Tag Archives: voice output device

Apr1

Spring book

Posted on April 1, 2013 by jd785

The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and spring has sprung! It is always so nice to see more color after a winter of cold days and bare trees. The book touches on some of the different things that spring brings with it, like flowers blooming and birds laying eggs. After reading about what we can see, we asked the students “why?” to which they responded (activating a voice output device) “spring has sprung”. The pictures in the book are so colorful this week and the students did such a great job taking turns activating the voice output device and more and more of the students are focusing on the book while it’s being read.

Here is a link to the book: Spring Has Sprung

Update: The link above was actually the book I wrote LAST year, apparently with the same title! The books are different, with the exception of the title and the repetitive line. I felt like I should put this one in the blog as well since this is the one we really read 🙂

Here is a link to another Spring Has Sprung book: Spring Has Sprung!(2)

Apr1

Spring and Letter Z

Posted on April 1, 2013 by jd785

Spring and Letter Z

This week we enjoyed talking about Spring in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. We finished up the alphabet with letter Z in our Language Group.

Sensory Group—Spring

So many things associated with spring in our first box! Scattered about in our colorful yellow grass were plastic eggs, a variety of bunnies, chicks and ducks (plush, felt, cookie cutters etc.), a little basket, play food, and some fun funky flower glasses. We also included a little clock to remind us about daylight savings time. Some of our students are really fascinated by clocks and had fun turning the hands on it! Others enjoyed finding the eggs and putting them into the little basket.

This box addresses the language access point of attending to informational materials.

As the colorful eggs are placed in the basket, math access points of solving problems involving small quantities of objects using language such as enough, too much, or more and associating quantities of 1,2 or 3 with number names are addressed.

Spring means colorful flowers everywhere and this box was filled with them. All different sizes and colors. We loved picking them up in handfuls, watching as they drifted back down and scattered on the table or on the students 🙂

This box addresses the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of objects. It also addresses the science access points of tracking objects in motion and identifying objects by one observable property.

Spring also means cute little caterpillars that turn into pretty butterflies. Corkscrew and bowtie pasta dyed with food coloring made for such a pretty box. This was a perfect box for sorting and discussing things that were the “same” and things that were “different”.

Recognizing objects that are the same is a science access point.

A favorite thing to do in the spring is to plant a garden—we planted 3 little carrots in our coffee ground “soil”. This was a super fun box and our students had a great time planting their carrots. They were so cute, sticking the carrots into the soil and then using the scoop to cover them up—we have quite the group of little gardeners here 🙂

This box definitely addresses the science access points of recognizing a model of a real object and recognizing that plants grow.

Some of us might go hunting for eggs to celebrate Easter. Our pretty green rice with dried lima beans looked just like a lawn scattered with tiny eggs—–isn’t it just so cute! There were 3 more colorful egg pictures to find at the bottom of the box as well as a giant letter E.

More math access points here: associating quantities with number names and recognizing 2 dimensional shapes (the egg pictures were oval shaped).

Who doesn’t love those cute and colorful marshmallow Peeps that you see everywhere in the spring! Shaving cream, cornstarch and yellow food coloring gave us a very similar texture. As the white cornstarch and shaving cream mixture turned yellow the students were able to recognize a change in an object—one of their science access points.

Its been fun to watch over the year as some of our students who were quite hesitant at first are now starting to interact with our messy play materials.

We rinsed our hands in Sweet Pea scented water and rubbed the lotion on our hands and arms. As always, we include our olfactory sense to help our students remember the things they learned today. The soft floral scent was perfect for our spring time theme.

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

We found some fun spring themed temporary tattoos and thought that they would a fun finish to our group. The students got to pick which tattoo they wanted—-communicating a preference addressing language access points AND where they wanted the tattoo—addressing the science access point of identifying body parts.

In addition we addressed the math access point of rote counting as we applied the tattoos.

Everyone had to check out how they looked 🙂

Fine Motor Group—Spring

On Tuesday we made some beautiful spring flowers using these fun bunny and egg shaped chalks. They were perfect for our students little hands!

After the students finished coloring their flowers, they sprayed them with water to blend the colors. We were going for a watercolor effect but found out that the process works better on construction paper rather than the cardstock we used 🙁

Despite that, we had a great time and the students LOVED spraying the water and were so excited when their turn came. As the water made the picture look different the science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed. They also addressed the science access point of recognizing one way people use water 🙂

After we finished spraying our flower we glued it to a rectangular piece of paper. We pointed out that the rectangle had 4 sides addressing the math access point of recognizing the sides of a rectangle

Ta Da—

—-ready for spring!

