Seasonal Activities for Sensorimotor Development

Ann Bavosa

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138046849
• eBook ISBN: 9781351694421
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book contains easy-to-use activities for therapists, educators and carers to provide fun and engaging sensorimotor groups for students with movement and sensory dysfunction. The activities span an entire year with a different main activity for each week. Themed by season, the activities can be linked to the school year and incorporated into the classroom. The activities promote socialisation, postural strengthening, improvement of gross and fine motor skills, and self-regulation of the body. Comprehensive instructions on how to run a group are included, as well as benefits and adaptations for severely affected individuals and wheelchair users. There are sensory-regulating warm-up appetizers to increase body awareness and prepare the students for movement; main course activities to strengthen fine and gross motor skills; and cool-down desserts to regulate the body and assimilate benefits gained during group activities. The activities are suitable for use with any school-age students, including those without movement difficulties, but are especially beneficial for students with mild to moderate motor disabilities, who exhibit increased difficulty functioning in a group setting.

Main Course Activities

USING THESE ACTIVITIES

These activities incorporate many of the beneficial ingredients of the sensory-stimulating appetisers, such as proprioceptive and vestibular input, while adding gross motor, fine motor and socialisation skills into the mixture. Choose one activity per week and modify it as appropriate for the individuals within the group.

ACTIVITY RECIPES FOR

• ACTIVITY RECIPES FOR JANUARY •

BURNS NIGHT HAGGIS

A Burns Night activity

SNOWBALL SOUP

An indoor snowy day activity

ICED BLUEFISH

An ice-skating and ice-fishing activity

FROZEN KID ON A STICK

A ‘just freeze’ activity

FROSTED ALPHABET SOUP

A perceptual body language game

BURNS NIGHT HAGGIS

A Burns Night activity

On Burns Night, 25 January, people of Scottish ancestry celebrate the birth of the poet Robert Burns in 1759, who wrote the poem Red, Red Rose. Celebration includes a supper of Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish made from sheep and mashed turnips and potatoes, respectively known as bashed neeps and tatties.

INGREDIENTS

PREPARATION

A wooden or plastic top with four sides Large piece of paper Crayons Several containers of modelling clay A jar of pennies or other small items to be used as tokens (about 10–15 items per student) Piece of paper Marker pen

Draw four symbols representing Burns Night onto the large piece of paper, such as a red rose, a Haggis (sheep), a neep (turnip) and a tattie (potato). Each symbol will have a specific action in the following activity. Explain in words or with simple pictures what each symbol means. The symbol of a red rose means there is no exchange of tokens and the next player spins. The symbol of the sheep or Haggis means the player who spun the top collects all of the tokens from the centre pot. The neep or turnip symbol means that the player who spun the top takes half the tokens in the pot. The tattie or potato symbol means that the player who spun the top must put one token into the pot.

ACTIVITY

Use fingers to hide tokens in the modelling clay. Hand each student a piece of modelling clay and encourage him to dig out all of the tokens. Next, have students sit in a circle with their tokens in a small pile in front of them. Show the large piece of paper to the students with the four Burns Night symbols on it and explain what each symbol means. Then, assign one movement activity to each of the four symbols. For example red rose = use your hands to spin you around three times on the floor while seated on your bottom with your legs in the air; Haggis (sheep) = jump and spin four times; neep (turnip) = march on the spot for ten seconds; tattie (potato) = make up a movement for everyone to follow.

Play begins as each student puts one token in the centre of the circle. The first student spins the top and must take or give the appropriate amount of tokens. Then, all students must perform the appropriate motor movement. Change movements after each round.

This activity can also be played without the use of tokens. Each symbol on the top can be simply given a movement and each time a student spins the top to perform the movement.

Adaptations for wheelchair users

Allow the students to spin the top on a table top or desktop and have them perform alternate motor movements, such as arm curls, wheelchair push-ups, leg lifts and reaching forward for toes.

SNOWBALL SOUP

An indoor snowy day activity

Playing in the snow is always fun, whether its indoors or outdoors. In this activity, students will use polystyrene packing chips and paper shredding to make snow angels, have a snowball toss and shovel a room full of snow.

INGREDIENTS	PREPARATION
Medium-sized box Polystyrene packing chips – enough to fill a medium-sized box Paper shredding – enough to fill several large bin-bags Plastic shovels – one for each student Large tarpaulin	Place a large tarpaulin down on the floor where the activity will take place to help facilitate cleaning up afterwards. Place the shovels and the box filled with polystyrene packing chips on the tarpaulin. Leave the paper shredding to one side of the room.

ACTIVITY

Encourage the students to close their eyes and imagine a snow scene. Use simple language to describe the color and feel of the snow, while asking the students to provide appropriate actions for the temperature (such as shivering) and for falling snow (using fingers to mimic falling snowflakes).

Ask one student to dump the box of polystyrene packing chips on the tarpaulin. Each student will then take a shovel and scoop the pretend snow into the box. Once the box is filled, pour the chips over one student’s head, allowing them to play in the snow. The students then scoop the snow into the box again, and after each student has had a turn at having the snow dumped on them, remove the filled box of snow from the tarpaulin.

Place the paper shredding in the centre of the tarpaulin and ask the students how they could mak...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Working with Different Kinds of Groups
• Influence of The Sensory System on Motor Control
• How to Use this Book
• Appetisers or Warm-Up Activities
• Main Course Activities
• Desserts or Cool-down Activities