Tag Archives: play dough

Oct28

Pumpkin Time and Letter I

Posted on October 28, 2012 by jd785

Pumpkin Time was the theme for this weeks Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. Our Language Group learned about words starting with the letter I.

Sensory Group—Pumpkin Time

Our orange themed box was a huge hit, our students loved it!

We filled it with a variety of textures such as yarn, tulle, and fabric scraps. We also put in some play food oranges, carrots, and a variety of pumpkins including bean bag and kitchen scrubber ones.!

Shiny beads, soft pompoms and chenille stems added some more contrasting textures. Plastic stretchy tubes were fun to pull apart and added a fun auditory component. And finally some beads, puzzle pieces, toys—

——all with that lovely bright ORANGE color.

So much fun to grab and shake!

Did we say our students LOVED this box? 🙂

‘

This box addresses the Language access

point of responding to familiar objects

and the science access point of

comparing and contrasting

properties of materials.

This little fish shoots puffs of air

when squeezed—–fun 🙂

Of course if you have an orange box, you have to contrast it with a black one. Lots of textured items from headbands, toy bats and furry fabric to window screening and Mr. Potato Head pieces (like his black hat and mustache).

There were a lot of opportunities for promoting bilateral coordination with our stretchy tubes and slinky spirals.

When pulling these items, the science access point of recognizing that pushing or pulling an object makes it move is addressed.

These boxes also address the science access point of exploring, observing, and recognizing common objects in the natural world.

And, of course, if there are sunglasses and

beads in a box, they HAVE to be put on!

Our students can totally rock a

pair of glasses, don’t you think 🙂

As students place objects on and off

themselves they are building body

awareness and spatial concepts.

Continuing our orange and black theme we brought back our black playdoh for one more time!

Its just so sparkly and squishable.

Our cat cookie cutter let us make a bunch of cute black cats.

In addition to addressing the fine motor skills playing with playdough also addresses the science access point of of recognizing a change in an object.

Pumpkin pie spice was added to our orange playdough

and made it smell wonderful.

It was perfect for our pumpkin cookie cutter.

We had a few students who tried to sample the

playdough but for the most part, everyone played

with it appropriately.

The shapes cut out can also be counted as

addressing math access points.

Our orange rice with black beans is just so eye catching—you can’t help putting your hands into it! Fun to practice scooping and also to search for the letter P…..

and a little wooden pumpkin.

Scooping and filling using measuring cups and spoons helps address the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers (capacity).

Fine motor skills of grasp and eye hand coordination are also addressed.

We filled our discovery bottles with karo syrup,

orange food coloring, orange beads, black

glitter and some black cat confetti. Hot

glue does a great job of making sure

they can’t be opened—-some of the

students have very busy little hands 🙂

Following the moving objects addresses

the science access point of tracking

objects in motion.

Finger painting in canned pumpkin puree (decorated with black icing)—what could be more gooey, squishy fun in which to practice prewriting patterns 🙂

Still, it was also wet and a little cold so some of our students who are more tactile defensive dove in a little more slowly.

We rinsed our hands and finished with pumpkin

scented lotion from Bath and Bodyworks.

Everybody left smelling just like yummy

pumpkin pies!

A nice strong scent to help everyone

remember all the wonderful things we

learned today.

Fine Motor Group—Pumpkin Time

Body Sox in the sensory room—-OR an alien visitor? Hmmm

The body sox are so much fun and great for getting some nice proprioceptive input from their stretchy resistance.

On Tuesday after returning to the classroom and listening to Cara’s book we let our students choose a mask. Joy found the masks in a $2 grab bag at Michaels—what a deal! Our students chose from a selection of 3 masks—giving them an opportunity to make choices out of a array of 3 which compares to the format of our state alternate assessment.

Taking the markers out of the bags gave us an opportunity to practice working with zippers. A chenille stem (sturdier than a piece of yarn) makes it easier for some of our students to pull.

Putting the markers in and out of the bag addresses the math access point of recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship.

We used markers to color the masks. Scribbling and coloring are important steps in the prewriting continuum. During the activity we made sure to discuss the colors students chose and the different facial features.

Then we tried them on for size….

On Thursday we read Cara’s book again. Our students had just worn costumes and gone trick or treating at our community health department so it was a real opportunity to address the language access point of communicating recognition of familiar objects.

On to our art project!

We counted out 7 pieces of rectangular, black paper and then 7 potatoes carved to look like little jack-o-lanterns. Each time we count out our materials we are helping develop one to one correspondence.

We took time to look at the potatoes and discuss the face carved into them.

This activity helps build hand grasp skills and eye hand coordination. This potatoes have a little weight to them which gives some nice additional proprioceptive feedback.

How many pumpkins did you stamp? We used our number flip chart to help our students address the math access point of one to one correspondence.

Ta-Da!

Language Group—Letter I

We listened for some I words in

Cara’s sound game.

Next we Inserted legs………Into our Insect.

We used the little bugs from the Cootie game for this activity.

This is a great activity for building bilateral coordination!

Our little Insect Isn’t Icky at all…..

Is he 🙂

We picked up Iguanas with our tongs and put them In a bowl.

Manipulating tongs helps build graded motor control which is necessary to manipulate scissors.

In addition, placing the objects into the bowl addresses eye hand coordination and spatial relationships.

