Tag Archives: visual tracking

Oct28

Pumpkin Time and Letter I

Posted on October 28, 2012 by jd785

Pumpkin Time was the theme for this weeks Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. Our Language Group learned about words starting with the letter I.

Sensory Group—Pumpkin Time

Our orange themed box was a huge hit, our students loved it!

We filled it with a variety of textures such as yarn, tulle, and fabric scraps. We also put in some play food oranges, carrots, and a variety of pumpkins including bean bag and kitchen scrubber ones.!

Shiny beads, soft pompoms and chenille stems added some more contrasting textures. Plastic stretchy tubes were fun to pull apart and added a fun auditory component. And finally some beads, puzzle pieces, toys—

——all with that lovely bright ORANGE color.

So much fun to grab and shake!

Did we say our students LOVED this box? 🙂

‘

This box addresses the Language access

point of responding to familiar objects

and the science access point of

comparing and contrasting

properties of materials.

This little fish shoots puffs of air

when squeezed—–fun 🙂

Of course if you have an orange box, you have to contrast it with a black one. Lots of textured items from headbands, toy bats and furry fabric to window screening and Mr. Potato Head pieces (like his black hat and mustache).

There were a lot of opportunities for promoting bilateral coordination with our stretchy tubes and slinky spirals.

When pulling these items, the science access point of recognizing that pushing or pulling an object makes it move is addressed.

These boxes also address the science access point of exploring, observing, and recognizing common objects in the natural world.

And, of course, if there are sunglasses and

beads in a box, they HAVE to be put on!

Our students can totally rock a

pair of glasses, don’t you think 🙂

As students place objects on and off

themselves they are building body

awareness and spatial concepts.

Continuing our orange and black theme we brought back our black playdoh for one more time!

Its just so sparkly and squishable.

Our cat cookie cutter let us make a bunch of cute black cats.

In addition to addressing the fine motor skills playing with playdough also addresses the science access point of of recognizing a change in an object.

Pumpkin pie spice was added to our orange playdough

and made it smell wonderful.

It was perfect for our pumpkin cookie cutter.

We had a few students who tried to sample the

playdough but for the most part, everyone played

with it appropriately.

The shapes cut out can also be counted as

addressing math access points.

Our orange rice with black beans is just so eye catching—you can’t help putting your hands into it! Fun to practice scooping and also to search for the letter P…..

and a little wooden pumpkin.

Scooping and filling using measuring cups and spoons helps address the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers (capacity).

Fine motor skills of grasp and eye hand coordination are also addressed.

We filled our discovery bottles with karo syrup,

orange food coloring, orange beads, black

glitter and some black cat confetti. Hot

glue does a great job of making sure

they can’t be opened—-some of the

students have very busy little hands 🙂

Following the moving objects addresses

the science access point of tracking

objects in motion.

Finger painting in canned pumpkin puree (decorated with black icing)—what could be more gooey, squishy fun in which to practice prewriting patterns 🙂

Still, it was also wet and a little cold so some of our students who are more tactile defensive dove in a little more slowly.

We rinsed our hands and finished with pumpkin

scented lotion from Bath and Bodyworks.

Everybody left smelling just like yummy

pumpkin pies!

A nice strong scent to help everyone

remember all the wonderful things we

learned today.

Fine Motor Group—Pumpkin Time

Body Sox in the sensory room—-OR an alien visitor? Hmmm

The body sox are so much fun and great for getting some nice proprioceptive input from their stretchy resistance.

On Tuesday after returning to the classroom and listening to Cara’s book we let our students choose a mask. Joy found the masks in a $2 grab bag at Michaels—what a deal! Our students chose from a selection of 3 masks—giving them an opportunity to make choices out of a array of 3 which compares to the format of our state alternate assessment.

Taking the markers out of the bags gave us an opportunity to practice working with zippers. A chenille stem (sturdier than a piece of yarn) makes it easier for some of our students to pull.

Putting the markers in and out of the bag addresses the math access point of recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship.

We used markers to color the masks. Scribbling and coloring are important steps in the prewriting continuum. During the activity we made sure to discuss the colors students chose and the different facial features.

Then we tried them on for size….

On Thursday we read Cara’s book again. Our students had just worn costumes and gone trick or treating at our community health department so it was a real opportunity to address the language access point of communicating recognition of familiar objects.

On to our art project!

We counted out 7 pieces of rectangular, black paper and then 7 potatoes carved to look like little jack-o-lanterns. Each time we count out our materials we are helping develop one to one correspondence.

We took time to look at the potatoes and discuss the face carved into them.

This activity helps build hand grasp skills and eye hand coordination. This potatoes have a little weight to them which gives some nice additional proprioceptive feedback.

How many pumpkins did you stamp? We used our number flip chart to help our students address the math access point of one to one correspondence.

Ta-Da!

Language Group—Letter I

We listened for some I words in

Cara’s sound game.

Next we Inserted legs………Into our Insect.

We used the little bugs from the Cootie game for this activity.

This is a great activity for building bilateral coordination!

Our little Insect Isn’t Icky at all…..

Is he 🙂

We picked up Iguanas with our tongs and put them In a bowl.

Manipulating tongs helps build graded motor control which is necessary to manipulate scissors.

