Frankenstein

Frankenstein:)

Frankenstein has arrived! As our Halloween celebrations continues Frankenstein came to school this past week! I found this  pattern for Frankenstein on this awesome blog Life in First Grade.  The blog
features many patterns for projects for early childhood education.  I actually discovered her blog while searching the site Teachers Pay Teachers.  This site is a great resource to buy, sell and share teaching resources.  I recommend checking it out to be inspired!

Frankenstein is a spooky monster!

Again, cutting and pasting activities have been a big hit this school year! My students had an awesome time cutting and pasting Frank and then writing about him and his scariest adventures with his spooky friends!

Frank is the best goblin ever!

 

Each student had to cut out the zig zag lines on Frankenstein's arms and pants.  After the zig zags were cut, each student was given one head, body (shirt), two hands, two feet and two bolts to paste on to create Frank.  The paper body parts were presented one at a time, 2 x 2.  After Frank's body was pasted together, we flipped him over to his front to add five stripes to his shirt, three stripes on each arm sleeve, and two googly eyes.  My students had fun using a marker to draw on his stitched mouth and scars on his face. 

A School of Frankensteins

 Frankenstein is another fun and creative cutting, pasting and writing activity for Halloween focusing on fine motor and visual-motor integration skills.  The kids had a fantastic time creatively writing about their monster friend "Frank" and all of his goblin friends; ghosts, witches and vampires!

Frankenstein Monsters:)

 

Happy Halloween!

Lauren

Witches!

Magical Witch 

Hocus Pocus! Happy Halloween! These magical little witches have been casting spells all around our school!  My students had a blast making these pretty witches for Halloween:) All that's missing is a black cat and a broom!

Little Witch 

This witch is another fun cutting and pasting activity for Halloween incorporating spatial awareness, body awareness, hand-eye coordination, fine motor control and visual-motor integration skills.

Circle of Witches:) 

Witch Template:

Witch Template (body, arm, leg, hand, shoe, and eye)

Witch Template (head and hat)

First, each student cut out the rectangular shaped body (dress) and circular shaped head of their witch.  After pasting the head on top of the body, they were given two legs, two feet (shoes), two arms, two hands and two eyes. The paper body parts were presented one at a time and pasted in order, 2 x 2.  As a finishing touch, the students pasted the witch's hair (shredded green paper) on top of the head and completed her look with a pointy black hat:)  The students used a black sharpie to draw on their witch's nose and smile.

Bewitched:) 

I can definitely recognize the personality of each student shining through the little faces:) 

Witches Casting A Spell! 

 

Witch Song: 

Five Little Witches 

(author unknown) 

Five little witches (hold up five fingers) standing by the door.

One flew out (flying motion with hand)

And then there were four.

Four little witches (four fingers) standing by a tree

One went to pick a pumpkin (picking motion with three fingers)

And then there were three.

Three little witches stirring their brew (stir) 

One fell in

And then there were two (two fingers).

Two little witches went for a run (run with fingers) 

One got lost

And then there was one (one finger).

One little witch, yes, only one (one finger) 

She cast a spell

And now there are none (make motions as if to cast spell and then put hands in lap).

Halloween Matching Boards: 

I made these matching boards this school year and I was lucky to find a variety of matching games from different resources on the web.  

Jack O' Lantern Matching
(preschoolprintables.com)

Spooky Alphabet Matching
(www.kindergartenkiosk.blogspot.com)  

Pumpkin Patch Matching
 (www.filefolderfun.com)

Happy Halloween!

Hocus Pocus! 

Lauren

Leaves and Trees

Rainbow Trees



Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down... Fall has arrived and for the past few weeks my students have been welcoming Fall in many fun and festive ways! The leaves on the trees are Falling down all around our school and leaves are probably one of my favorite things to incorporate into treatment activities because there are so many ways to discover their beauty.  My students are always excited to explore the different shapes and vibrant colors of red, yellow, orange and brown, the textures of soft, rough and crunchy and the smells of nature:)

Exploring Fall Leaves

If you have time, you can venture outside and find a variety of leaves that have fallen from the trees outside or make a visit to the store to buy some fabric leaves.  Fabric leaves are great because they are easy clean-up and can be re-used for many Fall seasons to come.  I dump the leaves in a large water table (a bucket or tray would work well too) so my students can explore and play in the leaves, feeling the different textures and scents.  You can even hide different manipulatives in the leaves, such as plastic farm animals or bugs, sensory balls or other fidgets to find.