Ivan helped out our students who were unable to manipulate

the tongs.

We adapted him using velcro and a shower curtain ring!

We finished by making down lines (just like the

initial stroke of a letter I) on our Iglo0.

We used our adapted toy for our students who

needed switch access

to participate.

It wasn’t so easy finding I words today but we managed to come up with quite a few of them, didn’t we?

Join us again next week its going to be fun…..

Group by Group 🙂

Oct14

Italian Heritage Month and the Letter G

Posted on October 14, 2012 by jd785

Italian Heritage Month and the Letter G

It was all about red, white, and green—the colors of the Italian flag— in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups! In our Language Group we looked at words that start with the letter G.

Sensory Group—Italian Heritage

Cara’s book helped us learn about Italian heritage. Our students did such a great job activating the voice output device to read the repetitive line. With the switch we are working on timing of the hit and activating it just one time.

This addresses the access point of responding to familiar print media.

Our color boxes were filled with assorted red things Joy collected around the OT room.

We included beads (large ones to avoid choking hazards, of course), chenille stems, pom poms, a big bow from a valentine wreath, package ties, finger puppets etc.

You name it—if it was the right color, it went into the box 🙂

Hmmm—-this looks interesting 🙂

The main idea of these boxes is to encourage exploration to compare and contrast the differing properties of materials and our students were definitely intrigued!

Most students dove into every box exploring the contents with equal enthusiasm. A few students, however, either did not engage or became overly excited with one of the color boxes. It appeared that the particular color was either over or under stimulating to them.

Beads are always a favorite……and, of course, if beads are in a box—you have to put them on!

These boxes address a number of science access points, including identifying objects by one observable property and recognizing objects as the same.

We practiced scooping with our mix of red, white, and green beans. They were so pretty and colorful.

As the cup is filled, the math access point of recognizing the differences in the capacity of containers is addressed.

A large letter I was placed in our rice mix —-more red, white, and green of course!

We also taped an Italian flag to the bottom of the box—a little

surprise to find.

We added red pepper flakes and green oregano to our playdough to continue our colorful theme. It also had the added bonus of adding an interesting aroma.

We used our heart shaped cookie cutter—-because we LOVE Italy 🙂

This addresses the math access point of recognizing two-dimensional shapes.

Red and green glitter made our oobleck sparkle!

We practiced our pre-writing designs making

vertical strokes.

Most excellently done in

this picture, as you can see 🙂

We rinsed our hands in grape scented lotion. They grow lots of yummy grapes in Italy!

Then we finished with some vanilla sugar lotion so we could leave the group smelling like delicious cannolis—yum yum 🙂

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

Fine Motor Group—Italian Heritage

We rode on some “gondolas” in the sensory room.

Our bolster swing is a huge favorite with our students and a really fun way to work on sitting balance!

After the sensory room we returned to the classroom to read Cara’s book and begin our art project.

We counted out 8 pieces of paper and wrote our names on the back.

Each time we count out our pieces of paper we are working on the math access point of identifying quantities.

Today we are doing spaghetti (well actually string, ha ha) painting.

We asked our students to choose which color they wanted to paint with first…..

…..sometimes its hard to make that choice 🙂

Then we dipped our strings into the paint

and got to work!

This activity addresses eye hand

coordination.

Ta Da!

…….Red,

……………white,

…………………and green!

Gotta love that smile 🙂

On Thursday we made some pizza pies!

We counted out our paper plates and then used red markers to color some

red pizza sauce. A variety of markers were used including these

pipsqueak markers from Crayola.

Our students are spending more time engaged with scribbling and

we are very excited about their progress!

Time to add the cheese—-some shredded yellow paper which looked pretty realistic so we did have to remind some of them that it was paper :).

Eye hand coordination skills are addressed during this activity. Also, strengthening is addressed while squeezing the glue onto the plate.

The math access point of indicating a desire for more of an object is addressed.

Can’t forget the pepperoni!

Our circle cutters work great for making perfect pepperoni pieces and our students really like using them.

Identifying a 2-dimensional shape is a math access point.

Each student counted how many pieces of pepperoni they put on their pizza.

This addressed the math access point of showing one-to-one correspondence.

Time for some pizza.

YUM! YUM!

Language Group—-Letter G

We used our thumbs to Guide our dog.

Go dog Go!

Then we Gathered some Green Grapes using our tongs to

Grab them.

Got to count them as well, to address math access

points:)

Next we Glued 2 black foam circle eyes and 1 black oval mouth on a paper plate.

The texture of the foam was very helpful for our student with a visual impairment.

Then we tore some paper streamers,

Glued them on to the back of the plate to make a……

Ghost!

Good job!

We played Cara’s sound game and listened for some G sounds.

Great fun!

And we finished by looking at some of the

G words we found today.

What an awesome week! Please come

back again, Group by Group.

Sep24

Pirates and the Letter D

Posted on September 24, 2012 by jd785

Pirates and the Letter D

Our theme was Pirates for our Sensory and Fine Motor groups and our Language Group looked at the letter D. We had so much fun with the pirate theme and everyone got into the action—even Jeannie

Our own pirate queen 🙂

Sensory Group—Pirates

Ahoy matey’s there be pirates, arrgg 🙂 After reading Cara’s book we looked at our first box. It was filled with so much fun pirate stuff. We put in a bunch of “parrot” feathers,

an eye patch, hook, black pompoms, a shipwreck……

(left from a long gone aquarium), spanish moss,

and a variety of pirate figures including

Winnie the Pooh!