On Thursday, after reading Cara’s book again we began our art project (we found this idea on Pinterest)—cute bunny noses!

Earlier in the day we pre-glued 2 white chenille stems to each craft stick—-we wanted to make sure the glue was dry before going to the next step.

After we counted (of course) the chenille stems we grabbed both ends and twisted them together. We adapted this activity by inserting the craft stick in a pool noodle to help stabilize it which worked out pretty well.

This activity addresses bilateral coordination and crossing midline.

Can’t help but notice the little photo bomb action by the students classmate 🙂

Then we added a little pink pom pom nose—perfect pincer grasp practice!

Identifying the pom pom as a sphere addresses the math access point of recognizing 3 dimensional shapes.

Identifying the color of the pom pom addresses the science access point of identifying objects by one observable property.

This activity also addresses eye hand coordination and spatial relations.

Hippity Hoppity 🙂

What cute little bunnies!

Language Group—Letter Z

Well we have really Zoomed through the alphabet this year!

We started our last letter of the week group by playing Cara’s sound game—working on recognizing and responding to common sounds, a science access point.

Next we unZipped a back pack and pulled out some Zoo animals—including Zebras!

Manipulating the zipper is a great bilateral coordination activity and discussing the animals addresses the language access point of communicating recognition of familiar objects.

The science access point of identifying external body parts was addressed in a fun way as we played with the beannie babies.

Then we got into a meditation groove with our Zen garden. The students had fun trying to draw Z’s in the sand.

To make it easier to manipulate, we adapted one of our sticks by taping it to a small ruler—worked like a charm 🙂

As the stick is manipulated the students are applying a push or pull to move an object which is a science access point.

We finished by decorating a letter Z with Zig Zag lines.

TA DA!

Another week done and we might be finished with the alphabet but there is more fun yet to come.

Join us next week, Group by Group!

Mar17

St. Patrick’s Day book

Posted on March 17, 2013 by jd785

St. Patrick’s Day book

Get ready to put on some green, because we’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this week! The students asked us the question this week which was “what do we see on St. Patrick’s Day?” The book explores many different things that are associated with St. Patrick’s Day, such as four-leaf clovers, leprechauns, and even a pot of gold. At the end of the book it talks about how people wear green so the students were asked to identify people in the room who were wearing green. It was a bunch of fun and the students really enjoyed it.

Here is a link to the book: What Do We See On St. Patrick’s Day

Mar17

St.Patrick’s Day and Letter Y

Posted on March 17, 2013 by jd785

St.Patrick’s Day and Letter Y

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups and looked at words that start with letter Y in our Language Group.

Sensory Group—St. Patrick’s Day

After reading Cara’s book about St. Patrick’s Day, we got our celebration going with the sound of a rousing irish jig recorded on a voice output device.

Our little leprechauns are usually very responsive to music and this was no exception—- who can resist an irish jig after all! This upbeat music was very appealing to them and they got so excited when it was their turn to press the switch.

This activity gave the students lots of opportunities to gain practice with cause and effect skills. In addition, using technology resources to support learning and responding to rhythm in familiar songs are language access points.

As you can see, we couldn’t resist added a FEW select props to add to the fun 🙂

St. Patrick’s Day is all about the color green! We put in some easter grass, beads, leprechaun hats, curling ribbon, shamrock garland, silk shamrocks, kitchen scrubbers, green manipulatives and toys—-so many things to discover! Reaching for and grasping the different items helps build fine motor skills. In addition, since all the objects are the same color, visual discrimination skills are addressed.

With boxes like this, it is always fun to see what items are particularly appealing to the individual students. The shiny curling ribbons and strands of silk shamrocks were enticing to some of them. While others had fun with the little hats and silly glasses we put in the box

Exploring, observing, and recognizing common objects is a science access point. Recognizing objects by one observable property, such as color, is also a science access point.

Our next box contained our rainbow rice—-rainbows are a symbol associated with St.Patrick’s Day and our rice is just so colorful and pretty!

We put in a large letter I (for Ireland) and taped a picture of a shamrock to the bottom of the box. Two different sized measuring spoons were also placed in it. While some of our students like to sift through and pick up handfuls of rice—and yes occasionally toss it 🙂 —others prefer to use the spoons. We have found that many of our students especially seem to like covering and uncovering the objects we have put in our boxes.