Exploring Fall Leaves

My students love to jump and roll in the leaves too! The kids love jumping on the trampoline or bouncing/rolling on the therapy ball while the leaves fall overhead.  With facilitation for safety, the students are able to reach to the ground for the leaves, pick them up and then watch them fall.  My students love parachute activities so it is fun to take turns sitting in the middle of the parachute (on top) with the leaves all around and as the parachute moves the leaves swish and swoosh all around. While laying on top of the parachute the students can roll side to side in the leaves. These sensorimotor activities are not only fun but also encourage peer interaction, body awareness, gross motor coordination, balance, motor planning and sequencing.

Some Fall Favorites:

Autumn Leaves 
(sing to the tune: 'London bridges')

Autumn leave are falling down, 

falling down, falling down

Autumn leaves are falling down, 

falling to the ground.

Pick them up and watch them fall, 

watch them fall, watch them fall

Pick them up and watch them fall,

it's so much fun! 

The Leaves on the Trees 
('The Wheels on the Bus') 

The leaves on the trees are falling down,

falling down, falling down.

The leaves on the trees are falling down, 

all through the town!

The leaves on the trees go swish, swish, swish

swish, swish, swish

swish, swish, swish

The leaves on the trees go swish, swish, swish

all through the town!

The leaves on the ground go crunch, crunch, crunch

crunch, crunch, crunch

crunch, crunch, crunch

The leaves on the ground go crunch, crunch, crunch

all through the town!
 

Rainbow Tree


My students had a blast creating these magical rainbow trees for Fall.  These beautiful little trees are a fun way to incorporate both fine motor and visual-motor integration skills, including: cutting, pasting, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, counting, and ordinal sequencing (largest to smallest).  The tree trunks were cut from recycled newspaper and each student got to pick 4 to 5 large circles in their favorite colors to cut.  After the largest (biggest) circles were cut and pasted on branches, the medium sized circles and smallest circles were introducted and pasted in place.  For my students working on written communication, they were given time to write sentences about their rainbow beauties:)
 

The Magical Rainbow Forest



Leaf Matching

As I explained in my previous post (Apples), I try to incorporate a lot of  visual-motor integration skills into my treatment sessions, matching, lacing, tracing, connect the dots, mazes, printing, etc. Matching games are a great way to work on not only visual-motor skills but also hand-eye coordination, visual-scanning and discrimination skills and fine motor control.  My students absolutely love matching and I have found it to be an easy to use and adapt activity that is effective in encouraging visual-motor integration skill development.  Of course, I explored the web to find images of leaves so I could make some matching boards.  Unfortunately, I am unsure where I found my images for these matching boards because I made them last year but if you just Google search 'leaf matching' you will find a ton of great images to use with different colors, patterns and shapes. Like I said before, matching boards take a while to make but they are so worth the effort and time because they prove to be a perfect warm-up table top activity and if laminated they can be sanitized and stored for school years to come:)



Leaf Matching

Lauren

Spooky Bats

Bats! 

It's time to celebrate Halloween and we have been making spooky bats all week long! This spooky bat is a fun cutting and pasting activity that focuses on spatial awareness, body awareness, hand-eye coordination, fine motor control visual-motor integration.

Spooky Bat

Each student was given the body and head of their bat and after they cut out their oval shaped body and circular shaped head, they were given two pointy wings, circular eyes, triangular fangs and a moon shaped mouth.  The paper body parts were presented one at a time and pasted in order. 

Spooky Bat 

Colony of Spooky Bats

Spooky Bats

Bat Template:
 

Bat Template



There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat...



Each child attached a strip of black paper with tape on the back so they could fly their bats around the room while singing some favorite batty songs:)

Bat Song:

Bats Are Sleeping

(Sing to the tune 'Frère Jacques')

Bats are sleeping, bats are sleeping,

Upside down, Upside down

Waiting for the night!

Waiting for the night!

Then fly around, Then fly around.

Writing Practice:
For my students working on higher functioning visual-motor integration skills, specifically written communication abilities, we then practiced copying spooky sentences about bats from the board.  Working on attending to margins and applying proper capitalization, letter formation, spacing and punctuation.  My students are very creative with active imaginations! It is cute to read their descriptions of their batty friends!

