choices! In addition, we encourage our students to verbalize their choices when possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then glued  2 googlie eyes and 1 pompom nose on to the heart. We count the items we pass them out to help our students learn one to one correspondence.

The heart was then glued onto the bottom of the bag.

Squeezing the glue promotes hand  strength and picking up the small items helps strengthen pincer grasp. Placement of the items build spatial relations skills.

 

 

 

 

 

Our students then chose 2 large hearts (comparison of the large and small hearts is a math access point). Again, they were given choices of color. We helped them tape the hearts onto the bag.

And with lots of Ta Da’s, our students help their bugs fly. As they wave their bugs, our students help strengthen their shoulder stability.

Here is a little  bug spreading the love 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we continued our Valentines theme, reading Cara’s book again. We had such fun discussing all the different symbols of the holiday and different ways to say I love you.

This student showed us the sign for “I love you”—pretty awesome don’t you think!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We counted out 8 white hearts (addressing math access points) and, as usual, the students practiced writing their names.

Our students all have different skill levels in the area of writing but we were especially proud of this one. Today he picked up his pencil and “signed” his name independently.

Needless to say he got a huge round of Ta-Da’s 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we turned the hearts over (addressing following directions and forearm rotation) and gave our students a choice of 3 colors to paint their hearts. Red, pink and purple—perfect Valentine colors.

By adding the words to the color squares, we increased the literacy component.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As our students painted, they discovered a cool surprise—-we had written words on the  hearts with a white crayon! We saw the idea on Better Homes and Gardens website and just had to try it.

We discovered that its best to make heavy, wide marks with the crayon and that the paint needs to be thin, watercolor consistency.

For our visual impaired student, we wrote with white glue to give it a raised surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are, some delicious conversation hearts—-YUM!!!

Looks like we ready for Valentines Day 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—Letter T

First we Threw bean bags at Three Toads! Our students had to Take Turns.

Great for building eye hand coordination skills, social skills, and math skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we reached into a Tube sock and pulled out either a Triangle or a Tiger pompom.

This is a great activity for Tactile discrimination, for our students who can identify the object before removing it from the sock.  For our other students, we asked them to match their object to a model after they had removed it.

This was really a lot of fun and our students really enjoyed seeing if they were “correct”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To start our next activity, we Taped a Turtle head  To the Top of a paper plate. Helping address spatial concepts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then cut out  Triangles to make The Tails—fitting in those math access points discussing shape identification, of course!

Our students used a variety of scissors, depending on their skill level.

The Tails were Taped to the bottom of the plate, continuing to work on spatial concepts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We counted out 2 flippers and 2 feet and Taped them on to the sides of the paper plate.

We really Targeted spatial concepts today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished by Tearing Green Tissue paper into Tiny pieces.

Then we Turned the plate over  and glued Them To The back of the plate (still working on those spatial concepts).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for a big Ta Da!!!

This is just one of our Totally Terrific Turtles 🙂

Our students loved the turtles and were so excited to show them off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another of Cara’s great sound games, such fun!

There were some pretty cool sounds this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow look at all the T words we found Together! Terrific fun 🙂

It was a great week, we had such a good time!

We hope you can join us again next week for more fun Group by Group.

Feb6

Week 19—Groundhog Day and Letter S

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Week 19—Groundhog Day and Letter S

This week our theme was Groundhog Day for our Sensory and Fine Motor groups. Letter S was the theme for our Language group.

 

Sensory Group—Groundhog Day We read Cara’s book “What will the Groundhog See?”  The voice output device was used to ask that question on each page. We then let our students vote (by using eye gaze, gestures, or vocalizations) on whether they thought the groundhog would say “spring” or “6 more weeks of winter”. We counted the votes and discussed which side got the most votes, addressing math access points.

Later in the week, our student who picked “6 more weeks of winter” was quite pleased with himself upon finding he and the famous Phil made the same prediction.

 

 

 

 

Then we turned the lights off and took turns making shadows (using a flashlight and a storage box lid as the background). Our students enjoyed looking at their shadows as well as watching the light move around, addressing visual tracking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We placed the letter G and the number 2 in some “dirt” (made from coffee grounds). Groundhogs live in burrows that they dig and Groundhog Day is on February 2.

Some of our students responded very positively  to the coffee aroma indicated by their turning towards it and smiling. Others enjoyed sifting or scooping through the grounds.

What a fun way to address emergent literacy skills!

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the themes of Groundhog Day is opposites,  so our next

sensory box was filled with black and white items, reminding us of light and shadows.

We filled it with black and white pom poms, chenille stems, beads, and yarn, black felt, white sheepskin, a white dusting glove, a black ball and a black film container. We had lots of opportunities for exploring the properties of materials a science access point.

