Mar./Apr. 2019
In Teacher Gary’s room, the students continue to learn about mammals, such as polar bears and arctic foxes. We are also working on vocational opportunities. During food studies, our class has also been helping our students to make a lunch. To do this, we have been helping our students develop the skills to go to the store and locate and buy food items. Then at school, we are guiding our students to prepare this meal. This is a work in progress and we continue to help our students develop these daily living skills. Some of our students continue to make smoothies using switch work to activate kitchen appliances.
Dec. 2018
Science and English Language Arts
The favorite literacy stories in October and November connected to our Mammal Unit. The students have learned about various mammals/non-mammals including bats, owls and penguins. We started the unit by sharing pictures of our pets and favorite animals. We read stories where the students got use their devices to describe and identify their thoughts and opinions. As a group, we researched facts about our animal and illustrated what we learned as a shadow theatre. We made predictions, changed endings in stories and described settings and characters. The students are also introduced to a question of the day and other activities that encourages communication.
Social Studies
We used a large map of the world to identify where the animal’s habitat is. We included the science curriculum by discussing the temperatures where the animals live and their life cycle. The habitats were illustrated as dioramas which the students had lots of fun painting and making.
Mathematics
We use manipulatives connecting to the unit to count, add, subtract and explore patterns. The students enjoy making their own rhyming song where they clap the patterns. We identified various sizes of each animal and graphed what we learned from our inquiry. In addition, our daily morning meeting include calendar, timelines, routines and counting how many are at school.
Health and Life Skills
Students made a snow owl cake during food studies. The students first identified and labelled the ingredients. They took turns pouring the ingredients into the blender using the switch adapted pourer. They took turns activating the blender using a switch. The targeted core words are words and phrases connecting to food and cooking routines.
Community based learning opportunities
Weather permitting, our classrooms try to participate in weekly travel training opportunities. We take public transit to Vecova where we swim in the therapy pool. Safeway is another community based activity where the students purchase groceries for home.
