The theme for our Fine Motor and Sensory Groups was Spring. Our Language Group learned about Summer Safety.
Sensory Group—Spring
We read Cara’s book “Spring has Sprung” and looked at all the colorful pictures while using the voice output device to read the repetitive line. When we got to the page discussing rain, we told the students to get ready for the rain and we used our spray bottle to spray water into the air. As the fine mist came down we loved watching the students reactions!
The leaf placemats we put on the table were give aways (we do love free!) and perfect for our theme.
Our boxes this week focused on things we
see growing in the spring.We looked for seeds (dry beans) in our dirt (coffee grounds). There were 2 wormsto find and we discussed how helpful they are for the soil.
We also put in pictures of some vegetables that might grow from the seeds (science access points).
Our next box was filled with silk flower petals and leaves, toy and felt vegetables and some yarn “roots”. We also included a wooden sun (plants need sun to grow) and some craft foam bees (to help pollinate our plants).
Lots of opportunities for building language skills in this box!
Pompom’s come in a variety of colors just like flowers.
We discussed the texture (soft) and shape (round). Counting and matching address math access points. Grasp skills are addressed while reaching for and holding them.
We searched for the letter S in our rainbow rice box. We picked the rainbow rice for all the different colors, just like flowers. Great for practicing scooping as well!
For olfactory stimulation we brought out our
“Follow your Nose” game. We had fun
smelling the flower, fruit and plant
scents.
Ms Metra really liked this one!
Plants and flowers all come from seeds (our box of mixed beans). We also placed some puzzle pieces with pictures of flowers.
The beans make a very busy background for the puzzle pieces, challenging some figure-ground discrimination.
As usual we adapted our sensory items for
some of our students by placing them in
ziplock bags. We were really excited to
see this student start visually attending
to and exploring these bags, something
he has not been doing!
Our pink cloud dough(made with flour, oil, strawberry koolaid, and glitter) was perfect for making shapes with our flower cookie cutters.
Holding the edges of the cookie cutters and pushing them down into the cloud dough helps build palmer arches.
We scented our water with sweet pea body
wash!
And finished by giving the students a choice to 2 different scented lotions (one citrus and one floral). The student pictured was able to independently squeeze the lotion onto his own hands but most of our students need assistance.
After everyone had made their choice and gotten their lotion, we counted the votes for each one and discussed which one received more votes—addressing math access points.
Fine Motor Group—Spring
On Tuesday we read Cara’s book and used our spray bottle to make it “rain”. This group loved the rain and asked for more, lots of smiles all around! For our art activity we made flowers using a variety of plastic bottles—we saw this idea on Pinterest.
First we counted out our paper (addressing math access points). Our students practice writing their names. This student is working on connecting dots to form the first letter of her name. For others, their name might just be a scribble.
After turning their papers over, the
students used markers to make
“down” lines. They all really did a great job, of course some of
them needed a little help but we are still really excited to see
their progress.
Then we dipped the bottom of our bottles into paint and stamped onto the paper.
On a cute note, this student added “ooh’s” every time she stamped her flour—-adorable!
We counted the flowers and helped
our students find the number on
the communication board.
Ta Da!
For our student with a visual impairment,
the vision teacher added some
pompom’s to the centers of the flowers.
On Thursday, after reading Cara’s book again, we did another stamping activity—but this time with fresh vegetables!
Before starting, we put on “paint shirts”.
A great opportunity to practice dressing skills.
We passed out our paper and discussed its
shape as we counted it out—we never
forget our math access points!
Then the fun began!
We used potatoes…
And carrots!
and…..
…………………………..corn!
This was totally one of our best activities! Our
students had so much fun and nobody ate the
vegetables 🙂
Here this our first TaDa!
Love it!!!
And one more Ta Da
we just couldn’t
resist!
Language Group—Summer Safety
We started by making our pledge for Summer Safety. Cara wrote out the pledge with fill in the blank sentences. Then the students were asked to choose the correct answer (made with BoardMaker symbols) from a selection of 3 (alternate assessment format).
Some of the students need fewer choices and we adapted the activity accordingly.
Gluing the squares onto the poster
addresses fine motor and visual
spatial skills.
After completing the poster, we read all the sentences aloud.
We are going to be safe this summer!
Going along with our summer safety theme, we started making a sun hat. It gets quite sunny here in Florida and a hat can come in pretty handy on a summer day!
We started by placing a large piece of colored paper (you could also use wrapping or newspaper) over the students head and taping it around brow level.
Not all our students could tolerate this part of the activity but fortunately we had others who were glad to help out 🙂
Then we rolled up the sides all around.
This was a lot of fun and everyone was able to participate.
Crumpling and rolling the paper addresses finger and
wrist movements.
What a fabulous hat!
We went outside to see if the hats work
—-and they do!
We finished up by looking at some of the Summer Safety words we found today.
This week was so awesome, we hope you come back next time to share more fun Group by Group!