As always, we began the day with our morning exercise. Today, we voted on Go Noodle Sensory Dancing and an Exercise Circle. An Exercise Circle is when a student is called upon to stand in the middle of the circle and demonstrate an exercise to their peers. Everyone must follow suit, and then the next student gets a turn to demonstrate an exercise. Morning exercises/ sensory diets/ Go Noodle dancing are very important for the students to help them regulate, and demonstrate great body and muscle awareness, proprioceptive, vestibular and bilateral movements, fine and gross motor skills, motor planning, auditory processing, and social problem solving.
After our exercise we went over our morning circle routine and 'playing teacher'. We used our two way communication skills, compromise skills, social problem solving skills, turn taking, and oral language to see who will play the teacher on specific days. Today was Mr. Ojani's day to play teacher. He went over the month, date, day, year, weather, time, feelings, and some rules.
Our friends then decided on Play Master for the next activity. This is such a great exercise for time management skills, number sense and numeracy, multiplication, time, problem solving, turn taking, oral communication skills, social skills, play skills, and creativity. Everyone had to decide who got to go first, how much time each student got in a 25 minute duration to lead their friends in play, and then choose which activities/ games they wanted to carry out.
In gym class today we played Capture the Flag with our friends in Ms. Andrea's and Ms. Jessica's class. Everyone demonstrated great auditory processing skills, hand-eye coordination, teamwork, sportsmanship, motor planning, fine and gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, and balance and coordination.
Before lunch we joined the rest of academic for a "Mindfulness" session where we worked on calming exercises, deep breathing, stretching, drama, and regulation.
After lunch we worked on some Fine Motor Skills before reading, discussing, role playing, and acting out "Bucket Fillers & Bucket Dippers". Fine motor skill (or dexterity) is the coordination of small muscles, in movements—usually involving the synchronization of hands and fingers—with the eyes. Both of these activities are great for the pencil grip, fine motor development, phonics, spelling, team work, oral communication skills, sportsmanship, problem solving, math skills, and social problem solving.
After reading and discussing the book, "How Full Is Your Bucket", we had a great conversation about what a bucket filler and dipper entails. Everyone also got into groups and had to create short skits depicting social situations where someone either fills up a bucket (says something kind, shares with a friend, follows instructions, etc.), or dips into a bucket (poor sport, doesn't listen, takes from a friend, etc.) It was so nice to see such positive discussion, and to witness everyone work on social skills, problem solving, role play, drama, and creativity.
In the sensory gym we worked on our hand-eye coordination, teamwork, sportsmanship, motor planning, fine and gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, math, time, phonics and rhyming skills, and balance and coordination.
At this time our dear friend Lizzie had the opportunity to socialize and play with two new girls in transition. They were all smiles and I thought she would never want to come back to our class! Haha
After recess in the afternoon we played a fun inferencing and questioning game based off of a 'hand thinking' activity from the influential book/ pedagogy "Thinking Goes to School". First, students had to get into groups and work with their partners to find pairs of familiar objects hidden in a bag. They had to use their sense of touch (hand thinking) to search for and locate specific objects in a specific amount of time. After a couple rounds of this, we played a fun game we call, "What's in the Bag?" We used lots of inferencing, questioning and answering skills, oral communication, problem solving, scientific vocabulary, adjectives, and implemented the question wheel and the Five W's.
Lastly, we went over our Zones of Regulation and used different coloured blocks to symbolize how our day was, and how different times of the day went. We also got to share our own ideas and thoughts on how our day went, and took turns saying one nice thing about our friends from today's work.
Have great evening everyone and please DO NOT FORGET YOUR SHOW AND TELL TOMORROW! I am not yelling, merely excited. Haha
Mr. Jacob
No comments:
Post a Comment