In addition, placing the objects into the bowl addresses eye hand coordination and spatial relationships.

Ivan helped out our students who were unable to manipulate

the tongs.

We adapted him using velcro and a shower curtain ring!

We finished by making down lines (just like the

initial stroke of a letter I) on our Iglo0.

We used our adapted toy for our students who

needed switch access

to participate.

It wasn’t so easy finding I words today but we managed to come up with quite a few of them, didn’t we?

Join us again next week its going to be fun…..

Group by Group 🙂

Sep18

Paralympics and Letter C

Posted on September 18, 2012 by jd785

Paralympics and Letter C

This week the theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups was the London Paralympics and our Language Group looked at words starting with the letter C.

Sensory Group—London Paralympics

We started as usual by reading Cara’s lastest book and using our voice output device to read the repetitive line.

You have to get on an airplane to travel to London!

When we got to the page in Cara’s book about riding in an airplane, we all took turns with the massager to simulate the vibration you would feel on the plane. Some of our students really like the feel of vibration, others not so much.

Recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli is a science access point.

Our first box contained so many cool things. We included a double decker bus and british mailbox, wheelchair, a bag with the british flag, an athletic medal, strips of black fake fur (the soldiers guarding Buckingham Palace wear bearskin hats), some miniature sport balls, and a keychain with the 2012 logo among the rose petals (the british national flower).

We are addressing the access point of responding to new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly. We are also addressing the social studies access point of recognizing the cultural characteristics of a population.

The British flag banner was so much fun to drape around our students or to grasp and wave around. It also gave a chance to talk about the different colors. This box also included some British coins we placed in an old spice container—-fun to shake and listen to them rattle.

Reach and grasp skills in addition to visual tracking as the objects move are addressed here. We are also targeting the science access points of pushing and pulling an object to make it move and tracking objects in motion as well as the social studies access point of recognizing coins as money.

More red, white and blue with our rice but with a hidden surprise of the Olympic 2012 logo at the bottom. We also put the number 4—the Paralympics happens every 4 years!

Look at this colorful collection— our next box filled with pompoms, yarn and ribbons in the colors of the Olympic flag. A great opportunity to work on color identification as comparing and contrasting shape, color and texture.

The pompoms have such a nice soft texture and are easy to grasp. Picking up the ribbon and yarn strands encourages pincer grasp skills.

This targets the access point of identifying objects by one observable property.

The British love their tea and our students loved exploring the aromatic tea leaves.Wonderful tactile input as hands slide around and sift through it. We put in some circular puzzle pieces, again in the Olympic colors. We are working on the access point of recognizing objects with 2 dimensional shapes.

We added red and yellow food coloring to our shaving cream—to make the olympic flame! So much fun practicing pre-writing strokes.

Gold medals—-thats what all the athletes want to win. We made some terrific sparkly gold playdough and used circle cookie cutters to make our own medals.

We finished with some rose scented lotion to help us remember all the wonderful things we learned about the London Paralympics.

Fine Motor Group—London Paralympics

After reading Cara’s book and taking turns reading the repetitive line on our voice output device we began our art project—we’re going to make an olympic flag!

We counted out 6 pieces of white rectangular paper addressing one to one correspondence and the math access point of recognizing common objects with 2 dimensional shapes.

Then we took a toilet paper roll and stamped a ring. We emphasized stamping just 1 time before passing to the next student.

After we stamped a ring with all 5 of the olympic flag colors we glued a strip with the 2012 logo at the bottom. We helped our students place glue in an “across” fashion addressing pre-writing patterns.

This also addresses the math access point of recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down.

Placing the strip onto the glue encourages bilateral skills, eye hand coordination, and graded motor control.

Perfectly done as you can see here 🙂

Ta Da—our olympic flag

Awesome!!!

OnThursday we had our own mini paralympics in the sensory room then came back to the classroom to read Cara’s book before making an Olympic torch.

We passed around 7 pieces of rectangle paper—bright neon!

We always practice writing our names.

Then we glued on a grey rectangle.

Again working on the math access point of recognizing a common object with a 2 dimensional shape.

Next we tore pieces of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper. Tearing paper is a great pre-scissor skill activity.

We dipped the pieces into glue and placed them onto the top of the triangle.

Look at that concentration—-love it 🙂

Wow look at those flames—

let the games begin!

Language Group—letter C

First we Cleared the Clutter—a Comb, Card, Cup, Chip Clip, Car, Coin, Clock, Cord. The students got to Choose which item they wanted to put in the Container.

then we Closed the top—using both hands and squeezing

tightly!

Next we Clapped to make the Crab Crawl around the table. Our students just really loved this wiggly little guy and they all had to take turns holding it 🙂

We Colored aCardboard C using Crayons. Then Continued decorating it with Cotton balls working on our pincer grasp skills.

So darn Cute

—-and Creative!

Sssh—its time to listen to Cara’s sound

game.

We found some really Cool C words today.

“C” you next time—Group by Group!

May28

Week 32—Birthdays

Posted on May 28, 2012 by jd785

Week 32—Birthdays

We managed to squeeze in one last week of groups before summer and decided the theme Birthdays would be lots of fun for all our groups!

