Welcome back Diener friends. Please read below to see what your kids have been learning!!
K class: Emily
This week we enjoyed working together to make home made latkes (potato pancakes) in honor of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. We worked together to peel, grate, and mix the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients. As we worked through each step, we learned new vocabulary and concepts. Social skills were incorporated throughout this wonderful activity!
1-2 class: Jenni
This week we enjoyed working together to make home made latkes (potato pancakes) in honor of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. We worked together to peel, grate, and mix the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients. As we worked through each step, we learned new vocabulary and concepts. While our yummy latkes were frying we played Latka Jeopardy, which included the categories Ingredients, Utensils, Sequencing, and What Does Not Belong. Social skills were incorporated throughout this wonderful activity!
Monday in fitness we played a cooperation game sharing hulla hoops and trying to catch balloons in them, also sending the hoop from friend to friend holding hands without letting go of each other. The rest of the week we practice our dances for fri.
In yoga, worked on breathing techniques and learning to control our bodies and heart rate after being worked up.
This week in science, we wrapped up our unit on the human body. The kids enjoyed completing their Mini-Me Projects. They learned the difference between the interior and exterior of their bodies. We labeled our bones and all of the major organs in our bodies. We also discussed the functions of our bones and organs and we briefly talked about digestion.
During the last session of the Uppers Buddy Program, the kids had a great time hanging out with their buddies for the last time. We played several group games, as well as, playing Kickball and having a fabulous fashion show!
We had fun making a variety of holiday treats during the Social Club, this week. On Monday, we colored different holiday objects to that represented numerous cultures and their holiday traditions. On Thursday, we had fun assembling our Penguin
Thermometers and singing holiday music.
This week in music, we were busy practicing our songs for the Holiday and Multicultural Festival. Today we all performed our Christmas and Hanukkah songs for our parents! We all sounded beautiful as we sang songs like "Jingle Bells," "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel." We can't wait to come back in 2010 and keep having fun in music!
We had so much fun this week in speech and language! The Uppers enjoyed exchanging gifts during Social Skills group. All of the students managed to keep their Secret Snow Owls to themselves -- which can be quite a feat! We practiced what to do with big/little problems within gift giving situations and all of the kids were thrilled with the gifts they received! Lots of fun was had by all!
Ms. Courtney's Inters had a blast creating Rudolph puppets. They followed multiple step directions and were pleased with their creations.
Primary-This week we focused on the letter U during our weekly handwriting group with Ms. Brook. We also practiced our fine motor skills, and body and spatial awareness skills by making a tasty snowman craft using marshmallows, pretzels, raisins, and other sweets.
Inters (Ms. Jenni)- This week we participated in a large group activity with Ms. Courtney's class, making a tasty holiday snack. We used a piece of bread shaped like a triangle, and added antlers, a red nose, and other facial features using a variety of yummy treats. We got to practice both our fine motor and sequencing skills. We also worked very hard during our weekly handwriting group with Ms. Brook. This week we started learning about lower case "tall" letters.
HAVE A GREAT BREAK AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE DIENER STAFF!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Friday Follow Up-December 11, 2009
This week in music, we continued to work on our holiday songs for the concert on December 18th. We are singing a lot of fun songs, including "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah." We also did fun activities with rhythm sticks, such as "I Like to Move It." We are really enjoying learning our holiday songs!
Primary-The letter of the week was L and the kids continued to work on letter formation using a multi-sensory approach. This week the kids experimented with chalk during our handwriting group. They also participated in their weekly motor group dancing with bean bags and focusing on body awareness. In addition, the boys worked on formulating and maneuvering their very own obstacle courses.
This week during speech and language, Ms. Barbara and Ms. Abbe's Uppers continued to further their knowledge of figurative language - specifically, idioms. Not to blow our own horns or anything but we were on top of the world when we realized how much we had learned without having to pay an arm and a leg! :)
Ms. Kate and Ms. Ginny's Uppers are very excited about our Secret Snow Owl project. We spent some time discussing and practicing perspective taking and others' favorite things during Social & Life Skills group. We also had lots of fun learning about and celebrating Hanukkah!