Its always fun seeing what gets pulled out 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

We continued our opposites theme with our next box which contained white rice and black beans—more scooping and sifting fun! Touching and exploring the rice and beans also builds tactile awareness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the groundhog comes out of his burrow, he predicts either a coming spring or more winter. So our next box contained items related to both seasons.  We put in some flower blossoms, leaves and sun glasses for springtime fun. Snowflakes, snowmen and wooly scarves to remind us of winter.

This box gave our students opportunities to practice grasping skills in addition to comparing the properties of objects and seasons.

The sunglasses were fun addition and our teachers got some cute pictures of students wearing their “cool” shades.

 

 

 

And  the ultimate opposite—oobleck!!!! Its a liquid!    Its a solid! Just so wonderful for tactile explorations, in addition to practicing finger movements and prewriting patterns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we rinsed our hands in Old Spice Denali scented water. It had that woodsy scent that reminded us of the burrows where groundhogs might live. We kept the water cool, just like the great outdoors!

This student is practicing his scooping skills which help with his self feeding program and eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

We finished with a soft cuddly length of brown fake fur. A lovely little reminder of that cute little groundhog 🙂 We discussed its properties—brown and soft— building language skills related to science access points. In addition, running fingers across its surface increases tactile awareness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Groundhog Day

On Tuesday we read Cara’s book again and took turns wearing a top hat (like the groundhogs helpers) and petting our plushy groundhog.

Ms. Katie can totally rock a top hat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we counted out 1 green paper rectangle for each student. They used the adaptive tabletop scissors to snip across one side of the paper. Its fun to watch our students get more and more independent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we put glue on the paper. And rolled it around a paper cup.

This activity addresses bilateral coordination, hand strengthening, and graded motor control.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also glued a clip art groundhog to a tongue depressor and inserted it into a slit in the bottom of the cup. Moving the tongue depressor lets the groundhog pop in and out of his burrow. Manipulating the stick helps address arm movements, graded motor control and directional concepts.

Hmm—–what will the groundhog see?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we read about the groundhog again and had more fun playing with shadows. Then we made our own groundhog from an idea we found on the Family Fun website.

First we counted out 8 green groundhog poster board cutouts and 8 black construction paper shadow silhouettes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We put glue onto the green cutout and put the

 black shadow on top—then pat pat pat! Squeezing the glue builds hand strength and patting the paper down provides lots of tactile input to the palmer surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We flipped it to the other side…..

AND…..discovered a groundhog picture pre-glued to the other side! We printed this out from the Family Fun website. Picking up the paper to turn it over helps work on grasp skills, forearm rotation in addition to spatial concepts and following directions.

We painted the groundhog brown. Some of our students are starting to show such nice progress in their ability to hold and manipulate their paint brushes—we are so excited by their progress!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here he is—

looks like this little groundhog is predicting an early spring 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—Letter S

 

First our Students chose which color play dough they wanted. We gave them a choice of 3, which is the same as the Alternate Assessment format.

Opening up the containers helps address bilateral hand Skills and hand intrinsic functions. Then we rolled the play dough into Snakes addressing graded motor control.

 

 

 

Then we picked Some Snacks to String! We just love this set of beads, So much fun! We purchased it from Learning Resources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our students who had difficulty with manipulating the string, we used aquarium tubing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we made Some Spiders, Starting by

 Slicing 8 black paper legs. We used our paper cutters to cut nice Straight lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we Stuck the legs onto the back of a black paper plate (picked up at an after Halloween sale). We counted 4 for each side, addressing spatial relations concepts. We used glue to attach the legs and then used tape to make Sure they were Secure. Of course, its so much fun to use tape:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we flipped the plate over and attached some googlie eyes! We had our students count out 2 eyes to work on one to one correspondence.

Look at this Super Scary Spider—-don’t Scream!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished with Cara’s Sound game,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And picking out our favorite S words—-there were a lot to choose from this week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please join us next week, we have lots of fun planned  Group by Group!

Jan29

Week 18—Chinese New Year and the Letter R

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Week 18—Chinese New Year and the Letter R

This week our theme was Chinese New Year for our Fine Motor and Sensory Groups. Our Language  Group looked at words starting with the letter R.

Sensory Group—Chinese New Year

We started by reading Cara’s latest book “Its the Chinese New Year” with its really colorful pictures. Our students are getting very good at reaching for and activating the voice output device for the repetitive line.

Our first sensory box was filled with red paper shred (we just ran some red paper through the shredder). Its a Chinese custom to give monetary gifts in red paper envelopes.  We added some of the animals from the Chinese zodiac to the box, including a dog, monkey, snake, pig and a DRAGON! We  added a little plastic moon, since the calendar is based on the lunar cycle.  We also included some red and gold mardi gras beads, red pom poms, and a play food lettuce leaf (lettuce wraps are frequently served at new year parties).