Sensory Group—Birthdays

As usual we started by reading Cara’s latest book and marveled, once again, at how good our students have gotten at pressing the voice output device to repeat the repetitive line.

Our first box contained an assortment of birthday related items. We had confetti (made from a shredded magazine), party horns and paper streamers—very interesting visually.

We put in the words Family and Friends (along with some play people) because that’s who come to our birthday parties! Toy cookies and a squeaky (a nice auditory component and also good for hand strengthening) cupcake reminded us of all the yummy food.

We also tucked in a voice output device with the “happy birthday” tune for our students to find. Again, lots of language opportunities along with interesting things to touch and look at in this box!

Our box of ribbon was a big hit! We filled the box with pieces of curled paper ribbon but also added some fabric ribbon for an interesting textural comparison.

Some of the students especially liked pulling the curled ribbon to watch in straighten out—-a nice way to practice bilateral skills!

Access points are addressed comparing the straight and curly properties of the different ribbons. In addition, relative lengths can be compared, addressing more math access points.

As always, colors are noted and discussed.

Birthday cakes always have candles—or at least at home they do 🙂

We aren’t allowed to have candles at school so we used our Wikki Stix to represent them. The Wikki Stix have that waxy feel, just like candles. They can be twisted into shapes, numbers and letters—or just crumpled into a ball all the while addressing hand intrinsic functions!

We are all huge fans of funfetti cake and thought our rainbow rice looked just like those colorful sprinkles.

Since birthdays are all about numbers, we put a few in for the students to find.

Speaking of cake, it starts with flour which we put in our next box. We also put in some laminated candles to count (addressing math access points) and a hidden surprise—-a birthday cake picture taped to the bottom.

Visual discrimination skills and fine motor skills are also addressed in this box.

…..and of course if you like messy play, this is totally the box for you—this stuff gets EVERYWHERE 🙂

We had to had some balloons! Since some of our students and staff have latex allergies we stuck with mylar balloons. Our students really enjoyed playing with them!

Visual tracking is, of course, addressed as they move about. Eye hand coordination skills are addressed when reaching for or hitting the balloons. There is also an auditory component as the slightly deflated ones are grasped and crumpled.

Literacy skills are addressed when reading the words on the balloons.

We let our students vote which color to make our shaving cream “icing” and then let them have a blast mixing it all in.

Great to practice prewriting patterns or just to engage arm movements.

Afterwards we got to rinse our hands in cake scented body wash (from philosophy) and rubbed on our vanilla sugar lotion to help us remember what a “sweet” time we had today!

Fine Motor Group—-Birthdays

On Thursday we read Cara’s book and proceeded to make party hats! We started by passing out and counting 8 red party hats. The hats were give aways—which we love 🙂

We discussed the hat’s shape (cone)—-addressing math access points.

We glued on pieces of tissue paper. Some of the students applied their glue by using brushes to reinforce tool use skills. Others dipped the paper into glue bowls (made from caps), addressing eye hand coordination and pincer grasp.

We discussed the colors of the various tissue paper squares and counted how many were put onto the cone.

Some fabulous foam glitter stickers gave us another opportunity to work on pincer grasp and bilateral coordination skills. Some of our students could peel them apart independently but most needed some help.

Alright, these are some pretty festive looking hats!

Time to get the party started 🙂

On Thursday we read Cara’s book again and had fun picking out different details in the pictures. Our art activity was making cupcake pictures.

First we gave the students an opportunity to make a choice regarding what color paper they wanted. When everyone was finished we counted the 8 rectangular pieces of paper, addressing math access points.

Everyone practiced “writing” their name on the bag of the paper.

Next we asked out students to decide if they were going to make 1, 2, or 3 cupcakes and handed them the corresponding amount of small brown rectangles.

In addition to addressing number identification, this also practices answering in the testing format our district uses.

We asked the students to draw vertical “down” lines using a marker.

Some really nice skills emerging with this student, we are so proud 🙂

After the rectangles were glued to the paper we added some colorful cotton ball frosting.

Lots of opportunities to work on pincer grasp and eye hand coordination here!

However, for some of our students just allowing their hand to be placed to help tap down the cotton balls is a huge leap in their participation.

Needless to say, we celebrate every students efforts 🙂

We added some glitter sprinkles and——Ta-Da—–some yummy cupcakes that look good enough to eat.

Language Group—Birthdays

We started by looking at the directions for making cupcakes that Cara had printed out. Lots of steps to keep track of and remembering what comes “next” and who’s turn it is!

Next we picked out a big mixing bowl.

And then we put in the cake mix. We discussed the concepts of in and out addressing language and access points.

Then we added water and oil. Comparing the different measures and cups addressed math access points.

In addition, graded motor control, bilateral skills, and eye hand coordination are practiced.

The recipe called for 3 eggs so this gave us an opportunity to practice number identification.

Due to concerns regarding possible salmonella issues, the adults handled the eggs.

Time to stir—-some students used a switch to operate the mixer. We used an Ablenet Power Link device to accomplish this—-a very useful assistive technology device!

Everybody got a turn to put the cupcake liners in the pan—counting them to address more math access points.

