Tag Archives: play dough

Dec15

Christmas Traditions

Posted on December 15, 2013 by jd785

It was a busy week with a special program affecting our group schedule a little but we still had fun exploring our Christmas Traditions theme! Cara used pictures submitted by staff members for her book and our students really enjoyed looking at the pictures and labeling things they saw—-such as the Christmas tree and Santa Claus. Our sensory boxes were bright and colorful with lots of Christmas related items to explore. The fine motor group had two cute projects and the language group went on a Christmas parade!

Sensory Group

Colorful lights are a Christmas tradition that we find decorating trees and houses. We put 2 sets of colorful battery operated lights and some shiny garland in this box. The garland reflected the lights and made the box even more eye catching—–and mesmerizing 🙂

This one was a favorite!

This addresses the science access point recognizing sources of light.

This box was filled with plastic pine branches and holly leaves. We also put in some red garland, shiny beads, and a little Christmas stocking. All sorts of fun textures and items to explore! Of course, we had to include a couple of Santas, a little elf, a wrapped present, a nutcracker, and some jingle bells—all traditional Christmas symbols.

We also included a voice output device with the song Jingle Bells—-it got played ALOT 🙂

Science access points addressed include recognizing common objects related to science by name, such as plant and recognizing a model of a real object.

This activity also addresses the social studies access point, associating a celebration with an event, such as a holiday.

Red and green are considered Christmas colors. We put shiny, hard beads and soft, round pom poms in this box.

Lots of opportunities to compare and contrast materials. It addresses the science access point identifying common objects by one observable property, such as color. It also addresses the science access point recognizing two objects that are identical to each other.

The math access point recognizing a 3 dimensional object (sphere) is also addressed.

Red and green are also the colors of our rice box—-red rice and green split peas! Wow, this was such a pretty box—so eye catching! Hidden in the box were 3 letter C’s to find. We also taped some Christmas tree wrapping paper to the bottom of the box—-a fun picture to find as the rice was pushed aside.

In addition to tactile and visual discrimination skills, the science access point of applying a push to move an object is addressed.

A giant Christmas tree cookie cutter was used with our peppermint scented green playdough. Although is smelled pretty yummy, our students did a really good job of refraining from tasting it!

Recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is a science access point addressed in this activity.

As more than 1 tree is formed, the science access point recognizing two objects that are identical to each other is also addressed.

We swirled red food coloring into our “candy cane” oobleck. It turned out pretty cool—starting out with swirling color and ending up a delightful pink!

As usual, our students loved playing with it—oobleck is simply amazing stuff 🙂

The science access points recognizing a change in an object and recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move are addressed here.

This week, we found our scent at Joann’s—-Gingerbread!

We used the water to rinse the oobleck off our hands AND address the science access point recognizing water as a liquid.

As well as the science access point observing and recognizing that people need water —to clean off oobeck, of course 🙂

The matching lotion smelled very yummy and after the students had smelled the lotion, we asked them which body part they wanted the lotion rubbed on. This scent was a real hit, ALL our students loved it!

This activity addresses the science access point recognizing external body parts and the language access point communicating a preference for a familiar action.

Fine Motor Group

On Tuesday we made some super cool reindeer using floor puzzle pieces. We have done this before and we liked them so much, we decided to do it again! Our super volunteer, Sarah, glued the pieces together for us.

We started by using our sponge brushes to paint the reindeer brown.

Recognizing a change in a object is addressed as the white puzzle pieces become brown.

Next we asked our students to find their eyes, then put 2 round googlie eyes on their reindeer. Placing the googlie eyes helps to promote pincer grasp skills.

It also addresses the science access point recognizing external body parts.

Rudolph needs a bright shiny red nose, of course! We added a cute pompom noses after asking the students to find their own nose.

Again, this activity addresses pincer grasp skills and identifying external body parts.

Our students were thrilled with their reindeer!

Time to run, run Rudolph—-

TaDA!

On Thursday, our students turned into little elves!

We started by discussing the color of the paper we were going to use. Our students did a great job of finding the color green. We were so excited when we realized that everyone had answered correctly!

Identifying classroom objects by one observable property, such as color is a science access point addressed here.

Then we used our paper cutters and electric scissors to turn our green rectangles into triangles!

The science access point recognizing a change in an object is addressed here.

The math access point recognizing 2 dimensional shapes is also addressed.

Time to add some decorations—working on pincer grasp and eye hand coordination skills!

Of course, we counted each decoration as it was added to the hat.

We glued the hat onto our pre-made faces, made from paper plates (thanks again Sarah!).

Elves ready and reporting to work 🙂

HO HO HO

Language Group

After reading Cara’s book, we made Christmas cards for the other elementary classes. The students got to pick what they wanted on the front of the cards by activating the All-Turn-It spinner. The pictures on the spinner were: Christmas tree, Santa Claus, bells, angel, reindeer, snowman, and an elf.

Our students did so well watching the spinner and they are also learning not to hit the switch but to push it to activate it.

The language access point, use technology resources to support learning is addressed here.

After finishing up the cards, we dressed our students up with different Christmas props. We let them look in the mirror to see themselves which is always fun to do. The different props we had coincided with the different pictures that were on the spinner. We talked about putting things “on” and trying not to take them “off”.

Responding to specific information about familiar objects and routines is a language access point addressed here.

We also made sure everyone had some jingle bells 🙂

Time for a Christmas parade! We went over who was “first” and who was “last” then we turned on some Christmas music, rang bells, and paraded through the halls to deliver the cards. SO FUN!

Surprisingly, the props stayed on our students the entire time! The students in the other classrooms loved watching our language group parade around their room!

The math access point, recognizing the next step in a simple pattern or sequence of activities is addressed here.

Responding to familiar persons is a language access point addressed.

It’s been a great celebration these past 2 weeks, but now we’re all ready for a break! Since next week there are only 2 full days of school, we decided not to have groups. We’ll see you in 2014 with some more fun Group by Group!

Nov24

Thanksgiving

Posted on November 24, 2013 by jd785

Thanksgiving

It’s turkey time around here! Cara’s book explored directional concepts and our students had fun putting a stuffed turkey in the different positions from the book. We explored a variety of Thanksgiving related items in our sensory groups. We made cute little turkeys in the fine motor group and our language group went on a turkey hunt!

The social studies access points recognizing a past event and recognizing an activity associated with a national celebration are both addressed in all our groups this week.

Sensory Group

This first box was filled with Thanksgiving related items nestled in the silk fall leaves, gourds and pine cones. There were some dimensional felt pilgrims and a discovery bottle with beads to remind us of the Wampanoag tribe of native americans who feasted at the first Thanksgiving.

A toy car and toy airplane remind us that some people travel to their Thanksgiving feasts. A toy Tweety Bird and clown puzzle piece are like the big balloons and people on parade floats. A little football was included because that’s something people like to watch on tv after the big feast. It’s usually chilly this time of year so there was a tiny scarf and pieces of yarn!

Speaking of feasts—we had to include some play food and a grocery store “gift card”! And finally a cute plush turkey—-the symbol of Thanksgiving, along with the words HOME and FAMILY.

This box was filled with opportunities to address the language access point respond to new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly. It also addresses the science access point recognizing a model of a real object.

Corn was one of the items on the first Thanksgiving menu! We put in some play food to find and hide again in the popcorn kernels. One of the cobs actually could be broken apart into 2 pieces and then put back together—-great for bilateral coordination!

Whether running fingers through it or exploring the play food, our students really enjoyed exploring the contents of this box.

The math access point recognizing parts of whole objects and parts of sets of objects is addressed here. Solving simple problems involving putting together and taking apart small quantities of objects is another math access point addressed.

Our next box contained turkey feathers (a brown feather boa). This was fun to wrap around, wave in the air or just TOUCH—oh so soft!

Using senses to recognize objects is a science access point addressed here.

