We are traveling to space this week!
Here is a link to the book: Let’s Learn About Space!
The book goes over some pretty neat facts about space, like which planet could have life on it other than Earth, how long footsteps on the moon will be there, and also how much a space suit costs to make. Our book also features a couple of our students on the front and back who have traveled to space and back 😉 Enjoy!
Our theme this week is a really fun one. The book features students dressed for a variety of adventures so be sure to check it out. The sensory groups explored boxes related to the different scenarios depicted in the book. The fine motor groups crafted some fun art projects and the language group went on an adventure!
SENSORY GROUP
With bright stars, planets, and a rocket ship, our outer space umbrella really let the students feel like they were in space!
Very eye catching!
Science access point: recognize a space related object.
Joining the circus would be big adventure—-even more fun if you could be a clown!
Wood shavings formed the base of this box and a rake to move them around to discover a clown picture at the bottom.
Science access point: apply a push to move an object.
Colorful dinosaurs of different sizes roamed around in dinosaur eggs (turquoise beans).
The students loved the feel of the beans running through their fingers
Math access point: recognize similarities and differences in size of objects.
The students searched for buried pirate treasure in black kinetic sand.
There were lots of coins to count!
Math access point: associate quantities with number names.
There were lots of Safari themed items including a jeep, camera, compass, binoculars, and jungle animals to find and discover in this box.
We also included a voice output device with recordings of jungle animal sounds.
Our students TOTALLY rocked the sunglasses!
Science access point: recognize a model of a real object.
A toy Superman flew around shaving cream clouds in our messy play.
Soft and fluffy——- so much fun!
Science access point: recognize that pushing and pulling makes an object move.
Hands were rinsed in a small mermaid lagoon!
We also included a funnel and measuring cups for scooping fun.
Math access point: recognize differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.
Bath and Body Works ocean scent helped the students remember all the fun they had today.
Whether applied to arms, necks, or behind ears—-the students really loved the aroma!
Science access point: recognize one or more external body parts.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Tuesday, the students made super hero pictures using this template: super hero
First, the students identified the shape and color of our base paper.
Math access point: recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes.
Science access point: identify objects by one observable property, such as color.
Then, using tabletop or switch operated scissors, the students cut “buildings” from paper strips.
Science access point: recognize a change in the appearance of object.
These pieces were glued down on to the base paper to make buildings.
Math access point: solve problems involving small quantities of objects or actions using language, such as enough, too much, or more.
Next, they added a superhero to the scene.
Science access point: recognize when an object is added to a situation.
TA DA!!! It’s a bird, it’s a plane,…………
…………..it’s a SUPERHERO!!!!!
On Wednesday the students became Mer-people 🙂
First, they identified our paint colors. We used regular paint and some colorful glitter glue (thank you Ms. Judy!)
Science access point: identify objects by one observable property, such as color.
Then, they used kitchen sponges covered with bubble wrap to stamp fish scales on giant tails! We reminded the students to stamp DOWN and UP.
Math access point: recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down.
TA DA!!!
Say hello to our Mermaids and Mermen 🙂
Let’s go on an ocean adventure!!!!
LANGUAGE GROUP
We went on our own adventure this week during the language group. It was snow day at our school, so our language group had to figure out challenges in order to get to the snow.
We used these challenges on the way: Adventure Challenges
Our students were stopped several times and had to answer questions about the different adventures that were in our book. They had a visual prompt to help them out. For instance, the first question was “what does a knight ride on? A horse or an elephant”.
If students had difficulty answering the question, they had to request HELP.
Finally, we made it to the snow! Students got to feel the snow.
They had to indicate if it was COLD or HOT.
They also got to choose whether they wanted to ride on a sled or an inner tube to get down the hill.
Once they were at the bottom, they indicated whether they LIKED it or did NOT LIKE it.
It was a really fun adventure!
Join us again next time for more fun and learning—–Group by Group!
Don’t forget to check your SPAM folder for a confirmation email if you want to follow us!
This week, we are finding out about some of the people (and animals!) who traveled to space. Our theme ties into the Unique theme for this month. The book talks about the first monkey and dog who traveled into space as well as the first person. The book is in chronological order so you are able to see the progression of the “firsts” in space! The front cover features one of our highschoolers as an astronaut while the back features one of our post secondary students star gazing. Very neat!