Then students filled the liners with the cake batter (working on more fine motor skills) and put them in the oven for 15 minutes while the class went to music class. If they had been staying in the room we would have used a visual timer to help reinforce time concepts.

After the cupcakes cooled, it was time to decorate!

We counted out spoons and each student scooped a spoonful of icing to spread on their cupcake. A few needed to be reminded to spread the icing—not to eat it straight from the spoon—kids will be kids 🙂

Then they got an opportunity to choose which color sprinkles they wanted. Again, practicing choice making from an array of 3 which is related to our alternate testing format.

Time to enjoy—-effort should always be rewarded!

YUM YUM YUM

And finally, a quick look at our cupcake words. Wow, there are a lot of words associated with making cupcakes!

Well, that really was our last group for the year! We will continue to do some posts about our school and classrooms this summer so be check them out. Hope everyone has a great summer and hope to see you again in the fall for more fun Group by Group!

Apr9

Week 27—Easter Time

Posted on April 9, 2012 by jd785

Week 27—Easter Time

This week the theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups was Easter. We did not have a Language Group this week because the class went on a field trip.

Sensory Group—Easter Time

We read Cara’s book and used our voice output device to read the repetitive line.

Some of our students use their hands or their heads and a few even use their feet!

Then we started exploring our sensory boxes. Our first box had a variety of easter related items including easter grass, plastic eggs and carrots, easter cookie cutters, purple/pink/yellow pompom’s, a little plush chick and duck.

The Easter grass was a huge hit and pulling apart the strands promotes bilateral coordination in addition to fine motor skills.

Counting pompoms or carrots addresses math access points. Discussing size, shape, color and texture addresses science points.

It’s amazing how much you can fit into one little box!

Next we explored bright yellow feathers and big white pompoms—-our version of chicks and bunnies! These items let us compare and contrast the various properties of these materials, addressing science access points.

We loved these fluffy feathers. It was so much fun to pick up a handful and watch as they drifted down. There were so many feathers, that some of the students ended up looking a little like Big Bird 🙂

Visual tracking is addressed as the feathers drift down and pincer grasp skills are addressed as the students pick up the feathers. Tactile discrimination is also addressed.

We also had fun with our easter garland. We draped on or wrapped it around our students. It was also fun to grab it and shake it.

The little egg decorations really fluttered around, very visually interesting and soft to the touch.

We looked for the letter E in our green rice. Its bright green color looked just like grass with tiny little white easter eggs (navy beans). We also taped some easter egg pictures to the bottom of our box which could be found as the rice was brushed aside.

It was really eye catching and our students loved sifting it through their fingers.

This activity addresses visual and tactile discrimination in addition to literacy.

We also addressed visual skills with our sensory bottle filled with jelly beans. Our students loved shaking it and listening to the rattle as it was shook.

We did have to carefully watch the bottle as a few of the staff really wanted a sample 🙂

Our bunny and sheep fake fur was fun to rub and touch. Soft and cuddly just like little bunnies and lambs.

While it was the same color the textures were different (science access points).

We made our own version of marshmallow peeps by mixing cornstarch, shaving cream and yellow food coloring.

Soft and squishy just like marshmallows! This is the same stuff we made last week (minus the food coloring) and it was just as much fun this week—awesome stuff you HAVE to try it 🙂

We discussed how the materials changed as we mixed them, addressing science access points.

Finger painting in chocolate pudding, practicing prewriting strokes and the letter E.

It doesn’t get much messier than this!

Our students were pretty good about not sampling but as you can see in the picture, our hands needed to stay pretty close!

We rinsed off in vanilla sugar scented water and rubbed our hands in vanilla sugar scented lotion—to remind us of all the yummy candy we hope to find in our easter baskets, YUM!!!

Fine Motor Group—Easter Time

We read Cara’s book and students took turns using our bunny puppet.

It was so cute to watch as they waved it around or made it hop.

For our art activity we started by passing out 8 pieces of blue paper.

We counted the papers as we handed them out and discussed their rectangular shape addressing math access points.

Of course they have to “sign” their names!

Then we used our hole punches to cut out circle shapes and compared them to larger circles we had previously cut on the ellison machine addressing more math access points.

Squeezing the hole punch helps with hand strengthening.

We squeezed glue onto our blue paper.

Also great for hand strengthening and bilateral coordination.

We put some green easter grass and the big yellow circle onto the glue.

We found we probably should have put the easter grass on last instead of this early in the process—it was very entrancing to our students, making it hard to move onto the next step 🙂

Then we glued on our small circle and a precut orange triangle—more math access points 🙂

Spatial relationships are also addressed.

Our little chick is starting to come together!

We added a yellow feather—the finishing touch 🙂

Spatial relations and fine motor skills are addressed when completing this activity.

Ta-Da—a cute little chick

complete with googlie eye!

Don’t they look awesome hanging outside Jeannie’s classroom!

Love it! Love it!

On Thursday, we read Cara’s book again

and all had fun pointing to our

favorite candy—although it was kind of

hard to make a choice 🙂

Then we gave our students a choice of 3 craft foam eggs.

We discussed their oval shape addressing math access points.

We got these eggs (10 in a package) in the dollar section at Target—we love a bargain!

We decorated the eggs using craft foam stickers—so cute.

