Tag Archives: Sensory

Feb20

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

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

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

Sensory Group—Black History 

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

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

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

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

Thank you Garrett Morgan  for inventing the traffic light!

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

It was fun seeing what colors the different classes chose!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time to add the food coloring and mix it up!

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

Now, more things to explore….

 

 

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

Thank you George Crumb for inventing yummy potato chips!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Presidents Day

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

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

We used our mounted table top adaptive scissors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Others cut out orange rectangles

—-with a little help from their

friends 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

We did go ahead and  precut some triangles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

can you tell what we are making yet?

We have a couple more pieces to add 🙂

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is, Lincoln’s Log Cabin

…we think its move in ready!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

class!

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

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

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

 

 

 

Language Group—Letter U

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

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

Either by holding their animal Up or Under the table!

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

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

This activity helps to work on bilateral coordination and strengthening hand

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

We did stop playing with the bugs long enough to

play Cara’s sound game. Some pretty Unusual

sounds today!

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

Jan16

Week 16—Winter and the Letter P

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Week 16—Winter and the Letter P

This week the theme for our Fine Motor and Sensory Groups was Winter. The Letter P was the theme for our Language Group.

Sensory Group—Winter

Cara wrote another great book, all about winter. After reading the book we made snow! We purchased some fake snow powder, added water——–and, ta da, lots of white fluffy snow flakes.

Our students really enjoyed watching the powder expand into flakes as we explored science access points. It had a very snow like texture and we used cold water to heighten the effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We explored a variety of winter objects in our next box: large and small snowflakes (some hard and some soft), rough and smooth snowmen, arctic animals including a soft seal,hard penguins and some felt arctic hares,  dolls hat and scarf, white pom pom snow balls,  and a building block icicle.

Comparing and contrasting the different properties of materials is one of our science access points and this is such a fun way to do it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We brought out our fluffy pom pom yarn which reminded us of the wooly blankets and sweaters that keep us toasty and warm on cold winter days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we searched for the letter W in powdered snow (a mixture of white cornmeal, flour and cornstarch). There was 1 big W and 2 small ones—working in some math access points of course! Our students had fun scooping the powder, burying their hands in it, or squeezing it together (working on palmer arches) to form little snowballs. Needless to say, we all ended up leaving with a little dusting of snow—but the fun factor more than made up for the mess 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using our cookie cutters  we cut out snow balls and snow flakes out of our snow-dough. We found the recipe online and rather than flour, it is made from cornstarch. It has an interesting rubbery texture that is excellent for cutting or forming into snowballs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also worked on prewriting patterns or making little snow sculptures in shaving cream. We rinsed our hands in peppermint scented water and rubbed peppermint scented lotion on our hands and arms.

Having our students rub the lotion on themselves helps build body awareness and bilateral coordination. It also helps build a nice olfactory memory of all the fun we had today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Winter

On Tuesday, we read Cara’s book and were very excited when one of our new students independently activated the voice output device during the story.

After our story we made eskimo hats. We got the idea from the Winter Activities book by Peggy Hundley Spitz, OTR and purchased from Therapro. We started with a grocery bag with a precut circle. We drew a line around the opening to help further define it for our students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students practiced writing their names on the back of their bag, turned it over and then glued cotton balls onto the circle.

This activity addresses eye hand coordination and works on developing pincer grasp skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we threaded some yarn through slits in the front of the bag, another great pincer grasp activity. Its also good for visual tracking.

Isn’t this a picture of a perfect pincer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We tied a bow and rolled up the bottom and our hat was done. Just fabulous!

 

Our students had so much fun trying on their hats, Ms Cara just had to join in 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, we continued our winter theme by making polar bear handprints.We started by discussing the color (blue) of our paper and its rectangular shape. We counted the papers as we passed them out and again, our students practiced writing their names.

Then we helped them paint their hands and make a handprint on the paper.