In addition to object permanence, letter recognition, tactile and visual discrimination, this box addresses the math access point of solving simple problems involving putting together and taking apart small quantities of objects. It also addresses the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers.

Our leprechaun box was totally fun—great for comparing colors and textures! First we put in some soft orange yarn just like a leprechaun beard. Then we added his pot of gold (aka shiny mardi gras beads).

Beads are always a favorite with our students. They love looking at them, shaking them—-wearing them 🙂

Others got quite creative with the yarn—making not just beards but wigs also. Our students are sure creative!

This box addresses the science access points of identifying objects by one observable property.

Super cute and lots of fun!

When you think of Irish food you can’t help but think of POTATOES!

In our case we used dried potatoes and we included 3 little snakes hidden among the flakes. St. Patrick was supposed to have driven all the snakes out of Ireland but apparently these little guys got overlooked 🙂

Potato flakes are soft and slightly crunchy. They have a very cool feel that is different and pretty irresistible! We also included a large measuring spoon which is helpful for practicing scooping skills but most of our students preferred to use their hands.

The math access points of associating quantities up to 3 with number names and solving simple problems involving joining or separating sets of objects up to 3 are addressed with this box.

To liven up our shaving cream and make it into “St. Patrick’s Day shaving cream”, we put green and gold glitter sparkles in it. Shaving cream is always such fun and our students love putting their hands into it and “scribbling” around. Some students had fun practicing their prewriting patterns of straight lines or circles.

Recognizing and responding to different types of sensory stimuli is a science access point. This activity also helps address tactile desensitization.

One of the reasons there is so much green in Ireland is all the RAIN! So when we found this Rain Kissed Leaves scent from Bath and Body Works we knew it was the perfect scent to tickle our olfactory sense and help us remember our St. Patrick’s Day fun.

We rinsed all the shaving cream off of our hands in Rainkissed Leaves (from Bath and Body Works) scented water. Our water started off pretty clear with some bubbles but soon turned white and soapy as hands were rinsed…..just a perfect opportunity to address the science access point of recognizing a change in an object—how cool is that!

After our hands were rinsed our students had the opportunity to explore the scent some more with the lotion.

Using their body movements or nonverbal expressions our students communicated their desires and preferences—its not hard to guess what he is communicating 🙂

This activity also addresses the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli.

Fine Motor Group—St. Patrick’s Day

We had too much fun painting with corn syrup last week —-so we HAD to do it again 🙂

We started by asking our students to show us the picture card with the color green. Our students are getting so good at choosing the correct color. We are so proud of them!

Communicating information about objects using non-verbal expressions, gestures, symbols or words and responding to referent pictures used in routines are language access points.

Identifying an object by one observable property (in this case color) is a science access point.

Then we painted our precut shamrocks with delightfully gooey corn syrup tinted with green food coloring.

We are so proud of the progress our students are making—learning to handle writing utensils and developing eye hand coordination.

Isn’t this student doing such a great job!

Then we glued the shamrocks onto a rectangular piece of paper, but not before adding some gold glitter—since we can never pass up the opportunity to add a little sparkle to our projects 🙂

Each student got to pick the color paper that they wanted which addressed the language access point of using nonverbal expression to communicate preferences.

This activity also addresses the math access point of recognizing 2 dimensional shapes.

Our shamrocks are so shiny and sparkly we love the way they turned out.

Of course, we couldn’t end the group without saying a big…….

…………..TA DA!!!!!

On Thursday we read Cara’s awesome book again. The students really enjoyed the bright colorful pictures and were excited when it was their turn to activate the voice output device.

Responding to a familiar person reading a book aloud, attending to print materials by touching, looking, or listening, and responding to a technology device are all language access points addressed EVERY week when we read our books!

Our art project was so much fun—making a leprechaun beard! We used our picture symbols again but this time asked our students to pick the color orange—then got to work!

First we painted some precut paper plate rim pieces (these were left over from a previous project, sometimes Joy’s hoarding pays off ha ha) with a mixture of orange paint and glue. On an added note, we also taped a popsicle stick to the back of the plate to make it easier for the students to hold.

Then we cut some pieces of orange yarn and sprinkled the pieces on top—addressing both fine motor and spatial relations skills.

The science access point of recognizing a change in an object is also addressed as the different items are added.