Of course, some of our students got quite creative—deciding our little stuffed turkey needed some more feathers 🙂

Just too cute!!!

The science access point: explore, observe, and recognize common objects in the natural world is addressed with this activity.

There are lots of big football games coming up around Thanksgiving and we have lots of fans around here! We included a variety of colors in this pom pom shaker box so everyone could cheer for their favorite team!

Our students LOVE the pom pom shakers and had the best time with them as you can see!

The science access points recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move and identifying objects by one observable property, such as color are addressed here.

We made some pumpkin pie scented playdough this week. Hmmm, it had such a wonderful aroma!

This turkey cookie cutter is very versatile—for either cutting out shapes in the playdough…….

OR being stuffed with it 🙂

This is a great activity for addressing hand intrinsic functions—strengthening, finger individuation, pincer grasp etc.

The math access point solving simple problems involving putting together and taking apart small quantities of objects is addressed in this activity.

The science access point recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed is also addressed.

Pumpkin pie needs some whipped cream! Shaving cream made a perfect stand in and as usual, our students had a great time squishing, smooshing—technical terms 🙂 —it about.

Recognizing that pushing or pulling an object makes it move is the science access point addressed in this activity.

Cinnamon pumpkin scented bath gel from Bath and Bodyworks made our rinsing water smell just delicious! Our students had fun playing with the different sized measuring cups.

Recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids (capacity) is the science access point addressed here.

The cinnamon pumpkin scented lotion left our students smelling like yummy pumpkin pies!

Recognizing one or more external body parts is the science access point addressed with this activity.

Recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli is another science access point addressed.

Fine Motor Group

On Tuesday we made some cute little turkeys. We started by discussing how we cut a circle plate into 2 pieces to make semi-circles.

Then we decorated the feathers using a variety of colorful markers. These fat markers are nice because they can be gripped at the top which is easier for some of our students. For our students with physical disabilities we used Joy’s adapted switch toy—-always a huge hit!

The science access points recognizing that the appearance of an object has changed and sharing objects with a partner are addressed with this activity.

The switch toy addresses the science access points tracking objects in motion and applying a push or pull to move an object. It also addresses the math access point of indicating a desire for more of an action.

Next we glued down a toilet paper roll…..

and attached a pre-made turkey face with googlie eyes. We discussed the different parts of the turkeys face and pointed out those parts on ourselves—-recognizing external body parts is a science access point!

TA gobble, gobble DA!

Our Thursday art project was a pilgrim ship! This was constructed with cardboard, paper, and a wooden dowel—a true trash to treasure project!

We started by showing our students a bottle of brown paint and asking them to show us the color brown on the communication board. They did a great job!

Identifying an object by one observable property, such a color is a science access point.

Then we proceeded to paint the ship. We mostly used a variety of fat handled brushes to get the job done. A brush taped to a paint stick made for an excellent adaptation.

The science access points recognizing that pushing or pulling moves an object and recognizing a change in an object are addressed in this activity.

When the ship was painted we added a sail and some pilgrims and native americans (thanks to Sarah, our volunteer, for making them for us)! We added both students and staff faces to the figures—our students were pretty tickled with them.

For our Ta Da shot, our plan was to take a group shot of all our happy little pilgrims…..

Yes, lets try to get 5 little kids ALL looking at the camera and smiling at the same time—-yep, GOOD PLAN lol 🙂

Language Group

After reading Cara’s book we had our own turkey hunt! Cara made clues and hid laminated pictures of turkeys around the room.

Our students acted like pilgrims on the first Thanksgiving and searched for the turkeys using the clues they were given. Some examples of the clues were, “look UNDER the table; look ON the chair; look IN the box”. Our pilgrims did well with following the clues to find the turkeys. Way to go!

The last turkey was outside the door and BESIDE a tree located in the hallway. Lo and behold, the turkey brought a snack with him so that he wouldn’t be eaten!

This activity addressed the language access point respond purposefully to referent objects or pictures of objects or actions in a familiar read-aloud text.

The students enjoyed the cheeseballs and didn’t seem to mind that they weren’t getting a turkey dinner. We let the students request how many they wanted to eat by indicating on a number board if they wanted 1, 2, or 3. Our student with a visual impairment used a number stick to select his choice.

This addresses the language access point of effectively communicating wants, and needs using referent objects, gestures, signs, pictures, symbols, or words.

Yum! Even our turkey joined the feast 🙂

We won’t be having groups next week because of the holiday. We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Nov10

Jukebox

Posted on November 10, 2013 by jd785

Jukebox

This was such a great week, our students love music so this was the perfect theme for them! We had fun coming up with sensory boxes that matched the different musical genres for our sensory group. The fine motor group had fun making musical instruments and we had a dance party in the language group!

SENSORY GROUP

These wands that light up when tapped made perfect “drum sticks” (found at Target) for our rock and roll box. Way fun, the sticks were perfect for drumming and the flashing lights reminded us of light shows at a rock concert! Needless to say, these were a huge hit with our students.

Recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is a science access point. In addition, recognizing the change in the motion of an object—-when the lights stop—is another science access point.

Our classical music box was black and white just like the keys of a piano. We added black beans to white rice to get the effect. A piece of sheet music was taped to the bottom of the box and we put a large letter M inside. Most of our students used their hands to explore the box—-they love the way the rice feels and looks as it shifts around. A few, however, used the large M kind of like a scraper to move large amounts of the rice and beans around.

The science access point of recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is addressed again with this activity.

As the sheet music and letter M are covered and uncovered the math access point of recognizing when an object is added to or taken away from a situation is addressed.

Our lava lamp discovery bottles were a HUGE hit with our students! One was filled with water, corn syrup, gold glitter, and some plastic jewels. The other was filled with water (tinted purple), green tinted corn syrup, cooking oil, glitter and some beads……

Totally groovy 🙂

The science access point tracking the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled is addressed with these bottles.

There are have been so many fabulous musicals and one of the most popular today is Wicked.

We whipped up some pretty wicked oobleck this week using green food coloring and black glitter. It was pretty thick so it slowly dripped down from fingers and took a little more effort to push aside.

In addition to color identification, the science access point tracking the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled is addressed again.

Opera singers always get roses at the end of the performance so rose seemed the perfect scent to put into our rinsing water. We used rose scented bubble bath we found at Target.

We included 2 different sized scoops to address the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids (capacity).

Solving problems involving small quantities of objects or actions using language, such as enough, too much, or more is another math access point addressed as students pour water from one container to another.

Rap singers like gold chains AND gold records! This box contained some hard gold beads and soft fluffy gold garland. Pretty, sparkly—very eye catching.

Fun to explore, fun to wear 🙂

Sorting objects by an observable property such as texture is a science access point addressed here.

A cookie cutter shaped like a boot, along with cherry scented playdough (we made it with kool-aid) —–perfect for a country music box!

Using just one shape gave the students an opportunity to work on counting, associating quantities with number names addressing math access points.

Of course, playdough is always a great activity for promoting hand intrinsic functions—we OT’s like stuff like that 🙂

We finished the group with some rose scented lotion from Crabtree and Evelyn. This is some pretty strong smelling stuff—you can smell it across the room so it’s VERY memorable!

Recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli is a science access point addressed here.

Communicating a preference for a familiar action such as holding out a hand for lotion is a language access point addressed.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday, after reading the book, Jeannie brought out a real guitar for the students to play. Everybody got a chance to strum the strings and our students loved the sounds they made!

Can you tell that the students totally had a blast 🙂

Sharing objects with a partner and recognizing common sounds are science access points explored here.

For our art project the students made their own guitars! We started by cutting out the words ROCK STAR from a piece of paper—-turning one piece of paper into 2 pieces of paper. These were taped onto our “guitars”

T0 prep the guitars, we flattened paper towel rolls and taped them to the back of these really colorful tissue boxes.