And one more super cute picture

—-how could we possibly resist 🙂

X marks the spot in our moon sand!

The moon sand is quite dense and you have to press fairly hard to get an impression, work on hand intrinsic strengthening.

A weighted ball made a great stand in for a cannon

ball (and was fairly close to life size). Lots of rope

on pirate ships so we had to add some of course!

Concepts of heavy and light were explored in this

box. This addresses math access points including

recognizing common 3 dimensional objects

(spheres) and comparing the weight of objects.

We taped a treasure map and some gold coins to the bottom of this box then filled it with some black beans. This addresses cause/effect—as the beans are moved, the coins appear.

In addition, numeric concepts are addressed as the coins are counted.

We continued to talk about the color black with our

pirate playdough. We used lots of black food

coloring to get the color right, then added some

sparkly pirate gold glitter. It was just so COOL

looking! Pressing the bone shaped cookie cutter

addresses hand strengthening.

Treasure found (gold mardi gras beads)! We found this old “treasure chest” that was perfect. The gold beads were so eye catching and so much fun to grab one— or a handful, arggg 🙂

We put some tonic water and a little green food

coloring into our oobleck to make some

swamp water.

Then we turned the lights out, brought out

the black light—-GLOWING swamp water!

This addresses the science access point of

recognizing that the appearance of an object

or material has changed.

Then we rinsed our hands in some Bath and Body Works Ocean scented water and rubbed our hands with the lotion.

Fine Motor Group—Pirates

On Tuesday we read Cara’s book and then made some pirate hats! We used our paper cutters to cut out white squares. We discussed that we had to cut 4 sides.

This activity addresses the math access point of recognizing a common object with a two dimensional shape.

We stamped a pirate symbol onto the square. Joy

made the stamp by cutting a skull and cross

bones out of thick craft foam. She used double

stick tape to attach it to a pot scrubber from the

dollar store. It makes a great adaptive art tool!

We counted out our pre-made hats (simply drawn and cut out of craft paper then stapled together). Adults drew glue squares onto the hats and asked the students to put their pirate emblem on top of it.

This addresses eye hand coordination and the math access point of matching one object to a designated space to show one-to-one correspondence.

Ta Da—3 really cute pirates!

Aren’t they just ADORABLE:)

On Thursday we practiced walking the plank in the sensory room. Our plank has a lot of different textures to increase tactile discrimination in addition to addressing gait and balance, of course.

Then we took out a big poster board. We discussed its

rectangular shape and that we were going to paint

it blue.

Then we got to work! Since the poster board was so big, more than one student could paint at the same time—so much fun.

We addressed the math access point of solving problems involving quantities of action using the language “have we used ENOUGH paint?”

While the paint was drying, we took some cotton batting

and tore it apart. The addresses

bilateral coordination and grasp skills.

Next, we took each student and teachers picture and put it on a paper pirate which was then put on a pirate ship (all drawn by Joy).

We counted 10 pirates!

Now the paint has dried its time for The Owl to

set sail. Ahoy matey’s 🙂

Language Group—Letter D

First we played some finger Drums—great for practicing finger isolation!

Next our Dog Devoured some Donuts—-Delicious!!!

We hot glued a plastic shower curtain ring to a

plush dog to make him easy to grasp. Velcro on

the dog and donut (actually a wooden stacking

toy ring) allows the donut to be picked up.

Then we Decorated a Dinosaur! We used markers because they glide easily across the paper and have such vibrant eye catching colors. Our picture was placed on a light box for our student with a visual impairment.

We used a printable from the book Learn to Move, Move to Learn by Jenny Clark Brack (its a great book with so many great ideas for group activities).

TaDa—just Delightful!

Is this a great

picture or what 🙂

Our students did an awesome job with Cara’s sound game—way to go!!

Just a few of the great D words we found today.

Whew what a fun week!

Join us again….

Group by Group

Sep3

Back to School and Letter A

Posted on September 3, 2012 by jd785

Back to School and Letter A

We are so excited to be back at school and starting our groups! We have some changes—new students, different classes—-the usual for a new school year but the fun and learning factor remains the same 🙂 To start the new year our theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups was Back to School. The theme for our Language Group is letter A.

Sensory Group—Back to School

We read Cara’s new book using our voice output device for the repetitive line. Responding to a familiar person reading a book aloud is an access point related to print concepts.

Our first box included school related items such as paper shred (we use a lot of paper at school), straws, a little hat (we get new clothes), a school bus, a plastic combination lock, a mini backpack, a play food milk carton, a spoon, a ball and the word “Friends” as well as some little people.

Lots of things to talk about to help vocabulary development!

Pincer grasp skills and visual figure ground skills are addressed while picking up small pieces of paper and straws.

The big yellow school bus is the ultimate symbol for back to school. This box contains a variety of yellow items to compare and contrast for science access points related to properties of matter.

Items in the box included pom poms, curling ribbon, school bus puzzle pieces, plastic shapes, and easter grass.

We can also count the items addressing math access points.

Our school mascot is the owl and this feather boa looks just like owl feathers. So soft to touch and great for calling awareness to various body parts.