We helped the students peel the backing off of the stickers, practicing pincer grasp skills.

Then we counted the stickers, addressing math access points.

Our students are also working on being able to identify numerals.

Super cute!

What a colorful bright egg!

Hippity Hoppity!

We had a great time this week, join us again next week —-our Language Group will be back—for more fun and learning Group by Group!

Mar18

Week 25—St.Patricks Day and the Letter Y

Posted on March 18, 2012 by jd785

Week 25—St.Patricks Day and the Letter Y

This week we had fun learning about St.Patricks Day in our Sensory and Fine Motor groups. Letter Y was the theme in our Language Group.

Sensory Group—St. Patricks Day

We read Cara’s book and learned all about symbols associated with the holiday. Our students used the voice output device to ask “what do we see on St. Patricks Day”.

Our first box was filled with a variety of green items such as silk shamrock leaves, silk leaves, easter grass, shamrock beads, manipulatives, chenille stems, mini kitchen scrubber and toys. We also included play food—some vegi’s you might use for irish stew and a couple of rubber snakes St. Patrick missed when he was driving them out of Ireland 🙂

Lots of different textures to explore and compare (addressing science access points). Lots of interesting items to look at and talk about.

Legend has it there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and we found some! We used some gold mardi gras beads and green pom poms in our treasure box.

This box let us address science access points when contrasting properties of materials and address math access points when counting the items.

We looked for the letter P, for Patrick, in our rainbow rice. Its just so bright and colorful!

As always, lots of fun to sift through and scoop.

Looking for the letters addresses visual and tactile discrimination skills, in addition to literacy.

We turned the light off and had more rainbow fun with our rainbow light.

Everyone had to be touched by rainbow!

Visual attending and tracking are addressed during this activity.

We turned the lights back on and made shamrocks out of our green sparkly play dough. Joy used lemon-lime Koolade and LOTS of green glitter, it looks fabulous!

Play dough activities are great for working on hand strengthening. We counted 3 leaves on each shamrock, addressing math access points.

Next, we practiced scooping with our potato flakes. Potatoes are popular in Irish cooking and play an important role in Irish history.

We also taped a surprise to the bottom of the box—a little leprechaun peeking out!

Visual discrimination and social studies access points are addressed.

Some chunky bright orange yarn made a great leprechaun bread. Soft and stringy, its so much fun to reach and grab, working on shoulder strengthening.

Green oobleck with gold glitter. So pretty and sparkly. Green to remind us of Ireland and gold to remind us of the leprechaun’s gold.

Very eye catching and fun to draw prewriting patterns in.

We finished by rinsing our hands in Bath and Body works Juniper Breeze scented water and then rubbed the scented lotion on our hands.

This lovely outdoor scent reminded us of the Irish countryside and will help us remember all the fun we had learning about the symbols of St. Patricks Day.

Fine Motor Group—St. Patricks Day

We read Cara’s book “Symbols of St. Patricks Day”. Our students did an excellent job activating the voice output device to participate in reading the book.

We started our project by using our adaptive table top scissors to cut some yellow squares.

We discussed the square shape, addressing math access points.

What a great job our students are doing, they are really visually attending to the scissors.

We glued a small black square on top of the big yellow square.

This addresses math access points and spatial concepts. In addition, pincer skills are practiced.

The yellow square was then glued to a strip of black paper.

It looks like a belt but its not 🙂

We set it aside and began our next step.

Then we practiced writing our names on a small paper plate. Our students are given a model to copy. Our students have varying skill levels in this area. Most are working on scribbling.

Then we turned the plate over and painted it green.

Our students are getting lots of practice using classroom tools. We get very excited when they start scribbling or painting independently.

We glued a green solo cup onto the paper plate. We used just regular old elmers glue and it held pretty well.

We then wrapped the black paper strip around the cup and taped it.

This activity addresses eye hand coordination and bilateral functions.

Have you guessed what we are making yet?

Why some fabulous green

hats, of course!

Just waiting for

some leprechauns:)

On Thursday we read Cara’s book again and then started our next activity. We are going to make a leprechaun beard.

We started by asking each student to cut 3 pieces of orange yarn. We counted outloud while each student took their turn.

Everyone did a great job!

We then squeezed a bunch of glue (Jeannie colors it with food coloring to make it easier for her students to see) on a strip cut from a large paper plate. Then we practiced our pincer grasps by picking up the yarn and dropping it on the plate.

The darker orange strings are actually pipe cleaners threaded through holes to make ear hangers.

When everyone had put their 3 pieces of yarn on the plate we used a voice output device to ask our students if we were finished or needed more yarn. Those students who chose “more”, got to add additional yarn to the beard. Most of the students chose “finished”—it was time for snack 🙂

This activity addresses math access points and communication skills.

Here is Ms. Martha (the OT intern), our leprechaun model for the day!

Jeannie (classroom teacher) also took lots of pictures of her cute little leprechauns for her yearbook.

Language Group—Letter Y

We started by stringing some Yellow beads. Some of our students were able to manipulate standard beads and laces.

This activity helps bilateral coordination and fine motor skills.

Some of our students needed the activity to be modified by using pipe cleaners which are stiffer than regular laces.

We also used larger beads which are easier to grasp.