Ms. Courtney and Ms. Deanna's Uppers had a blast reading about Pirate Joe and Pirate Pete but felt badly for them when they lost their ship! After our story, we used Give Me 5 to follow directions when creating our own pirate ships with sticker scenes. The boys especially enjoyed taking turns giving each other verbal directions.
Primary-The letter of the week was L and the kids continued to work on letter formation using a multi-sensory approach. This week the kids experimented with chalk during our handwriting group. They also participated in their weekly motor group dancing with bean bags and focusing on body awareness. In addition, the boys worked on formulating and maneuvering their very own obstacle courses.
This week during speech and language, Ms. Barbara and Ms. Abbe's Uppers continued to further their knowledge of figurative language - specifically, idioms. Not to blow our own horns or anything but we were on top of the world when we realized how much we had learned without having to pay an arm and a leg! :)
Ms. Kate and Ms. Ginny's Uppers are very excited about our Secret Snow Owl project. We spent some time discussing and practicing perspective taking and others' favorite things during Social & Life Skills group. We also had lots of fun learning about and celebrating Hanukkah!
Ms. Courtney and Ms. Deanna's Uppers had a blast reading about Pirate Joe and Pirate Pete but felt badly for them when they lost their ship! After our story, we used Give Me 5 to follow directions when creating our own pirate ships with sticker scenes. The boys especially enjoyed taking turns giving each other verbal directions.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Friday Follow Up-December 4, 2009
This week in fitness, we worked on balance, directional moving, skipping, hopping, stepping backwards, forwards, and side to side. We finished up our T-Ball unit on Wednesday by splitting into stations, doing target practice, batting practice, and catching.
We did many different dances in dance class such as, The Maccarena, The Cha Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, Hokey Pokey, and many more. The kids had so much fun!
This week in music, we started singing holiday songs! In all of our classes,we sang both Christmas and Hanukkah songs. In the Primary class, we sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer" and "Dreidel, Driedel." In the Inters classes, we sang "The Chipmunk Song," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah." In the Uppers classes, we sang "Rockin Around The Christmas Tree," "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah." "Dreidel, Dreidel," and "Holly Jolly Christmas." We had a great time!
We had another great Thursday of drama. We explored making big choices with our bodies and allowing the actions of those around us to affect our own creative decisions. Some of the classes also explored some new clowning exercises which we hope to use in our production of the Ugly Duckling this spring.
This week in science, we continued to discuss the human body by focusing on one of it's most important parts, our bones! The primary and intermediate classes assembled a skeleton and learned about the major bones in our body ( skull, spine, ribs, pelvic, arms and legs). We learned two important functions of bones in our bodies; 1) to give us structure and 2) to protect our organs. The uppers were excited to start their Body Building class projects. Each student had a friend trace around their body. The students will draw their bones on their body outline. Eventually, we will add additional part of the body to these drawings. What a great way to learn about our bodies from the inside out!
We had so much fun making Gingerbread pops and playing relay games, in the Buddy Program this week. The kids worked with their buddies to decorate and devour their scrumptious creations! Aaron organized some fantastic group games which encouraged the kids to work together.
The participants of the Social Club had fun decorating a snowman and using different objects to make an appropriate setting for their creation! We also talked about Hanukkah and made menorah candles. Hooray for the holidays
This week in art the students learned more about colors and how to blend them using watercolor paints. The students then helped me prepare a 'special project' for a 'secret special Diener School person' (bet you cant guess who)!? Please ask your children what they helped create - they all loved being in on the secret!
Primary- participated in weekly movement group focusing on body awareness and turn taking. Handwriting group- letter K focusing on letter formation, mature grasp patterns, and utilizing non-dominant hand as a stabilizer. Inters-J participated in weekly movement group focusing on upperbody and core strengthening, social skills, and visual motor skills. Participated in weekly handwriting group focusing on lower case e. The kids continued to focus on letter formation, spacing and alignment, pencil grasp, and posture.
K class: This week in speech group we learned how to make chocolate pudding. We covered a variety of language areas during the activity including sequencing, following directions, and turn taking.
1-2 Class (Jenni)- This week in speech group we learned how to make vanilla pudding. We covered a variety of language areas during the activity including sequencing, vocabulary, following directions, and turn taking.
We had a fabulous week expanding our speech, language, and social skills! On Monday, Ms. Kate's class read the book, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. We had lots of fun sharing the parts of the story-the boots that went CLOMP CLOMP, the gloves that went CLAP CLAP, etc We then worked together to sequence and paraphrase the beginning, middle, and end.