Interacting with with the feathers targets the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

Back to school also means time for art class with Ms. Judy!

Every year she does some fabulous clay projects with the students. So we made some playdough with sparkly sequins. We used our ABC cookie cutters to go along with our back to school theme. We wanted a darker brown more clay like color for our playdough but as you can see, it didn’t turn out that way—-still lots of fun anyway 🙂

Music class with Ms Jen and Ms Brenda is always a favorite place and our shakers helped us make some music during group.

Comparing and contrasting the differing sounds of the jingle bells and dried peas addresses science access points related to properties of matter.

In addition, as the bottles are moved they can be visually tracked which is a science access point related to motion of objects. As our student push or bat at the bottles they are exploring access points related to forces and changes in motion.

Our rice is in our school colors of yellow and blue. We tucked in an owl puzzle piece to uncover, as well as the letter S.

Scooping the rice also lets us practicing scooping skills. Our students love the rice box, its always one of their favorite things to explore.

And OOBLECK—because back to school means time for Sensory Group again!!! We could write sonnets about this stuff, we just love it 🙂

Finally, we rinsed our hands in apple scented water and rubbed with apple scented lotion—apples for the teacher!

So much fun to be back at school 🙂

Fine Motor Group—Back to School

We read Cara’s book and enjoyed seeing students faces light up as they recognized various classrooms.

After we put on paint shirts (working on dressing skills), we passed out rectangular pieces of paper (recognizing 2 dimensional shapes is a math access point) with painters tape initials . As we passed the papers to the students, we discussed these were the first letters of their name—learning the first letter of your name is an important literacy skill related to the access point of responding to names of familiar persons!

The students chose which color paint they wanted to use.

Using the communication board gives a chance to practice color identification in addition to making choices.

We used foam brushes to paint all over the paper.

Then we pulled the tape off—a great opportunity to practice pincer grasp

skills.

Ta Da—-look how cool all the letters look!

On Thursday, after reading our book it was time to get on the bus!.

We started with a strip of yellow paper and asked each student to cut 3 pieces, counting out loud as each piece was cut. This addresses color identification and math access points. We used our number strip to point to number 3.

Ms.Melissa signs for our student who is hearing impaired.

Then the pieces were dipped in glue and placed on the bus.

This activity promotes pincer grasp skills and eye hand

coordination.

We added 2 black wheels….

circles of course!

With the school bus colored we needed to add some riders of course!

We held up staff pictures and asked “who is this?”, then glued them onto the bus. Repeating this with the student’s pictures.

We finished with a chorus of “The Wheels on the Bus”

Language Group—Letter A

We started by using our Animal tongs to pick up some red Apples (pompoms) to put in Assorted bowls

We also used a number chart to count the Apples, addressing one to one correspondence (math access point).

Then we Added An Animal to the String.

We made Aliens by using shapes with Angles. The black lines seen in the picture are the cutting lines.

We Added googlie eyes

And Antennae.

Note, the fabulous pincer grasp 🙂

They looked

Awesome!!!

Cara’s sound game was lots of fun.

We wrote a lot of sticky notes today—–what a lot of A words we found!!!

Please join us again next week, Group by Group 🙂

Apr30

Week 29—Earth Day

Posted on April 30, 2012 by jd785

Week 29—Earth Day

This week out theme was Earth Day for our Fine Motor and Sensory Groups. Unfortunately we had to cancel our Language group this week.

Sensory Group—Earth Day

Cara’s latest book gave us lots of ideas on how to save the earth. We passed around a stuffed globe as a prop while reading the repetitive line.

We filled our first box with shredded paper (something we can recycle!). Scattered about were some toy cans and bottles, cardboard, and plastic toys—-all things we can recycle. We also put in the word “home” to remind us that earth is our home and we need to keep it clean. A little energy saver sign, reminding us to turn out the lights when we leave the room. We put little people in the box to discuss that it is people who are responsible for keeping our earth clean.

As you can imagine, our students loved the paper shred, so much fun to shake and wave around!

From space, our planet looks like a big blue and green ball. In our next box we put a variety of green and blue items. From hard beads and blocks to soft pompoms and chenille strings.

Lots to material properties to contrast addressing science access points.

Our next box continued our blue and green theme. We recycled our playdough from our under the sea week!

We added some green glitter which gave it a nice sparkle and had car and tree cookie cutters to remind us to plant trees and combine car trips to save gas.

We love using playdoh to improve fine motor skills but math access points can also be addressed when counting the shapes cut out. In addition, prewriting skills can be addressed when making letters with the playdough.

More blue and green! We added some green split peas to our blue rice and it turned out so pretty and eye catching. Our students looked for big and little letter E’s hidden in the rice.

How about a box of aluminum foil!

Something we can recycle and ever so much fun to crumple and wave around.

It also makes noise as it is played with, adding a nice auditory component!

Our sensory bottles helped us discuss global warming. One bottle was filled with clear hair gel and some foam shapes. The foam shapes don’t move around the gel—it looks just like solid ice, and thats how we want our ice caps to remain! The other bottle was filled with hand sanitizer, clear marbles, and some more foam shapes. The foam shapes and marbles move around in the hand sanitizer, just like melting ice.

They made a really cool visual comparison.