This box was so much fun and our students loved the grabbing and shaking the paper shred.

 

 

Tea is very popular in China, so our next box was filled with the aromatic leaves. We buried 2 red circular  puzzle pieces (shape identification a math access point) in the box.

Red is considered a lucky color in Chinese culture.

We also put a little spoon in the back to allow our students the opportunity to practice their scooping skills.

 

 

 

 

 

Fireworks are also a big part of the Chinese New Year celebration. We brought them into our classroom in two ways. First we used our toys with flashing lights, which are very visually appealing to our students. We turned off the over head lights to enhance the effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also included the sound of fireworks by laying bubble wrap on the floor. When the wheelchairs were rolled over the bubble wrap it sounded just like fire crackers—way cool!

One of our students, who has just learned to self propel, kept rolling herself back and forth across the wrap. The smile on her face was priceless.

Of course, our ambulatory students also got the opportunity to walk and jump on the wrap. We found that the wrap with the bigger bubbles was easier for them to pop.

And yes, the adults joined in—-we couldn’t help ourselves 🙂

 

 

Our next box was filled with white rice, which is often eaten during Chinese meals. We hid the letter C—for China, of course!

Rice is always so much fun to sift through and scoop. Our students love it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made a goo bag by mixing red food coloring and hand sanitizer in a zip lock freezer bag. It turned into this beautiful, almost iridescent color. We double bagged it (making sure to place the bag openings at opposite ends)—if quick little hands can open one end  we are quick enough to stop them before they get to the other!

Our students were able to practice their pre- writing patterns, letters or a Chinese character, using their fingers (also giving them opportunities to practice finger individuation).

 

 

 

 

We finished up with our water and lotion play. This week we used the White Tea and Ginger scent from Bath and Body Works.

As usual, our students really enjoyed playing with the water, which is wonderful for tactile awareness as well as calming for some of our students. They are all starting to anticipate the hand lotion experience and it is so cute to see those little hands reaching out for their turn. For the ones that can apply it themselves, they are getting the opportunity to practice bilateral hand skills and crossing midline. For our students who do a lot of hand mouthing we apply the lotion on their upper arms or on the back of their necks.

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Chinese New Year

We read Cara’s awesome book and took turns stomping or rolling over some bubble wrap when we got to the page about the fireworks.  Then we proceeded to make a chinese dragon mask (thanks to Martha the OT intern for coming up with this idea).

We pre cut the masks and taped on some dragon teeth. Then our students tore and crumpled tissue paper to glue onto the mask. This is a great way to recycle all that tissue paper that you get with presents! Of course, we talked about all the different colors and gave our students opportunities to practice choice making.

Tearing and crumpling the tissue paper is good for bilateral and hand intrinsic functions.

Dipping the tissue paper into the glue (a recycled lid makes a great dipping bowl) is great for promoting pincer grasp skills and placing the tissue on the plate addresses eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

Next, we counted out 1 piece of white paper for each student. Then we counted out 2 black circles for each of them (addressing math access points, of course).

We put 2 dots of glue and placed the circles on top.

Then we glued the “nose” onto the plate.

 

 

 

We stapled some paper streamers to the side and our absolutely fabulous chinese dragon mask was finished.

This deserved a big Ta-Da, don’t you think!

Our vision teacher placed one on the light box for her student and it looked so awesome we had to include it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, we continued our celebration of Chinese New Year by reading “Its the Chinese New Year” again and then making a dragon puppet.

First, we found a chinese dragon picture on google images and enlarged it. The images were glued on to poster board (we found that using a glued stick works best) and  had Jeannie’s practicum students cut them out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then our students used markers to color them. We  like using markers because of their low friction component and intense colors. This makes it easier (as opposed to crayons or pencils) for our students to make marks.

Joy the OT just has to comment on this lovely little functional grasp of the marker 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because our students had differing abilities for holding writing utensils, we made sure to put out a variety of shapes and sizes, all of which were picked up at places like Walmart or Target.

We particularly like this little tripod marker that works perfectly for this student.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After coloring, we added some glitter, sequins and a great big googlie eye! This addresses eye hand coordination as well as grasp and release patterns.

Of course, we never pass up an opportunity to add glitter and googlie eyes 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The adults then hot glued a head and 2 tongue depressors to a 12 inch length of christmas garland (picked up on clearance at Target).

And here they are—-some pretty spectacular chinese dragon puppets!

Happy New Year!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—Letter R

First, we Raced on the Round Red Road.

The students used a car shaped eraser (too cute) on the dry erase board. We drew a large circle to encourage crossing midline and placing it on a vertical surface promotes shoulder stability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we used Red tongs to pick up some Red Radishes.

Tong activities are great for hand strengthening, eye hand coordination, and developing the graded motor control needed for scissor skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students with physical challenges helped the Rabbit eat the Radishes.

