Supplemental Sunday: Frogs and Something Simple

This week had a frog-focus for my upper elementary and middle school clients. I don't know why, but I wanted to do some frog-themed things with them. They are the right age for playing and doing some absurd things, so it just seemed to fit well with these clients rather than the others that I see on a weekly basis.

We played a game.

This is a silly little game that really helps me determine whether or not my client is able to remember (skill 1) and complete (skill 2) multi-step directives. In addition, there is some number recognition work (skill 3), symbol recognition development (skill 4), fine motor practice (skill 5), proprioceptive opportunities (skill 6), visual attention (skill 7), social interaction (skill 8), and cooperation with others (skill 9). There are other skills that occur during this silly little game as well. It's amazing how much you can address in one silly little game.

Full disclosure here - this silly little game did not have to be frog-themed, but I have some really cute frog visuals that I made several years ago, so this game became "The Frog Hop Game." It's origins were from one of the student who played the game this week. He was going through a frog-focus at the time and would do anything and everything if there was a frog involved. He's not that way any more, but he still played the game.

Isn't he cute??

The game was set up in this way. I have large frogs and small frogs. They are identical frogs from a school-supply company. I bought a big frog notepad and a small frog notepad and promptly came home and made visuals. I laminated them immediately (that's how much I liked them!!)!! I drew dice numbers on the stomachs of all of the frogs. On the large frogs, I wrote "Play 6 times," under the number. On the small frogs, there was a number on the front and a picture of a rhythm instrument was on the back. There were two teams. One person from each team got two dice - one red, one green. They tossed the dice and then picked up the small frog indicated by the green die. They then flipped over the small frog, found the instrument indicated on the back, and then took the instrument to the frog indicated by the red die. They then played the instrument the number of times indicated on the frog. At the end, they turned in their instrument and passed both dice to the next person on their team.

Nothing to do with frogs, right? I simply used the frog visuals because they were convenient, visually appealing, and fun. I could use any visual aid for this particular skill set, but for me, frogs were easiest!

My clients appeared to enjoy the challenges and spent quite a bit of time playing the game. They reminded each other what to do and then supported each other through counting (this was not prompted by me but a very cool development!).

Something simple became something enjoyed with little to no effort on my side of things. I gleaned lots of information about my new clients (and my long-time clients as well), and they seemed to have a good time figuring out how to complete the tasks. To finish this TME off, I think I will add a time element where they have to complete all of the tasks in one verse of a song... hmmm.