Happy Cinco De Mayo!
This week we focused on cultural diversity within various communities. On Monday, we made a collage, categorizing different clothing, homes, music and food. We also read a social story called “Everyone is Different.” We discussed how we all look different, have different hobbies and interests, but how important it is to respect and be kind to all individuals. We discussed the American customs and celebrations. We also learned about the Hispanic culture and celebrated Cinco de Mayo with music, games, crafts, and food.
Check out the sombrero’s the kids constructed! Lots of hand strengthening, hand eye coordination and other fine motor and visual skills happening in this activity!
The children created Cinco De Mayo books to learn more about Mexican customs. Fine motor skills such as copying from the board, handwriting, coloring, cutting and stapling are all supported in this simple activity. These movements also support visual tracking, increasing visual memory and focus. It’s amazing how much many skills are incorporated into one simple activity that most of us pay no attention to in our daily activities!
The children learned about the Mexican flag while constructing a tissue paper flag and working on fine motor skills such as fine motor strength, tripod grasp, eye hand coordination. Tearing tissue paper is a great fine motor strengthening exercise. To tear paper, one needs to use the intrinsic muscles of the hand and a tripod grasp. Both hands are needed (bilateral hand coordination) in order to hold the paper and tear. Children need strength and endurance in the intrinsic muscles of their hands in order to maintain coloring and handwriting activities without fatigue. W was very interested in the symbol in the center of the flag so we looked it up. The coat of arms is derived from an Aztec legend that their gods told them to build a city where they spot an eagle eating a serpent while sitting atop a prickly pear cactus on a rock that rises above a lake which is now Mexico City.
We also incorporated a daily living skills activity because a celebration isn’t complete without food! The children worked with knives; cutting a tortilla in half, adding the right amount of cheese and cooking quesadillas in the panini maker. They also had guacamole, salsa and chips. It was a delicious Cinco De Mayo lunch!
The Story of “The Three Little Pigs” is a favorite at Cornerstone! We listened to the story on the Promethean Board, sequenced 4 events that happened in the story and we used finger puppets to act out the story. W was the wolf, AC was the first pig in the story and teachers were the second and third pigs. This was such a fun activity for us. W and AC have both asked to act out the story again next week!
We are working on our drawing skills (visual-motor skills) in occupational therapy. W currently LOVES airplanes, especially a Boeing 747. We found a step-by-step sequence to draw the airplane online. W worked hard to copy the simple shapes and integrate them in to his drawing.