We hot glued a shower curtain ring to the back of the toy and some hook velcro to its mouth. When the velcro comes into contact with the pompoms, they stick pretty well.

We counted how many Radishes each student gave the Rabbit to eat, addressing math access points. Discussing the spherical shape of the pompom also addresses math access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we painted some Rad Robots! We picked from the Rainbow of colors at the bottom of each page. This booklet was picked up at the dollar section at Michaels—we love the dollar section 🙂

Some of our students used standard water color brushes but others needed ones with larger handles. We were so proud of this student for really staying on task—nice job!

We counted how many Robots were on each students page and named the colors as the students chose them.

We found putting just a little water in a plate helps cut down on spillage and water logged papers.

 

 

We finished by playing another of Cara’s sound game. It was Really fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And , of course, looking at some of the R words we found today—there were quite a few!

What a great week, we had so much fun! Please come back next week for more fun Group by Group!

Dec19

Week 15—Christmas and Letter O

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Week 15—Christmas and Letter O

Christmas was the theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor groups. Our Language group’s theme was the letter O.

Sensory Group—Christmas

We finished our holiday unit by learning about Christmas this week starting with Cara’s book.  We have our props and sensory boxes ready, so let the merry making begin 🙂

We let our students wear finger puppets while we read our book.Finger puppets are so fun and great for working on finger individuation. For other students, they are helpful for calling attention to and increasing visual regard for their hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After finishing the story, we turned off the lights so we could turn on our battery operated ones! Our students were entranced and loved looking (addressing visual functions) and touching them.

In addition, they were able to strengthen finger intrinsic skills turning them on/off.

We found these lights at Target.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we finally turned the lights back on we opened our first sensory box in which we placed a variety of items related to our theme. We had large jingle bells, some green garland, fat chenille stems, pompoms, mardi gras beads, and yarn in the colors of red and green. We also put in a little doll Christmas sweater, snowman ornament, felt Santa and Christmas cut outs, a tiny stocking, package bows and some assorted theme related toys.

Whew! What a lot to explore and discuss the different properties of!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We cut our candy cane, reindeer and star (all symbols of Christmas) shapes in our gingerbread scented playdough. Some of our students needed reminders that the playdough was “not to eat”. We generally know which of them have a tendency to want to sample things and so make sure to redirect them when needed.

Playdough is great for working on hand strengthening when squishing and squeezing. When pinching small pieces or rolling between fingers, you address finger individuation skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garland is everywhere at Christmas, so we had to have some to explore! Its soft, shiny and easy to grasp. Its also visually very appealing to our students.

They had so much fun holding and shaking it, or—

having it draped around them 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We looked for the letter C hidden among

the red and green beans (Christmas

colors). Also an opportunity to practice

scooping and pouring skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We practiced pre writing patterns in oobleck, which we scented with peppermint extract to remind us of candy canes.

Peppermint aroma has been associated with increased attention and alertness

We also added some red and green glitter for visual interest and to encourage tracking.

We finished by rinsing our hands in gingerbread scented warm water and rubbed on some of the  lotion to help us think about Christmas the rest of the day 🙂

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Christmas

On Tuesday we began by reading Cara’s “Merry Christmas” book and had lots of fun with the finger puppets. Then we made a reindeer!

We started by passing (counting as we did so, of course) out one large floor puzzle piece for each student and painting it brown.

Painting is a fun way to gain practice grasping and using writing utensils.

On an additional note, putting paint shirts on and off helps work on dressing skills—got to fit those ADL’s in where we can!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we passed out 2 slightly smaller floor

puzzlepieces to each student. This time we

counted by 2’s as we passed them out—

math access points!

These pieces were painted black.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then glued the antlers to the head, added 2 googlie eyes and 1 red pom pom nose—working on math access points and pincer grasp skills!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here he is—-Rudolph the red

nosed reindeer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday after reading Cara’s book again, we made some snowflake ornaments. Thanks to Alice W. for this great idea!

We started with a snowflake made from puzzle pieces that had been pre-glued together. These were regular size puzzle pieces.

The reason for our puzzle mania this week?  Well, they were FREE —-and we LOVE free!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We painted them with a mixture of white

paint and a little glue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we sprinkled them with fake snow while the paint was still wet. Jeannie put the snow it a sugar shaker to make it easier for our students.

You could put the snow in a bowl and have your students pick it up and sprinkle using their fingers to work on translation movements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at this lovely little flurry of snowflakes!

Just so sparkly and pretty. They are going to look lovely hanging on a tree or window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Language Group—Letter O

First we took Orange beads Out Of the bowl and strung them Onto Orange string!

This activity addresses bilateral coordination and pincer grasp skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students with more significant physical differences used  plastic tubing and larger beads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we pulled apart Our stretchy tubes and joined the ends to make an O.