Top of the Mornin’ to you from some little leprechauns—–pretty darn cute!!!!

Language Group—the Letter Y

We started out by listening to Cara’s sound game. Towards the end of the alphabet, it gets harder to find different words and sounds—but we made it happen 🙂

As our students played the game, we told them “it is Your turn”.

Recognizing and responding to commons sounds is the science access point addressed here. In addition, the language access points of communicating recognition of familiar persons or objects and responding to familiar print media are also addressed.

After the sound game, we got out a bumpy Yellow ball. Some of our students requested the ball using their static communication boards—communicating their wants is a language access point!

We had so much fun tossing or rolling the ball back and forth Yelling ” Yay” each time it was caught. A totally fun way to work on eye hand coordination as well as turn taking skills—-is it my turn or Yours?

Next we made some Yo Yo’s! We started with small circular paper plates (discussing the shape addresses the math access point of recognizing 2 dimensional shapes) and also counting them out aloud—we NEVER pass up a chance to practice counting 🙂

After coloring them with markers we taped a piece of Yarn to the back.

Ta Da! Here is a homemade Yo-yo!………. Yeah!!

Our students were really tickled with them and had a lot of fun moving them around—-addressing the science access point of tracking objects moving up and down as well as the science access point of recognizing an action as fast or slow.

We finished by looking at some of the Y words we found!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from all of us here. Next week we’re off for spring break but we will be back soon for more fun and learning…..Group by Group 🙂

Mar11

Dr. Seuss book

Posted on March 11, 2013 by jd785

Dr. Seuss book

We are celebrating Dr. Seuss’ Birthday this week by looking at a few of his books. Since the previous book that had some of our staff in the pictures went over so well with our students, we decided to do it again! Dr. Seuss is so great at rhyming so I gave it a try myself. I hope while reading the book you’re able to get into the rhythm of the rhymes! The students LOVED looking at the pictures with the familiar faces and some of our students would identify the staff who were in the room while the book was being read. This book is geared more towards turn taking with the voice output device rather than answering a question with a repetitive line. Each of the pages in the book relates to an item in used in the sensory and fine motor groups.

So, put on your red and white striped hat and celebrate Dr. Seuss’ Birthday with us!

Here is a link to the book: Let Me Take a Closer Look,I Would Like to Read That Book

Mar11

Dr. Seuss and Letter X

Posted on March 11, 2013 by jd785

Dr. Seuss and Letter X

This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss in our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups. We looked at words that started with letter X in our Language Group.

Sensory Group—Dr. Seuss

We started with Cara’s latest book which was a pretty special one. We got the idea to make our own illustrations from Sharon (one of our followers)—-thanks so much! It was so much fun to see our students faces as they recognized some of the models!

The theme of our first box was “The Cat in the Hat”. It was filled with soft red, white, and black pom poms and chenille stems. We really liked these black and white ones! This was such a fun colorful box that was very eye catching for our students!

We asked our students to find pom poms that were the same, discussing their colors.

The math access points of recognizing a common 3 dimensional object and recognizing two objects that are identical to each other.

We filled our “If I Ran the Zoo” box with straw and a variety of animals you might find at the zoo—including our cool sound producing elephant and tiger found in the dollar section at Target last year. There was also a little duplo zoo keeper, fences, play food for the animals and houses. Our students enjoyed the animals and had a lot of fun waving and shaking the straw.

Pressing the buttons on the sound producing animals was an opportunity to address finger individuation skills as well as addressing the science access point of recognizing and responding to common sounds.

This box also gave the students an opportunity to respond to new vocabulary which is a language access point.

Everybody loves “Green Eggs and Ham” don’t they?! We brought back our green playdough and used our egg shaped cookie cutter to make some of our own green eggs—what could be more fun than that? 🙂

Playdough is such a great tactile medium and great for building fine motor skills as it is squeezed and pressed into shapes.

The science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed here. Also, the math access point of recognizing a 2 dimensional shape (oval) is addressed.

Dr. Seuss’s “A B C’s” is another one of our favorite books. Our students sifted through blue and white rice to find letters A B C.

We used our large alphabet cookie cutters and they really stood out in contrast to the rice.

Tactile and visual discrimination skills in addition to letter identification are addressed in this box.

We couldn’t forget “Bartholomew and the Oobleck”! Oobleck—only our most favorite substance EVER! We used neon green food coloring which made the perfect color.