Recognizing a change in an object and applying a push or pull to move an object are the science access points addressed here.

The math access point is associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names.

The words were glued onto the box and then the students were given a choice of stickers to decorate their guitars.

These stickers were little so there were lots of opportunities to practice pincer grasp skills.

Using body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate desires or preferences is a language access point.

Then we asked the students to let us know how many strings (rubber bands) they wanted on their guitars. Putting the strings on the guitar required bilateral coordination and pincer grasp skills. Our students needed varying degrees of assistance for this step.

Again, the language access point using body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate desires or preferences is addressed.

Associating quantities with number names is the math access point addressed.

TA DA!!!

Our rock stars loved their guitars and had a great time making their own music 🙂

On Thursday we continued with our musical instrument theme by making drums! First we tried out a real drum—–so much fun!

The science access points recognizing common objects in the environment and recognizing and responding to common sounds is addressed with this activity.

We started our art project by passing out rectangular pieces of paper and helping our students to identify the colors red and purple using our communication symbols.

Identifying common objects by one observable property, such as color is a science access point.

Recognizing common objects with a two dimensional shape is a math access point.

Then we stamped stars and swirls with the paint. We made handles for the stamps by using double stick tape to affix plastic thread spools—-this worked out really well!

Recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed is a science access point.

Then we taped the paper around plastic coffee containers and added some glitter——we never pass up the opportunity to add glitter to a project 🙂

As we are shaking the glitter we are working on the math access point recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down!

We discovered that we needed to let the paint dry BEFORE letting our students play with their drums lol. When they were finally dry, it was time to boogie….

Dum diddy dum diddy dum….

LANGUAGE GROUP

We started the group reading Cara’s book. We have a few students in here who were able to name their friends who were in the book. It was very exciting for them 🙂

After reading the book, we went around with the Go Talk and let the students decide the genre of music they wanted to listen to. We put the pictures that were in the book on the Go Talk to keep it consistent for our students.

Communicating recognition of familiar persons in daily activities and communicating a preference for familiar persons, objects, or actions are language access points addressed.

We then had the students press a switch to activate the All Turn It spinner to see what kind of dance moves they would have to do. The different dance moves were: clap your hands, stomp your feet, spin around, tap your knees, nod your head, wave your hands in the air. We used iTunes for the clips of music, making sure that they were appropriate before we turned them on 🙂

The language access point responding to a technology resource is addressed with this activity.

This was definitely a fun group! Although only one student would pick a genre at a time, everyone had to participate in the dance moves. Some of our students really got their groove on!

Communicating information about familiar actions using non-verbal expression, gestures/signs, pictures, symbols, or words is a language access point addressed.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the fun we had this week. Join us again next week for more smiles, Group by Group!

Nov4

Things that go Bump in the Night

Posted on November 4, 2013 by jd785

Things that go Bump in the Night

This week we explored things we imagine might be out there to scare us when its dark at night! It seemed an appropriate topic for this time of year 🙂 Our sensory items had a really high contrast of light and dark which was very visually appealing to our students. The fine motor group had a great time making some spooky art projects. The language group students used adjectives to compare items. We also made it fun by turning off the lights while reading our book in all our groups.

SENSORY GROUP

This first box was filled with black paper shred and assorted creepy crawlies! Some of the critters were black so they were hidden really well. Others were brightly colored and could be easily spotted. We also threw in some fun fur for an added textural component.

Our students explored the box in different ways, some sifted through the paper while others……..

had a different approach…….. 🙂

The most popular item in the box was the little vibrating spider toy. Pulling it’s string was perfect for addressing bilateral coordination!

Visual and tactile discrimination skills are also addressed here.

The science access point of recognizing common objects related to science by name was addressed.

Battery operated orange lights (found at Walmart) made for perfect glowing eyes peeking out from garland. We kept these in the box to add to the effect—our students were fascinated!

Recognizing sources of light is the science access point addressed here.

We used our green Floam and some Mr. Potato Head features to make our own aliens. This purchased Floam has a wonderful easily moldable texture that made it perfect for making silly alien creatures while working on bilateral coordination and hand intrinsic functions!

The science access point recognizing external body parts is addressed with this activity.

The letters B O O could be found in our black bean and orange rice box. This is one of our favorite rice boxes—-so colorful and eye catching! So much fun to sift and run fingers through.

For added interest, we taped a picture of a jack o lantern to the bottom of the box.

Visual and tactile discrimination is again addressed as well as literacy skills.

Black shadows can certainly make you jump! We made ours by bringing back our pirate playdough from a few weeks ago along with bat and cat cookie cutters. The black glitter we added to the playdough gave it an added shimmer which we loved and it really contrasted with the bright orange cookie cutters. Again, a terrific substance to squish and pound.

Recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed is the science access point addressed here.

Glowing purple ooze (oobleck with purple tinted tonic water) looked pretty fabulous under our black light!

We added some pop rocks candy (we were inspired by the folks on the Growing a Jeweled Rose blog who added it to finger paint) and our ooze became pretty spectacular—-think rice krispie cereal on steroids! Not sure who was more impressed, the students or the adults 🙂

Recognizing that pulling or pushing an object makes it move is the science access point addressed in this activity.

We used Bath and Bodyworks Twilight woods scent to finish. In our water play we had 2 different size measuring cups for scooping and pouring fun—-and addressing the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.

The lotion has a light soft scent—not scary at all 🙂 and our students really liked it.

The science access point recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli is addressed with both these activities.

FINE MOTOR

On Tuesday we made some mummies! We started by talking about the color of out mummy (black) and the color of our paint (white). All of our students correctly picked the colors we asked them to identify. Oh yes we were proud!!

The science access point recognizing common objects by one observable property, such as color is addressed here.

The language access point communicating information about objects using non-verbal expressions, gestures/signs, pictures, symbols, or words is also addressed.

To begin our art activity we put our mummy IN a clear lidded box. Then we scooped out marbles covered in white paint, counting as we dropped them 1 at a time into the box.

This is a fun way to work on eye hand coordination and scooping skills!

This also addresses the math access points of associating quantities with number names AND recognizing common three-dimensional objects, such as balls (spheres).

Then we closed the lid and…..shake shake shake!

Totally fun way to address the science access points of applying a push or pull to move an object and tracking objects in motion.

We opened the lid and took our mummy OUT of the box and added 2 googlie eyes—giving us a chance to practice pincer grasp skills.

This activity addresses the math access point associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names.

It also addresses the science access point recognizing a change in the appearance of an object or material.

Hmm, lets check this out——-

—yep, he’s pretty cool!

For our art activity on Thursday we made great big eyeballs! We started by comparing the different size circles and asked our students to show us the big one.

Recognizing common objects with 2 dimensional shapes, such as a circle is a math access point.

Recognizing the larger of two objects is a science access point.

We used assorted markers to color red veins on the big circle (dessert size paper plates). Of course we counted the plates and discussed their size and color as we passed them out.

Our students then chose which color they wanted their eye to be using our communication symbols. Some of our students touch the symbols, while others used eye gaze.

Using body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate desires or preferences is the language access point addressed here.

Next we used a circle punch to cut out a small black circle.

The science access point applying a push or pull to move an object is addressed here.

We compared the different sized circles again and began assembling our eyeballs.

This activity works on eye hand coordination and graded motor control—you don’t want to crumple up your circles!

The math access point of recognizing the next step in a sequence of activities is also addressed.

Somebody is watching you….

…..spooky!

LANGUAGE GROUP

After we finished Cara’s book we stayed with the spooky theme using the iPad app Spooky Box (it was free)—just for fun! Our students enjoyed listening to the different sounds and we had fun watching their reactions 🙂 We do need to note that some of the sounds are a little intense, so be sure to prescreen them!

For our ACTUAL learning activity—– we focused on using adjectives to describe two different objects. The students used Boardmaker pictures and put the adjectives in the appropriate column to describe the objects. They did need a little bit of help with this, but over all, they did well.

