Well we are a little late celebrating Earth Day since it was on April 22 but then again, EVERYDAY should be earth day 🙂 Our sensory groups explored boxes related to our planets natural resources which complimented the Unique Curriculum thematic unit for some of our students. The fine motor group turned trash into beautiful art projects and the language group baked some fun Earth Day treats.
SENSORY GROUP
Earth day is all about recycling, conserving our natural resources, and protecting the living things on our planet. We used paper shred—-something that can be recycled—– as the base of this box.
Then we filled it with items such as endangered animals and things such as “cans” and “bottles” that can be recycled.
Cars were included to remind us of ways we can conserve energy. Finally little people since WE are the ones that need to take care of our HOME!
The science access point recognize a model of a real object can be addressed here.
Our earth day rice was filled with blue colored rice and green split peas. We included the letters to spell out the word earth. There was also a picture of the earth as seen from space and could be discovered as the rice was pushed aside.
Apply a push to move an object is a science access point.
Ok, so we are just a LITTLE partial to beads around here 🙂 and continued with our blue and green theme with this box of beads.
Fun to sort, wear or pick up by handfuls!
Identify objects by one observable property, such as color is a science access point.
Flowers make our earth extra-special so we wanted to include a box just for them. There were BIG flowers, LITTLE flowers, flowers to count and flowers to wear! We also included some leaves which could be sorted from petals. Super colorful and super fun!
The science access point match objects by an observable property such as size, shape, and color can be addressed here.
We had 2 discovery bottles this week. One was filled with blue and green glitter—-like the colors of our earth.
The other bottle had some clear marbles in a slurry of hair gel and water to remind us of what we DON’T want to happen to our polar ice caps!
Track objects in motion and recognize that ice can change to water are science access points that can be addressed here.
What better day than Earth Day to make some oobleck mud! We made it by adding cocoa powder to our regular oobleck mixture.
Fabulous oozy gooey fun with the added bonus of a pretty sweet smell!
Recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move is the science access point addressed here.
We had more interesting aromas with our water and lotion play. Bath and Bodyworks oak scent was added to our rinsing water. Also found in the water were 3 aluminum foil “trash” balls that our students scooped out for “recycling”.
Of course, splashing in the bubbles was kind of a blast also 🙂
A great activity for eye hand coordination it also addresses the math access point associate quantities with number names.
Bath and Bodyworks country chic wildflower scent was the perfect scent to remember the beauty of our earth.
Our students told us if they like the aroma by vocalizing or smiling. Then we asked them to indicate where they wanted the lotion applied.
The science access point recognize one or more external body parts and the language access point effectively communicate wants and needs are addressed with this activity.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Tuesday we made a super cute project using some discarded coffee filters.
We started by asking the students to identify the colors of our markers, blue and green, using communication symbols.
Match objects by an observable property, such as color.
Then the students used blue and green markers to scribble on a coffee filter. When they had finished coloring we used a water bottle to squeeze water onto the filters.
Squeezing the handle of the water bottle is a great hand strengthening activity and really FUN 🙂
Recognize that the appearance of an object or material has changed is a science access point.
After we folded over, patted it to blend the colors then opened back up, we put the coffee filter on the table beside the piece of paper we were going to glue it onto and asked the students to show us the CIRCLE.
Recognize an object with a 2 dimensional shape is a math access point—–NAILED 🙂
TA DA—-welcome to planet earth!
On Thursday we continued our Earth Day celebration with another trash to treasure project—–we made cute planters using plastic butter containers! The labels were particularly stubborn to remove so we just covered them with scraps of pretty contact paper.
The students started by choosing a selection from our collection of “paper from presents past”—–used wrapping and tissue papers. It’s free and perfect for upcycing!
They crumpled up the paper and stuffed it into the butter containers. This is a great activity for promoting bilateral coordination and also addresses the science access point apply a push to move an object.
We gave the students flowers with their pictures on them which they then glued onto a popsicle stick.
The math access point match one object to a designated space to show one-to-one correspondence is addressed here.
Ta Da!
The flowers look so pretty planted in the pots and our students were pretty tickled with their art project.
LANGUAGE GROUP
This week in the language group we made Earth Day Globe cookies! Instead of the typical cookie dough, we used Funfetti cake mix that was blue (for the water) and made cake mix cookies.
Our students helped us pour in the cake mix—-we think the blue really popped out to them and was a nice contrast to the white bowl.
Then we measured out 1/3 cup of water and poured that in as well. 2 eggs were cracked (by an adult of course!) and were put in the bowl as well. Then, each of our students got a turn stirring the batter. We talked about how the cake mix had been DRY but was now WET.
Distinguish between items that are wet and items that are dry is a science access point.
Once all the ingredients were mixed up, we spooned dropfuls out onto a cookie sheet, making sure to count each time we spooned some out. We had some green gel that we squeezed onto the cookies and then we shook some green sprinkles on as well for the land.
The cookies were put in the oven at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.
Finally the cookies were ready! For some reason, the gel didn’t turn out green, soooo instead of it being the land, we said it was the rivers 🙂
Either way the cookies were YUMMY!!!!!!
Hope you enjoyed our Earth Day celebrations! Come back again and join us for more fun and learning—–Group by Group!
Group by Group 