We made sure to put a thick coat of paint on the hands and fingers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a quick hand wash, our students used  paintbrushes to add some snow to their picture.

This student is showing some really nice emerging tool use and we are so proud of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then sprinkled on some sparkly snowflakes. Holding and shaking the container helps address shoulder stability and graded motor control in addition to eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the addition of a couple of facial features

using a black marker, our polar bear came

alive.

Just so super cute 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—Letter P

We started by using our tongs to Pick up Purple and Pink Pom Pom’s. We then counted how many each student Put into their bowls.

Using tongs helps to improve hand intrinsic functions and eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we Picked a Pet and Put the Piece into the Puzzle. Our students really enjoyed this activity and were quite excited about their choices.

Picking up the pieces, which have little knobs, helps to promote a pincer grasp. Placing the pieces addresses eye hand coordination and spatial concepts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we Painted a Pig (drawn by Joy) Pink and Purple. Our large simple figure helps our students learn to keep their strokes in a defined area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here it is—–a Positively Perfect Pink and

Purple Pig!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished by playing Cara’s sound game, and looking at all the P words we found.

Please join us again next week, we are going to have so much fun Group by Group!

Dec19

Week 15—Christmas and Letter O

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Week 15—Christmas and Letter O

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

Sensory Group—Christmas

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

We found these lights at Target.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

having it draped around them 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We looked for the letter C hidden among

the red and green beans (Christmas

colors). Also an opportunity to practice

scooping and pouring skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Peppermint aroma has been associated with increased attention and alertness

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

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

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Christmas

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we passed out 2 slightly smaller floor

puzzlepieces to each student. This time we

counted by 2’s as we passed them out—

math access points!

These pieces were painted black.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here he is—-Rudolph the red

nosed reindeer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We painted them with a mixture of white

paint and a little glue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at this lovely little flurry of snowflakes!

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Language Group—Letter O

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

This activity addresses bilateral coordination and pincer grasp skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other students practiced cutting curved lines with

either an adaptive or regular scissors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

We taped a loop of Orange yarn to the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ta Da—Our Orange winged Owl

Ornament!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

Dec11

Week 14—Hanukkah and letter N

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Week 14—Hanukkah and letter N

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

Sensory Group—Hanukkah

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

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

Either scooping or sifting—so much

fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished by rinsing hands in vanilla sugar

scented water and then rubbing vanilla sugar

scented lotion—leaving the yummy aroma of

doughnuts wafting through the room.

Happy Hanukkah!

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Hanukkah

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

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

Then we applied paint to both hands.  

Some of our students pressed their

hands into the paint tray, for others

we painted their hands using a foam

brush.

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

We glued on a stand and Ta Da—our

finished menorah.

Such cute little hands!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Adorable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

After reading the book we began our project—dreidels!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Cara printed the symbols on blue paper.

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

 

 

 

 

 

We used paper cutters to cut our strip into 4

squares (math access points are just

everywhere!).

These paper cutters work well for cutting

straight lines and our students really have

fun using them.

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is–a fabulous, fun dreidel! 

Happy Hanukkah 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—letter N

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we practiced finger isolation            

turning on and off the switch to the

Neck massager.

The students loved draping this

around their Neck and shoulders.

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Picking up the  yarn works on pincer grasp skills.

We didn’t have to be Neat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used our 3 strips to make a letter N

and used our electric stapler to hold it

together—Nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had fun playing Cara’s sound game.              

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

Dec5

Week 13—Kwanzaa and the Letter M

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Week 13—Kwanzaa and the Letter M

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

Sensory Group—Kwanzaa

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

Such lovely soft textures in our next box!

Red, black, and green pompoms—Kwanzaa colors.

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grains are another symbol of Kwanzaa, and 

we couldn’t decide which we preferred so we used

both corn…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We practiced prewriting strokes in applesauce

(one of the fruits of the harvest).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Kwanzaa

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

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

On the untrimmed side a green cutting line was drawn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students used the adaptive scissors

to cut along the line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We put a toilet paper tube on one end

and rolled it to the other end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ta Da—a corn cob! A vegetable from our

Kwanzaa harvest 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

After we had finished weaving the ribbon

we trimmed the edges using our adaptive

scissors.