Communicating information about familiar objects using pictures or symbols is a language access point.

The first object we explored was some mystery green play dough that Joy had made using a recipe from the Growing a Jeweled Rose blog (this is a great site filled with all sorts of ideas and recipes, we love it!).

The other object was a yellow and blue ball with fringes all over it.

Identifying objects by one observable property and recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli are science access points addressed with this activity.

Some of the adjectives used were: hard/soft, heavy/light, cold/warm. Mrs. Robin got out a scale for us to use when working on heavy/light so the students could see which one was heavier.

So neat!

Recognizing objects as warm or cold and sorting objects by weight (heavy and light) are science access points.

We also used vinegar and sprayed each of the objects. We smelled the vinegar first.

Some of students found the aroma intriguing—-others let us know by their gestures, not so much 🙂

Communicating preferences for objects is a language access point.

The play dough reacted with the vinegar because of the baking soda in it and that made it bubble up, while the vinegar made the ball wet (and STINKY!). We then asked the students to choose an adjective (bubbly/wet) to describe the objects after vinegar had been sprayed on them.

Recognizing a change in an object and assisting with investigations with a partner are science access points addressed here.

Hope your week was as great as ours—- filled with treats not tricks 🙂

Join us again next week for more fun and learning—-Group by Group!

Oct20

Alice in Wonderland

Posted on October 20, 2013 by jd785

Alice in Wonderland

We had such a great time this week exploring the classic story of Alice in Wonderland. Cara’s book was wonderful and it was so exciting for our students to see themselves in her book! Hope you enjoy seeing how we made Alice’s adventures a multi-sensory learning experience!

SENSORY GROUP

Our first box was filled with paper shred since most books are made from paper—or at least they used to be 🙂

Nestled among the paper were some playing cards (hearts of course), some Mad Hatter party hats, rose petals, heart garland and ribbon, caterpillars, a variety of white rabbits…..

AND a cute fluffy “dormouse” that makes a crinkly sound when squeezed! We found it at the dollar store—-score!

We also included a play food cupcake with the label “eat me” and a plastic bottle with the word “drink me”.

It was so fun to see what the different students gravitated towards—-everyone had their favorites!

Exploring and interacting with a selected object is a language access point addressed in this box.

Visual discrimination in addition to reach and grasp skills are also addressed while exploring the fun contents of this fun box!

A is for Alice and we hid 4 letter A’s in this box of tea leaves. The tea leaves have an interesting texture, kind of crunchy and mild aroma—–a different sensory experience!

The students also had fun using the small scoop to cover them up again.

The math access point recognizing when items have been added to or removed from sets of objects to 4 is addressed here.

Picking up the letters is an opportunity to work on pincer grasp skills—–most beautifully illustrated by this picture—and eye hand coordination.

Chenille stems make for great caterpillars! This box was filled with regular size and giant size ones for some size comparisons. Soft and colorful—-you just HAVE to reach out for one!

These are perfect for twisting together (and promoting bilateral coordination) to make some new creations—-sensory group meets fine motor group 🙂

This also addresses the science access point of recognizing a change in a object.

All the different colors and sizes help address the science access point of identifying common objects by one observable property, such as size or color.

Pink and purple are the theme of this next box—-for the Cheshire Cat, of course! All that was left was his grin!

We used a Mr. Potato head mouth for the grin and hid it in the hard beads and soft pompoms 🙂

This box addresses the science access point of identifying common objects by one observable property such as size or color.

Recognizing common 3-dimensional objects, such as balls (spheres) and two objects that are the same size or color are math access points addressed here.

We used black cherry kool-aid to make the perfect red for our Queen of Hearts playdough. It turned out really well, a perfect squishy texture! Not only did it look pretty but it smelled wonderful also!

We used our heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out lots of pretty hearts.

Counting how many hearts were cut out addresses math skills and one to one correspondence.

It also addresses the math access point of recognizing 2 dimensional shapes that are the same shape and size (congruent).

The science access point of recognizing a change in an object is also addressed.

These flowers didn’t sing but our students sure had fun making them dance in the air!

Tracking objects that fall to the ground and indicating that an object has fallen are the science access points addressed here.

Continuing with our floral theme, the students had fun with our sweet pea scented water. We put 2 different size measuring cups for scooping fun…….but sometimes it’s just more fun to play with the bubbles!

Recognizing water as a liquid is the science access point addressed here.

We finished with some Crabtree and Evelyn rose scented lotion. Wow this stuff really had a strong aroma. Some of our students really like it…………

Others not so much 🙂

Either way, it made for a memorable experience—–and an opportunity to address the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday we made some Mad Hatter hats! These were assembled by gluing a paper bowl onto a paper plate. We cut a hole in the plate to help it fit onto our students heads.

We had one of our students decide what color to start with and began painting. Jeannie’s favorite color is purple—-hmm, I think someone is looking for extra brownie points from his teacher 🙂

The different colors were then passed around so that everyone ended up with a very colorful hat.

Adjusting nonverbal expression, referent objects to communicate wants and needs to familiar persons is a language access point.

Everybody had a great time painting their hats.

The paintbrushes were taped to paint stirring sticks to adapt them for our students with physical disabilities.

The science access points sharing objects with a partner and recognizing a change in an object are addressed with this activity.

Ta DA!

Love it!!!! This Mad Hatter is ready for the tea party!

On Thursday we made some card soldier puppets. We pulled some of the heart (of course!) cards from a deck. 4 holes were punched and a popsicle stick was glued to the back.

The rectangle shaped cards were counted as they were passed out and then we counted out 2 chenille stems for each student.

We also counted the number of hearts on each card.

Recognizing common objects with two dimensional shapes and associating quantities with number names are math access points.

Chenille stems were threaded through the holes to make the arms and legs. Pincer grasp, eye hand coordination, bilateral coordination—–a PERFECT fine motor activity!

These were a huge hit, our students loved their puppets!

Recognizing that the appearance of an object has changed and recognizing one or more external body parts are science access points addressed here.

Did we mention our students LOVED their puppets 🙂

LANGUAGE GROUP

We placed pictures from our book on the All Turn it Spinner. With each turn, our students got to try on a costume prop that matched the character.

Using nonverbal expression, gestures/signs, pictures, symbols, or words to responds to familiar read-aloud stories by identifying characters, objects, or events is a language access point addressed here.

Responding to a technology resource is another language access point addressed here.

Some of the props we used were the Queen of Hearts scepter, Dormouse ears, Cheshire Cat mask, Mad Hatter hat, a Singing Flower hood……………………..

AND some White Rabbit ears! This student really got into character, making sure we took a picture of his rabbit impersonation 🙂

We held up a mirror for our students to be able to see themselves, and BOY what a hit that was! The students who were verbal expressed WHAT they had on and WHO they were while the nonverbal students followed directions with prepositions such as “hold it UP”, “put it ON”.

Selecting a familiar object to explore and communicating about the selected object using nonverbal expression, gestures/signs, pictures, symbols, or words is the language access point addressed with this activity.

The students had a great time and the adults in the room definitely enjoyed themselves as well.

REALLY—–who doesn’t love to dress up!?

That’s it for this week, we had so much fun going down the rabbit hole with Alice and making a wonderland of experiences for our students!

If you are looking for some more traditional October themes—be sure to check out what we did last year—–BUT don’t forget to join us again next week for more Group by Group fun!

Sep22

Pirate Day

Posted on September 22, 2013 by jd785

Pirate Day

Avast ye land lubbers—-we celebrated Talk like a Pirate Day this week.

Cara had written such a great book last year that we used it again. Repetition is always good for our students and helps reinforce concepts and language learned. We kept some of the same sensory boxes but did add a few new ones. Our fine motor and language group activities were different from last years celebration.

