This week in science, we continued to explore the solar system and discuss the planets. The primary students blasted off and had a wonderful time making Paper Tube Rocket Ships. The inters and uppers made their own personalized models of the solar system and learned new facts about each planet. The uppers also discussed the Planet Poster Project, which is due next Friday, February 5, 2010.
We went on an adventurous walk in the Social Club and we worked on saying please and thank you to our friends. We also worked on creating multiple circles of communication by asking questions and thinking of appropriate responses.
We rocked and rolled in Beyond Cooking this week! The kids had the opportunity to make their own Rice Crispie Treat Sushi Rolls. We talked about how they were the same and different from regular sushi and even made a vin diagram to represent these similarities and differences. Our kids had so much fun decorating their own 'take out' boxes and rolling their sushi rolls. Ms. Jenni and Ms. Abbe added their own creative flare to our awesome treats! Everyone agreed, it was the best week yet!
In Hands On Science, we continued to experiment with sinking and floating. We used eggs to test our hypothesis, which was "Will our eggs float or sink in fresh or salt water?" Even though our experiment didn't quite work how we thought it would, the kids still enjoyed themselves. We created boats out of foil and tested to see if they would sink or float. They ALL floated! We added egga and recorded how many eggs we could fit in our boats before they sank... What an 'egg-cellent' experiment!
This week in Ms. Jenni's class we continued our lesson on facial expressions and emotions. We acted out different scenarios using props and the students had to guess which emotion was appropriate for the situation. Everyone did a great job acting and following directions!
Miss Emily's class had a great week in OT. The letter of the week was "Y" and we made our very own its, bitsy, book of "Y" words. We practiced our cutting, coloring, and folding skills.
This week in Social & Life Skills, the Upper boys learned about the components of play and how they relate to big/little problems. We discussed how worrying about "little problems" such as what color piece you get or who goes first often takes away from our valuable game-playing time. We reviewed what makes a problem a "big problem" and how to try not to "sweat the small stuff."
The Inters read a book called Today I Feel Silly and brainstormed as many feeling words as we could come up with. We worked on nonverbal communication by showing our feelings with our faces and bodies. We also played a speedy memory game using Feelings Faces cards. We had lots of fun!
This week in music, we read an interactive book called "Carnival of the Animals." This was accompanied by the CD of the orchestral recording of "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens, a famous French composer. We got to learn a little bit about Saint-Saens to continue our study of composers, and we got to review the instruments that are in an orchestra. With the book and the CD, we listened to each piece and discovered how each one sounded like a different animal-lions, elephants, kangaroos, and even some silly ones like fossils and pianists! We discussed the different instruments we heard and differences between loud and soft, fast and slow. We also continued to sing our favorite songs and play our favorite movement games.
This week we continued to work from our Handwriting Without Tears Workbook. Each student is making wonderful progress. The students then enjoyed a visual-motor activity that addressed spatial awareness and correlated with our math lesson regarding fractions/shapes.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Friday Follow Up-January 22, 2010
This week in science, we continued to talk about the solar system. The primary and inters classes, enjoyed learning about the Outer Planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto- the dwarf planet) by watching The Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space. we created a hands on, visual representation of the solar system, by having the kids pretend to be planets and orbit around then Sun! This helped to solidify understanding the new material. The Uppers worked on their Planet Projects and reviewed planet facts in their Solar System journals.
We had a great time learning about the concept of Sink and Float in Hands on Science this week. We watched a short video on buoyancy and we conducted an experiment to see if our selected items would sink or float. We made predictions prior to the experiment and we were all surprised by some of the results!
We made some delicious creations this week during Beyond Cooking. The kids had fun creating their very own Pizza Bagels! They got to pick their own yummy vegetable toppings to make their pizza unique. While our Pizza Bagels were baking, we blended up a delicious fruit smoothie!
We continued our basketball unit in fitness! We practiced dribbling, keeping our eyes on the ball, and learning the rules of the game.
We learned a new dance called the eagle rock. You can you tube it by the Wiggles. All the kids learned the dance, except the K class.
This week in speech and language, the Uppers continued to learn about irregular past tense verbs and figurative language. Ask your child to share his or her favorite idiom with you and see what they say! Please see Jillian's Friday letter for some samples of our I AM poems that the girls created this week in Social & Life Skills group. Although it is important for us to think about what we need to work on, we also need to take time to remember our strengths. On Friday, Ms. Courtney and Ms. Deanna's Inters worked on using Give me 5 to play Look Who's Listening! We also worked on eye contact while playing Pass the Eyes.
This week in Inters music, we combine Miss Jenni's and Miss Courtney's classes together for one big music class! We played lots of fun games like Count and Move, Freeze Dance, and rhythm stick games. In Miss Barbara and Miss Abbe's class, we continued our study of composers by learning about Tchaikovsky. We watched and listened to The Nutcracker Suite. We were assigned a project to do a little bit of research about a composer to share in next week's music class!