Other students strung beads on aquarium tubing which is even easier.

After stringing their beads, our students practiced one to one correspondence by counting how many Yellow beads were on their string. For our students who are non-verbal, we used a step-by-step voice output device.

Love how the voice output device matches our Yellow theme—we planned that 🙂

Next, we tasted some sour apple spray candy! We checked with nursing and they said it was ok for our students who are tube fed in this classroom (some students are completely NPO, so we always check with the nurses before any tastings).

Here is Ms. Garland taking her turn!

For our students who were hesitant to have something sprayed in their mouth, we sprayed a spot on their hands so they could lick it instead.

Everyone got a chance to communicate whether it was Yummy or Yucky!

As You can imagine, everyone had a definite opinion 🙂

Then we started on our project—making Yachts!

First our students used scissors to trim a Yellow triangle (math access points). Some of the students in this class are able to manipulate regular scissors, others use adaptive ones.

We also modified this activity for the individual students by changing the amount of lines they had to cut. For example, this student only had to trim one side. Other students had to cut along 2 lines or even the complete shape.

Then we cut 2 holes with a hole punch. Some of our students really enjoyed the hole punch so they cut a few more 🙂

This is a great hand strengthening activity.

A straw (with the bendy part cut off) was treaded through the holes to make a mast.

Our Yacht is starting to come together!

We stuck the straw into a slice of pool noodle and tested the Yacht’s sea-worthiness— it floats!

Our students were so excited watching their Yachts float on the water. We wished we had gotten a bigger container but the smaller one gave the students an opportunity to take turns and also do some math problem solving—how many Yachts can fit into the container.

We came back to the table to play Cara’s sound game.

A Yellow Jacket—Yikes! If it stung, You might Yelp!

Then we finished by looking at some of the Y words we found today.

Did we have good time?

YEAH!!!!

We are off on spring break for the next week but we’ll be back soon with more fun Group by Group!

Mar12

Week 24—Money and the Letter X

Posted on March 12, 2012 by jd785

Week 24—Money and the Letter X

This week our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups learned about money. We picked the theme to relate to the schools Unique Curriculum theme of economics. The Letter X was the theme for our Language Group.

Sensory Group—Money

We read Cara’s book “There are Many Different Kinds of Jobs”. We chose careers that children often say they want to be when they grow up and related each of our boxes to the different jobs.

Our first box was related to money. It had green paper shred because our money is made of paper and dyed green. We also put in some paper money and coin replicas. Our coins were larger than real life to avoid any choking hazards. We put in beads with dollar signs (we found these at Target in their St. Patricks Day section!) and some gift/credit cards. We also put in a money clip, car key (you often drive to work), and a piece of leather (purses and wallets are often made of leather).

Our students had a lot of fun with this box—some of them really enjoyed collecting the money. Which, of course, gave us an opportunity to work on math access points!

The next box had a construction theme—what fun to drive a dump truck! We used assorted beans for our gravel and put in a couple of toy trucks and the letter C. We also hid a little surprise at the bottom—a picture of a dump truck was taped to the bottom of the box!

In addition to practicing scooping skills, uncovering the truck addresses visual and tactile discrimination skills.

How about becoming President! We filled our next box with the patriotic colors of red, white and blue.

Soft pompoms and hard beads allow us to contrast properties of materials which is a science access point. Sorting and counting the different colored pompoms relates to math access points.

We also included a letter P for President to address literacy skills.

Pink and white rice, a crown—yes, its a princess sensory box!

Nancy made this bracelet we by wrapping strips of tulle around a rubber band. This was a huge hit with some of the students. Very visually interesting to watch the tulle move as a hand was waved.

Concepts of same and different are addressed—the 2 crowns are the “same” and the spoon is “different”.

We also included the letter P to address literacy.

Another exciting job would be a circus performer which is the theme of our next box. We filled it with some colorful packing peanuts, puzzle pieces depicting different circus performers, and the letter C.

The packing peanuts can be sorted by color and allow opportunities to practice pincer grasp skills.

We talked about being a firefighter while finger painting in shaving cream. It looks just like the foam used to douse fires!

We practiced prewriting patterns and letters by finger painting in the foam.

Encouraging students to interact with the foam helps address tactile sensitivity issues.

When finished finger painting, hands were rinsed in water. Our students always enjoy the opportunity to play in water. Its fun but can also be very calming and relaxing for our students.

We also included some theme related items to encourage visual tracking. A glittery baton—just like a circus performer—was a great tool to practice forearm rotation movements. Watching the movements of the glitter as it moved in the water water from one end of the tube to the other related to science access points.

One of our I-spy bottles (made from some plastic juice bottles with lids tape shut) contained some toy coins (along with rice and beans for contrast).

Fun to roll and watch the coins sift through the rice.

The other bottle contained some brightly colored princess jewels.

Both of these bottles could be rotated to encourage visual tracking or shaken for auditory input.

Coin and color identification skills can be addressed using these bottles.

We finished by using some rose scented lotion—

to remind us our future looks “rosy” 🙂

It had a very distinct aroma that all our students reacted to.

Rubbing the lotion on our hands promotes bilateral coordination. For those students who tend to put their hands in their mouths, we rub lotion on their upper arms or the back of their necks.