Shiver me timbers, we do have the cutest pirates to ever sail the seven seas! Read along to see all the fun we had and be prepared to smile 🙂

SENSORY GROUP

We filled this box with some basket filler in a pretty light ocean blue. Then added some cool pirate stuff like a shipwreck (from an old aquarium), black beads and pom poms, an eye patch, and “parrot” feathers. Rubber duck and action figure pirates completed the box.

Lots of things to make you go argg 🙂

Visual discrimination skills are targeted as students look through the box and decide which items to pick up and examine.

The language access point responding to new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly, is addressed in this activity.

Pirates are always looking for buried treasure on deserted islands and X marks the spot!

Our students were able to stamp an X in the sand with their cookie cutter. Shifting the sand aside reveals a treasure map and some gold coins taped the bottom of the box.

Math skills are addressed as the hidden coins or stamped X’s are counted.

In addition, applying a push or pull to move an object, such as stamping an X or pushing the sand aside, addresses science access point.

If you find the right spot you can dig up a treasure chest filled with GOLD. Our students just couldn’t resist grabbing these gold beads by the handfuls!

Of course, adding a pirate hat really helps one get into character 🙂

Exploring, observing, and recognizing objects in the natural world is a science access point.

More treasure was contained in our discovery bottle. Filled with plastic jewels, gold glitter, water and corn syrup—-the bottle swirled and glittered as it was shaken. This was a really one of the prettiest bottles we have made—-very, very eye catching!

Picking up and grasping the bottle addresses eye hand coordination and gross grasp skills.

Recognizing that pushing or pulling an object makes it move and tracking objects as they move are science access points.

We made some super cool black pirate playdough this week—and added some black glitter to it for additional sparkle! Did we mention this stuff was SUPER COOL 🙂

Our students could roll the playdough into cannon balls or use the bone shaped cookie cutter to make shapes.

Squeezing, pushing, pulling and otherwise manipulating playdough is great for strengthening hand intrinsics.

This activity addresses the science access point of recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed.

Then we turned off the lights and turned on our black light to help us explore our pirate swamp! We mixed up our oobleck using tonic water, which contains quinine, instead of ordinary water to help give it even more glow.

Our students practiced making prewriting strokes and the letter X in the oobleck and really had fun watching it drip and flow down hands!

Using the senses—-in this case vision and touch—to explore objects is a science access point. Tracking the oobleck as it flows also addresses a science access point.

We finished by rinsing hands in Bath and Bodyworks Ocean scented bath gel with an added element—–ocean spray (from our mister)! Some of our students got quite giggly as they felt the mist come down around them 🙂

A large measuring cup and measuring spoon were available in the water bowl for scooping fun.

The science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli is addressed as the water spray comes down. The math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids while scooping.

As usual, we also used the companion lotion to help our students learn external body parts and address the math access point of indicating a desire for more of an action or object.

This also addresses the science access point of recognizing external body parts.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

Every pirate needs a pet so on Tuesday we made a paper plate parrot for our art project!

We counted out a circle shaped paper plate for each student then gave them a choice of 3 colors to paint their parrot. Since the Florida Alternate Assessment has an array of 3 format, we like to give our students lots of practice making choices out of sets of 3.

Our students are getting to be such good painters!

Recognizing a common object with a 2 dimensional shape is a math access point.

Effectively communicate wants and needs to a familiar person using referent objects, gestures/signs, pictures, symbols, or words is a language access point.

Then we used our circle cutter to cut out 2 small circles. We glued these onto the paper plate and added 2 googlie eyes on top.

We also added a precut beak and some fluffy feathers.

Picking up and placing the smaller pieces promotes pincer grasp and finger isolation skills in addition to eye hand coordination.

Recognizing differences in size of objects and associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names are math access points.

TA DA!!!!!!!

Looks like Polly parrot is ready to set sail!

On Thursday our little pirates made some telescopes—–all the better to see those treasure filled islands 🙂

We used paper towel and toilet paper rolls that fit inside each other—-to get telescoping action, way cool! They were decorated with paper strips. We started by using our paper cutters to cut rectangle shaped strips of paper and taped them to the rolls. The electric scissors attached to a switch were used for our students with physical impairments.

Recognizing a change in an object ( as the paper is cut) and recognizing a model of a real object are science access points.

Recognizing a common object with a 2 dimensional shape (the rectangular paper) is a math access point.

The strips of paper were taped around each roll. We discussed the fact that one roll was large and one was small—-addressing the math access point of recognizing the differences in size of objects.

Bilateral coordination and eye hand coordination are addressed as the paper is taped around the roll and as one roll is inserted into the other!

Land Ho!!!!

ARGHH 🙂

LANGUAGE GROUP

A pirate came by and left clues to his buried treasure in our language group. Our students had to use the clues to find the hidden treasure. Each of the clues incorporated a preposition, like “up”, “next to”, “under” and “on”. They also had a rhyming word to help figure out what to look for. For example, “this thing rhymes with carrot. Is it parrot or car?” The students did such a grrrrrreat job figuring out the rhyming words and finding the things associated with pirates.

Using pictures, symbols, gestures/signs, or words to communicate meaning.

Recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship is a math access point.

Hidden around the room and also outside were a parrot, a pirate vest, a hook, a pirate hat, and of course, the hidden treasure on the X.

Recognizing the next step in a simple pattern or sequence of activities is a math access point.

Associating information with referent objects is a language access point.

When the students found the treasure, they opened it up to find a little treat wrapped in gold wrapping paper. Excitement galore!

It was fun fer all 🙂

Arrrgg, be sure to ship out with us next week for more fun and learning, Group by Group!

May27

Memorial Day

Posted on May 27, 2013 by jd785

Memorial Day

It was all about the red, white and blue as we learned about Memorial Day this week. Cara wrote a wonderful book that really helped our students understand the meaning behind the holiday.

Our Sensory Group had lots of exciting boxes to discover—and we got lots of adorable pictures of our students in sunglasses 🙂

The Fine Motor Group made 2 patriotic art projects, learning about shapes in the process.

And finally, our Language Group had fun playing a game and learning some action words.

All in all, a great week!

SENSORY GROUP—

As we said, it was all about the red, white, and blue this week. This first box was filled with soft red and white pompoms to contrast with hard blue beads. Our students loved sorting the items and its always interesting watching which items the students prefer—some love the pom poms while others always go for the bling beads 🙂

This activity addresses the science access points of recognizing common objects as the same and recognizing objects by one observable property such as color.

Our discovery bottle continued our red, white, and blue theme. A little corn syrup was added to our water to slow down the movement of the beads as the bottle was tilted back and forth. The colorful beads were very eye catching and the bottle was a hit!

This addresses the science access point of tracking objects in motion.

We also brought some auditory input with a recording of “America the Beautiful” on our voice output device (we found the music on Youtube). Our students are really drawn to music and the recording was no exception.

We love how this student is creating his own multi-sensory experience 🙂

These items address the science access point of recognizing and responding to common sounds.

We love the texture of our homemade playdough but we made it extra special this week by adding cherry koolaid to the mixture! Some of our students enjoyed the aroma while others had fun cutting out big and little stars with the cookie cutters.

For some extra fun, we used a patriotic themed placemat—thanks Ms. Kim!

This addresses the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of objects and the science access point recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

We also used big and little star shaped cookie cutters with the blue moonsand. It has a different texture than the playdough—soft but much drier and more crumbly.

We found the cookie cutters were better used to make impressions on the surface—of course it was also fun to just grab handfuls and squish between fingers 🙂

Our students looked for the letters U S A and a hidden flag picture taped to the bottom of our red, white, and blue box. Not only bright and colorful, the rice has a wonderful tactile feel which is an important feature as some of our students are also visually impaired.

This box addresses both visual and tactile discrimination.

It also addresses the social studies access point of recognizing the american flag.

Our next box was a HUGE hit!

