We stayed in a sports mode this week with our Winter Olympics theme. Our sensory groups explored boxes filled with wintery sports fun. The fine motor groups made olympic themed art projects and the language group hosted our own Winter Olympics!
It was a super fun week and we hope you enjoy seeing all that we did!
SENSORY GROUP
Paper shred at the bottom of this box was in the colors of the Korean Flag. We filled it with a variety of winter and olympic themed items including medals and a medal stand. The olympic fanfare was recorded on a voice output device and we even had a mask of the olympic mascot—-a white tiger!
The science access point recognize a model of a real object can be addressed here.
This box contained chenille stems in the colors of the olympic flag. The students loved the soft texture of the rings and loved bending them into a variety of shapes—-including circles.
Recognize an object with a two-dimensional shape, is a math access point.
We put some gold glitter in our yellow play dough this week. The students used a circle cookie cutter to make their own olympic gold medals!
Again, the math access point recognize an object with a two-dimensional shape is addressed.
Colorful costumes are a feature of the ice skating competitions. The students loved wrapping themselves in the sparkly sequin fabric. They also found the three glittery discovery bottles to be very eye catching!
Track objects moving up and down is a science access point.
Did we mention how much they loved the fabric 🙂
The winter olympics is all about snow so of course we had to have some! Insta Snow is great and really feels pretty close to the real thing! There were 2 different sized scoops—-perfect for making snowmen or snowballs 🙂
Recognize similarities and differences in size of common objects is a math access point.
Red and yellow food coloring was added to shaving cream to make olympic torch flames. The students had fun mixing the colors  and seeing them change to orange as the colors combined!
Recognize a change in the appearance of an object is a science access point.
Bath and BodyWorks peppermint scented the water this week. That icy aroma seemed the perfect choice for a wintery unit. There were some pool noodle olympic rings to match, count, or stack!
Recognize two objects that are the same size or color is a math access point.
Matching peppermint lotion was very popular with the students—-whether applied to hands, arms or behind ears 🙂
Recognize one or more external body parts is a science access point.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Tuesday, the students made an ice skating themed project using this: ice skaters
First, using communication symbols, they identified the shape of the paper.
Recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes such as a rectangle is a math access point.
Next, they used blue markers to make skate tracks on the “ice”.
Recognize that pushing and pulling makes an object move is a math access point.
They also got to make some skate tracks using our switch operated writing tool—-always fun 🙂
Distinguish between objects in motion and at rest is a science access point.
Then the students glued their ice skater DOWN on the paper—-pat, pat, pat!
Recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down, is a math access point.
Ta DA!
Perfect scores!
On Wednesday, the students made their own gold medals using paper plates.
First, they identified the shape of plate the using communication symbols.
Recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes is a math access point.
Then they painted their paper plates with gold paint.
Recognize that the appearance of an object has changed is a science access point.
Pincer grasps were practiced as the students pulled ribbon through a hole in the plate.
Recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is a science access point.
TA DA!!!!!
Our gold medalists!
LANGUAGE GROUP
We had lots of fun this week in the language group! We had our own school Winter Olympics (although the weather made it feel more like it should’ve been the Summer Olympics). All of the elementary classes participated in the events.
We started with a parade led by our very own torch bearer and the host country carrying their flag!
The other classrooms created their own flags and had a flag bearer parade with it through the hall to represent the class.
There were some very colorful flags!
Our first event was ice skating with ice skaters on switch toys! We had pairs skating, so 2 students got to activate the switches at the same time.
We used the ice skater templates from our fine motor group glued  on to pieces of cardboard then attached to the switch toys with velcro.
The skaters danced to music from Beauty and the Beast which was recorded on a voice output device.
The switch we used for the boy skater was wireless so we got some super cool twirls which the students (and adults) found quite exciting!
We had another student who was the score keeper.
He used an All-Turn-It spinner with numbers around it so whatever number it landed on was the score that was received.
There was some controversy with scoring—-not everyone agreed with the judge 🙂
Next, we had the curling event. We had 2 students from different classes compete with each other.
They had to push/sweep the ball through the cones to win the game.
They needed a little bit of guidance, but overall they did really well.
From that event, we went outside for the bobsledding.  The OT’s created some really cool bobsleds out of cardboard boxes that fit over wheelchairs. We had 2 man bobsled teams: a student and a teacher.
Our races consisted of 2 teams at a time. The teams had to wait to hear “GO” before running to the finish.
This event was lots of fun!
Like the dragon boat races we had a few weeks ago, we found out just how competitive our teachers are 🙂
The final event was the luge. Our students had to follow directions to keep their bodies on the sleds in order to “luge” down the hill.
Although it was a short ride, they had so much fun!
Everybody got to take a turn…..
…..or two or three 🙂
Finally, everyone came together for the medals. Each student received a medal for participating.
We took team photos.
Everyone agreed…….
…………. it was a Winter Olympics hit!
Join us again next time for more fun and learning——Group by Group!