Fine Motor Group—Money

We read “There are Many Different Kinds of Jobs” which our students loved. They recognized the different professions and all seemed to have a favorite.

After reading the book we made some piggy banks. We started by using an electronic cutting machine. Our students were SO excited and could hardly wait for their turn to press the button– their eyes were glued on the machine 🙂

Listening skills, following directions, turn taking and finger individuation skills are addressed while operating the machine. Watching the mat board move as the machine cuts encourages visual tracking.

We counted out the 7 pink circles that we cut, then we counted 8 students.

Hmm, I think we need 1 more circle!

Working on math access points 🙂

We cut out some smaller circles and some triangles—getting lots more turns to press that button and make the machine go!

Counting the circles, and comparing their sizes addresses math access points. We also worked on shape identification and the concept of same and different with the circles and triangles.

Now to assemble our little piggy! We glued 2 triangles to the big circle to make ears. Then we glued the small circle on top of the big circle.

We used our food coloring enhanced glue to give the students additional visual cues for placement.

Picking up those small pieces really works on precision grasping skills! Squeezing the glue helps strengthen grasp.

Comparing all the sizes and shapes, in addition to counting different items addresses math access points.

We glued the piggy on a piggy bank.

The bank was made by wrapping paper around some different containers, such as mixed nuts or icing, and cutting a slit in the top.

Here is a cute little piggy bank—just waiting to be filled on Thursday!

On Thursday, we read Cara’s book again. It was fun seeing which jobs the students became excited about —construction worker and princess were some of the top choices 🙂

Lets start filling up the piggy bank! We printed some dollar bills (we found these on the Activity Village website).

Our students used the paper cutters to cut along lines that we highlighted—“follow the yellow brick road”!

This activity addresses eye hand coordination and visual tracking.

Time to color the money, green of course!

We used a variety of markers. We like these Crayola pipsqueaks that are perfect for little hands.

We really like how this student is demonstrating some nice bilateral coordination skills—stabilizing her money with her right hand while coloring with the left! She has not always been able to do this, so we were pretty excited.

We also like these Crayola tripod markers that are easy for little hands to grasp. Talk about Universal Design!

This is a fun way to practice using writing tools and coloring in a designated area.

Some of our students knew exactly what to do with the money. After all, its never too early to start saving 🙂

This student folded her money up to fit in the designated space, performing some algebraic functions——related to math access points!

We did save some of the dollars to buy snacks—a great opportunity to reinforce what money can be used for.

This student just handed his dollar to Jeannie and is signing “more”. He knows the value of a dollar 🙂

Those little hands are just so cute!

Language Group—Letter X

We did something a little different (Ms Garland came up with this awesome idea) in our language group this week, a scavenger hunt—X marks the spot!

First we eXmined our map, looking for treasure all around the school.

Using maps addresses social studies access points, sequencing and following directions.

This is going to be eXciting!!!

At our first stop we found 2 stretchy tubes.

Pulling the tubes apart—using maXimum effort—works on upper extremity strengthening and bilateral coordination.

They also have a very satisfying sound as they are pulled apart.

We used our stretchy tubes to make an eXtreme X!

Crossing the tubes to make the X and laying it on top of the tape addresses visual spatial skills.

We found this boX at the neXt spot.

Looks like we are in for some bubble fun!

Instead of blowing the bubbles, you have to squeeze!

How eXtraordinary!

Dipping the wand into the bubble mix addresses eye hand coordination. Squeezing the blower works on grip strength. Visual tracking skills are also addressed while following the bubbles.

Discussing the effect of wind of the bubbles addresses science access points.

We followed the map to this spot were we had to imitate an X.

This student did an eXcellent job, don’t you think!

We finally reached the treasure—cookies iced with an X—eXactly what we were looking for!

Needless to say, we all wanted to eXamine them pretty closely 🙂

Time to make our

eXit.

Here are some of the X words we found today— we may have lost a post-it or two on our trek today 🙂

Please join us again next time for lots more fun and learning Group by Group.

Feb25

Week 22—Mardi Gras and the Letter V

Posted on February 25, 2012 by jd785

Week 22—Mardi Gras and the Letter V

This week the theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups was Mardi Gras. Letter V was the theme for our Language Group.

Sensory Group—Mardi Gras

Cara’s book “At the Mardi Gras Parade” had such bright colorful pictures that our students loved. We continue to encourage them to press the voice output device to help read the story.

Our first box focused on the Mardi Gras colors of purple, yellow, and green. We included yarn, garland, curling ribbon, feathers, beads, small toys, and crowns. We also included a little toy baby because of the Mardi Gras tradition of luck coming to the person who finds it in their piece of King Cake.

This box helps work on color identification skills. All the different textures explored properties of materials (science access point). Fine motor skills are addressed while reaching for, grasping, and releasing the different objects. And, of course, talking about all the different objects addresses language skills.

This was such a colorful box and we all loved it!

We continued exploring textures and colors

with our next box. Easter grass made a great stand-in for cotton candy that you might buy some from a street vendor while watching the Mardi Gras parade!

Its light and easy to grasp and Pulling the it apart encourages bilateral coordination.