Our letter of the week in Miss Emily's class was X. We designed our very own letters using a variety of tactile media including cotton balls, felt, glitter, macaroni, beans, and stickers. We also participated in a large movement group focusing on right/left discrimination and coordinating both sides of our bodies.
This week in Ms. Jenni's class we participated in a variety of small group movement activities that focused on right/left discrimination and spatial awareness. We continued to work hard during our weekly handwriting group reviewing "tall" and "descending" letters and practicing the correct formation of our newly introduced lower case letters "p" and "r".
This week during speech group in Ms. Jenni's class we learned all about emotions. We studied different pictures of faces and analyzed how a person's facial expression depicts a certain feeling. We also practiced making the faces we studied (happy, sad, surprised, etc..). Each student then constructed their very own face depicting a "surprise" emotion. After they put their emotion face together they were able to guess what emotion it was and present it to the class. For example, the students told about the shape of the mouth and the angle of the eyebrows.
In Art, the Primary class had a lot of fun painting with Q-tips! The materials used in this project consisted of white construction paper, black paint and Q-tips. The children dipped the Q-tips into the paint and created wonderful and very interesting designs (dots and lines) on their paper. They learned about the difference between light and dark (contrast). They have also discovered with previous art projects, that instead of using paint brushes, there are many different kinds of art "tools" to paint with , creating a variety of designs! The Uppers (Ms. Kate's class) will be concentrating on different art techniques that an artist may use. This week, the children learned how to draw "beyond the border" of their paper. This is a type of art technique. The first step was for the children to draw a large shape in the middle of their paper. Crayons and markers were then used to draw a picture, not only inside the shape, but also extending their drawings "beyond the border!" In Ms. Barbara's class, the children learned how to draw by using a grid. The children were first given graph paper which they used as a grid to create their drawing. The children then used a pencil to sketch their drawing on the grid. After this was completed, they used a black marker to outline their drawing. The use of the grid allowed the children to draw lines, and patterns in an organized manner. It became a very different and interesting way to draw!
We had a great time learning about the concept of Sink and Float in Hands on Science this week. We watched a short video on buoyancy and we conducted an experiment to see if our selected items would sink or float. We made predictions prior to the experiment and we were all surprised by some of the results!
We made some delicious creations this week during Beyond Cooking. The kids had fun creating their very own Pizza Bagels! They got to pick their own yummy vegetable toppings to make their pizza unique. While our Pizza Bagels were baking, we blended up a delicious fruit smoothie!
We continued our basketball unit in fitness! We practiced dribbling, keeping our eyes on the ball, and learning the rules of the game.
We learned a new dance called the eagle rock. You can you tube it by the Wiggles. All the kids learned the dance, except the K class.
This week in speech and language, the Uppers continued to learn about irregular past tense verbs and figurative language. Ask your child to share his or her favorite idiom with you and see what they say! Please see Jillian's Friday letter for some samples of our I AM poems that the girls created this week in Social & Life Skills group. Although it is important for us to think about what we need to work on, we also need to take time to remember our strengths. On Friday, Ms. Courtney and Ms. Deanna's Inters worked on using Give me 5 to play Look Who's Listening! We also worked on eye contact while playing Pass the Eyes.
This week in Inters music, we combine Miss Jenni's and Miss Courtney's classes together for one big music class! We played lots of fun games like Count and Move, Freeze Dance, and rhythm stick games. In Miss Barbara and Miss Abbe's class, we continued our study of composers by learning about Tchaikovsky. We watched and listened to The Nutcracker Suite. We were assigned a project to do a little bit of research about a composer to share in next week's music class!
Our letter of the week in Miss Emily's class was X. We designed our very own letters using a variety of tactile media including cotton balls, felt, glitter, macaroni, beans, and stickers. We also participated in a large movement group focusing on right/left discrimination and coordinating both sides of our bodies.
This week in Ms. Jenni's class we participated in a variety of small group movement activities that focused on right/left discrimination and spatial awareness. We continued to work hard during our weekly handwriting group reviewing "tall" and "descending" letters and practicing the correct formation of our newly introduced lower case letters "p" and "r".
This week during speech group in Ms. Jenni's class we learned all about emotions. We studied different pictures of faces and analyzed how a person's facial expression depicts a certain feeling. We also practiced making the faces we studied (happy, sad, surprised, etc..). Each student then constructed their very own face depicting a "surprise" emotion. After they put their emotion face together they were able to guess what emotion it was and present it to the class. For example, the students told about the shape of the mouth and the angle of the eyebrows.
In Art, the Primary class had a lot of fun painting with Q-tips! The materials used in this project consisted of white construction paper, black paint and Q-tips. The children dipped the Q-tips into the paint and created wonderful and very interesting designs (dots and lines) on their paper. They learned about the difference between light and dark (contrast). They have also discovered with previous art projects, that instead of using paint brushes, there are many different kinds of art "tools" to paint with , creating a variety of designs! The Uppers (Ms. Kate's class) will be concentrating on different art techniques that an artist may use. This week, the children learned how to draw "beyond the border" of their paper. This is a type of art technique. The first step was for the children to draw a large shape in the middle of their paper. Crayons and markers were then used to draw a picture, not only inside the shape, but also extending their drawings "beyond the border!" In Ms. Barbara's class, the children learned how to draw by using a grid. The children were first given graph paper which they used as a grid to create their drawing. The children then used a pencil to sketch their drawing on the grid. After this was completed, they used a black marker to outline their drawing. The use of the grid allowed the children to draw lines, and patterns in an organized manner. It became a very different and interesting way to draw!
