Over the weekend, I wrapped bricks (yes, actual bricks) in different colored duct tape. The kids lifted them, moved them and pushed boxes that had the bricks on top which provided the heavy lifting/pushing to help regulate alertness....and just to have fun! We did it as a group, but if someone needed a sensory break later in the day, Ms. Carol would take them to push their 'car' down the hallway.
We read the book, "If I Were a ......", again today, focusing on the kids answering 'who, what, and where' questions. Since I wasn't getting answers that were totally on target, we revisited the book later in the day. Each child chose a picture of a community helper off of a chart and said the sentence, "If I were a ____, I would ______." We landed on dentists, which I cleverly chose so that I could introduce our next activity!
To facilitate imaginative play, cooperation, turn taking, and event recounting, we pretended that we were dentists. First, I was the dentist and each child took a turn being the patient. Every time we started over I would say: "A dentist washes his hands."; "A dentist wears gloves."; "A dentist uses a mirror to look in the patient's mouth."; "A dentist cleans the mirror." As I interacted with the patient I would use the same questions and sentences to provide a script or modeling for the kids. When it was their turn, the kids did use some of the same questions and sentences and followed what the dentist does to a tee! It really was so much fun. We should have a little time in they morning to play again!
Looking forward to seeing the vet tomorrow! I'm sure we will be playing 'vet' later this week!
