Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween Students, Parents, and Carers!


Our crazy fun day began with some Ghost Buster dancing on Go Noodle. Go Noodle is a great website featuring all different kinds of dancing, yoga, stretching, and body movement videos. It promotes regulation, motor planning, gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, and balance and coordination.

Elizabeth and Carter enjoyed dancing with our skeleton friend!

Afterwards we decided to play Twister. Twister is great for our language and math skills, body mapping and positioning, gross motor skills, bilateral movements, and sportsmanship.

Here we are completing our journals about Halloween. 

At recess today we played a fun new game that was introduced to us by Dr. Gil Tippy called, "Ro Sham Bo". It is essentially tag meets rock-paper-scissors. It was a lot of fun and everyone had to be aware of who got who out, where all our friends were throughout the sports court, and ensuring that everyone was playing fair. 

In gym today we played our fun team building game called Island Fishing. Before we could play, our friends had to get into four equal groups, and then build their boats. This was a very difficult task and we had some great discussion and brainstorming ideas for our social problem solving. We actually got to play this game today and still had great conversations on social problems, teamwork, sportsmanship, emotions and feelings.

Some much needed calming time with Cosmic Kids Yoga.

Mr. Jacob being a silly (and weird looking) Popeye! Haha

The team!

Our first stop in the afternoon for our Halloween Party was the Bat Cave. We got into teams and played a fun spider blowing relay race game, and then haunted balloon volleyball! We demonstrated some great motor planning skills, gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, balance and coordination, hand-eye coordination, and sportsmanship.

Haunted Balloon Volleyball

Our second stop was Hogwarts! We played some fun Hogwarts games and then got a certificate from the prestigious school itself!

Third, we went to the Pumpkin Patch. We got to decorate pumpkins and then use our sense of touch to guess what we used for monster teeth, witch fingers, werewolf eyeballs, brain, etc.

Mr. Kyle was a potion expert in the Hocus Pocus room. Everyone got to work together and make a fun potion that turned into everyone's favourite...CANDY!!!

Lastly, we had a fashion show, we went treat-or-treating, and then got to pie Mr. Jacob, Mr. Matthew, and Mr. Kyle in the face! : )

Have a great evening, have fun tonight and be safe!

Mr. Jacob : )

HOMEWORK:

1) Use math skills to count, sort, and classify candy from tonight's Treat-or-Treating. 

2) Discuss what house was the best for candy, for decorations, for fun. Draw a picture and discuss how the night went and the best parts.

3) Make a fun Halloween game as a family!

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Happy Rainy Thursday Students, Parents, and Carers!

The day began with some of our friends in their integration programs and participating in math ring toss and math worksheets, counting by 2's, 5's, 10's, and grouping numbers. We worked on our fine and gross motor skills, visual spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, accuracy, turn taking, teamwork, sportsmanship, and math skills. 

Here are Ms. Elizabeth and Mr. Carter pretending that they are pilots!

JUMP Math worksheets.

Before snack and recess we participated in the Thinking Goes To School creative-abstract-fine motor skills game called "Complete the Picture". Students were given various shapes, lines, edges, curves, etc. and then asked to create a picture, image, character, etc. with the design provided. We all worked hard to use our imaginations, creative artistic skills, fine motor skills, visual spatial skills, and math skills. 

In gym today we tried to play a fun team building game called Island Fishing. Before we could play, our friends had to get into four equal groups, and then build their boats. This was a very difficult task and we had some great discussion and brainstorming ideas for our social problem solving. In the end, we did not get the chance to play the actual game, but finished with a great conversation on social problems, sportsmanship, emotions and feelings.

Here we are unwinding after gym and discussing how the session made us feel, and what went wrong and/or right.

Elizabeth is holding our "speaking ball".

Mr. Carter and Mr. Ojani asked for some relaxing music and deep pressure squishes.

To begin the afternoon we participated in a fun drama, role-play session with Ms. Jessica's class. Friends had to act out specific situations with a peer, while the rest of the group had to try and guess what they were doing (e.g. customer at the grocery store and clerk, swimming teacher and student, etc.)We did so well together using oral communication skills, turn taking, role-play, creative and abstract thinking, problem solving skills, and complex communication skills.

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 the very end of the day we decided to make our costumes (t-shirt) for our Ghostbusters Game that we created yesterday. Our friends had to use their creative arts and problem solving skills, turn taking, oral communication, and fine motor skills. 

HOMEWORK TIPS:

1) Work on two and three-digit addition and subtraction questions, whether you write down some questions for your child, or use math to cook, clean, set the table, do chores, play games, create a game, etc.

2) Discuss good and poor sportsmanship. Use examples and pictures, videos, role-play, etc. Also, discuss big/medium/small problems and have your child make a chart showing where they think specific incidents should fall under.

3) Spend 15 minutes reading a book of your child's choice, a cartoon, instructions, recipe, comic strip, etc. Make reading fun, engaging, an adventure, and not a boring chore.

4) Wherever you are-in the kitchen, basement, garage, backyard, car, grocery store, bank, etc.-ask your child what if _____ starts or ends with a particular sound/digraph. For example, while in the car, ask your child what sound is after the /c/ sound. Answer would be /ar/ sound. You could also engage in rhymes, for example, what rhymes with 'wheel', 'seat', 'belt', etc.

Mr. Jacob : )