There are lots of lights on the floats at the Mardi Gras parade so course we had to have some! We included some of our spinning light up toys as well as these battery operated lights we found at Target.

Our students had fun touching them or having them draped around their shoulders.

Looking at the lights encourages visual attending and tracking.

Our next box contained some purple“macaroons” that you might find at the French Quarter! Well, actually, its a substance called “Bubber” which can be purchased from a variety of catalogs. It has the most amazing feel—light and silky just like a macaroon! The adults loved it as much as the students —-you just can’t stop touching this stuff!

BEADS! BEADS!! BEADS!!!

Of course we had to have beads, its Mardi Gras! We filled a box with them and to say our students loved them would be an understatement. Everyone had to grab one or two or a handful 🙂

The beads are excellent for addressing color identification and size comparisons. Their shiny texture makes them very eye catching when shaken and an auditory component is included when rolling across a table.

We looked for the letter M in our Mardi Gras rice—green, yellow, and purple of course! We loved the way it turned out, reminding us of a box of confetti.

Scooping, pouring, sifting—FUN!

King Cake is always served at Mardi Gras. Its yummy and topped with a sweet white sugar glaze that was easy to imitate with our oobleck!

Playing with the oobleck improves tactile awareness and provides a medium for practicing prewriting strokes—or you can have fun just watching it drip off fingers.

After playing with the oobleck, our students rinsed their hands in vanilla sugar scented water and then rubbed on some hand lotion.

Everybody left smelling like sweet yummy King Cakes to remind them of all our Mardi Gras fun!

Fine Motor Group—Mardi Gras

On Tuesday, we read Cara’s book and learned about all the things we might see at the Mardi Gras parade. Then we decided to make some masks.

First we let our students choose whether they wanted a green or purple mask. We found these foam masks at Michaels on clearance after Halloween.

We counted the masks to work on one to one correspondence.

Then we added some

glue. Squeezing the

glue helps improve

hand strength

and eye hand

coordination.

Now for the fun part —decorating! We decorated the masks with feathers, glitter, sequins!

Our students had fun choosing which items to include on their masks. This student especially LOVED the glitter 🙂

A variety of fine motor skills are addressed during this activity from a pincer grasp to pick up feather to shoulder stability needed to shake the glitter.

Jeannie got some great pictures of her students holding their masks in front of their faces. They are going to look so cute in the yearbook.

Aren’t they just so bright and colorful!

Snack time comes after our fine motor activity and we just had to include a picture of this students spontaneous food art.

Isn’t it just fabulous—he was just so proud 🙂

On Thursday we read our Mardi Gras book again and then made some jester hats.

We started by letting our students choose which color to use for their hat band. After they made their choice, they practiced writing their names on their bands.

We made sure to reinforce color identification skills by naming the colors and encouraging our students to vocalize the color names when possible.

Then we used our paper cutters to cut out purple and green triangles. We really like using these paper cutters. They make it so easy for the students to cut straight lines and they really enjoy using them.

Identifying the triangle shapes addresses math access points.

We cut out yellow circles with our hole punches.

By either squeezing or pushing down on the hold punch our students are working on strengthening their hands.

Counting and identifying the circle shapes—more math access points!

Next, we taped the triangles to the band in an alternating pattern.

After 3 triangles, we asked the students to pick which color in the pattern came next.

Sequencing is another math access point. Putting the triangle beside the previous one addresses spatial relationships.

We added a yellow circle to the point of each triangle. Picking up the circle promotes a pincer grasp and placing it on the glue promotes visual spatial skills.

Its starting to come together!

Our hats are all done!

Time for the Mardi Gras parade 🙂

Language Group—Letter V

We started our group by talking about the letter of the week and we practiced forming the letter V with our fingers.

Making letters and other signs gives our students an opportunity to practice finger individuation skills.

Then we made Vertical

lines on the magna

doodle to practice

pre-writing strokes.

We Voted on

which line was the longest!

We opened the Velvety bag by pulling apart the Velcro.

Then we reached in and pulled out one of the Vehicle beads.

Reaching into the bag and pulling out a bead without seeing it helps address tactile discrimination.

We purchased the bead set at Target.

He put a vibrant Van on

the string—Vroom Vroom!

After everyone had a turn, we counted the beads, working on one to one correspondence.

We really like this bead set because the end is a wooden dowel which makes it easier for our students.

We started our next activity with a Vulture that Joy drew—thanks for the inspiration Ms. Cathie 🙂

Our students tore black paper into Very small pieces to make “feathers”.

Tearing the paper helps improve bilateral coordination and pincer grasp.

The feathers were glued onto the Vulture working on eye hand coordination and visual spatial skills.

We like this View of the Varmint 🙂

We played Cara’s latest sound game.

This game addresses listening and language skills.

We finished by looking at our V words. The post -its work so well in our group. Sometimes it hard to write down the words fast enough! Another advantage of them is that they are easy to move around and stick to different objects. They are also easy for our students to pick up and point to.

What an awesome week, we really enjoyed it! Please join us again next time for more fun Group by Group.

Feb20

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

Posted on February 20, 2012 by jd785

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.

Dec5

Week 13—Kwanzaa and the Letter M

Posted on December 5, 2011 by jd785

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

Posted on November 20, 2011 by jd785

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!