The tubes help work on upper extremity strengthening (pulling apart) and eye hand coordination (joining the ends).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we took a paper plate (from which Joy had precut a little section) and began making an Owl.

Our students chose which color markers they wanted to use—-they didn’t have to choose Orange 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After they had finished coloring the plate they cut the Orange wings. Some of our students practiced cutting straight lines with the adaptive tabletop scissors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other students practiced cutting curved lines with

either an adaptive or regular scissors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wings were then glued On to the plate. Then we added 2 eyes and 1 beak (math access points) and made sure to put them in the right Order—the beak goes under the eyes (directionality concepts).

We taped a loop of Orange yarn to the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ta Da—Our Orange winged Owl

Ornament!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished the session with Cara’s sound game and looking at all the O words we found this week—Oh so much fun.

Wow, what a week! Well its about time for Winter Break so we will not be doing any more groups until the new year.  We have some great stuff planned so please join us again in 2012 for more fun Group by Group.

Dec11

Week 14—Hanukkah and letter N

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Week 14—Hanukkah and letter N

The themes this week were Hanukkah for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups and the Letter N for our Language Group.

Sensory Group—Hanukkah

We learned about Hanukkah by reading Cara’s “Happy Hanukkah” book and then started our explorations!

Our first box contained an assortment of Hanukkah goodies. We used smooth gold mardi gras beads for the “gelt”, soft big chenille stems in the colors of blue and white, small rough gold chenille stems, curly white and blue ribbons—all these allowed us to compare properties of materials (science access points).

Other Hanukkah symbols included the Star of David and dreidel cookie cutters,  play food donut, and wooden driedels.

Our students loved exploring this box, the curly ribbons being a particular hit!

 

 

 

 

In this box, our students looked for the letter H (for Hanukkah) and the number 8 (for the 8 candles on the menorah) in blue and white rice.

Either scooping or sifting—so much

fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next box contained some potato flakes (to remind us of latkes).

They have a soft, yet crunchy feel which our students really enjoyed.

A plastic “latke” was fun to find and also use as a scoop. Visual tracking was addressed as the light flakes drifted down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students also enjoyed our pompom yarn in shades of blue. One of the Hanukkah colors.

So soft and nice to grab a hold of, shake or drape over shoulders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White (another Hanukkah color) shaving cream, nice and fluffy like the filling of yummy doughnut.

Such fun to swirl around and practice pre writing patterns and letters.

So proud of this young lady, her writing is really improving—look at those perfect letters 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished by rinsing hands in vanilla sugar

scented water and then rubbing vanilla sugar

scented lotion—leaving the yummy aroma of

doughnuts wafting through the room.

Happy Hanukkah!

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Hanukkah

On Tuesday we started by reading Cara’s book, using our voice output devices for the repetitive line then proceeded to make a handprint menorah.

First, our students chose the color of their paper. To  help increase literacy, the color choice cards also have the color names written on them.We discussed its rectangular shape and counted them as we passed them out.

Then we applied paint to both hands.  

Some of our students pressed their

hands into the paint tray, for others

we painted their hands using a foam

brush.

 

 

 

 

Candles have to have flames and glitter glue is perfect for the task!

Squeezing the glue is great for hand strengthening but glitter glue is really hard to squeeze! For some of our students, we used brushes instead.

Asking the students to place the glue “on top” of the fingers addresses directionality concepts.

 

 

 

 

 

We glued on a stand and Ta Da—our

finished menorah.

Such cute little hands!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And don’t you just love this Modernistic approach to the classic menorah!

Adorable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, we read Cara’s book and again used the voice output device for the repetitive line. We love how much more readily our students are reaching out and anticipating their turn.

After reading the book we began our project—dreidels!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeannie saved and cleaned juice cartons. Then inserted a small colorful dowel through the middle.

Cara printed the symbols on blue paper.

We found this idea on a number of websites (some people are so creative!) and adapted it to fit our needs.

 

 

 

 

 

We used paper cutters to cut our strip into 4

squares (math access points are just

everywhere!).

These paper cutters work well for cutting

straight lines and our students really have

fun using them.

 

 

 

 

 

The symbols were glued to each side—working on hand strengthening and eye hand coordination again!

We also discussed the meaning of each symbol and how the game is played.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is–a fabulous, fun dreidel! 

Happy Hanukkah 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—letter N

We played with Nuts and bolts. This activity addresses so many hand function skills—–bilateral coordination, grasp patterns, wrist rotation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we practiced finger isolation            

turning on and off the switch to the

Neck massager.

The students loved draping this

around their Neck and shoulders.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we used scissors to snip yarn—Nice cutting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We glued them onto the bottom of a rectangular (oh yes we slipped that math access point in!) piece of paper.

Picking up the  yarn works on pincer grasp skills.

