Tag Archives: social studies

Mar30

New York Vacation

Posted on March 30, 2014 by jd785

It was back to school but spring break vacations were still on our minds with our New York City theme. It is a popular vacation spot and such an exciting place to visit——we had so much fun planning the different group activities! Our sensory group activities included a trip to Time Square, the fine motor group made art projects related to New York City symbols, and the language group explored tourist destinations on the Smart board.

All our activities focused on looking at the world in spatial terms and the social studies access point associate an object, picture, or symbol with a location.

SENSORY GROUP

We started our tour with the most exciting place in NYC—-Time Square! We put 5 strands of battery operated lights on our umbrella and it really gave a fabulous “Time Square” effect. Needless to say this was a HUGE hit, our students really loved all the lights and could hardly wait for their turn!

The lights were attached using good old twist ties and we used velcro to attach the battery packs as they were a little heavy.

The science access point recognize sources of light is addressed in this activity.

We also pulled out our battery operated spinning lights so that students could put on their own light show. The science access point apply a push to move an object while also working on fine motor skills is addressed.

NYC is filled with skyscrapers. Our students made their own cityscapes using Duplo blocks to make “building” impressions in moon sand. The blocks shape made them easy for our students to hold and manipulate—-they worked perfectly!

Again the science concepts of forces and changes in motion are addressed as students apply a push to move an object.

Bright yellow and black taxis are EVERYWHERE in the city and a great way to get from one destination to another! We put some soft yellow pom poms and hard black beads in this box to compare and contrast. The colors gave this box a pretty striking contrast and most of our students found it intriguing.

As the students sort the items they can address the science access point recognize 2 common objects that are identical to each other. They can also address the math access point recognize 2 objects that are the same color.

Central Park is one fabulous place a taxi might take you! Besides lots of grass, the park is filled with trees and flowers so we put silk ones on a layer of basket filler. We also included a bunch of animals—–zoo animals, butterflies, dogs, ducks, squirrels, birds—–you can find all of them in Central Park!

With all that walking, you might want a snack and a NYC hotdog would certainly hit the spot 🙂 The play food hotdog usually elicited smiles when found in the box.

Recognize the leaf and flower of a plant are science access points that can be addressed in this box as students explore organization and development of living organisms. Recognize a model of a real object is another science access point addressed.

Another exciting thing to do on a NYC vacation would be to see a Broadway Show. For this box we brought back our Wizard of Oz discovery bottle with it’s green glitter and red Barbie shoes! Music from The Wiz—-found via a Youtube clean video search—- was recorded on our voice output device.

As the students turn and shake the bottle tracking objects in motion, a science access point, is addressed.

Our students—–and teachers 🙂 had a blast rocking out to “Ease on Down the Road” from The Wiz and showing their moves.

Attending to sounds from various sources is a music access point addressed.

Our students searched for the letters N Y C in rice. As the rice was shifted aside, a picture of one of the biggest symbols of not just NYC but our country was revealed——the Statue of Liberty! This box didn’t have a lot of rice, so it made it especially easy for the hidden items to be revealed.

Recognize a symbol that represents America, such as the Statue of Liberty is an access point related to the understanding of structure and functions of government.

Finally, the scent of the week—–APPLE, of course 🙂 A fitting end to our tour of the Big Apple. A fabulous yellow ducky floated in our scented water and the students had a great time using the big apple sponge to give him a shower.

Explore, observe, and recognize objects in the natural world is a science access point addressed in this activity.

Our students enjoyed this week’s scent and as usual, we gave them an opportunity to communicate where they wanted the lotion.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday our art project focused on the Statue of Liberty! We started by making the torch. The first step was using our paper cutters to cut green paper into a rectangle shape.

Once again, working on the math access point, recognize a 2 dimensional shape and the science access point recognize a change in an object.

Then we taped the rectangle to a toilet paper roll and ROLLED!!!! Our students did a great job and showed such concentration.

This was great for working on bilateral coordination.

Time for the really fun part—–stuffing tissue paper in the top to make our flame! Our students certainly did a great job demonstrating the science access point apply a push to move an object!

Prior to the group, we had cut the center out of a paper plate and stapled on some green paper that we had freehand cut for the statue’s crown.

Ta DA—–welcome to New York City 🙂

For our art project on Thursday we used apple stamping to decorate a cityscape!