These are such a great pictures, the student really enjoyed having it dripped on his hand—so much so that he used his PIXON communication board to request more.

He effectively communicated his needs using picture symbols which is a language access point—this made Cara VERY happy 🙂

Our Lorax box was filled with pom pom shakers (we got ours from the Oriental Trading catalog)—we thought they looked like truffula trees.

These were totally fun and the students had a blast shaking them—applying a push or pull to move an object is a science access point.

There were a lot of different colors helping address the science access point of identifying objects by one observable property.

“One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” was the theme for our water play. The math access point of associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names in addition to the science access point of identifying objects by one observable property, such as color.

Our little blue fish squirts water when squeezed helping strengthen hands.

We finished with Country Apple scented lotion from Bath and Body works in honor of the book “10 Apples Up On Top”, to help us remember all the fun we had today.

Our students let us know whether they liked our choice by body gestures, vocalizations or in the case of the student pictured—facial expressions.

Guess you can’t please everyone 🙂

Fine Motor Skills—Dr. Seuss

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have 3 of our “models” while we read our book and our students really enjoyed pointing them out—communicating recognition of familiar persons is a language access point!

For our art project we made Cat in the Hat masks, so much fun! We started by cutting a red rectangle into two pieces—cutting it in half.

Recognizing a change in an object is a science access point. Identifying 2 dimensional shapes, another math access point, is also addressed.

Then we took the 2 red pieces along with a precut white strip and glued them to the top, middle and bottom of a a white rectangle. It was actually 2 pieces of white cardstock stapled together to make it firmer—since we didn’t have any poster board 🙂

Matching 1 object to a designated space to show one-to-one correspondence and associating quantities 1 and 2 with number names are math access points.

These were then stapled to paper plates (circles!) with a smaller circle cut out of the middle. We practiced counting as we passed them out and some of our students are getting REALLY good at it!

TaDa!

How about that—-

a cat in a hat 🙂

On Thursday we continued with our seussical theme by reading Cara’s book again. We also showed the students the book One Fish Two Fish in preparation for our next art project which we found on Pinterest!

We started by painting construction paper fish bowls with a mixture of corn syrup and blue food coloring. This stuff is pretty sticky so paint shirts are a MUST.

Painting gives our students practice using writing tools and while we encourage “proper” grip patterns, it is more important to us that our students are actively INVOLVED in the process.

Then each student added 1 red fish and 1 blue fish precut from construction paper. Since the corn syrup is sticky already—you don’t need glue!

This activity addresses spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

Recognizing when an object is added to a situation is a math access point. Identifying objects by one observable property ( such as color) is a math access point

We finished by glueing our fish bowl to a rectangular piece of paper. One of our students was able to identify the two dimensional shape—-nailing another math access point 🙂

Ta Da!

Doesn’t it look great—you can’t really tell in the picture but the syrup dries shiny so it looks just like water. Totally cool!!!!

Language Group—Letter X

We started by playing Cara’s sound game. There aren’t many words that start with X so she used ones that have X in them—but still working on identifying common sounds.

Then we put siX eXtra-large beads on a string—working on bilateral coordination and counting skills! In addition, indicating the next step in a sequence can be addressed in this activity.

When all the beads were on the string we helped the students count them.

Then we found 2 foXes and 1 oX in a boX!

Our students had so much fun opening up the box and looking inside 🙂

Fine motor skills are addressed as the box is opened and the plush animals are pulled out.

Counting 1-3 objects is a math access point.

Next we glued 2 craft sticks together to make an X. We made it eXtraordinary by sprinkling on some glitter. This activity works on letter identification and prewriting skills in addition to fine motor skills.

The students had fun choosing which color glitter to choose. We gave them 3 choices—to practice for their alternate assessment.

We think they look eXtremely pretty around all the X words we found today!

That wraps up another really fun week, hope you will join us next time….. Group by Group.

Mar3

My Community book

Posted on March 3, 2013 by jd785

My Community book

The Unique curriculum is all about communities this month, so we decided to have our sensory group and fine motor group be based on our community, Tallahassee. The book takes you through some different places in Tallahassee. In the sensory group, the activities and boxes went with each page of the book, from the capitol to the Tallahassee Museum. This book, as well as the Black History Month book, can be easily adapted to any other classroom by adding things in your own community. The students love to be able to relate to the book. They really get excited when they see something familiar. We hope you enjoy taking a look at our community.