Here is a link to the book: they-traveled-to-space
We are traveling to space this week and it is out of this world! The book goes over different things we see in space like stars, meteors, planets, and the sun. We start by having a student “read” the title, as we do with each group. I talked about how ‘space’ and ‘place’ are rhyming words. After the first line on each page is read, we asked the students, “what do you think of space?” The repetitive line answers “space is an amazing place”. The pictures in this book seem much more vivid than other books because of the black background. Enjoy!
Here is a link to the book: Space is an Amazing Place
This week we blasted off into space with our Sensory and Fine Motor groups. Our Language Group looked at the letter H. It was an extra-special week for us with visitors who came from Jackson County to tour our school and see our groups.
Sensory Group—Space
We practiced throwing and catching our planet spheres in the sensory room. These soft balls came from a science kit and were wonderful fun for throwing around as well as comparing sizes.
After coming back to the classroom we read Cara’s book about space and got started on our sensory boxes.
We brought back our black playdough with additional blue and silver glitter to make our galaxy. It was sooo cool looking. The picture just doesn’t do it justice!
We cut crescent and star shapes with our cookie cutters.
This addresses the math access point of recognizing objects with two dimensional shapes.
This box was filled with black beans which looked just like deep dark space. We put in an astronaut, spaceship puzzle piece, a strand of tinsel stars, star cookie cutters and a small globe. For some zodiac symbols we included a toy goat, little plush crab, bull puzzle piece—well ok, a cow, but it had horns 🙂
And how about the big footprint—almost like Neil Armstrong’s!
This box gave us lots of things to discuss, addressing the language arts access point of responding to new vocabulary.
These battery operated lights looked just like twinkling little stars and students were really fascinated.
This addresses the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of stimuli.
Our galaxy in a bottle was also intriguing to our students. We borrowed it from Ms. Bennett.
She made it with karo syrup, food coloring, glitter and beads. The beads move around as the bottle is tilted back and forth giving opportunities for visual tracking, addressing the science access point of tracking objects in motion.
Planets are sphere shaped and that’s what we explored in this box. The beads are cube shaped so it gave us a chance to contrast them with our sphere shaped pom poms. Also the beads are hard and the pompoms are soft—other properties to compare and identify by one observable property.
Red and yellow food coloring was added to shaving cream to make it look just like the flames from rocket ships.
One nice benefit of the foam is that it will
stick to vertical surfaces while
practicing pre-writing patterns!
Astronaut food! Who can forget that weird dehydrated stuff in the foil packets 🙂 We thought our Bubber looked just like it. Bubber is REALLY cool stuff, crumbly but moldable but sticky.
We’re not sure who liked it better—the students or the staff 🙂
If you look closely you can see a picture of the planet Mars we taped to the bottom of our box.
We used lavender scent in our water and lotion this week. Since the best time to see space is late at night when its time for bed, we thought it was appropriate 🙂
Lavender is a fairly strong distinctive scent and was especially aromatic in the lotion.
Our students really responded to it.
Thanks Ms. Jen for the donation!
Our blue rice and green split peas represented our planet earth—- for lots of scooping and sifting fun.!
There are some number 8 (there are 8 planets in our solar system) puzzles pieces hidden in there also.
Fine Motor Group—Space
On Tuesday, after reading Cara’s book we passed out our pre-made rocket bases (made with poster board feet placed into slits in the bottom of a toilet paper roll). Besides counting them out, as we usually do, we pointed out that their shape was a cylinder addressing the math access point of recognizing a 3 dimensional shape.
Next we counted out our cones and asked our students to “put the cone on top of the cylinder”.
EVERYBODY did such a fantastic job, we were so proud of them!
This activity addresses the math access point of recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship.
We put on our paint shirts while an adult hot glued the rocket pieces together.
Then we chose which color to paint the rocket.
We gave our students 3 choices to give them practice making choices in the format of our alternate assessment.
Everyone had a great time painting their rockets, giving them practice controlling writing utensils.
As the students hold onto the rocket, bilateral skills are also addressed.
Our rocket needs a captain! A little
glue in just the right spot…
their picture added……
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,………..
……………..Blast off!!!
To infinity and beyond 🙂
On Thursday we looked at this really
cool lighted moon while we
listened to Cara’s book and then
made our own full moon!
First we poured glue into shaving
cream ……
and took turns stirring it…….
………until it was all
mixed together.
Then we counted out a
round paper plate for
each student making sure
to point out the shape of the plate.