We started by gluing a precut cityscape—-here is the pattern Joy drew SKMBT_42314032815140—–onto a piece of white rectangular paper. In addition to the math access point recognize a 2 dimensional shape, the science access point recognize a change in an object is also addressed.

Then we discussed the different paint colors we were going to use and asked the students to choose which color they wanted.

Recognizing an object by one observable property, such as color is the science access point addressed. Using body movement or nonverbal expression to communicate preferences is a language access point addressed.

Little hands and big slippery apples are not a good combination so we stuck a fork into the apple which made it so much easier for our students to handle!

So did we count the numbers of apples stamped?

OF COURSE 🙂

Recognize when an object is added to a situation is a math access point.

Ta Da! These cityscapes turned out pretty fabulous—-the Big Apple never looked so good!

LANGUAGE GROUP

After reading Cara’s book about the sights to see in New York, we decided to take a closer look with a virtual tour. We had the students gather around the SMART board for this group. We printed out some pictures of places from our book, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

These pictures were put on an All Turn It Spinner so that our students were able to pick a place to go.

Cara found a couple of websites with virtual tours of New York. The one she had planned on showing, www.airpano.com, didn’t end up working on our SMART board; however, it has an amazing virtual tour. Instead, we used http://newyork.arounder.com. This was also a virtual tour, but wasn’t an eagle eye view like airpano.

Our students loved being able to experience seeing New York with a 360 degree tour. We used different adjectives to talk about what we were looking at. We commented on the TALL building, the LONG bridge, and the BRIGHT lights.

Developing an understanding of language concepts related to linear measurement is addressed here.

The final consensus was that we all wanted to travel to New York on our next CBI trip:)

Hope you enjoyed our geography themed activities this week! Join us again for more fun and learning Group by Group!

Dec8

Hanukkah

Posted on December 8, 2013 by jd785

Hanukkah

This month the Unique Curriculum unit looks at some different holidays celebrated in the winter. Hanukkah is one of the holidays that our students are learning about so we chose it for our theme this week and Cara wrote another great book that all the groups enjoyed! The social studies access point addressed in this unit is recognizing that people from diverse backgrounds make contributions.

SENSORY GROUP

Our first box was filled with blue and silver basket filler, curling ribbon, garland, and chenille strands. In it we placed some dreidels, pictures of Hanukkah related items, and stars. We included some gold bead gelt and some play food donuts! Lots of wonderful textures and shapes to explore!

Some of our students had fun trying to make the dreidels spin, while others loved shaking the colorful textured strands.

They all had fun listening and dancing to the dreidel song that played when the voice output device we had included in the box was pressed!

This box addresses the language access point responding to new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly.

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

And finally, it also addresses the science access point recognizing and responding to common sounds.

We put 2 different size stars and a dreidel cookie cutter in our blue moon sand. This moon sand has a great texture, it’s easy to push the cookie cutters into but still firm enough to hold the shape.

This box addresses the science access point recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move.

It also addresses the math access points of recognizing differences in size of objects and associating quantities with number names.

Since Hanukkah takes place in the winter, we had to include our blue cuddly pom pom yarn in our next box! So much fun to drape or shake…..

some of our students really had a blast with it 🙂

It addresses the science access points identifying common objects by one observable property, in this case the color blue and tracking objects in motion!

Our waxy Wikki Stix feel just like candles, which are lit for 8 nights during Hanukkah. Our students had fun twisting and bending them into different shapes.

We also included a discovery bottle filled with cooking oil and gold glitter, like little flames dancing around.

This bottle turned out so fabulous with all the gold glitter swirling around—- seriously COOL!

The science access points addressed are applying a push to move an object and recognize the change in the motion of an object.

Potato latkes are often served during Hanukkah celebrations. We just love the interesting soft, crunchy texture that is kind of irresistible. We hid the letter H and the number 8 in the potato flakes for our students to find.

Explore, observe, and recognize common objects in the natural world is a science access point addressed in this activity.

Donuts are another treat eaten during Hanukkah—- so we used shaving cream which is KIND OF like the cream inside of a real donut 🙂

The science access point recognizing that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is addressed as our students push and smush the cream around.

We rinsed our hands in some vanilla sugar scented water and used different size spoons to practice scooping….of course, taking some time out to do a little splashing around also 🙂

Using the different size scoops in the water addresses the math access point recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.

Then we used the vanilla sugar scented lotion to leave the group smelling like yummy donuts! The science access point recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli is addressed with the lotion.