Here is a link to the book: Tallahassee is my Community

Feb25

Black History Month and Letter V

Posted on February 25, 2013 by jd785

Black History Month and Letter V

In our Sensory and Fine motor groups we celebrated Black History month in a personal way by learning more about some special people at our school. Our students LOVED finding the familiar faces in Cara’s famous African Americans book! In our Language Group we looked at words that start with Letter V.

Sensory Group—Black History Month

Our first celebrity is Ms. Joi, one of our elementary classroom teachers, and her favorite color is PINK!

We made this totally pinkalicious box in her honor. It was filled with easter grass, curled ribbon, silk flowers, beads, kitchen scrubbers, plushy animals (flamingo, pig, and fish), paper strips, and other assorted toys. If it was pink—we put it in the box 🙂

The science access points of identifying objects by one observable property and exploring, observing, and recognizing objects in the natural world.

This box also gives our students the opportunity to address the language access point of selecting a familiar object to explore.

Ms. Mary is one of our paraprofessionals and HER favorite color is red. We filled her box with some fabulous red things including a feather boa, blocks, garland, silk rose petals, bead, kitchen scrubbers, garland, ribbon, and assorted red toys. This was a great box totally red and fun filled!

As with our other color box, lots of different textures and items to compare and contrast. The fabulous feather boa (found at the dollar store at halloween!) was quite the popular item—our students loved it 🙂

Some pictures of musical instruments were hidden beneath the blue and yellow (our school colors) rice…in honor of our next celebrity, our music teacher Ms. Brenda.

We put in spoons of different sizes to address the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers.

Visual discrimination is addressed as the rice is moved aside and its fun to see how excited they get when a hidden picture is revealed!

Ms. Carolyn is our new dean and we are so excited to welcome her to our school. Our school mascot, the owl, seemed a fitting theme for her box!

We used our “owl” feather boas. So very soft and touchable—-fun to wear OR wave around also! Our students really love these boas, they are irresistible.

As hands glide along the feathers, the science access point of recognizing and responding to one type of stimuli is addressed.

Grandma Rosie is from the British West Indies—a beautiful tropical place full of sandy beaches. We made our own little beach for her 🙂

We added a seashell and a small spoon and our students had a great time scooping up the sand and filling the shell. What a fun way to address eye hand coordination!

The shell was really big which get us the opportunity to discuss the science access point of recognizing objects that are big. Also discussing the amount of sand (ex. “a lot” or “a little”) as it is emptied into the shell helps our students associate quantities with language—a math access point!

Our Occupational Therapy intern, Ms. Joia is a student at FAMU. FAMU’s colors are orange and green, so we made some fabulous green playdough to roll into snakes—her school mascot! We added a variety of orange tools to decorate the snakes.

Rolling out and decorating the snakes is a super fun way to work on fine motor skills and eye hand coordination.

As the playdough is either rolled or squished between fingers—the science access point of recognizing a change in an object is addressed.

Ms. Anita is another one of our celebrities. She is a para-professional and comes from England. We made some oobleck and sprinkled it with some blue and red glitter to show the colors of England’s flag.

Oobleck is one of the BEST substances to use to explore the science access point of recognizing a change in an object! It changes from liquid to solid and back again with just a touch—how cool is that!

Ms. Louise, our head custodian, keeps our school sparkling clean. We rinsed our hands in “Clean Waters” scented body wash and then used the companion lotion.

Presenting the aroma to our students gives them the opportunity to recognize and respond to one type of sensory stimuli.

Letting us know (by vocalizing, body movements or gestures) that they want to continue the activity addresses the math access points of indicating a desire for more or less of an action or object.

We generally take smiles as a “yes” 🙂

Fine Motor Group-Black History Month

Ms. Anita, just had surgery so we decided that we would make her a “get-well-soon” picture for our Tuesday art project.

We started with a large rectangular shaped piece of paper—addressing the math access point of recognizing two deminsional shapes.

Then the students took turns making straight lines for the stems of the flowers we made. Imitating directional lines is a prewriting skill and some of our students are getting really good at it!

Each student was asked to make 3 strokes—which we counted, of course 🙂

Then we took our adapted stampers to make flowers. Joy made them by cutting up foam and kitchen sponges. These were attached either with double stick tape or hot glue to the handles made from kitchen scrubbers or an empty spool.

We did find that we had to “stamp” on the pad a lot to get enough color to show up on paper, so adults helped “prime” the stamp.