Next we made some clean mud. We tore up a roll of toilet paper (from the dollar store) and sprinkled in a bar of grated soap (from the dollar store). Tearing up the paper help address bilateral coordination.

We added a cup of warm water—eye hand coordination and measurement!

Then squished and squeezed until we ended up with mud! Its got a really cool consistency which some of our students

liked—-and

others absolutely did not!

Fortunately, we had a bowl of Juniper Breeze (from Bath and Body Works) scented water in which to wash hands 🙂

We finished with our Juniper

Breeze lotion to remind us of

our beautiful earth.

Fine Motor Group—Earth Day

We read Cara’s book, again using the stuffed globe as a prop.

Then we counted out 8 large blue construction paper blue circles and used a communication board to find the number 8.

Green paint was added to a mixture of glue and shaving cream and we asked our students to guess what was going to happen.

Everybody got a chance to stir the mixture—-and we watched as the glue and shaving cream mixture turned green!

A fun way to address science access points.

We put the mixture on one hand and counted out loud as we printed on the paper 2 times.

For our students who were unable to tolerate the paint on their palms (tactile defensiveness), Joy adapted the activity by painting her own hand and placed the students hand on top to help make the print.

Ta Da! Doesn’t this just like the earth!

It will be even cooler when it dries because our mixture dries just like puffy paint. The raised texture will also make it perfect for our student with a visual impairment to explore.

On Thursday, after reading Cara’s book again, we made Recycle Man!

We used an aluminum pie plate for the head and counted out 2 bottle cap eyes. 1 yogurt container became a nose and can tabs made teeth.

Of course we counted everything as we put it on but we also described the position (ex. on top, under) to address more access points and spatial relationships.

As our Recycle Man is on a vertical surface, shoulder stability is addressed items are placed.

We chose which cap to use as a

belly button…

….and added it to our aluminum roasting pan body!

Perfect!

Then we counted out 8 cans (1 for

each student.

And used them to make arms and legs

for…..

Recycle Man!!!

Isn’t he awesome!

Hope you had fun celebrating Earth Day with us this week. Join us again Group by Group!.

Apr16

Week 28—Under the Sea and the Sun

Posted on April 16, 2012 by jd785

Week 28—Under the Sea and the Sun

This week our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups explored the ocean Under the Sea. Our Language Group learned about the Sun.

Sensory Group—Under the Sea

We started by reading Cara’s book and answering questions about whether different animals are found in the ocean.

Our students used a yes/ no visual support or verbalized their responses.

While we read the story, Ms. Bennet blew some bubbles around to help give the effect of being underwater.

The students really loved watching the bubbles drift around.

Visual tracking is addressed in this activity.

Then we began exploring our sensory boxes starting with our moon sand box. Just like the bottom of the ocean!

We used cookie cutters shaped like starfish or round bubbles.

Comparing the different shapes addresses math access points.

Fine motor skills are addressed when manipulating the cookie cutters.

Our ocean sensory box turned out really great, although our picture doesn’t do it justice.

We put in some blue easter grass and some green chenille stems that reminded us of seaweed. We also included a variety of beads—white like the pearls that you might find, green and blue like the ocean colors. Green and blue pompoms added a contrasting textural component. Different koosh balls and kitchen scrubbers reminded us of sea urchin and other marine life. There were also some plastic fish and sea shells to discover.

We placed some blue aloe lotion in a freezer bag along with some sea shells. It was SO pretty!

…. and great fun to run fingers across to “squish” the gel in different directions practicing prewriting patterns.

Isn’t our blue play dough awesome!

We love the way it turned out, perfect for our fish shaped cookie cutter.

Counting the fish as they were cut addresses math access points.

Fine motor skills are also addressed when using the cookie cutter.

This adorable vibrating fish, purchased from the Special Needs Toys catalog, was great for body awareness.

Vibration can be a pretty intense input and we made sure to respect our students responses to it.

Our pompom yarn has a variety of shades of blue—-

just like ocean waters!

This yarn is soft and easy to grasp, our students just love the way it feels.

We filled a plastic bottle with water, dishwashing liquid and blue food coloring.

When shaken you get foam—just like waves in the ocean—so much fun!

We discussed the photo luminescent animals at the bottom of the ocean. Mixing our cornstarch with tonic water to make it glow under the black light—very cool stuff!

Really, oobleck that glows in the dark—-how could you possibly make exploring science access points more fun 🙂

We rinsed our hands in Bath and Body Works Ocean scent.

The outdoorsy scent reminding us of a day at the ocean.

Fine Motor Group—Under the Sea

After reading Cara’s book, we began our art activity.

We used our paper cutters to cut out fish. Counting the fish addresses math access points.

The fish were set aside and a staff member taped short strands of fishing line to them and to the inside of a tennis ball container lid.

Then we squeezed glue into a tennis ball

container.

We tore blue tissue paper into little pieces (saved from birthday presents past, of course!), crumpled them and dropped them into the tennis ball container.

Bilateral and grasp skills are addressed.

We put the lid on and our little fish aquarium is finished—

TaDa!!!

On Thursday we made an aquarium for a jelly fish! We got the idea from bhoomplay.wordpress.com just brilliant!

First we cut strips of some scrap bulletin board trim. Then squeezed on some glue.

Squeezing the glue along the strip addresses visual spatial skills and hand strengthening.