Friday, January 15, 2010
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!
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!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday Follow Up-January 8, 2010
Welcome back Diener friends!
The Primary and Inters practiced taking deep breaths and experimenting with breathing and movement using the pin wheels. We did our yoga moves to the story "The Rabbit in the Forest" that told the story of sharing our gifts with others. Then we did some partner moves to "wash windows", row your boat and we made a twisty stair line.
The Uppers worked with breathing and the Sun Salutation. We did a Down Dog Relay and had a surprise yoga pose under our mats that we had to guess.
At the end we all finished with our final relaxation to the song "Peace Be With You"
This week in music, in the Inters and Uppers classes, we started learning about composers. The first composer we learned about this week was Beethoven. We learned a little bit about his life and listened to and watched clips of his music, including parts of his 5th and 6th Symphonies. This month, we will learn about a different composer each week! In the Primary class, we continued to have fun with our favorite songs and movement games.
Primary-We had a wonderful week with Ms. Brook participating in our weekly movement and handwriting groups. We did a variety of exercises with our bodies focusing on body awareness, coordinating both sides of our bodies, as well as coordinating our upper and lower bodies. The letter of the week was "V".
Inters (Ms. Jenni)- This week during our motor group with Ms. Brook we focused on a variety of skills in a variety of different postures. We practiced prone (tummy) postures, supine (back) postures. In addition we worked on rhythm and timing skills while completing brain gym and clapping patterns.
This week in Ms. Emily's speech group we read the book Kipper's Snowy Day . Just like the characters in the story made snowdogs out of snow, we had lots of fun making our very own snowdogs using cotton balls! We even dressed them up so they would keep warm in the cold weather. The students did a wonderful job attending to the project, following directions, and using their language skills to complete the activity. We learned opposites and attributes that related to the book. Everyone had a chance to share their favorite snow activity with the group!
This week in Science, we focused on the Solar System! The primary and intermediate classes had fun watch the Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space and making their very own Outta This World pictures! The uppers took a look at the Sun and visited the planet closest to the giant star, Mercury. Next week, we will continue to focus on the four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars)
The after school clubs kicked off this week with a bang! We had an awesome time on the social club making snow measures. In Hands on Science, we conducted a color mixing activity and did a fun water experiment with Mr Aaron! Last but not least, we chef'd up some salads this week (Salad People and Fruit Salad) and made comparisions about which ones we like better.
The Primary and Inters practiced taking deep breaths and experimenting with breathing and movement using the pin wheels. We did our yoga moves to the story "The Rabbit in the Forest" that told the story of sharing our gifts with others. Then we did some partner moves to "wash windows", row your boat and we made a twisty stair line.
The Uppers worked with breathing and the Sun Salutation. We did a Down Dog Relay and had a surprise yoga pose under our mats that we had to guess.
At the end we all finished with our final relaxation to the song "Peace Be With You"
This week in music, in the Inters and Uppers classes, we started learning about composers. The first composer we learned about this week was Beethoven. We learned a little bit about his life and listened to and watched clips of his music, including parts of his 5th and 6th Symphonies. This month, we will learn about a different composer each week! In the Primary class, we continued to have fun with our favorite songs and movement games.
Primary-We had a wonderful week with Ms. Brook participating in our weekly movement and handwriting groups. We did a variety of exercises with our bodies focusing on body awareness, coordinating both sides of our bodies, as well as coordinating our upper and lower bodies. The letter of the week was "V".
Inters (Ms. Jenni)- This week during our motor group with Ms. Brook we focused on a variety of skills in a variety of different postures. We practiced prone (tummy) postures, supine (back) postures. In addition we worked on rhythm and timing skills while completing brain gym and clapping patterns.
This week in Ms. Emily's speech group we read the book Kipper's Snowy Day . Just like the characters in the story made snowdogs out of snow, we had lots of fun making our very own snowdogs using cotton balls! We even dressed them up so they would keep warm in the cold weather. The students did a wonderful job attending to the project, following directions, and using their language skills to complete the activity. We learned opposites and attributes that related to the book. Everyone had a chance to share their favorite snow activity with the group!
This week in Science, we focused on the Solar System! The primary and intermediate classes had fun watch the Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space and making their very own Outta This World pictures! The uppers took a look at the Sun and visited the planet closest to the giant star, Mercury. Next week, we will continue to focus on the four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars)
The after school clubs kicked off this week with a bang! We had an awesome time on the social club making snow measures. In Hands on Science, we conducted a color mixing activity and did a fun water experiment with Mr Aaron! Last but not least, we chef'd up some salads this week (Salad People and Fruit Salad) and made comparisions about which ones we like better.
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