We filled it with bright blue foil paper shred (thanks again Ms. Kim!), toy soldiers, chenille stems, beads, sunglasses, star garland, flags, and other assorted red, white, and blue items.

This box addresses the social studies access points of recognizing the american flag and recognizing a symbol or event that represents America.

Red and blue glitter made our oobleck super sparkly and pretty this week! Our students had fun practicing prewriting patterns, watching it drip off fingers…..

or just enjoying the FEEL of it 🙂

The science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed as the oobleck changes from solid to liquid and back again as it is touched.

Just wonderful, wonderful stuff!

Our water play scent is always a favorite with our students. This week we added the scent Country Apple from Bath and Bodyworks. We also vary the temperature from cold to warm (never hot, of course) each week.

Our measuring cups help address the science access point of recognizing different containers that hold liquids.

This activity also addresses the science access points of recognizing water as a liquid and recognizing the different ways people use water……

……in our case for FUN 🙂

The matching Country Apple lotion was rubbed on hand, arms or necks and left our students smelling like yummy apple pies—-and what could be more american than that!

The science access points of recognizing external body parts and recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli are addressed here.

It also provides an opportunity to address the math access point of indicating a desire for more of an action or object.

FINE MOTOR GROUP—

On Tuesday we decorated some great big stars! We divided our markers into trays by color (red and blue) and asked the students to tell us what color was in each tray using communication symbols.

Our students are getting better and better at identifying their colors!

This addresses the science access point of recognizing objects by one observable property such as color.

It also addresses the language access point of identifying obvious differences between referent objects.

Then, of course, we used the markers to color our stars!

First we colored with blue markers—then with the red ones. There were a variety of markers to choose from. Some had rounded tops (from RoseArt) that are particularly easy for our students to hold and manipulate. We also really like the smaller Pipsqueak markers from Crayola. Some of our students are working on increasing the time they spend scribbling while others are working on making directional strokes.

They have all made such good progress this year!

This activity also addresses the math access point of recognizing objects with 2 dimensional shapes.

We finished with some gold glitter—-we never pass up the opportunity to add a little sparkle to our projects 🙂

TA DA!!!!

Didn’t they turn out cute!

On Thursday we continued our patriotic theme by making flags!

We started by cutting 4 strips of red paper with our paper cutter—-counting aloud as each strip was cut.

Applying a push or pull to move an object is a science access point and associating quantities with number names is a math access point.

Then we glued the strips to a large white rectangle piece of paper.

We used our colored glue (food coloring added to white glue) to help our students position their strips in a horizontal manner—

some students, of course, had their own artistic vision 🙂

This activity addresses spatial relations and eye hand coordination. Squeezing the glue helps hand strengthening.

It also addresses the math access point of recognizing objects with 2 dimensional shapes.

Then we stamped white stars onto a small blue rectangle. We made the stamp by cutting out stars from thick craft foam and using double stick tape to adhere them to a kitchen scrubber (our always handy adaptive art tool).

Instead of ink, we used white paint—-mixed with gold glitter 🙂

Our students really enjoyed this part of the activity and had a lot of fun stamping their stars

This activity addresses eye hand coordination and the math access points of recognizing objects with 2 dimensional shapes and recognizing differences in the size of objects.

It also addresses the science access point of recognizing objects by one observable property, in this case color.

TA DA!!!!

Our flags turned out super CUTE!

LANGUAGE GROUP—

To get the students into the spirit of Memorial Day, we had them following some patriotic directions. We got this idea from the Carrots are Orange blog. The directions we used were: flag waving, drum beating, bell ringing, stars twinkling, eagle soaring, and legs marching.

We put the directions on an All Turn It spinner which is operated by a switch. Our students used PIXON symbols to convey the message, “it’s my turn” before they pressed the switch to see what direction they had to carry out. They really seemed to like watching it spin. After it stopped, the students used PIXON symbols to convey the message, “I do it”.

This activity addresses the language access point of associating information or wants and needs with pictures, symbols, or words.

For “flag waving”, the students waved a flag, for “drum beating” the students beat on bongo drums, for “bell ringing” they shook a bell, for “stars twinkling” we turned on battery operated christmas lights, for “eagle soaring” they outstretched their arms to mimic a bird in flight, and for “legs marching” they marched their feet.

The students totally got into the activity and loved playing with our different props!

All sorts of access points are addressed while performing the various movements including the language access point of exploring and interacting with the functions of a selected object and the science access point of recognizing external body parts!

Well that is it for the week and our last group post of the school year! We plan to be back for more fun and learning in the fall. We hope you will be joining us—Group by Group!

For now we are “too cool for school” and ready for summer 🙂

Mar11

Dr. Seuss and Letter X

Posted on March 11, 2013 by jd785

Dr. Seuss and Letter X

This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. We looked at words that started with letter X in our Language Group.

Sensory Group—Dr. Seuss

We started with Cara’s latest book which was a pretty special one. We got the idea to make our own illustrations from Sharon (one of our followers)—-thanks so much! It was so much fun to see our students faces as they recognized some of the models!

The theme of our first box was “The Cat in the Hat”. It was filled with soft red, white, and black pom poms and chenille stems. We really liked these black and white ones! This was such a fun colorful box that was very eye catching for our students!

We asked our students to find pom poms that were the same, discussing their colors.

The math access points of recognizing a common 3 dimensional object and recognizing two objects that are identical to each other.

We filled our “If I Ran the Zoo” box with straw and a variety of animals you might find at the zoo—including our cool sound producing elephant and tiger found in the dollar section at Target last year. There was also a little duplo zoo keeper, fences, play food for the animals and houses. Our students enjoyed the animals and had a lot of fun waving and shaking the straw.

Pressing the buttons on the sound producing animals was an opportunity to address finger individuation skills as well as addressing the science access point of recognizing and responding to common sounds.

This box also gave the students an opportunity to respond to new vocabulary which is a language access point.

Everybody loves “Green Eggs and Ham” don’t they?! We brought back our green playdough and used our egg shaped cookie cutter to make some of our own green eggs—what could be more fun than that? 🙂

Playdough is such a great tactile medium and great for building fine motor skills as it is squeezed and pressed into shapes.

The science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed here. Also, the math access point of recognizing a 2 dimensional shape (oval) is addressed.

Dr. Seuss’s “A B C’s” is another one of our favorite books. Our students sifted through blue and white rice to find letters A B C.

We used our large alphabet cookie cutters and they really stood out in contrast to the rice.

Tactile and visual discrimination skills in addition to letter identification are addressed in this box.

We couldn’t forget “Bartholomew and the Oobleck”! Oobleck—only our most favorite substance EVER! We used neon green food coloring which made the perfect color.

These are such a great pictures, the student really enjoyed having it dripped on his hand—so much so that he used his PIXON communication board to request more.

He effectively communicated his needs using picture symbols which is a language access point—this made Cara VERY happy 🙂

Our Lorax box was filled with pom pom shakers (we got ours from the Oriental Trading catalog)—we thought they looked like truffula trees.

These were totally fun and the students had a blast shaking them—applying a push or pull to move an object is a science access point.

There were a lot of different colors helping address the science access point of identifying objects by one observable property.

“One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” was the theme for our water play. The math access point of associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names in addition to the science access point of identifying objects by one observable property, such as color.

Our little blue fish squirts water when squeezed helping strengthen hands.

We finished with Country Apple scented lotion from Bath and Body works in honor of the book “10 Apples Up On Top”, to help us remember all the fun we had today.

Our students let us know whether they liked our choice by body gestures, vocalizations or in the case of the student pictured—facial expressions.

Guess you can’t please everyone 🙂

Fine Motor Skills—Dr. Seuss

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have 3 of our “models” while we read our book and our students really enjoyed pointing them out—communicating recognition of familiar persons is a language access point!

For our art project we made Cat in the Hat masks, so much fun! We started by cutting a red rectangle into two pieces—cutting it in half.

