The Clubhouse is the Behavioral Intervention Association's (http://www.bia4autism.org) after-school program. Once a week, children between the ages of 5 and 12, who have communication and social challenges, meet and engage in fun activities to practice different social skills. The Explorers focus on skills such as staying with the group, greetings, turn taking, participating independently in activities, and brief exchanges with peers. The Adventurers focus on skills such as initiating and maintaining conversations, perspective taking, and negotiating with peers.
“Paper Marbling”: Everyone absolutely loved this project today. Paper marbling is a great activity to learn about colors, patterns the water surface and inks. We worked in small groups and used a Japanese Suminagashi kit (see photo). Here is how it works:
1. Fill a deep tray (bigger than letter size) approximately 2/3 with water.
2. Place the "float paper" that comes with the kit onto the water surface and let it soak.
3. Decide what colors you want to use and place a small drop of ink directly onto the "float paper." We took turns and used multiple colors. It is important to be gentle (great learning experience): If the ink bottle is squeezed too hard and too much ink comes out of the bottle, the ink will not stay on the water surface but will just sink to the bottom of the tray.
4. To create designs we gently stirred the ink on the surface with a brush. We also tried blowing.
5. Then, we placed a piece of paper onto the water surface. The paper picked up the pattern and voila, we our beautiful paper was created.
Some tips:
- The water has to be changed once in a while. When the colors start to look pale on the paper, it's time to change the water.
- The inks go a long way and are absolutely non-toxic but don't wash out of clothes easily.
- If the ink gets on fingers, baby wipes work well to get hands clean again,
“Leaking” Relay Race: We were divided into two teams. We placed two bins with water as well as two yogurt
cups with a hole at the start line and two bins with a bottle at the finish
line. We lined up at the start line. The first player on each
team filled the leaky cup with water from the bin. The player then had to run as
fast as possible to the finish line to fill the bottle. Then, the player ran
back to the start line and handed the cup off to the next player. The game
continued until the bottle at the finish line was filled with water. Before we began the race, we brainstormed what we cold do to compensate for the hole in the cup (e.g.,
run fast). We figured out quickly that it is hard to carry water when there is a hole in the
cup.
Art Project “Balloon Painting”: Today, we experimented with colors and balloons. We decorated a paper by dipping balloons that were blown up slightly or filled with
sensory materials into paint and then made an imprint on the paper. We tried different ways how to mix colors (e.g., first using a balloon that was dipped in
yellow and then adding a second layer with a balloon that was dipped in red.).
Water Balloon Relay: Since we love this game so much and the weather was great, we played it again today. We partnered
up and went around obstacles holding a container with a water balloon in our hands. At the end of the obstacle course, we tried to hit a target by throwing our water balloons toward the target. We worked on requesting balloons in a certain color and handing the balloon container to a friend to indicate whose turn it was.