We didn’t have to be Neat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, more cutting! We cut along the lines of a paint sample. We made sure to Not go off the road.

Paint samples are of a heavier weight card stock that make them easier for beginning cutters.  Its also nice that they come in varying widths and pre printed lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used our 3 strips to make a letter N

and used our electric stapler to hold it

together—Nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We glued the N into its Nest—Now how about that 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had fun playing Cara’s sound game.              

There are is always a New sound to listen for. Some of them are Noisy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we looked at some of the N words we found today.

Fun, fun, fun this week! Please join us next week as we finish up our holiday unit and learn about the letter M—-Group by Group 🙂

Dec5

Week 13—Kwanzaa and the Letter M

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Week 13—Kwanzaa and the Letter M

Kwanzaa was the theme for our Fine Motor and Sensory groups this week. Our Language group is on the letter M.

Sensory Group—Kwanzaa

Cara’s book helped us learn more about this special holiday and we used the voice output device to wish each other “Happy Kwanzaa”!

Our first box was filled with some of the symbols of Kwanzaa. First, we put in some straw for the woven mats that are used and often made from straw. We also added some plastic fruits and vegetables, some ribbon printed with fruit, a metal cup, red and green blocks, and a little happy family.

In addition to looking at the symbols, our students were able to explore the differing properties of the various materials (a  science access point).

 

 

 

 

 

Such lovely soft textures in our next box!

Red, black, and green pompoms—Kwanzaa colors.

We also added huge fat chenille stems (found at Joann Fabrics) in the same colors.

The differing shapes and colors but similar textures enabled us to discuss the concepts of same and different which are math access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Cara’s book, we learned about the 7 candles of the Kinara. Since we are not allowed to bring candles to school, we used Wikki Stix (available from a variety of catalogs). It was interesting to watch the different reactions of our students.

Their waxy feel is a very interesting texture and they will also stick to themselves. We again used the colors of Kwanzaa which allowed for some sorting opportunities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grains are another symbol of Kwanzaa, and 

we couldn’t decide which we preferred so we used

both corn…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and oatmeal for our scooping boxes. Our students had fun scooping (strengthening shoulder stability, eye hand coordination, wrist rotation) and finding the letter K—-for Kwanzaa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We practiced prewriting strokes in applesauce

(one of the fruits of the harvest).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We rinsed our hands in pomegranate and apple scented water and then used similarly scented lotion. A delicious fruity scent to remind us of a happy Kwanzaa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Kwanzaa

We read Cara’s book to learn about Kwanzaa, our students especially enjoyed the pages discussing the different foods! Then we began our activity.

Joy printed the capital letter O at 48 point size on yellow paper. She then cut the paper in half and trimmed all but one side.

On the untrimmed side a green cutting line was drawn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students used the adaptive scissors

to cut along the line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we flipped the paper over and squeezed some glue along each end.

Squeezing the glue (as usual, we colored our own with food coloring to make it easier for our students to see) works on hand strengthening and eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We put a toilet paper tube on one end

and rolled it to the other end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we tore pieces of tissue paper (a nice pre-scissor activity). They were crumpled into balls—or an approximation of a ball 🙂 These were then dipped into glue and affixed to our creation. Have you guessed what we are making?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ta Da—a corn cob! A vegetable from our

Kwanzaa harvest 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, after reading “Happy Kwanzaa” again, we proceeded to make a woven mat which is one of the symbols of Kwanzaa.

We bought 2 vinyl placemats at the dollar store and cut each into 4 pieces to make mini mats. 3 slits were made down the length of the middle.

We found some fabric ribbon at a thrift store. There were a variety of fruits printed on it which went along with our Kwanzaa harvest theme. We pre-wove most of the ribbon and let our students finish pulling the strands through which they really enjoyed.

Grasping the ribbon helps work on pincer grasp skills and following the ribbon as it is pulled through addresses visual tracking. We also discussed the rectangle shape of the placemat and number of ribbons addressing math access points.

 

 

 

 

After we had finished weaving the ribbon

we trimmed the edges using our adaptive

scissors.

We then used double stick tape to secure

the edges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is our completed Kwanzaa mat, pretty cool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—letter M

We started by Making a Magnet Motor Car. Inserting wheels into openings addresses eye hand coordination. Counting the wheels addresses math access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start your Motor—-Make it go!                      

Pushing the car to friends encourages

social skills and is so much fun 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we used tongs to pick up bananas to feed the Monkey.

Tongs are useful for working on graded motor control and eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had our students choose how many

bananas to pick up. This addresses math

skills in addition to practicing making

choices out of group of 3.

For our students with motor issues, we adapted a softie by hot gluing a shower curtain ring to its back and velcro to its mouth. We  added velcro to some of the bananas. It works really well!

 

 

 

 

 

Next we used Markers to color

Money.