We then used double stick tape to secure

the edges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is our completed Kwanzaa mat, pretty cool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—letter M

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start your Motor—-Make it go!                      

Pushing the car to friends encourages

social skills and is so much fun 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had our students choose how many

bananas to pick up. This addresses math

skills in addition to practicing making

choices out of group of 3.

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

 

 

 

 

 

Next we used Markers to color

Money.

We our so proud of this student,

who used to avoid handling all

writing utensils. Now look at

him 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished our session by playing Cara’s

sound game and looking at some of the

M words we found.

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

Nov20

Week 12—Thanksgiving and the letter L

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Week 12—Thanksgiving and the letter L

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

Sensory Group—Thanksgiving

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

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

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

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

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

Our students really enjoyed searching through the box

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

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

absolutely delicious but our students resisted the temptation

to sample it 🙂

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Thanksgiving

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

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

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

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

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

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

stringing folded (with a pre punched hole in the middle

near the fold) cupcake liners.

Our students had so much fun picking out and counting

the colorful liners.

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students tore the paper strips into small pieces, dropping

them into their bowl. Tearing the paper addresses bilateral

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—-letter L

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Squeezing this finger fidget works on strengthening pincer grasp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of Laugh’s as usual!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

Nov13

Week 11—Weather and the letter K

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Week 11—Weather and the letter K

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

Sensory Group—Weather

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the storm—-out came the rainbow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Weather

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

We started by mixing glue and shaving cream.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we used sponge brushes to paint with the mixture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

The streamers were then glued to back of the paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Lacing addresses bilateral coordination and eye hand coordination.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—letter K

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

These  bugs were the bees Knees!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

It was really Kind of fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Insert two fingers into the holes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and your Kooky Kangaroo can Kick a ball with Knobs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

We finished by playing Cara’s latest listening game…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and looking at all the K words we found today!

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

Nov6

Week 10—Going to the Fair and the Letter H

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Week 10—Going to the Fair and the Letter H

The Fair is coming to town so it was the perfect theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. We made a little change this week and have renamed our Alphabet Group. It is now called the Language Group, to more accurately reflect its emphasis. In our Language Group, we are on letter H.

Sensory Group—Fun at the Fair

While the sounds and aroma of popcorn (thanks Ms. B) wafted through the air, we read Cara’s book “We’re Going to the Fair”. Our students enjoyed munching the popcorn while listening to the story. In addition to our voice output device, we added some finger puppet props that Nancy made.

After we finished the story, we started to explore our sensory boxes. Our students sifted through yellow cornmeal to look for cow and sheep puzzle pieces as well as the letters S and C.

The cornmeal has the most lovely soft, silky feel and our students really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We looked for animals from the petting zoo in some hay. It had a really different texture from the cornmeal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We turned off the lights while our students played with some of our lighted toys. There are lots of moving lights on the rides and booths at a fair.

The toy pictured here is activated by a little button that is helpful for working on isolated thumb movements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next one was a lot of fun. It is a spinning top that not only lights up but has siren like noises that are similar to those heard on the rides. As the top moved around the table, it allowed the students to work on visual tracking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lights came back on and we talked about all the different booths you might see at the fair. In some of them, you might pick up rubber ducks or knock down bowling pins to win a prize. You might win a sparkly necklace or a cuddly teddy bear. You might go into a fun house and look at yourself in a mirror.