Writing Practice: Bats! 

Bats

For my younger students, we had fun reading the book There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat by Lucille Colandro.  She also swallowed an owl, a cat, a ghost, a goblin, some bones, and even a wizard!  I joined the Scholastic Book Club  so I have been purchasing some of my favorite stories to include in my treatment sessions:)  Another favorite sing-along story we have been enjoying is The Spooky Wheels on the Bus . We have been enjoying this story while playing with our parachute and other sensorimotor therapy activities, such as hand print bats.

Hand Print Bats:

Hand Print Bat

 My students had a blast exploring shaving cream and black paint to create these furry little creatures.  First my students painted a black circle in the middle of the page, working on painting within circular boundaries and then place two hand prints to create bat wings:) We used a textured paint brush so not only did my students explore the tactile input of the sticky and smooth paint but they also experienced the rough textures and tickle input of the brush on their hands. 

Bat with Hand Print Wings 

This activity is great for students who are tactile defensive and have difficulty in exploring different textures. This activity is also a wonderful way for students to explore their environment throughout touch and sensation.   Once the shaving cream paint was dry, we pasted on two eyes and a mouth with fangs.

Spooky Matching Boards:

I made these Halloween matching games last school year so I am unsure of where I got the images.  I am sure I just Google searched 'Halloween matching' and found the images.  I love this first matching game because as the kids build the spooky characters they are working on body awareness. 



Halloween Body Awareness Matching Game

I also use these matching games to play Go Fish and Halloween Memory with my students:)


Halloween Matching Game



Halloween Characters Matching Game from Family Circle

Halloween Matching

Happy Halloween!

Lauren



Wise Little Owls



Wise Little Owl

Hoot Whoo!
This week these adorable little owls crash landed and are perched around our therapy gym.  Since I work in an early childhood school setting, many of my treatment plans incorporate functional use of art materials, including cutting and pasting tasks.  The first week of therapy, my students got  acquainted with Mat Man.  Mat Man is a fun way to teach body awareness, shape recognition, spatial awareness, cooperation, organization, counting and sequencing as the children build and draw Mat Man together.  I love to begin each school year with Mat Man being one of our first activities and I continue to incorporate and build upon these skills as the school year progresses. 



Mat Man

My students were so unbelievably excited to create these cute owls.  Each student got to pick the color body and wings of their owl and after they cut out their oval shaped body and wings, they were given an oval belly, circular eyes, triangular nose and ears, and  rectangular feet, moving from the top of the owls head to the bottom.  Then each student was given 10 circular dots to paste on the owl's belly in a tree pattern.  I placed 10 dots of glue for a visual cue; working on fine motor and hand-eye coordination while counting and pasting the dots.

Owl Activity



Wise Little Owls




Owl Template: Body

Owl Template: Wings

Owl Template: Belly, Ears, Eyes, Beak, Feet and Dots

Each sweet little owl is unique and it's so cute to see each student's personality shine though!




Little Owls

Hoot Who!



Lauren

Candy Jar

Mason Candy Jar 

My wonderful friend Martha made me delicious homemade salsa as a birthday treat.  Martha gifted her salsa in this Mason jar garnished with lavender stems and a raffia bow (very O.T. of her).  Not only was the salsa delicious but it was packaged with love! After making my sewing jar kit I decided to upcycle this jar to make a candy jar for my desk at work.  This cute candy jar was very easy to make and it is the perfect addition to my desk top!

Supplies:

• Mason jar with lid
• Fabric (I used a quarter of a yard)
• Fabric glue
• Pencil

First, I took the flat metal top out of the rim of the jar and I used a pencil to trace the circle shape on to a corner of the fabric. 

Second, I cut out the circle of fabric and I glued it flat onto the metal lid.  I turned the metal rim of the jar upside down and I applied glue along the inside.  Then I placed the flat lid into the rim with the fabric side showing through the top. 

Finally, I used the remaining fabric to create a few fabric flowers (see my Fabric Flower Tutorial for more details).  Once the fabric flowers were complete, I used fabric glue to secure the flowers on top of the lid.

Now I have a cute jar to hold all of my tasty treats!

Candy Jar Lid

Mason Candy Jar

 

Lauren