We used our hands to paint our mixture onto the paper plates.
Our students loved this stuff, its so wonderfully goopy!
TA DA—-our full moon.
The glue and shaving cream mixture dries just like puffy paint–
—-so COOL!
The science access point of recognizing
a change in an object is
addressed here.
Language Group—Letter H
We switched things up a bit this week and STARTED with Cara’s sound game. Lots of fun sounds to listen for!
Then we Harpooned some sea creatures.
Our Harpoon was a little Heavy, so some of our students needed Help to Hoist their catch.
We found lots of animals—- but no Hammerhead sharks.
This activity is great for building shoulder stability and eye hand coordination.
Next we used our Hands to hold some
Halloween finger puppets.
When placed on fingers, these puppets help address finger individuation.
We finished by cutting some strips
of brown construction paper.
We drew some lines as a guide
to cut along.
Some students used scissors and
others used our paper cutters.
Our strips became spikes for our
Happy Hedgehog.
Placing the strips addresses eye hand coordination in addition to spatial
relations.
A lot of fun H words!
Between our visitors and
our groups—
what a fabulous week!
Hope you come back,
Group by Group 🙂
On a final note, please take a look at our comments section. Peggy Hundley Spitz OTR has offered a discount if you mention Group by Group when you place an order at her site OTtoGo.
Our theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor groups was Florida and our theme for our Language group was Letter W.
Sensory Group—Florida
The Unique Curriculum topic this month explored home, family and where you live, so we we chose our home state as our theme this week. We hope you enjoy exploring our wonderful state with us 🙂
We started our session by looking at a map of Florida. We pointed out where we live and where we might like to visit.
Then we read Cara’s book. Our students took turns activating the voice output device to comment on things we might see in Florida. We were quite excited when one of our students started kicking his feet (he activates the switch with his foot) as soon as we told him it was his turn.
Looking at maps and identifying places on maps is a social studies access point. Reaching for the map, since we held it vertically, helps strengthen shoulder stability.
Florida is the Sunshine
State!
Our box of sunshine contained soft, round, yellow pom poms and some hard, rayed yellow shapes (from a set of manipulatives).
These bright and cheery items let us compare properties of materials: a science access point.
The next box contained some dried moss, just like the spanish moss that hangs from oak trees in Florida. It had a dry crinkly texture which was very different from the soft black bear “fur”. Again, exploring contrasting properties of materials is a science access point.
We put in a plastic orange and orange slice. This let us compare part to whole concepts which is a math access point.
There were lots of other cool Florida symbols that our students enjoyed pulling out which gave us lots of opportunities to explore language and literacy skills!
Seminole Indians are 
native to Florida.
They are known for the bead work on their clothing. We put our colorful beads in some sealed bottles.
We also put in a few shells to encourage visual discrimination as the bottles are turned.
Of course they are also lots of fun to shake, adding an auditory component!
In our next box we learned about alligators—we have lots of them in Florida!
Our alligator puppet had a zipper mouth which gave our students the opportunity to practice some activities of daily living skills. Feeling the open zipper was a safe way to touch a gators sharp teeth 🙂
We found a toy that reminded us of an alligators bumpy, rough skin. Also included was in the box, was a gator puzzle piece and a little rubber one. Comparing the sizes of the large gator puppet and a small rubber alligator targets a math access point.
Cape Canaveral, where
men were first launched into space!
Black beans look like the dark night sky and are so nice to scoop or pick up with fingers to practice pincer grasp skills. Lots of tactile input is given when burying/digging out the astronaut and moon.
We also put in a small star shaped cookie cutter, can you find it?
Discussing the star shape and the sphere shaped moon addresses math access points.
Yikes, we are also known for hurricanes! Put a hair dryer on a high, cool setting and you have WIND.
Lots of giggles and smiles erupted as hair was blown or the wind touched their hands. Our students loved this so much, we ended up bringing the “wind” into the Fine Motor and Language groups also!
Exploring the effects of wind/weather is a science access point and the tactile effects increase body awareness.
Ok, we finally got to the 
beach! We have miles of it here to walk along barefoot (we found this plastic foot on a halloween clearance rack). The foot was a HUGE hit—no pun intended 🙂
We looked for the letter F and made seashell impressions in the sand.
Other students enjoyed trying to catch the sand as it as it was spilled from the shell—-so much fun in one little box!