Our students really enjoyed sifting through the various objects to find their favorites. It also gave us the opportunity to discuss properties of the materials (a science access point).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soft easter basket stuffing made for perfect cotton candy. It came in a variety of delicious colors and was so much fun to pull apart while working on bilateral skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of our students “made” cotton candy by squishing cotton balls, water and blue food coloring. This is a great activity for strengthening hand intrinsics. When finished, it really does resemble cotton candy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also double bagged samples of our sensory boxes for our students with problematic oral exploration issues to allow them to safely explore the materials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we rinsed our hands in water with a delicious vanilla sugar scent and finished with vanilla sugar scented lotion so we could all leave smelling like yummy funnel cakes and remember our visit to the fair!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Fun at the Fair

On Tuesday, we started by reading Cara’s book and using the adorable finger puppets Nancy made. Finger puppets are wonderful for working on finger individuation and placing them on/off addresses bilateral skills.

After we finished the story, it was time to make cotton candy!

We started with a poster board rectangle glued to a popsicle stick and some cotton balls. We discussed the shape of the poster board and cotton balls (math access points).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students chose an ink color from a choice of 3 ( giving them practice for choosing from an array of 3 in our states alternate assessment)….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

then we dabbed our cotton balls onto the stamp pad. This step works on pincer grasp and eye hand coordination skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we glued the cotton balls onto the poster board. Counting the cotton balls as they are placed addresses math access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we sprayed water and food coloring onto the cotton balls to make a stick of yummy cotton candy! It looks good enough to eat!

Squeezing the trigger works on hand strengthening and is a great pre-scissor activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, after reading Cara’s book again and having more fun with the finger puppets, we made a ferris wheel.

First we used a paper cutter to cut rectangles. Our students really like using the paper cutters and it is exciting to see some of our students start to use them independently!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we counted out 2 precut construction paper circles and glued them to the rectangle to make a ferris wheel gondola.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we turned it over and the students turned it over and glued a precut silhouette of themselves to the back, to “sit” in the gondola.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We handed out a big paper plate with small one attached (working on those math access points again!) to the back with a brad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students were each given a set of pre-assembled gondolas of each of their classmates which they then glued, along with their gondola, to the large paper plate. Due to privacy concerns, the sample we have photographed was made with magazine cutouts but as you can see, it looks very cute and when the small plate is held it spins quite nicely—-and addresses bilateral skills!

The yellow wheels are vinyl that the vision teacher prepared for our student with a visual impairment to make his gondola.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Group—letter J

We squeezed the bulb to make these spiders Jump across the table. These furry Jiggly, Jittery spiders sure elicited lots of laughs and squeals 🙂

Squeezing the bulb helps strengthen hand intrinsics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we used our tongs to pick up Jungle animals and put them in a Jar.

This activity addresses bilateral functions and eye hand coordination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then our students chose a piece of paper from an array of 3 (again, due to the alternate assessment, we like our students to have 3 choices when possible).

……Just wait and see what we are going to make!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We proceeded to fold the paper in half and then folded the corners down. We added dots to give our students visual cues.

Almost done…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

two more folds to make wings……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…………….and here is our Jet!

Our students had so much fun launching their Jets and seeing whose flew the farthest (slipping a math access point into our language activity!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished by playing Cara’s listening game. Cara records the sounds on the computer and the students try to guess the sound and point to the correct picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a few of the words we put on our post its today. As usual, our students enjoyed picking up or pointing to the post its as we wrote down “J” words during our session.

We had so much fun this week! Please join us next week for more fun and learning Group by Group 🙂

Oct24

Week 8—Nocturnal Animals and the letter H

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Week 8—Nocturnal Animals and the letter H

Our theme this week was Nocturnal Animals for our sensory and fine motor groups.

For both of these groups we started by turning off the lights and closing the blinds to darken the classroom. This illuminated moon was pulled from the schools science kit. Our students were very attentive to the light and loved running their hands over the bumpy surface. It was a huge hit.

