Week two of the Immersive AAC Class was a blast! We talked about flying and falling which were excellent opportunities to work on the words “up” and “down.” Our plans for the week were pretty packed:

Favorite activities this week included:

• Blowing up helium balloons and releasing them to the ceiling. This was the most engaging activity by far. Each student got to pick a balloon and then we “put it on” the tank, had to “make it big” or “blow it up,” and then we would “let it go,” “go up” or “make it fly” (children at the single word level said “big,” “up,” “go” or “fly”).

• Helicopter toys like this and this were also great opportunities to use the words “up,” “down,” “fly” and “fall.” In the first photo below you can see a student’s comment “helicopters turn.”

• A bubble machine was also a big hit. We took frequent movement breaks in the form of dance parties in the cloud of bubbles listening to anything from Laurie Berkner’s “Rocketship Run” to R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.”

• Stomp Rockets were another exciting and motor-based activity. The kids enjoyed watching each other launch the rockets as much as they did doing the actual stomping! We worked on asking for a “turn” or to “do it” and then made comments about them going “up” and “down.” We may have knocked a bit of ceiling paint loose with this activity!

• While the flying toys were a lot of fun, we also learned a lot from things that fall. Some things (like marbles) fall fast and some things (like feathers) fall slowly. The most fascinating thing to watch fall was the one that would break (eggs)! We used the words “up,” “down,” “fast,” “slow,” “fall” and “break.”

• Our fabulous OT, PT and Music Therapist colleagues joined us again this week with other flight-based activities like making paper airplane birds, playing with parachutes and flying scarves up and down.

• A couple word clouds from Realize Language sum up our week nicely:

• We had a great week and all ended up exhausted! Stay tuned for our next theme: SPIN!