Fridays in the resource room consist of a lot of assessment and progress monitoring of students' progress towards their IEP goals and other foundational academic skills. To offset this sometimes demanding time, students have the opportunity to participate in "Fine Motor Friday" after they've completed their progress monitoring and assessment tasks with me. Fine motor, as well as gross motor, abilities are areas that many students benefit from targeted exercise in. For students that see an OT or PT, either in the school setting and/or outside setting, this is a particularly important skill area for development. Even if students don't receive therapy in these areas, they are still of significant importance for development at the primary age level. Our Fine Motor Friday activities give students a chance to practice and strengthen these important skills and often compliment targeted areas within students' IEPs. For the past few Fridays we've been learning about the Summer Olympics. Last Friday, we wrapped up this unit in honor of the Summer Olympics coming to a close. Students read about Gymnastic and Equestrian events in the Olympics, answered comprehension questions about what they read, and then had the opportunity to connect their experience in learning about the Olympics with a goal-setting writing activity to help them set goals and make a plan for reaching these goals. To incorporate fine and gross motor skill work, students practiced walking on a balance beam course (tape on the floor) and then designed their own champion medals for completing the Olympic unit. In math, students were challenged to become engineers and exercise their fine motor and problem-solving abilities. Students were provided marshmallows and toothpicks and instructed to design the tallest structure they could. Students experimented first independently and then used this experience to engineer a tower by working together. They practiced counting their materials, discussing the shape and shape descriptors of their foundation, and measuring their constructions. Students were given opportunities to refine their designs and discuss with each their strengths and challenges in completing this task. A number of valuable math vocabulary terms came up during our application and following discussion, such as solid, height, length, measure, inches, centimeters, tall, wide, side/corner/edge, etc. Students practiced teamwork and problem-solving skills throughout the entire process.
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September 2016
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Mrs. Vining | classroom blog |