FINE MOTOR GROUP

On Tuesday we learned about dreidels and made one for our art project! We started by using our paper cutters and switch adapted electric scissors to cut out the 4 symbols used on a dreidel. We found the symbols online and enlarged them on our copier.

We counted the symbols as they were cut, addressing the math access point associating quantities with number names.

Then we glued 1 symbol on each side of our blue cube. Thanks again to our wonderful volunteer Sarah who covered and assembled these boxes. We also want to thank Noah who cut the dowels for us—-couldn’t have done it without them!

We discussed the shape of the boxes and the paper color.

Recognizing common 3 dimensional objects, such as cubes, is a math access point addressed here. A science access point addressed is recognizing objects by one observable property such as color.

Ta Da—check out these GIANT dreidels—— AWESOME?!!!!!

On Thursday, we continued with a dreidel theme, decorating a dreidel shape cut from cereal boxes (thanks to our volunteer Mackenzie!)

We started by discussing the paint colors we were going to use and used our communication symbols to see if our students could identify the color blue.

Identifying common objects by one observable property, such as color……

NAILED!!!!! 🙂

Next we used a textured roller to paint our dreidel. Using the roller is a fun way to work on bilateral coordination!

It also addresses the science access point of applying a push to move an object.

Then we continued to decorate the dreidel using some sponge stamps dipped in blue paint.

Painting the dreidel addresses the science access point recognizing a change in an object.

We finished by adding some glitter—-for a little bit of sparkle 🙂

TA DA!

Another fabulous dreidel….

AND some fabulous smiles!

LANGUAGE GROUP

As with all the groups, we started off by reading Cara’s book. Our students are getting so good at attending to the book and activating the voice output when it’s their turn! Responding to a technology resource is a language access point.

For our activity, we decided to play dreidel with our students. Of course, they had to start with some chocolate gelt so we counted out 3 pieces for each student. Then we asked students to put one piece of gelt into the pot to start the game.

Since it can be pretty hard to get the dreidel spinning, we adapted it for our students by printing out pictures of each side of the dreidel and taping 2 of each onto an All Turn It spinner.

The students took turns pressing the switch to activate the spinner. It was exciting for them to see what they got! The sides and meanings are: Shin-put one more token in the pot, Nun-do nothing, Gimmel-take all the tokens from the pot, and Hay-take half of the tokens in the pot. This was a great game for following directions and turn taking!

It was so much fun and the gelt was very yummy!

It also addresses the language access point of attending to pictures or informational materials. It also addresses the science access points recognizing when objects have been added to or taken away from a situation.

The students had several chances to use their counting skills as well—-addressing the math access point associating quantities with number names.

After the game, we decided to put on some music—– since this class has so many talented dancers 🙂

Join us again next week and we will continue learning about winter celebrations, Group by Group!

Mar3

My Community and Letter W

Posted on March 3, 2013 by jd785

My Community and Letter W

The Unique Curriculum theme this month was My Community, so we took a trip around Tallahasse in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. The Language Group looked at words starting with the Letter W.

Sensory Group—My Community

Our city is built on red clay hills—the same color as our playdough! We used our big and little star shaped cookie cutters since they always use stars to represent capitols on maps.

Squeezing the playdough between fingers or pushing one of the cutters into it helps strengthen hands. In addition, picking up the cutout stars addresses graded fine motor control.

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

Math access points are also addressed: counting the stars, recognizing two dimensional shapes, and recognizing similarities and differences in size.

Tallahassee is the capitol of our state. We searched for letter T’s and a picture of the Capitol in our red, white and blue rice.

Sifting through the rice helps build tactile discrimination skills, especially important for our students who have visual impairments.

This box also addresses the social studies access point of associating a picture with a place.

Two universities make their home in Tallahassee and these boxes represent them. FAMU’s colors are orange and green while FSU’s colors are garnet and gold. Our pom poms and mardi gras beads are perfect for contrasting textures (hard and soft) and colors.

Lots of science access points can be addressed here, including recognizing objects that are identical to each other, identifying objects by one observable property, and tracking the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled—–as you can imagine, sometimes beads and pompoms go flying all over the place 🙂

Visiting the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science is so much fun. It is especially fun to visit the farm and see all of the animals.

We put some matching sets of farm animal pictures for our students to find in the oatmeal. Matching animals that are the same is a science access point.