We then read Cara’s book “Creatures of the Night” using a flashlight to additionally highlight the pages. We also used it to highlight the voice output device as each student took their turn activating the device—-or holding the light for a friend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sensory Group—Nocturnal Animals

After reading Cara’s book we put some Tonic Water in a cup and held a portable black light (purchased from Wal Mart in their Halloween section). It has an amazing glow! Our students poured the water onto cornstarch…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 amazing, glowing oobleck—-WOW! Our students were absolutely enrapt (and so were the adults).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we finally tore ourselves away from the oobleck, we rinsed our hands in some scented water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We searched in some black beans to find the letters O and B to match with our owl and bat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We explored fur (a strip of fun fur cut into pieces) and feathers (a feather boa picked up at Joann Fabrics). This box also contained some black pompoms (another soft texture) and some black mardi gras beads (a hard texture) in addition to a plush owl and some rubber bats. Discussing all the different properties of these items addresses a variety of access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—Nocturnal Animals

We started our fine motor activity with some precut bat wings (drawn by Joy). We counted them as we passed one to each student. (Math access point).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Then we put some glue (colored with food coloring) in the middle of the wings. This student worked very hard to squeeze the glue all by himself (demonstrating improving shoulder stability and hand strength) and was very proud of his efforts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Each student was given half of a precut styrofoam ball which they then placed on top of their glue dot. Prior to handing the balls out, we demonstrated how two halves make a whole. Addressing math access points again.

Then—lots of black paint and two googlie eyes later—some very awesome bats…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ta Da!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we made an owl. We started by giving our students a choice of 3 strips of paper. Since our state Alternate Assessment is given in a 3 choice format we try to give our students lots of practice.

 This paper was from a give away wallpaper sample book. Sorry for the blurry picture—those little hands move quite fast 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then flipped the paper over and trimmed it using our adaptive scissors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The paper was glued and taped around a prepared toilet paper roll (notice the dimpled end).The precut wings (we counted 2 for each student) were taped on. We used tape because our glue needed a little help on the wallpaper. The students really enjoyed using tape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We counted out 2 googlie eyes and 1 triangle nose (more access points). We really got a chance to work on pincer grasps while completing these finishing touches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These owls are just so super cute!

Thanks to Nancy for finding this idea on the happy hooligans website. http://happyhooligans.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/adorable-owls/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alphabet Group—letter H

We started by Holding a Heavy Hound with our Hands and Heaving Him around the group. This activity worked on upper extremity strengthening, trunk rotation, and social skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used our tongs to pick up Halloween colored pompoms out of a House.  We counted each students Haul to see How many pompoms they picked up. Tongs are wonderful for building eye hand coordination and pre scissor skills. Counting out the pompoms also addresses math skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we placed Happy face stickers on our House (drawn by Joy). Peeling and placing the stickers is great for promoting pincer grasp skills. We gave our students directions on where to place the stickers, for example “on top” of the roof to work on spatial concepts and following directions. Of course, we counted all the stickers when we finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a Happy Haunted House 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished by playing Cara’s listening game and looking at all the words we placed on our post its. Joy forgot to take a picture of the words this week, but we really did find lots of H words!

We had so much fun this week! Join us again for more fun Group by Group.

Oct9

Week 6—Washington DC and the letter F.

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Week 6—Washington DC and the letter F.

This week Cara did not write a book, our Sensory and Fine motor groups read the book “Let’s Visit the President” from the Unique Curriculum.                                                                         

Sensory Group—Visiting Washington DC

We recorded the sounds of a jet taking off and marine band playing “Hail to the Chief” on our voice output device to add an auditory component while reading our book. Other props included a dog house (from a line in the book). We used scratch and sniff cards with scents of oil and gas which might be associated with travels in a plane or car. We added the scent of cherry blossoms for our water play and lotion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a collection of lighted toys to remind us of the varieties of flashing lights seen in a city. These were especially attractive to some of our students with a visual impairment and great for visual tracking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We searched for big and little W’s in white rice and lima beans. We noted that the grains of rice were little, while the lima beans were big. These are all access points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finger painted the letter W in white shaving cream. The shaving cream (or any of our sensory box items) can be placed in a ziplock bags if oral exploration is an issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our box of cherry blossoms was made by pulling the petals off dollar store silk flowers. Hidden among the blossoms were small people figures (there are lots of people in Washington) and inset puzzle pieces of cars, houses and airplanes. In addition to searching for the hidden treasures, our students loved picking up handfuls of the petals and watching them drift down (another great visual tracking activity). We got some lovely smiles as the soft petals drifted down over them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Motor Group—-Visiting Washington DC