Then we brushed the glue to make

sure the strip was fully covered.

Colorful aquarium gravel was sprinkled on top—Jeannie had some lying around 🙂

Picking up the gravel promotes pincer grasp skills.

We set this aside to dry.

Blue food coloring was squeezed into a gatorade bottle filled with water— practicing those pincer grasp skills again!

We had pre-made the jelly fish by cutting a square from a plastic grocery bag, gathering it up in the middle, and wrapping a rubber band about 1 inch from the middle–making a head. We snipped some “legs” along the bottom part. Then we held the “head” open under a faucet, leaving room for a little bit of air.

Then we put our jelly fish into his habitat!

Eye hand coordination is addressed when placing the the jelly fish into the bottle.

Wrist rotation is addressed when tightening the lid—-

make sure its really tight!

Isn’t this just awesome! When shaken the jelly fish moves around and looks just like the real thing. Our students LOVED watching it…. well not just the students 🙂

You really have to try this!

Language Group—The Sun

Now that we have finished the alphabet, we are trying some new things with our Language Group so things may change from week to week—but always fun 🙂

We first looked at a stuffed sun and talked about what it looked like: what color it was, what shape it was, how it felt (hot or cold). Then we took turns making it rise and set.

This activity addresses math and science access points!

We used our tongs to pick up yellow pompoms.

Counting the pompoms and comparing their shape and size to our stuffed sun addressed math access points.

Next we play Cara’s latest language game. We went over things we do when the sun is out during the day and things we do during the night. Then we categorized them. Each student looked at a picture like “eat breakfast” and pointed to a picture of day or night.

We glued on the pictures and discussed that we do more things during the day when the sun is out than at night.

We had to have an art activity 🙂 so we made our own sun picture!

The students chose either a light or dark blue sky.

We then passed out a yellow circle to each student and discussed its shape, then glued it to the paper.

Of course, we counted them as they were passed out— addressing math access points.

Then we passed out a strip of yellow paper and cut them along lines to make sun rays.

Lining up the rays with the sun addresses spatial relationships.

We also counted the rays….

never passing up an opportunity to address math access points!

But wait—there’s more!

We counted out 4 cotton balls (our non-verbal students used a voice output device) and added some clouds to our sky.

Awesome!

And to finish off—some of the fantastic sun related words we found today!

Wow, this week was fantastic—we had so much fun!

Come back next week for more fun and learning Group by Group!

Mar18

Week 25—St.Patricks Day and the Letter Y

Posted on March 18, 2012 by jd785

Week 25—St.Patricks Day and the Letter Y

This week we had fun learning about St.Patricks Day in our Sensory and Fine Motor groups. Letter Y was the theme in our Language Group.

Sensory Group—St. Patricks Day

We read Cara’s book and learned all about symbols associated with the holiday. Our students used the voice output device to ask “what do we see on St. Patricks Day”.

Our first box was filled with a variety of green items such as silk shamrock leaves, silk leaves, easter grass, shamrock beads, manipulatives, chenille stems, mini kitchen scrubber and toys. We also included play food—some vegi’s you might use for irish stew and a couple of rubber snakes St. Patrick missed when he was driving them out of Ireland 🙂

Lots of different textures to explore and compare (addressing science access points). Lots of interesting items to look at and talk about.

Legend has it there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and we found some! We used some gold mardi gras beads and green pom poms in our treasure box.

This box let us address science access points when contrasting properties of materials and address math access points when counting the items.

We looked for the letter P, for Patrick, in our rainbow rice. Its just so bright and colorful!

As always, lots of fun to sift through and scoop.

Looking for the letters addresses visual and tactile discrimination skills, in addition to literacy.

We turned the light off and had more rainbow fun with our rainbow light.

Everyone had to be touched by rainbow!

Visual attending and tracking are addressed during this activity.

We turned the lights back on and made shamrocks out of our green sparkly play dough. Joy used lemon-lime Koolade and LOTS of green glitter, it looks fabulous!

Play dough activities are great for working on hand strengthening. We counted 3 leaves on each shamrock, addressing math access points.

Next, we practiced scooping with our potato flakes. Potatoes are popular in Irish cooking and play an important role in Irish history.

We also taped a surprise to the bottom of the box—a little leprechaun peeking out!

Visual discrimination and social studies access points are addressed.

Some chunky bright orange yarn made a great leprechaun bread. Soft and stringy, its so much fun to reach and grab, working on shoulder strengthening.

Green oobleck with gold glitter. So pretty and sparkly. Green to remind us of Ireland and gold to remind us of the leprechaun’s gold.

Very eye catching and fun to draw prewriting patterns in.

We finished by rinsing our hands in Bath and Body works Juniper Breeze scented water and then rubbed the scented lotion on our hands.

This lovely outdoor scent reminded us of the Irish countryside and will help us remember all the fun we had learning about the symbols of St. Patricks Day.

Fine Motor Group—St. Patricks Day

We read Cara’s book “Symbols of St. Patricks Day”. Our students did an excellent job activating the voice output device to participate in reading the book.

We started our project by using our adaptive table top scissors to cut some yellow squares.

We discussed the square shape, addressing math access points.

What a great job our students are doing, they are really visually attending to the scissors.

We glued a small black square on top of the big yellow square.