We our so proud of this student,

who used to avoid handling all

writing utensils. Now look at

him 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

After coloring, our students cut out their Money and counted it to see how Much they had Made!

One of our students got quite creative and cut his in half to Make More—if only it could be that easy 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished our session by playing Cara’s

sound game and looking at some of the

M words we found.

Please join us again next week with more fun Group by Group!

Nov20

Week 12—Thanksgiving and the letter L

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Week 12—Thanksgiving and the letter L

This week our Sensory and Fine Motor groups had a Thanksgiving theme while the theme for our Language Group was the letter L.

Sensory Group—Thanksgiving

We started our session by reading Cara’s book “On Thanksgiving Day” using the voice output device to say the repetitive line.

Our first discovery box was filled with all sorts of Thanksgiving themed objects such as  leaves, felt pilgrim faces, a scarecrow, big and little turkeys, soft orange and yellow yarn, hard gourds AND a plastic turkey leg 🙂

Math access points were addressed when discussing big and little turkeys as well as counting them.

Science access points were addressed comparing the hard gourds with the soft yarn.

Its amazing how much you can fit into one little box!

Our students really enjoyed searching through the box

to find their favorite things. Others got more creative and started dropping leaves on their teachers head  as she was bending down to pick something up 🙂

 

 

Our harvest mix of beans (reminding us of soup that might be made with Thanksgiving leftovers) contained  turkeys and T’s. We were able to work on matching colors in addition to counting.

Finding the letters and turkeys among the beans also addresses visual and tactile discrimination.

The beans were a huge hit in one of our middle school classrooms and as 3 students gathered around the box, one young man made sure to note “look we are sharing”.  How sweet!

 

 

 

 

 

Our feather boas became soft turkey feathers………..so much fun          to touch and drape around necks. For some of our students the soft feel of the feathers was especially enchanting.

We were also able to work on some visual tracking by picking up the boas and moving them around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We picked up this soft pompom yarn in fall colors from Michaels. It reminded us of a soft warm blanket you might use while watching football games on Thanksgiving day.

It was fun to squish while talking about the properties of materials, a science access point.

Our students also enjoyed being draped with the yarn or working on their fine motor skills by pulling the strands up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pumpkin pie scented play dough had a wonderfully yummy aroma, 

absolutely delicious but our students resisted the temptation

to sample it 🙂

Hand strengthening was addressed when squeezing the play dough and using our turkey and leaf  cookie cutters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We practiced writing the letter T in sweet potato pie puree, messy but fun!

The texture was a little challenging for our students with tactile issues but most of them at least got a finger in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And rinsed our hands in Cinnamon Pumpkin (from Bath and Body works) scented water and finished with the lotion to bring Thanksgiving memories for the rest of the day.

Between the pumpkin pie playdough,  scented water and lotion, it was quite the aromatic delight for lovers of all things pumpkin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Thanksgiving

On Tuesday we read Cara’s Thanksgiving book. Our students especially loved the pages with food and loved pointing to their favorites. After our story we made a little turkey that Jeannie designed.

First, we colored a an index card brown. As we passed out the index cards we counted them and discussed their shape, addressing math access points.

The index card was then set aside for a moment (after 2 holes were punched in the middle).

Next, we took a pipe cleaner (pre assembled by Jeannie”s

staff using a small pompom, tiny googlie eyes, a small piece

of pipe cleaner, and a small piece of craft foam) and began

stringing folded (with a pre punched hole in the middle

near the fold) cupcake liners.

Our students had so much fun picking out and counting

the colorful liners.

 

 

 

 

A quick twist of the pipe cleaner secures everything in place. Then the pipe cleaner is threaded through the holes in the index card to give it a base to sit on. A very cute turkey–sorry, no picture of it finished 🙁

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday after reading “On Thanksgiving Day” again, we made pumpkin pies!

First we counted out 4 strips of orange paper for each student. We also counted the brown paper plates as we passed them out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students tore the paper strips into small pieces, dropping

them into their bowl. Tearing the paper addresses bilateral

coordination and is a good pre-scissor skill building activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students worked on hand strengthening by squeezing glue onto the plate.

Then they practiced their pincer grasps by picking up pieces of torn paper and placing them on the glue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We presented 3 spices (nutmeg, cloves, and pumpkin pie) and let our students smell them. After smelling each one they chose their favorite by either pointing or smiling and then got to shake it all over their plates.

Thanks to Laurie B. for this idea. Also the choice of 3 items correlates to our alternate assessment.

 

 

 

 

With the addition of a dollop of cotton ball “whipped cream” a delicious smelling, low calorie pumpkin pie——YUM!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—-letter L

We shone a Light to show which puzzle pieces to Lift up. We especially Liked the Lunar moth, Ladybug and Lightning bug!