Recognizing a change in an object is a science access point. Identifying 2 dimensional shapes, another math access point, is also addressed.

Then we took the 2 red pieces along with a precut white strip and glued them to the top, middle and bottom of a a white rectangle. It was actually 2 pieces of white cardstock stapled together to make it firmer—since we didn’t have any poster board 🙂

Matching 1 object to a designated space to show one-to-one correspondence and associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names are math access points.

These were then stapled to paper plates (circles!) with a smaller circle cut out of the middle. We practiced counting as we passed them out and some of our students are getting REALLY good at it!

TaDa!

How about that—-

a cat in a hat 🙂

On Thursday we continued with our seussical theme by reading Cara’s book again. We also showed the students the book One Fish Two Fish in preparation for our next art project which we found on Pinterest!

We started by painting construction paper fish bowls with a mixture of corn syrup and blue food coloring. This stuff is pretty sticky so paint shirts are a MUST.

Painting gives our students practice using writing tools and while we encourage “proper” grip patterns, it is more important to us that our students are actively INVOLVED in the process.

Then each student added 1 red fish and 1 blue fish precut from construction paper. Since the corn syrup is sticky already—you don’t need glue!

This activity addresses spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

Recognizing when an object is added to a situation is a math access point. Identifying objects by one observable property ( such as color) is a math access point

We finished by glueing our fish bowl to a rectangular piece of paper. One of our students was able to identify the two dimensional shape—-nailing another math access point 🙂

Ta Da!

Doesn’t it look great—you can’t really tell in the picture but the syrup dries shiny so it looks just like water. Totally cool!!!!

Language Group—Letter X

We started by playing Cara’s sound game. There aren’t many words that start with X so she used ones that have X in them—but still working on identifying common sounds.

Then we put siX eXtra-large beads on a string—working on bilateral coordination and counting skills! In addition, indicating the next step in a sequence can be addressed in this activity.

When all the beads were on the string we helped the students count them.

Then we found 2 foXes and 1 oX in a boX!

Our students had so much fun opening up the box and looking inside 🙂

Fine motor skills are addressed as the box is opened and the plush animals are pulled out.

Counting 1-3 objects is a math access point.

Next we glued 2 craft sticks together to make an X. We made it eXtraordinary by sprinkling on some glitter. This activity works on letter identification and prewriting skills in addition to fine motor skills.

The students had fun choosing which color glitter to choose. We gave them 3 choices—to practice for their alternate assessment.

We think they look eXtremely pretty around all the X words we found today!

That wraps up another really fun week, hope you will join us next time….. Group by Group.

Feb25

Black History Month and Letter V

Posted on February 25, 2013 by jd785

Black History Month and Letter V

In our Sensory and Fine motor groups we celebrated Black History month in a personal way by learning more about some special people at our school. Our students LOVED finding the familiar faces in Cara’s famous African Americans book! In our Language Group we looked at words that start with Letter V.

Sensory Group—Black History Month

Our first celebrity is Ms. Joi, one of our elementary classroom teachers, and her favorite color is PINK!

We made this totally pinkalicious box in her honor. It was filled with easter grass, curled ribbon, silk flowers, beads, kitchen scrubbers, plushy animals (flamingo, pig, and fish), paper strips, and other assorted toys. If it was pink—we put it in the box 🙂

The science access points of identifying objects by one observable property and exploring, observing, and recognizing objects in the natural world.

This box also gives our students the opportunity to address the language access point of selecting a familiar object to explore.

Ms. Mary is one of our paraprofessionals and HER favorite color is red. We filled her box with some fabulous red things including a feather boa, blocks, garland, silk rose petals, bead, kitchen scrubbers, garland, ribbon, and assorted red toys. This was a great box totally red and fun filled!

As with our other color box, lots of different textures and items to compare and contrast. The fabulous feather boa (found at the dollar store at halloween!) was quite the popular item—our students loved it 🙂

Some pictures of musical instruments were hidden beneath the blue and yellow (our school colors) rice…in honor of our next celebrity, our music teacher Ms. Brenda.

We put in spoons of different sizes to address the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers.

Visual discrimination is addressed as the rice is moved aside and its fun to see how excited they get when a hidden picture is revealed!

Ms. Carolyn is our new dean and we are so excited to welcome her to our school. Our school mascot, the owl, seemed a fitting theme for her box!

We used our “owl” feather boas. So very soft and touchable—-fun to wear OR wave around also! Our students really love these boas, they are irresistible.

As hands glide along the feathers, the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of stimuli is addressed.

Grandma Rosie is from the British West Indies—a beautiful tropical place full of sandy beaches. We made our own little beach for her 🙂

We added a seashell and a small spoon and our students had a great time scooping up the sand and filling the shell. What a fun way to address eye hand coordination!

The shell was really big which get us the opportunity to discuss the science access point of recognizing objects that are big. Also discussing the amount of sand (ex. “a lot” or “a little”) as it is emptied into the shell helps our students associate quantities with language—a math access point!

Our Occupational Therapy intern, Ms. Joia is a student at FAMU. FAMU’s colors are orange and green, so we made some fabulous green playdough to roll into snakes—her school mascot! We added a variety of orange tools to decorate the snakes.

Rolling out and decorating the snakes is a super fun way to work on fine motor skills and eye hand coordination.

As the playdough is either rolled or squished between fingers—the science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed.

Ms. Anita is another one of our celebrities. She is a para-professional and comes from England. We made some oobleck and sprinkled it with some blue and red glitter to show the colors of England’s flag.

Oobleck is one of the BEST substances to use to explore the science access point of recognizing a change in an object! It changes from liquid to solid and back again with just a touch—how cool is that!

Ms. Louise, our head custodian, keeps our school sparkling clean. We rinsed our hands in “Clean Waters” scented body wash and then used the companion lotion.

Presenting the aroma to our students gives them the opportunity to recognize and respond to one type of sensory stimuli.

Letting us know (by vocalizing, body movements or gestures) that they want to continue the activity addresses the math access points of indicating a desire for more or less of an action or object.

We generally take smiles as a “yes” 🙂

Fine Motor Group-Black History Month

Ms. Anita, just had surgery so we decided that we would make her a “get-well-soon” picture for our Tuesday art project.

We started with a large rectangular shaped piece of paper—addressing the math access point of recognizing two deminsional shapes.

Then the students took turns making straight lines for the stems of the flowers we made. Imitating directional lines is a prewriting skill and some of our students are getting really good at it!

Each student was asked to make 3 strokes—which we counted, of course 🙂

Then we took our adapted stampers to make flowers. Joy made them by cutting up foam and kitchen sponges. These were attached either with double stick tape or hot glue to the handles made from kitchen scrubbers or an empty spool.

We did find that we had to “stamp” on the pad a lot to get enough color to show up on paper, so adults helped “prime” the stamp.

The students were asked to either point to or hand us the picture card to indicate which color flower they wished to stamp. Effectively communicating wants and needs, with prompting, to a familiar person is a language access point.

To make the flower garden come to life, students were asked to stamp at the “top” of a line—addressing spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

As the flowers were stamped we discussed which ones were the same color. Recognizing two objects that are the same color is a math access point.

This was a lot of fun, our students REALLY enjoyed stamping their flowers!

Ta Da!

Feel better soon Ms. Anita!

On Thursday, we decided to thank all our celebrities by making a copy of their picture from Cara’s book to give to them. It had to be decorated first, however 🙂

We started by glueing the SMALL rectangular photo onto the LARGE rectangular piece of paper—addressing the math access points of recognizing similarities and differences in size of common objects and recognizing two-dimensional shapes.

Then we used our paper cutters to cut 4 strips of paper.

Using quantities to 4, represented by objects is a math access point.

We glued the strips to each of the sides of the photo helping to address the math access point of identifying the sides of a rectangle is a rectangle.

This activity also addresses spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

And here is one of our finished portraits!

Ta Da!