This addresses math access points and spatial concepts. In addition, pincer skills are practiced.

The yellow square was then glued to a strip of black paper.

It looks like a belt but its not 🙂

We set it aside and began our next step.

Then we practiced writing our names on a small paper plate. Our students are given a model to copy. Our students have varying skill levels in this area. Most are working on scribbling.

Then we turned the plate over and painted it green.

Our students are getting lots of practice using classroom tools. We get very excited when they start scribbling or painting independently.

We glued a green solo cup onto the paper plate. We used just regular old elmers glue and it held pretty well.

We then wrapped the black paper strip around the cup and taped it.

This activity addresses eye hand coordination and bilateral functions.

Have you guessed what we are making yet?

Why some fabulous green

hats, of course!

Just waiting for

some leprechauns:)

On Thursday we read Cara’s book again and then started our next activity. We are going to make a leprechaun beard.

We started by asking each student to cut 3 pieces of orange yarn. We counted outloud while each student took their turn.

Everyone did a great job!

We then squeezed a bunch of glue (Jeannie colors it with food coloring to make it easier for her students to see) on a strip cut from a large paper plate. Then we practiced our pincer grasps by picking up the yarn and dropping it on the plate.

The darker orange strings are actually pipe cleaners threaded through holes to make ear hangers.

When everyone had put their 3 pieces of yarn on the plate we used a voice output device to ask our students if we were finished or needed more yarn. Those students who chose “more”, got to add additional yarn to the beard. Most of the students chose “finished”—it was time for snack 🙂

This activity addresses math access points and communication skills.

Here is Ms. Martha (the OT intern), our leprechaun model for the day!

Jeannie (classroom teacher) also took lots of pictures of her cute little leprechauns for her yearbook.

Language Group—Letter Y

We started by stringing some Yellow beads. Some of our students were able to manipulate standard beads and laces.

This activity helps bilateral coordination and fine motor skills.

Some of our students needed the activity to be modified by using pipe cleaners which are stiffer than regular laces.

We also used larger beads which are easier to grasp.

Other students strung beads on aquarium tubing which is even easier.

After stringing their beads, our students practiced one to one correspondence by counting how many Yellow beads were on their string. For our students who are non-verbal, we used a step-by-step voice output device.

Love how the voice output device matches our Yellow theme—we planned that 🙂

Next, we tasted some sour apple spray candy! We checked with nursing and they said it was ok for our students who are tube fed in this classroom (some students are completely NPO, so we always check with the nurses before any tastings).

Here is Ms. Garland taking her turn!

For our students who were hesitant to have something sprayed in their mouth, we sprayed a spot on their hands so they could lick it instead.

Everyone got a chance to communicate whether it was Yummy or Yucky!

As You can imagine, everyone had a definite opinion 🙂

Then we started on our project—making Yachts!

First our students used scissors to trim a Yellow triangle (math access points). Some of the students in this class are able to manipulate regular scissors, others use adaptive ones.

We also modified this activity for the individual students by changing the amount of lines they had to cut. For example, this student only had to trim one side. Other students had to cut along 2 lines or even the complete shape.

Then we cut 2 holes with a hole punch. Some of our students really enjoyed the hole punch so they cut a few more 🙂

This is a great hand strengthening activity.

A straw (with the bendy part cut off) was treaded through the holes to make a mast.

Our Yacht is starting to come together!

We stuck the straw into a slice of pool noodle and tested the Yacht’s sea-worthiness— it floats!

Our students were so excited watching their Yachts float on the water. We wished we had gotten a bigger container but the smaller one gave the students an opportunity to take turns and also do some math problem solving—how many Yachts can fit into the container.

We came back to the table to play Cara’s sound game.

A Yellow Jacket—Yikes! If it stung, You might Yelp!

Then we finished by looking at some of the Y words we found today.

Did we have good time?

YEAH!!!!

We are off on spring break for the next week but we’ll be back soon with more fun Group by Group!

Feb20

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

Posted on February 20, 2012 by jd785

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.

Sep24

Week 4—Fall and the Letter D

Posted on September 24, 2011 by jd785

Week 4—Fall and the Letter D

Our themes this week were Fall for the sensory group and fine motor groups and the Letter D for the alphabet group.

Sensory Group—Fall

We read Cara’s book “Its Beginning to Feel Like Fall” using our voice output device.

While reading the book, we took turns shaking a leaf garland to listen to the “rustling leaves”. We also used a hairdryer to simulate the cool fall breezes.

We looked for the letter F hidden in assorted dried beans. Our students really enjoyed the varied colors of the beans.

We looked for soft squirrels, hard pumpkins and strands of soft yarn in the fall colors of brown, yellow and orange. It was fun to watch our students pick out their favorites. Some of our students on the autism spectrum were particularly drawn to the colorful yarn strands.

We found some silk leaves at the dollar store.

We used the hair dryer to blow the leaves away to reveal the word FALL that was taped to the tray. Blowing the leaves (great for visual tracking) was a huge hit and our students loved gathering them all back up (working on grasp patterns and eye hand coordination). Yes, it was a little chaotic but lots of fun!

Joy made brown playdough using coffee and whole wheat flour. We used cookie cutters to make fall leaves.

Corn flakes made a delightful crunching sound, just like dried leaves.