Holding the wand over the puzzle helps build shoulder stability. Picking up the puzzle pieces addresses following directions and eye hand coordination.

We also counted the puzzle pieces, working on math access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we Laughed while a squeezing a Little Lion and shaking a Large Lion.

Squeezing this finger fidget works on strengthening pincer grasp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hot glued a shower curtain ring to the Large Lion to make it easier for our students with physically challenges to grasp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next each student was given a precut Lion face (drawn by Joy) and a paper plate.

We counted them as they were passed out and discussed the circular shape of the plate.

Then our students were asked to make a choice of 3 markers to use when coloring both the lion’s face and paper plate.

Our students have different ways of communicating their choices, these include pointing, vocalizing, facial expression, or eye gazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For students with physical challenges, Joy attached markers to a switch toy with velcro. This allows our students to independently color along with their classmates.

Putting the toy in a box lid helps keep the toy contained.

As usual, everyone wanted to use the switch to color also their pictures—and of course we Let them 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

After we finished coloring, we glued the pieces together to make a very Lovely Lion!

We finished as usual, by playing Cara’s listening game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of Laugh’s as usual!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at just some of  the Lots and Lots of L words found today.

Its sometimes hard to collect all of them for our pictures, as our students really Like to examine them 🙂

What an awesome week! We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and we will see you afterwards for more fun and learning Group by Group!

Nov13

Week 11—Weather and the letter K

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Week 11—Weather and the letter K

Our theme for the Sensory and Fine Motor groups was Weather. Our Language Groups theme was the letter K.

Sensory Group—Weather

We started by reading Cara’s latest book “What is the Weather?”  In addition to our voice output device with the  repetitive line, we recorded the sounds of rain and thunder on some of the other devices which our students enjoyed.

Our music department let us borrow a rain stick and a drum that rumbles just like thunder when you shake it! Between using those instruments and turning the room lights on and off quickly, we had quite the thunder storm going on in the room 🙂

Not pictured but also used, were a hair dryer for wind and water spritzed into the air to softly rain down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the storm—-out came the rainbow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students loved holding their hands out to “catch” the rainbow. As we moved the light around they were also able to work on visual tracking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back came the lights and on to our sensory boxes— we looked for the letter R in rainbow rice. It was so colorful and fun to scoop up with hands or spoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We explored the concepts of hard hail (white mardi gras beads) and soft snow (cotton balls). Properties of materials is a science access point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, we took dry sand and then used our spray bottle to make it wet—science access points again! Our students loved finger painting in the sand, practicing directional pre writing strokes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Weather

We read Cara’s book about the weather and had an awesome thunder storm! Then it was time to make some clouds.

We started by mixing glue and shaving cream.

Some of our students were very enthusiastic about the mixing part 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we used sponge brushes to paint with the mixture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ta Da—-clouds! They dry like puffy paint with the coolest spongy texture—wonderful for our visually impaired students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, we read Cara’s book and had yet another thunderstorm. So fun! Then, we proceeded make windsocks.

We started with a rectangle (math access point) of wallpaper—we just love those wallpaper sample books!

The paper was inserted into a 3 hole punch and our students really enjoyed operating the lever. Actually, only 2 holes are needed but this hole punch is easier for our students to use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, our students chose how many crepe paper streamers to add. Some of them chose 1 and then realized they wanted more which gave us the opportunity to work on addition!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The streamers were then glued to back of the paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the adults taped the rectangle into a tube, our students chose the color of yarn they wanted to use as a hanger.

Once again, we are giving our students an opportunity to practice choosing from an array of 3 which is the format used on the alternate assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students got the opportunity to practice lacing skills by pulling the yarn through 2 of the holes. To make it easier, we wrapped tape around the ends of the yarn.

Lacing addresses bilateral coordination and eye hand coordination.

For even more fun, we brought out the hairdryer and watched them flutter around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—letter K

We pulled apart two love bugs and let go so they could Kiss. This toy helps work on shoulder stability, grasp and release skills.

These  bugs were the bees Knees!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we worked with a shape sorter. We had to match the right Key to unlock the shape. This activity addressed visual spatial skills, wrist rotation and lateral pinch grasp.

It was really Kind of fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we cut out a Kangaroos that Joy drew onto index cards.

For our more advanced cutters, the outline was highlighted in yellow. Our students with more emergent skills simply snipped straight lines along the sides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joy drew two tiny Kites as visual cues for the hole punch (great for strengthening hand intrinsics).

Insert two fingers into the holes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and your Kooky Kangaroo can Kick a ball with Knobs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This activity works on separation of the sides of the hand and finger individuation. And, of course, the fun factor is pretty high 🙂

 

 

 

We finished by playing Cara’s latest listening game…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and looking at all the K words we found today!

We all had so much fun this week, please join us again for more excitement Group by Group!