Language Group—Letter V

We started by playing Cara’s sound game.

There were some Very interesting sounds to be heard as we work on the science access point of recognizing and responding to common sounds.

Then we tried on a Vest—-are they still in Vogue?

A fun way to work on dressing skills and the science access point of recognizing body parts!

Next we cut some Vintage wallpaper into strips and……

Voila, we made a V 🙂

Working on prewriting patterns and spatial relations in this activity.

We also listened to Violin—not Viola :)— music on our Voice output device. We think we were listening to Vivaldi!

Recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli and responding to common sounds are science access points.

Responding to a technology resource is a language access point.

One more thing to do—make a Volcano!

Using baking soda and Vinegar to make a Volcano is so much fun—a total MUST DO!!!

We made our mountain by putting a small nesting cup into the spout of a wide mouth funnel. We used a small spoon to scoop baking soda into the cup—addressing the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers.

Then we poured some vinegar (tinted with food coloring) onto the baking soda, making a not so Violent eruption 🙂

The science access points of recognizing a change in an object and assisted with investigations with a partner is totally addressed with this activity!

We finished by looking at some of the V words we found today.

We had a Very good time this week, join us next time…

Group by Group!

Dec2

Native American Heritage and Letter M

Posted on December 2, 2012 by jd785

Native American Heritage and Letter M

October is Native American Heritage month and we enjoyed learning about a lot of different tribes in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. Our Language Group looked at words starting with the letter M.

Sensory Group—Native American Heritage

We started by reading Cara’s book and used the voice output device for the repetitive line. Our students really enjoyed all the pictures she found this week and they are getting so good at activating the voice output device.

This activity addresses the language access points of attending to familiar print forms and responding to a technology resource.

…..perfectly illustrated in this awesome picture—don’t you think!

Our Native American unit addresses the American History access point of recognizing characteristics of early native americans.

Different kinds of beans were a part of the diet of

the Apalachee, Cheyenne, and Cherokee tribes.

We used our mixed beans to represent some of

the different beans they ate.

We also put in the letters N and A.

Some of our students spent time examining

the letters—others dived in with both hands 🙂

Tactile discrimination skills are addressed

when sifting through the beans.

We learned that not all native american tribes wore feathers but the Sioux, Omaha, Comanchee, and Arapaho tribes are known for wearing them.

This box of colorful feathers was great fun to sift through. Our students also enjoyed picking them up and watching them drift down. Some also loved the feel of them stroking their face.

We had so much fun with this box….how can you go wrong with a box full of feathers after all! We have to admit they were a little messy and we did manage to leave a bunch of little pieces behind in each class 🙂

This box addresses the science access point of tracking a falling object. It also addresses the science access point of recognizing and responding to sensory stimuli.

Animals were very important for many native

americans. The Comanchee tribe hunted

buffalo. The Navaho raised sheep.

The Arapaho wore buckskin clothing.

We used our pieces of fake fur, sheepskin

and deerskin to represent these animals.

This addresses American History access

point of identifying practices of Native

Americans. It also addresses the

science access point of using senses

(touch) to recognize objects.

Lots of different tribes were represented in our next box. We put in some corn and play food squash which the Apalachee and Ponca ate. A piece of turquoise like Zuni jewelry was also included.

Some raffia became our “swamp grass” like baskets made by the Chinook. We put in some picture cards of sheep that the Navaho raised and horses that the Comanche rode.

There was a toy buffalo–they were hunted by the Blackfoot and Cheyenne tribes. We found a little tipi like the ones the Sioux and Arapaho used (and we learned that not all native americans lived in tipis). The Seminoles are known for their beautiful patchwork so we had to include a piece of patchwork fabric that resembled their work.

We loved watching our students reactions and

preferences to the different items. We were

really excited when the student in the above

picture correctly oriented the word “family”

demonstrating his awareness of the concept

of print and how it is organized.

Other students, such as the one on the right

loved the native american music we

recorded on a voice output device placed in

the box.

Our red playdough (made using cherry koolaid) looked just like the adobe that the Pueblo made into houses. There were some cookie cutters available but a lot of our students just loved to feel the playdough squish between their fingers 🙂

Playing with the playdough is great for strengthening hand intrinsics.

As we discuss the adobe houses of the Pueblo we are addressing the american history access point of recognizing that people live together in the same location (settlement).

The discovery bottles were filled with acorn

(eaten by the Yokuts) and beads (used by

the Wampanoag, Cherokee, and Kiowa

tribes).

Of course these were fun to shake and

roll around!

By comparing the different sounds the

bottles made when shaken we

addressed the science access point of

recognizing and responding to

common sounds.

Native americans have rich oral tradition and many of their tales are still told around campfires. By adding red and yellow food coloring to our shaving cream we made colors that looked like the flames in a campfire.

So much fun to squish around!

Looking at how the shaving cream changed as the colors are mixed addresses the science access point of recognizing that the appearance of an object or material has changed.

Nature is so important to Native American culture

that we thought the Juniper Breeze scent from

Bath and Body Works was the appropriate

scent in which to rinse our hands.

As students wash the shaving cream from

their hands and apply the lotion, they are building body

awareness and improving bilateral functions.

Fine Motor Group—Native American Heritage

On Tuesday, after reading Cara’s book and learning about Native American heritage, we discussed how drums are often used in native american music. So today, for our art project, we are going to make our own drums.

First we counted out 6 tan rectangles. We ran fingers down and counted each side to help reinforce the concept of the 4 sides of the rectangle.

This addresses the math access point of recognizing the sides of a rectangle.

Then we stamped a variety of animals and plants onto our rectangles, addressing eye hand coordination.

The paper was then taped, with help, around an

oatmeal container.

Hand intrinsic functions are addressed when

applying tape to the paper.

When the project was finished, Cara placed a short video of a native american drum circle—the students LOVED it!!! They couldn’t wait to start drumming their own drums!

So cute!

This was a GREAT activity!

On Thursday, after reading Cara’s book again we made totem poles, like the Tlinglit tribe.

We had a selection of prewrapped empty cereal boxes and

students made their choice from a selection 3 colors.

Our picture cards are so helpful for reinforcing color

concepts and also for building communication

of preferences.

After the boxes were passed around (and counted, of course, to address math access points) we decorated them with a variety of markers.

This is great for practicing manipulating writing utensils by scribbling or drawing (depending on skill level) with markers.

Then we began attaching premade eyes, noses, mouths and wings. We emphasized the placement of the different parts ex. the eyes go on top, the mouth at the bottom.

We helped our students squeeze the glue and encouraged them to place their pieces on the glue. This activity addresses eye hand coordination and spatial relations.

It also addresses the math access point of matching objects to a designated space to show one to one correspondence.

Ta Da!! Our students were so proud of their

totems.

We think they look awesome 🙂

And here is our totem all put together—doesn’t it just look amazing!!!

We had so much fun counting the boxes as we stacked them (using double stick tape). Everyone got excited as it got higher and

higher!

It really looks great outside of Jeannie’s classroom.

Language Group—Letter M

We started by playing with this cute little Monkey. He laughed and rolled around when our students made noise so it was perfect for everyone including our students with physical or visual impairments.

We loved seeing our students reactions, everyone ended up with a smile on their face 🙂

This activity addresses the science access point of recognizing and responding to sensory stimuli.

Then we put some Money in our piggy bank.

Eye hand coordination is addressed as

the students place the coins in the slot.

Math concepts are addressed as the

coins are counted.

Next we played Cara’s sound game.

Lots of cool sounds starting with the letter M!

We finished by having a party to say goodbye to

Ms. Thea who has finished her internship

in Robins room.

Of course we Munched on some yummy food,

including these crackers that have letters

of the alphabet—-so cool!

Goodbye Ms. Thea!

We will really Miss you 🙁

We had so Much fun today!

Join us again next time,

for lots more fun

Group by Group 🙂