Ms. Barbara's class continued to work on our figurative language book. Thus far, each student has completed a homonym, homophone, and idiom. We will work on humor and then put the finishing touches on our book soon.
Ms. Courtney's class worked on their sentence development and using both irregular and regular past tense verb forms. We played Photo Fish and Say and had so much fun finding as may matches as we could!
NOTE TO UPPERS PARENTS-Please check your children's backpacks for letters regarding our Secret Show Owl program. Thank you and have a great weekend!
While working with Kathy, we enjoyed participating in fun but challenging social games. Our games focused on visual skills, motor planning and most importantly, proper social skills!
We did many different dances in dance class such as, The Maccarena, The Cha Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, Hokey Pokey, and many more. The kids had so much fun!
This week in music, we started singing holiday songs! In all of our classes,we sang both Christmas and Hanukkah songs. In the Primary class, we sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer" and "Dreidel, Driedel." In the Inters classes, we sang "The Chipmunk Song," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah." In the Uppers classes, we sang "Rockin Around The Christmas Tree," "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah." "Dreidel, Dreidel," and "Holly Jolly Christmas." We had a great time!
We had another great Thursday of drama. We explored making big choices with our bodies and allowing the actions of those around us to affect our own creative decisions. Some of the classes also explored some new clowning exercises which we hope to use in our production of the Ugly Duckling this spring.
This week in science, we continued to discuss the human body by focusing on one of it's most important parts, our bones! The primary and intermediate classes assembled a skeleton and learned about the major bones in our body ( skull, spine, ribs, pelvic, arms and legs). We learned two important functions of bones in our bodies; 1) to give us structure and 2) to protect our organs. The uppers were excited to start their Body Building class projects. Each student had a friend trace around their body. The students will draw their bones on their body outline. Eventually, we will add additional part of the body to these drawings. What a great way to learn about our bodies from the inside out!
We had so much fun making Gingerbread pops and playing relay games, in the Buddy Program this week. The kids worked with their buddies to decorate and devour their scrumptious creations! Aaron organized some fantastic group games which encouraged the kids to work together.
The participants of the Social Club had fun decorating a snowman and using different objects to make an appropriate setting for their creation! We also talked about Hanukkah and made menorah candles. Hooray for the holidays
This week in art the students learned more about colors and how to blend them using watercolor paints. The students then helped me prepare a 'special project' for a 'secret special Diener School person' (bet you cant guess who)!? Please ask your children what they helped create - they all loved being in on the secret!
Primary- participated in weekly movement group focusing on body awareness and turn taking. Handwriting group- letter K focusing on letter formation, mature grasp patterns, and utilizing non-dominant hand as a stabilizer. Inters-J participated in weekly movement group focusing on upperbody and core strengthening, social skills, and visual motor skills. Participated in weekly handwriting group focusing on lower case e. The kids continued to focus on letter formation, spacing and alignment, pencil grasp, and posture.
K class: This week in speech group we learned how to make chocolate pudding. We covered a variety of language areas during the activity including sequencing, following directions, and turn taking.
1-2 Class (Jenni)- This week in speech group we learned how to make vanilla pudding. We covered a variety of language areas during the activity including sequencing, vocabulary, following directions, and turn taking.
We had a fabulous week expanding our speech, language, and social skills! On Monday, Ms. Kate's class read the book, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. We had lots of fun sharing the parts of the story-the boots that went CLOMP CLOMP, the gloves that went CLAP CLAP, etc We then worked together to sequence and paraphrase the beginning, middle, and end.
Ms. Barbara's class continued to work on our figurative language book. Thus far, each student has completed a homonym, homophone, and idiom. We will work on humor and then put the finishing touches on our book soon.
Ms. Courtney's class worked on their sentence development and using both irregular and regular past tense verb forms. We played Photo Fish and Say and had so much fun finding as may matches as we could!
NOTE TO UPPERS PARENTS-Please check your children's backpacks for letters regarding our Secret Show Owl program. Thank you and have a great weekend!
While working with Kathy, we enjoyed participating in fun but challenging social games. Our games focused on visual skills, motor planning and most importantly, proper social skills!
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