Next we practiced our
prewriting strokes in “key lime pie”, our state pie. Its actually vanilla pudding but its a similar color to REAL key lime pie—and a lot cheaper 🙂
The tactile aspect of finger painting helps reinforce motor memory patterns and is a great way to encourage hand and arm movements.
We rinsed our hands in orange scented water and took a little time out for some fishing, sometimes with a little help from our friends 🙂
Using the fishing pole to catch the fish promotes shoulder stability and eye hand coordination. The opening in the fish tails also makes them easy to grasp with hands.
Counting the fish as they are caught addresses math access points.
We had some other
fish that were squirters! Fun to squeeze, working on grasp skills. Also fun to have the water squirt on your hand! We were really excited to see this student actively moving her fingers and smiling during this activity.
After drying our hands, we rubbed on some orange scented lotion. A wonderful citrus scent to help us remember all the things we learned about our state today!
Thank you Ms. Metra for donating that yummy scent!
Fine Motor Group—Florida
On Tuesday, we read Cara’s book about Florida. The students got excited as they recognized some of the familiar places and things pictured.
Talking about the different things they point out allows for lots of language and literacy opportunities.
Then we proceeded to make
a palm tree—one of the most recognizable symbols of Florida!
We started by counting out rectangular pieces of white paper, working on math access points, of course!
Then we made a “down” stroke using a foam brush and brown paint.
We helped our students with the initiation point but they did a really nice job of completing the stroke. we were so proud!
Then we painted one of their hands with green paint and counted as we pressed it at the top of the brown line 2 times.
We told you we were making a “palm” tree 🙂
Some of our students could do this step independently but most of them needed some assistance.
WOW, doesn’t this make
you think of Florida 🙂
On Thursday we read Cara’s book again. Once again our students did a great job helping us read the repeating line. We didn’t talk about them in our book but Manatees are some of the wonderful animals that are native to Florida and we wanted to do a project that included them.
To get started on our activity, we counted out rectangular pieces of blue paper (addressing math access points).
Then we tore pieces of blue and green tissue paper. Tearing the paper helps promote bilateral coordination and fine motor skills.
We are making an underwater habitat for a manatee!
Our students dipped the
tissue into glue and glued it onto the paper. Crumpling the paper was encouraged!
Grasping the paper encourages pincer grasp skills and eye hand coordination.
This student needed a lot of help with his pincer grasp skills last year, but look at him now! Joy (the OT) is very pleased.
Then we painted our manatee. Joy drew the outline on some white craft foam. Its texture really resembles that of a manatee, just perfect for our project!
We added a googlie eye, OF COURSE, and glued our manatee into its habitat.
TA-DA!
Jeannie’s hallway looks so cute with the palm trees and manatees hanging on the wall!
Language Group—Letter W
We started by Wadding up some scrap paper.
This activity is great for encouraging bilateral coordination and palmer arching.
And its really fun!
Then We took out
the hair dryer again and made some Wind!
The students had so much fun Watching the hair dryer blow the paper Wads down the table. It was also fun to Watch our post-its Wave.
Most of the students could hardly Wait for their turn with the hair dryer 🙂
This activity addresses shoulder stability and eye hand coordination.
Discussing the effects of Wind addresses science access points.
Next We Wiped out a W on the dry erase board.
Following the strokes promotes Motor Memory for letter formation and Working on a vertical surface promotes shoulder stability.
We also made it big enough to sneak in a crossing midline component.
Now We are going
to make a Walrus!
For our project, some of our students cut strips of White paper using our paper cutters.
These are going to be some Walrus tusks!
Other students practiced cutting on curved lines (this is going to be the muzzle). They needed a little help but really did a nice job.
As usual, we had a variety of scissors, both adaptive and regular on hand to suit our students needs.
We used our hole punches
to cut 2 large White circles and 2 small black circles using our hole punches. We love these because they make it easy for our students to cut circles and they help with hand strengthening.
Comparing the relative sizes and counting the circles addresses math access points.
We glued all the pieces onto a brown paper lunch bag.
Assembling this addresses following directions, fine motor skills and visual spatial concepts.
Wow! A Wonderful Walrus!
Isn’t he just so super cute 🙂
What fun to play Cara’s latest sound game. Lots of cool W sounds to listen for this Week.
Watch out for that Wasp!
Whew—what a lot
of W words we found today. There were so many and scattered all around the table—-here are just a few of them!
It was just an awesome week, we had a blast! We hope you join us again for more fun Group by Group.
