Tag Archives: visual impairment

Apr23

Week 29—Spring and Summer Safety

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Week 29—Spring and Summer Safety

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!

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 🙂

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.