Hallway Movement Mazes
Please check out our new collaborative, multi-disciplinary, cross-curricular health and wellness effort in Riverside Elementary School. Hallway mazes provide a fun and exciting way to incorporate movement throughout the school day. Please check out our introductory power point presentation included below for more information.
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Flexible Seating
Flexible seating is a great way to improve student motivation and learning--both at school and at home! You can be creative and can use what is already available to you. Just be sure to make sure that students are safe. No matter what their seating preference is: safety first. Secondly, flexible seating is designed to facilitate student learning. If a seating option does not seem to optimize learning: change it up. Not all flexible seating options work for every student. Remember: every individual learns differently. You can find some great flexible seating ideas on social media.
The Zones of Regulation Program
The Zones of Regulation Program is a helpful tool in teaching students to understand their emotions, identify “triggers” and develop self-coping and calming skills to overcome challenges. We started off the school year reviewing our zones:
After identifying each zone, students shared personal and hypothetical experiences for each zone and potential strategies to move out of one zone and back to the optimal “green” zone. Some strategies include:
- Blue Zone: sad, tired, bored, sick, hurt, etc.
- Green Zone: ready to learn, calm, happy, focused, etc.
- Yellow Zone: silly/wiggly, frustrated, anxious, worried, somewhat out of control, etc.
- Red Zone: mad/angry, terrified, yelling/hitting/fighting, elated, out of control, etc.
After identifying each zone, students shared personal and hypothetical experiences for each zone and potential strategies to move out of one zone and back to the optimal “green” zone. Some strategies include:
- Asking for help
- Going for a walk
- Getting a drink
- Taking deep breaths
- Talking about it
- Taking a break
Handwriting Misconceptions in Schools
A big misconception about school-based practitioners are that we are handwriting teachers. Handwriting is a curriculum, just like reading/language arts, math, science and social studies. My role as an occupational therapist is to look at and support all of the underlying performance skills that a student needs to be successful throughout their school day, such as fine motor coordination, visual perception, and visual motor integration skills. I certainly help to refine skills that a student is having difficulty with, and frequently use a student’s handwriting abilities as a functional assessment tool, but handwriting instruction in and of itself is a school-wide initiative and curriculum.
When working on writing with your child/student, here are a few easy reminders for them:
If you ever want to work on handwriting at home or in the classroom, there are several programs available. I would explore each program to see what you think is a “best fit” for your child/student.
Developmentally, it is always great to teach kids directional terms when writing, such as top, middle, bottom, left and right. Ideally, it is most efficient to use top to bottom letter formations and to write from left to right--which is also how we read. In general, no matter what curriculum you choose, try to make it fun!
When working on writing with your child/student, here are a few easy reminders for them:
- All letters should touch the bottom line. No floaters!
- Short letters are short! They should not touch the top line or go below the line. They should start in the middle.
- a c i m n o r s u v w x z
- a c i m n o r s u v w x z
- Tall letters touch the top line--just like a capital letter.
- b d f h k l t
- b d f h k l t
- Sinking letters go under the bottom line. They should not float above the line.
- g j p q y
- g j p q y
- Spaces go between a words. Smaller spaces go between letters. Larger spaces go between words.
- Print you letters the same size. Short letters should all be short. Tall letters should all be tall. Sinking letters should all go below the line.
If you ever want to work on handwriting at home or in the classroom, there are several programs available. I would explore each program to see what you think is a “best fit” for your child/student.
- Handwriting Without Tears
- Size Matters
- Fundations
- Zaner-Bloser
- Write Start
- Peterson Directed Handwriting Curriculum
- Fine Motor and Early Writing Pre-K Curriculum
- Loops and Other Groups
Developmentally, it is always great to teach kids directional terms when writing, such as top, middle, bottom, left and right. Ideally, it is most efficient to use top to bottom letter formations and to write from left to right--which is also how we read. In general, no matter what curriculum you choose, try to make it fun!
Hot Pumpkin Game
We played a modified version of this game this month, where students passed the pumpkin while listening to fall music. When the music stopped, they had to imitate gross motor, fine motor, visual motor and bilateral motor coordination and strengthening exercises.