Friday Follow Up-January 15, 2010

Hi Diener friends!!

This week in science, we continued to explore the solar system. We talked about the inner planets and outter planets and their divider, the astroid belt. The primary and intermediate classes learned about the center of our universe, the sun. We identified objects that grown from the suns energy and talked about how the sun heats the earth and other planets. The uppers did a "Planet Scramble" activity and talked about their Solar System Research Project. The Diener students are really "outta this world"!

The after school programs were a big success this week. In the Social Club, the kids had a great time working together to put puzzles together. We tried to do this without taking so the kids could try to use other forms of communication (writing, body language, ect...). They also made creative illustrations and popsicle stick frames for them. We had a great time in Hands On Science, with our snow experiment. The kids made predictions prior to the experiment and checked to see if they were right. We reviewed Scientific Method and all seven steps. Lastly, we used our 'YUCK' Science Kit to make 'Snot Goo'. The kids had the opportunity to touch it and use adjectives to describe what it felt like. Participants of Beyond Cooking learned about measuring ingredients while making homemade Baked Apples and Soy Milk Ice Cream. We put together recipe cards and enjoyed our delicious treat. We made a chart to show who liked what better ( the baked apples or the ice cream). All in all, we had a deliciously fun time!

We worked on passing and dribbling skills in fitness on Monday and Tuesday.
Wednesday, we worked on balance and building upper body and core strength. By running in a straight line,walking backwards, and hopping, we learned a new position called the plank, working our way up to doing 1 correct push up.
In dance class on Friday, the Primary class learned the Macarena. The Uppers worked on listening to the beat and clapping to it stepping to it and hearing the beat.

This week in music, in the Inters and Uppers classes, we continued to learn about composers. This week we learned about George Gershwin. We watched and listened to "Rhapsody in Blue," Gershwin's most famous piece. We continued to sing our favorite songs and play musical games. In the Primary class, we kept singing our favorite songs like "Open Shut Them," and played our favorite games like "Bop Til You Drop" and "Beanie Bag Dance."

This week Ms. Barbara and Ms, Kate's Uppers continued to work on their grammar by learning about regular and irregular past tense verbs. Some silly verbs do not follow the -ed rule and we are working to remember what they change to when these action words already happened! Ms. Kate's Uppers had a blast playing A to Z Junior to continue our work on categorization. The boys played against the girls and although it was close, the girls won!

Ms. Courtney's Inters read The Jacket I Wear in the Snow and then created their own individual books to re-tell the story of the boy who wanted to go outside and play during the snow day. We look forward to continuing this project with Ms Jen next week!

In social skills, the boys learned about self-awareness, New Years resolutions, and self-confidence. Instead of making resolutions about what we need to improve, we are resolving to feel good about ourselves, value ourselves, and think about ourselves in a positive manner!

Primary-This week we focused on letter "W". During our weekly OT group we created "W" using our bodies. We also had fun in the sensory room making obstacle courses that helped to improve our core strength and challenged our balance skills.

Inters (Ms. Jenni)- We worked so hard this week during our OT groups! We participated in challenging social groups focusing on motor planning, visual exercises, and social skills. We continued to expand our writing skills this week during our handwriting group.

To go along with Ms. Emily's weekly theme of Eric Carle, this week in speech group we played The Grouchy Ladybug- a Game of Size and Manners. Each student had a chance to spin, move the specified number of spaces, and collect the number of bugs they landed on. But wait! The students had to use the word please in order to collect their bugs. If they forgot to say please, the first person to remind their friend how to request politely got a bonus bug! The one with the most bugs wins! The students did a wonderful job requesting politely and reminding each other to say please if someone forgot.


To go along with Ms. Jenni's weekly theme of Marc Brown, this week in speech group we read the book Arthur's Tooth. Arthur is the only one in his class who still hasn't lost a tooth. Not only is he desperately waiting for his first baby tooth to fall out, his classmates are making fun of him and excluding him from playing in their games! After we finished reading the book we broke up into groups and read a situation from the book where Arthur's friends were being mean. After talking about how it made Arthur feel to be excluded, each group had a chance to change the "mean" comments into positive ones. The groups came up with many wonderful things to say to include a classmate who is being left out. What a great social skill to have!

This week in Occupational Therapy, the students continued participating in group activities that emphasize right/left discrimination, directionality and spatial awareness. In addition, our cursive curriculum was introduced to the students in Ms. Barbaras's class. Keep up the good work everybody!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!