Small measuring spoons were also included in this box to give our students an opportunity to practice scooping, however many of them improvised and used the animals cards to scoop instead!

Either way, they had a great time with this box 🙂

It is also fun to visit the Challenger Learning Center to look at the stars! We made our own version of a planetarium by attaching some battery operated lights to a black umbrella. It was really easy to do using some velcro for the battery packs and twist ties to attach the lights to the spokes of the umbrella.

We think it turned out pretty cool and to say our students were fascinated would be an understatement!

This activity helps address the science access points of associating stars with the night sky and recognizing sources of light.

Everybody loves to go to Lake Ella to see the fountains and the ducks—perfect for our water play activity! Water play is always a favorite activity for our students and they had fun finding the little rubber ducks floating around. Picking up the bobbing ducks addresses eye hand coordination. We used Bath and Body Works Dancing Waters—for the fountains, of course :)—-scent in the water and lotion.

Both of these activities are great for working on the math access point of indicating a desire for more of an action or object.

Fine Motor Group—My Community

On Tuesday, we read Cara’s book and had a quick visit to the planetarium before beginning our art project.

Our planetarium was so much fun and we just loved watching our student’s reactions so much that we had to bring it out at any opportunity we got 🙂

For our art project we made a map of Florida. We started by painting our students LEFT hands with green paint and pressing them onto blue paper (its shape discussed as it was counted and passed out 🙂 ). We made sure the thumb was abducted as we pressed hands onto the paper.

This activity really helps build awareness of the hands helping to address the science access point of recognizing one or more external body parts.

For our students that are especially aversive to touch, we allowed them to use paint brushes instead and helped them make an approximation of our state’s shape.

A star sticker was added to mark the location of Tallahassee—perfect for working on a pincer grasp and addressing the social studies access point of locating symbols on a map!

TA DA!!!!!

We always make sure each student gets their Ta Da after they finish their project—some of our students REALLY get in to it 🙂

After the paint dried we did a quick outline around the handprint and we have a pretty cute rendition of our state.

This activity also addresses the social studies access point of recognizing Florida as our student’s state.

Majestic oak trees are found all over our city and there are some beautiful ones around the capitol building. On Thursday we showcased these trees for our art project.

Large blue rectangular pieces of paper were counted out—-guess we were really into blue paper this week :). A sketch of the capitol building (luckily our capitol building is another rectangle so VERY easy to duplicate using a ruler) cut out by the adults was already attached.

Our students crumpled and tore pieces of green tissue paper onto the tree outline. We had some Elmer’s glue poured into containers so the students could dip the “leaves” into the glue and put them on their tree (addressing spatial relations skills).

We are addressing the science access points of recognizing the leaf of a plant and recognizing a model of a real object with this activity.

More Ta Da’s—-some deserving of standing ovations!

Didn’t these turn out great! They look fabulous hanging on the wall outside of Jeannie’s classroom.

Language Group–The letter W

We started out playing Cara’s sound game. Our Wonderful students are getting so good at finding the right picture and pointing to Where it is on the paper (addressing eye hand coordination)!

Recognizing and responding to common sounds is a science access point.

After our sound game We got a Wiggly Water animal. The students are able to activate it by making a sound, either with their voice, Whistling, clapping,…..Whatever!

The Wiggling crab tickled our students, producing lots of giggles 🙂

Our little crab helped us address the science access points of tracking objects in motion and recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli, in this case touch.

Next, We passed around a Wand that lights up when you Whack it. This was a fun item for our students that we found in the $3 bins at Target.

Some students activated it by Whacking it on the table, While other students Whacked it on their hand. What a blast!

Applying a push to move an object is a science access point. In addition, as the lights come on, the students can observe that the appearance of an object has changed—another science access point.

Next, we made Wrist Watches! The Watch bands were made from toilet paper rolls first cut open (by the adults) lengthwise and then width wise to make 3 cuffs from each roll).

Our students decorated their cuff from a selection of foam stickers. We presented the stickers and asked them to make a choice, addressing the language access point of communicating preferences.

Pincer grasp skills and eye hand coordination are addressed as the cuffs are decorated.

We googled “free printable watch faces” and thought they these were pretty perfect as the finishing touch to our project.

Don’t you Wish you had one!

As usual, we finished by looking at some of the W words found today—-Whoa, quite a lot of them!

We hope you join us as we share all the fun and learning we are having here at Group by Group 🙂