Welcome Back!

Welcome back!  I'm so excited to start our new school year!  I'm looking forward to a productive and FUN year with everyone.  Keep an eye on the blog to see our new adventures!


Here are some great resources for getting back into the routine for school:

Establishing Morning Routines
Teaching Kids to Dress Themselves
Teaching Your Child to Advocate

Summer Vacation!

It's almost that time of the year!  The kids have been working hard all year and it's time to enjoy the weather :)  Some children have difficulty making this transition to more unscheduled activities and free time.  While there are some that come to school in the summer, these are still shorter, more laid-back days.

If your child is one that has difficulty, check out this site: Transitions from School to Home.  It gives some great ideas, especially for those with sensory processing challenges.

Summer is also a great time for play!  Here are some fun, outside ideas for the summer:

• Swim!
• Build sandcastles and dig in the sand
• Make a "sand angel" at the beach
• Draw with sidewalk chalk
• Use squirt bottles, water toys, even a turkey baster!
• Wash the car or toys with a sponge (be sure to wring it out first!)
• "Paint the house" with water and a paintbrush
• Play catch, throw a Frisbee, play freeze tag outside
• Play hopscotch and jump rope
• Blow bubbles and jump up to pop them
• Go to the playground for an hour
• Play balloon volleyball
• Obstacle courses
• Ride bikes
• Weed and help garden
• Go on a scavenger hunt 
• Go on a PHOTO scavenger hunt: older kids can take pictures of what they find rather than bring it inside (something smooth/rough/green/slimy, two rocks of different colors, a small animal, a bird, a flower, etc.)

Here are some ideas for a rainy day!

• Play dress-up
• Dance!
• Walk on pillows (it sounds funny, but it's fun, too!)
• Build a tower.  No blocks?  Stack coins, books, cups, ice cubes - anything age appropriate
• Use tweezers/tongs to pick things up
• Have a toy car wash
• Make origami animals - there are tons of instructional sites online!
• Check out this site for movement games: Indoor Gross Motor Games

Most importantly - have fun with your child!

April is Occupational Therapy Month!

Happy OT Month!  Make sure to give your favorite OT a big hug :)

Here is a picture of the OT room door at NDS.  The little "game pieces" have faces of students and were colored by them and placed on the game board.

Occupational Therapy - Skills for the Game of Life!

When a child is determined to require occupational therapy services, I like to explain to the student (at their level) why they are seeing me.  We talk about what's hard and why and how we're going to work on making it easier.  Every April, I ask the students "What is OT?"  Some (typically the older students) can tell me what it is and why they are there.  Others can tell me why they come (after I remind them that coming to see me is "OT") and others don't remember :)  It's a good opportunity to review!  The kids were given a prompt of "OT is" and asked to finish the sentence.

OT is drawing. - Devin

OT is fun. - Joshua

OT is a time to learn and write things neat. - Dakota

OT is work hard. - Domenick

OT is fun! - Haleigh

OT is a time to learn time to work. - Nick

I got two "OT is fun!" answers...to me, that means I'm doing my job well :)

Duck! Rabbit!

We read the book Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld.   It's about two people who look at the same thing and see two different things - one sees a duck, one sees a rabbit.  They argue and show their perspective throughout the book.  "Two unseen characters debate the identity of the creature at the center of this clever book - is it a duck or a rabbit?  Readers will join in the discussion, because the creature could, in fact, be either.  Just as each of the debaters begins to see the other's perspective, the duck/rabbit runs away and they see an anteater.  Or is it a brachiosaurus?"  

After reading the book and talking about our perspectives, we made a duck/rabbit (or "drabbit" as one student liked to call it!)  

Coloring the duck

The duck!

But if I turn it around...

See my duck?

It will be this bunny!

Coloring with Paper

For the past two weeks, the kindergartners have been coloring...without crayons!  They have worked on ripping paper (using "alligator fingers") into small pieces and then gluing them onto a picture.  The goal is to have the picture colored without using any crayons or markers.

Melted Snowmen

In Kindergarten, we made "melted snowmen"!  First, the students worked on cutting out the "snow pile"...

Then they cut out pieces for their snowmen, without drawing the pictures first.  NO PENCILS ALLOWED!

This was a challenge, as many had never cut out a circle without a guide before.  We talked about rotating the paper while closing the scissors.  A new skill for every student!

Puzzles!

Looking for pieces

In Kindergarten, we worked on some paper puzzles.  Each child found pieces numbered 1-4 and then worked to put them together.  After they discovered all the pieces and organized them on paper, the students then glued them on the blue construction paper.  We talked about putting glue on the back of the white paper (not on the blue paper), so that we use just the right amount.

Making sure to get glue
 in all of the corners!

There was a lot of gluing to be done!

Time to color and decorate!

Then the children were allowed to decorate their gingerbread men.  Some used "rainbow frosting", some colored them brown...one even made his black - or "burnt"!