We read “Let’s Visit the President” from the Unique curriculum and our students especially enjoyed the “jet” sounds made by the voice output device. Then we proceeded to make a map of the United States, identifying Washington DC and our state capitol.

First we used our adaptive scissors to cut our paper strips (with the words Washington DC and Tallahassee) and set them aside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our students chose which color paint they wanted to use by pointing to a communication board we made with some construction paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We counted out sheets of yellow construction paper and discussed its shape (rectangle) targeting math access points. We then painted (go fairly goopy on the paint) our students RIGHT hands with the paint color of their choice. Its important to paint the right hand. If you don’t, you quickly realize your mistake (as a couple of us did) when you proceed to the next step! We also found it helpful to assist our students with thumb abduction.

Before proceeding to the next step, turn the paper into a horizontal orientation with the thumb portion pointing downward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used our purple glue (made by adding food coloring to regular white glue) to help our students locate the approximate geographical locations of Tallahassee and Washington DC.  Working on pincer grasps to pick up the paper, our students placed them on the glue. We continued to work on pincer grasp by counting and peeling off star stickers (one to one correspondence–a math access point).

The final product——TA DA!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we read our book again and talked about who lives in the White House.

We cut out our sentence strips using a paper cutter and set them aside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we counted out 2 white card stock rectangles (working on math access points). Then we glued a picture to each rectangle. We used glue that we colored with food coloring. The colored glue helps our students see where they have placed the glue and to identify where to place their paper. Squeezing the glue also helps build hand strength.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We glued our sentence strips to the appropriate photo. We added a highlighted “Who” to the White House photo. “Who” is a new word from our Meville to Weville reading curriculum.

We then glued the rectangles back to back onto a paint stick.

And the answer to the question is……….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

President Barack Obama!

Our students really loved lifting their signs overhead and getting lots of Ta-Da’s for their efforts. Just so much fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alphabet Group—letter F

We Fanned our Faces with battery operated Fans. Operating the fan addresses isolating thumb movements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we went Fishing. We asked the students to Find Four or Five Fish. This activity works on shoulder stability, eye hand coordination, and graded motor control. It also addresses math access points and color identification.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our students with motor differences we used a fishing set that had a soft, easily grasped rod with a velcro tip. By swiping their rod across the pile of fish, our students were easily able to catch their share.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our Final activity our students Found Four pink dots and drew vertical lines From each dot. We like using markers because of their vivid colors, low friction which makes it easier to make marks, and the larger diameter allows for an easier grasp. This activity addresses math access points and handwriting skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, our students stamped Four Fragrant Flowers. Joy made the stamp by cutting a flower shape out of some leftover foam and used double stick tape to attach it to a dish scrubber purchased at the dollar store. The rounded handle of the dish scrubber makes it very easy to grasp. Our students had to remember to place their flowers at the top of the “stem” (working on spatial concepts) and to stamp just one flower on each stem, counting to 4 again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                Fabulous Fragrant Flowers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our students with significant motor difficulties, Joy attached a marker (using velcro) to a battery operated toy they could access via a pressure switch placed by their temples. As the toy moved around, our students were able to scribble along with their classmates.

This was a huge hit, and needless to say, everyone got a turn (or more than one) to join in the fun as seen in the picture here 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the Fantastic, Fabulous F words we Found this Friday—-so many we couldn’t Fit them all into the picture!

Join us next week as we make learning fun Group by Group.