The students were asked to either point to or hand us the picture card to indicate which color flower they wished to stamp. Effectively communicating wants and needs, with prompting, to a familiar person is a language access point.

To make the flower garden come to life, students were asked to stamp at the “top” of a line—addressing spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

As the flowers were stamped we discussed which ones were the same color. Recognizing two objects that are the same color is a math access point.

This was a lot of fun, our students REALLY enjoyed stamping their flowers!

Ta Da!

Feel better soon Ms. Anita!

On Thursday, we decided to thank all our celebrities by making a copy of their picture from Cara’s book to give to them. It had to be decorated first, however 🙂

We started by glueing the SMALL rectangular photo onto the LARGE rectangular piece of paper—addressing the math access points of recognizing similarities and differences in size of common objects and recognizing two-dimensional shapes.

Then we used our paper cutters to cut 4 strips of paper.

Using quantities to 4, represented by objects is a math access point.

We glued the strips to each of the sides of the photo helping to address the math access point of identifying the sides of a rectangle is a rectangle.

This activity also addresses spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

And here is one of our finished portraits!

Ta Da!

Language Group—Letter V

We started by playing Cara’s sound game.

There were some Very interesting sounds to be heard as we work on the science access point of recognizing and responding to common sounds.

Then we tried on a Vest—-are they still in Vogue?

A fun way to work on dressing skills and the science access point of recognizing body parts!

Next we cut some Vintage wallpaper into strips and……

Voila, we made a V 🙂

Working on prewriting patterns and spatial relations in this activity.

We also listened to Violin—not Viola :)— music on our Voice output device. We think we were listening to Vivaldi!

Recognizing and responding to one type of sensory stimuli and responding to common sounds are science access points.

Responding to a technology resource is a language access point.

One more thing to do—make a Volcano!

Using baking soda and Vinegar to make a Volcano is so much fun—a total MUST DO!!!

We made our mountain by putting a small nesting cup into the spout of a wide mouth funnel. We used a small spoon to scoop baking soda into the cup—addressing the math access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers.

Then we poured some vinegar (tinted with food coloring) onto the baking soda, making a not so Violent eruption 🙂

The science access points of recognizing a change in an object and assisted with investigations with a partner is totally addressed with this activity!

We finished by looking at some of the V words we found today.

We had a Very good time this week, join us next time…

Group by Group!

Feb18

Valentine’s Day book

Posted on February 18, 2013 by jd785

Valentine’s Day book

It’s a Valentine’s Day celebration this week! Our book focused on what things we might see, like chocolate and roses, and hear, like “I love you”, during Valentine’s Day. After each of the first lines on the pages, we would ask the students, “when do we see this?” and they would reply “on Valentine’s Day”. The students keep getting better at pushing the voice output device when it is there turn. We’re even practicing pushing the voice output to the next person.

We hope your LOVE our book like we do!

Here is a link to the book: On Valentine’s Day

Feb18

Valentines Day and Letter U

Posted on February 18, 2013 by jd785

Valentines Day and Letter U

Love is in the air with a Valentines Day was the theme for our Sensory and Fine Motor Groups this week. Our Language Group looked at words that start with Letter U.

Sensory Group—Valentines Day

Our first box was bursting with valentine related items including silk rose petals, beads, garland, assorted red ribbons, paper valentines, shredded paper, candy boxes AND hearts of all sizes and materials.

This box addresses the social studies access point of associating a celebration with an event. Comparing the varying textures addresses the science access point of identifying objects by observable properties.

The valentines in the box also give the students opportunities to attend to print materials by touching and looking, which is a language access point.

Red and white was the color theme of our next box. It was just SO pretty!

Shiny hard beads to compare to soft pom poms ( identifying objects by observable properties).

Also the opportunity to match items of similar shape (spheres) (the math access point of recognizing common three-dimensional objects ) or color ( the math access point of recognizing two objects that are identical to each other).

The beads, of course, are always fun to wear and shake around 🙂

Our discovery bottles filled with glitter, assorted small hearts, and beads were so colorful and eye catching! Lots of fun to shake and look at.

These bottles address the science access points of tracking the movement of objects that are pushed or pulled.

These bottles are a lot of fun to make (and a way to recycle juice and water bottles). We hot glue the lids shut for safety but still keep a close eye on the students as they are playing with them.

Our pretty pink cloud dough was so pretty and fun with our hearts and kisses cookie cutters.