We finished up with water play using Spiced Apple body wash and then Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin lotion from Bath & Body Works. Lovely scents reminding us of the fall season.

Fine Motor Group—Fall

We started by reading Cara’s book, shaking the leaves, the cool breeze from the hair dryer and stroking the soft squirrel.

We tore pieces of tissue paper into small pieces. A great bilateral coordination activity.

We talked about the shape of our paper and number of leaves (drawn by Joy) which are both math access points. We added food coloring to our glue to help our students differentiate the designated areas on which to glue their tissue paper. We found this to be very helpful.

Our student with a visual impairment glued silk leaves onto his paper.

On Thursday we continued our Fall theme.

We cut brown yarn into small pieces. Many of our students use adaptive scissors, such as this tabletop version. We set the yarn aside.

The students then painted a squirrel (drawn and precut from poster board, by Joy) with brown paint. We like these brushes made with larger handles that are easier to grasp.

We then squeezed some glue onto the tails and the students practiced their thumb/finger grasp patterns by picking up the yarn and dropping it onto the glue. A googlie eye was the finishing touch! We talked about the color brown and that the paint and the yarn were the “same” color.

After the paint and glue dried, Jeannie practiced number skills with the students by counting the number of squirrels they had made.

The Alphabet Group—Letter D

We used our home made playdough again. We rolled it out into long snakes, working on graded fine motor control.

We joined the ends to make a Donut.

Next, our students Decided how many bones to feed the Dog. We like giving our students choices of 3 as they have to choose between 3 answers when taking the alternate assessment. This activity also works on number identification and as we count the bones out: one to one correspondence.

Then we used tongs to pick up the bones and feed the Dog. This toy was purchased from the Lakeshore company catalog. Tong activities are great for building pre-scissor skills and eye hand coordination.

For our students whose motor difficulties preclude tong use, we adapted (hot glueing a plastic shower curtain ring) a toy Dog. Loop velcro was glued to his mouth and hook velcro to some of the bones. Linda Burkhart (if you ever get a chance to hear her speak—don’t miss it!!!) originally came up with the idea.

For our next activity, we put Dots (round stickers) on a Duck Drawn by Joy. Peeling off the stickers works on developing a pincer grasp.

Placing the sticker on the students thumb was a way to adapt the activity for those students with increased muscle tone.

Delightfully Decorated Dotty Duck!

We played Cara’s sound matching game. She used Boardmaker pictures to make the board and computer generated sound bites.

Our students really enjoy the post-its. We try to pick up the post-it or point to it each time we repeat a word and the students really enjoy watching the array of words build up during the session. We also try to give them opportunities to identify some of the words.

Wow, another week gone by! Please join us next week for more fun Group by Group!

Sep11

Week 2—-Apples and the letter B

Posted on September 11, 2011 by jd785

Week 2—-Apples and the letter B

This week our themes were Apples for our sensory and fine motor groups and the letter B for our alphabet group.

Live and learn and BACK UP EVERYTHING!

Sensory Group- Apples

We read Cara’s book Apples Apples for Me. We recorded the sounds of an apple falling from a tree and someone crunching an apple on one of our sequencers. On the other we recorded the repetitive line “Apples, Apples Just for Me”. As we read the story the students were able to participate by activating the switches.

Prior to the session we used templates from Autumn Activities: Apples Apples Everywhere by Peggy Hundley Spitz, OTR and purchased from Therapro to make Apple glasses.

They were pretty goofy and a lot of fun!

We searched for letter A’s hidden in “apple seeds”. Dried black beans are a great stand in for real apple seeds.

The beans have a great tactile feel and searching for the hidden letters addresses object permanence.

Joy made apple scented playdoh. She substituted apple juice for the water called for in the recipe. The scent was a little light but the red food coloring made it very eye catching.

We finger painted letter A’s in applesauce.

We used Country Apple body wash from Bath and Body works to give our water an apple scent and then put in some realistic plastic apples.After drying their hands, we rubbed them with some of the Country Apple lotion so our students could smell yummy all day and help remind them of the lesson.

Our students who are able to tolerate oral tastings got to try some applesauce with caramel syrup—-a mini caramel apple!

Squeezing the syrup and holding the spoon works on bilateral and eye hand coordination. Squeezing also works on hand strengthening.

Fine Motor Group—-Apples

On Tuesday we made apples using a craft idea from Autumn Activities: Apples Apples Everywhere by Peggy Hundley Spitz, OTR and purchased from Therapro.

We used a paper cutter to make strips of red and green paper. Our students really loved using it.

The green strip is folded in half and then stapled to the ends of the red strip . We talked about the shape (circle) that was formed—a math access point.

The students hung their apples on the tree.

Then we all sat down for a crunchy apple snack!

On Thursday, our Fine Motor group continued the apple theme by making great big red apples.

We crumpled scrap paper and stuffed it into a red paper lunch bag (purchased from Target). Crumpling paper is great for working on hand intrinsics.

Of course, we counted the bags as we handed them out.

We wrapped a pipe cleaner “worm” around the top of the bag—great for bilateral coordination.

Then we counted out 2 google eyes and glued them to our worm. During this activity we incorporated lots of access points by having the students work on math by counting apples and google eyes, work on colors: red, green, and yellow, work on shapes: lines and circles and of course following directions. The students really enjoyed this actitity.

The finished product——-Ta Da!