Apple Tree craft

This week in therapy, the Speech Therapist, Denise, and I made this cute apple tree activity that she found on an awesome crafty website.  We modified it a little to do with our 3 Intellectual Disability (ID) classrooms.  We also decided to make one big tree per classroom, because of how difficult it would be to have each student make their own (we didn’t have enough staff to help with this and these students require hand over hand assistance)….plus it might get a little messy!

Supplies needed:

·        Red and green Tempera paint (and containers for the paint)

·        Green construction paper (for the tree)

·        Brown rough paper (or brown construction paper for the tree trunk)

·        One apple (cut in half)

·        Short handled forks or handles for the apples

·        Pictures of items on list for student to choose from (optional)

 

To begin, the speech therapist made the tree top out of green construction paper and the tree trunk out of brown corrugated cardboard from the art room (our art room has a lot of great supplies) and the art teacher lets us raid it whenever we need something for our students!!  :)

 

 

Next, Denise cut an apple in half and this is what we used to “stamp” the apple print on the tree.  With our first class we had the red and green Tempera paint in shallow, round, plastic containers barely bigger than the apple.  This made it very difficult for our students to pick up the apple, hold it and then stamp it.  They already have hand use difficulties and this was just making it harder for them.  After trial and error with our first class, we found some adapted forks with shortened “chunky” handles that we poked into the apple halves; this made it a lot easier to get the apple out of the paint, and for our students to hold and stamp the tree. 

  For this craft we decided to incorporate a fall scent to add some interest for our students.  After every student had a choice stamping the apple on the tree, we passed around a bottle of cinnamon for them to smell and then sprinkle on the stamped apples.  I tried to find an apple scent Jell-O but couldn’t find any :(.  Our students really liked the cinnamon scent and it was fun to watch them try to sniff it; one student even stuck his tongue out because he wanted a taste :)

 

finished project :) 

  





For this activity it was great to co-treat with the speech therapist because not only did we work on fine motor and hand use skills, she was able to target comprehension wh-questions with this activity.  She printed out pictures to answer these questions (red/green, bumpy, apple tree/apples) that the student had to choose from.

 

This was a really simple activity and a lot of fun to do!

I hope you try it with your students!

 

Fall Apples

Good Monday morning,

So, with Fall in the air (well, on some days....last week we had temperatures in the 90's) I decided to do an apple activity with my younger Intellectual Disability classes.  At my schools, the kids learn about Johnny Appleseed so it ties into their curriculum!  

Most of the kids in this class are working on various hand-use skills and tool use.  This activity incorporated cutting, painting, as well as making choices for colors.

For this activity the materials you will need are:

• paper plates
• black sharpie
• scissors
• red and green paint
• paint brushes
• pre-made apples from Ellis Press
• pencil
• glue sticks
• pre-made printed names of student (unless they can write their name)

 

first I drew a curved line for the students to cut along.....some students practiced cutting one side and because of time the teacher or myself cut the other side.

 

next the student decided which color they wanted for their apple....red or green of course.....the green looks like black, because....well....it is

(the teacher assistant discovered this after we had already started)...oops

 

next the student pointed to which color they had painted their apple, and glued down the pre-made color apple.  This worked well on incorporating some of their language goals as well...and the teacher was able to collect data on it too!

finally they added seeds using the eraser end of a pencil...dipped in black paint.
they glued down the apple core, and then from a choice of two they chose their name and glued that down! 

This activity incorporated so many fun elements and the kids really seemed to enjoy their finished product. 

Enjoy!

Please leave any questions or comments below....

Happy blogging :)




 

 

 

 

 

Beginning of the School Year

So far my school year has started off rather smooth which is a little scary!  Sometimes in the beginning of a new school year scheduling can be a little bit of a nightmare while I track down students and figure out when I am going to see them (especially since I have 2 schools and about 44 students). 

Don't get me wrong there have been a few snags, like teacher schedule changes, which of course that means my schedule changes too, but it has only been once, or twice, or three......well ok about 6 times so far.....but that is to be expected!  :)

Now that I have my schedule set, and I have been seeing students on a regular basis...it is time to have fun!

I am really looking forward to this school year.......I am hoping to have all of the OT craft & hand use activities I work on with my students in a nice, organized location...HERE...on my new Blog.  :)

LET THE FUN BEGIN!!!

stay tuned.............................. :)

New to blogging

So I decided to start a blog after seeing how organized it makes my co-worker!!  :)  I am hoping that this will keep all my projects and activities I do with my students in one place :)........I also hope it will be used as a reflection tool for myself, to see where I have been as a COTA!