Also included was a heart shaped scoop—we had a lot of fun finding items for this week’s theme 🙂

Recognizing common objects with a two-dimensional shape (hearts) is a math access point.

We used 4 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of cooking oil to make our cloud dough. Then we added some glitter and a couple of packages of kool-aide to get the pretty pink color. If you haven’t yet, you HAVE to make this stuff, it’s just SO COOL!!

Messy—–yes

BUT oh so worth it 🙂

Our pink and white rice is perfect for Valentines day. We put in some big glittery letters spelling the word of the day—-L O V E.

Again, an opportunity for our students to attend to print materials.

The students had so much fun either sifting their fingers through the rice (building tactile discrimination skills) or using the small spoon—–heart shaped, of course—-when we pick a theme we go all out 🙂

We mixed shaving cream and cake mix to make “chocolate mousse”. Our students were not quite sure what to make of this at first but then dived in and started exploring it. It had a nice aroma but for the most part the students refrained from sampling it.

This was a great medium to practice scribbling and prewriting patterns.

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

Messy hands were rinsed in “red hot cinnamon” scented water. We used body wash found at a clearance sale a couple of years ago and it really does smell like cinnamon scented candy!

With two different sized heart shaped measuring cups our students had so much fun scooping and pouring the liquid.

The different size cups helps address the science access point of recognizing differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.

We finished with strawberry scented lotion—- a lovely reminder of our valentines celebrations.

As lotion is rubbed on arms its a great opportunity to provide some deep touch pressure which is calming and helps build body awareness. Additionally, it encourages social interaction.

Fine Motor Group—Valentines Day

On Tuesday we started by reading all about Valentines Day in Cara’s latest book using the voice output device to read the repetitive line. Our students have been practicing giving the voice output device to their neighbor and some of them are getting quite good!

Sharing objects with a partner is a science access point.

For our art project we made some beautiful hearts using paints in Valentines colors of red, purple, and pink. By chance, 3 of the adults wore matching shirts—-so of course we worked on some color identification!

Identifying objects by one observable property is a science access point 🙂

We counted out paper hearts (discussing the shape, of course, to address the math access point of recognizing a two-dimensional shape) and after the students had written their names on them, put them into a box.

Then using a spoon, we scooped a marble out of the paint and dropped it into the box.

Scooping up those marbles and dropping them into the box was a great eye hand coordination activity!

Recognizing a movement that reflects a spatial relationship is a math access point.

The lid was closed and it was time to shake, rattle and roll.

This clear box works perfectly for the activity because you can see, as well as hear, the marbles rolling around!

We are talking major fun and excitement here 🙂

This activity addresses the science access point of applying a push to move an object.

Using both hands to push or pick up the box addresses bilateral coordination.

TA DA!!

Pretty cool looking!

On Thursday we continued with our heart theme. We discussed the color and counted out hearts cut from red poster board.

We proceeded to decorate them with a variety of glittery craft foam stickers. Great for practicing pincer grasp skills and eye hand coordination.

If you also count the stickers—-more math,

and we love that!

TA Da!

So cute!!!!

We finished with a Valentines Party with LOTS yummy sweet cookies and cupcakes! Mealtime activities are wonderful opportunities to address social and self care skills as well as indicating a desire for “more” or “no more” which are math access points.

Of course with cupcakes and cookies, you are guaranteed lots of practice indicating a a desire for “more” 🙂

Language Group—Letter U

We started, as Usual, with Cara’s sound game.

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

Then we discussed different things that could be found in the Universe. We tossed around these planetary balls from our science closet and had fun trying to identify which planet they represented—and of course, got into a discussion on whether Pluto was a planet or not 🙂

Recognizing a model of a real object is a science access point.

Catching and throwing the balls addresses eye hand coordination.

We lifted Up a funnel and found some Ugly bugs!

UGH!!!

Recognizing objects related to science by name (such as animal) is a science access point.

We also Undulated around while singing along to the Ugly bug ball song 🙂

We finished by coloring an Unusual Unicorn (we found this by googling “free unicorn coloring pages”). For some of our students this is a perfect time for practicing using switches. For others who use standard coloring Utensils, it is an opportunity to practice coloring in a designated area.

Here are some of the U words we found today.

It was an Utterly (thanks to Joia, the OT intern for coming up with the activities) fun week.

Join Us again…….we will be just chilling Until next time

Group by Group!