Task Box: Toys vs. Tools

Check out this clever task box that helps children working on the skill of sorting at a whole new level. They have to determine what is a toy and what is a tool.  

We discuss the difference between a toy and tool.  We describe a toy as being something we play with and a tool as being something moms, dads, and teachers use to work.  Examples of  toys are the obvious—blocks, Lego's, books, cars, action figures, dolls,etc.  Examples of tools include adult scissors (taped shut), permanent marker, keys, butter knife, fork, an empty bottle of cleaner, etc. 

It's a simple, effective task that addresses safety rules while working on sorting skills simultaneously!!  Home Adaption:  This is a really effective exercise at home as well!!  


Stay tuned...Starting with this Thursday's blog, I will begin sharing my classroom's Thanksgiving-themed activities!!  

Brown Bear Showing Progress Activity

With Parent-Teacher Conferences just around the corner, here's a neat little activity I created to demonstrate student progress.  

At the beginning of the year, we did a "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" unit.  We started making a Brown Bear book from MakingLearningFun.com.  Instead of doing the book every day until it was complete, we colored one page each week.  This timeline allows us to focus on the student's progress regarding attending to task and coloring in the lines.  

Each week we model how to color the page and then prompt “fill in the space”.  This is a prompt our Occupational Therapist suggested and it really works well. It trains the children to be aware and look at their paper as they color.  My paras and I write a comment on the back of each coloring page describing how the child colored that day. For example, “Joe resisted coloring. He needed hand-over-hand support” or “Susie found the color she needed and colored the page independently.”   

This is the colored image completed during Week 5.

This week the children are finishing up their books.  WOW... have we seen progress!  Each child is at their own level. Some students have learned to sit at the table and color for the duration of the activity. Others have made significant progress in "filling in the space".  See one child’s progress below.

The three pages above demonstrate the student's progress from Week 1 - Week 3.

The three pages above demonstrate the student's progress from Week 3 - Week 5.

Each child’s book will be put together and stapled to give to his/her parent at conferences. 

Assembled booklet given to student's parent during Parent-Teacher Conferences.

This activity is a great way to start a conversation with parents about student progress and needs. It also serves as a take-home activity for children to review basic colors and practice early literacy concepts like reading color words and tracking from left to right.

A Handful of Fire Safety Tips

Here's a unique art project that my students do every year during our fire safety unit.  After talking about various fire safety tips, each child makes this fun painted campfire.  

Before the activity, my staff and I cut a 3 x 6 inch piece of brown construction paper.  Then we draw a line down the middle of it.  The children use their cutting skills to cut it apart and glue it in the shape of an X at the bottom of their paper to serve as the firewood. They then glue the fire safety tips as described below to the top of the page.  Next, they dip one hand in red tempera paint and the other in yellow.  They put their hands on the page to start their campfire painting. Lastly, they rub their hands together to making orange paint, which is the final touch to the campfire.  

My Class's Handful of Fire Safety Tips are:

1. If you see a fire, dial 9-1-1.
2. If your clothes catch on fire:  STOP, DROP, & ROLL.
3. Check the batteries in your smoke detectors once a month.
4. Help your family make a fire escape plan with two possible exits.
5. Decide on an outdoor meeting place in case your house catches on fire.

Not only is it a fun project to end our Fire Safety unit, but it also serves as a science experiment  -- “What color did you make when your red hand mixed with your yellow hand?” 

Teacher's Tip:  For students who do not like to have paint on their hands you can have them use sponges that are cut in the shape of hand prints, or try having them wear rubber gloves.  

Instructor's Insight:  I learned from a parent, who attended the STAR center, Sensory Therapies and Research Center, have a wet wash cloth right next to the space where the students are painting.  If children see there is a way to remove the paint from their hands quickly, they are more likely to give it a try.  It seems like a silly fix but when I gave it a try with a little guy who hated to get his hands messy, it worked like a charm.  
 

Greet and Treat Halloween Party

Our classroom is currently preparing for our Annual Greet and Treat Halloween Party.  Every year we celebrate holidays with functional parties that practice social skills that relate to the traditions for the holiday.  This helps students practice the social skills they need to be successful at family and community events. 

For Halloween, the skill we practice is trick-or-treating (without costumes).  Before the big day, I find teachers and staff who are willing to let us visit their classrooms/offices during out  greet and treat activity.  I often choose rooms and people who are familiar to the students  (the nurse’s station, the speech language room, the office, etc.)  Parents donate small party favors or snacks beforehand that serve as the treat at each stop. The children decorate a treat bag during art the day before our Halloween party.  

Our Greet and Treat Bag:  It's a large grocery bag with a handle cut-out near the bag's opening. 

On the big day, I post numbered, printed light bulbs outside our designated stops.  The light bulb images representsignify the illuminated porch lights the children will look for while trick-or-treating in their neighborhoods later that evening. 

The above image signifies the second stop on our Greet and Treat quest.

Then during the designated time for our elementary building’s fall parties (usually the last hour of the day), we have the students "Greet and Treat".  Before we start I read a social story about what we will be doing during our "Greet & Treat". 

Teacher's Tip: Social Story™ describes a situation, skill, or concept in terms of relevant social cues, perspectives, and common responses in a specifically defined style and format.)You can learn more about social stories by visiting Carol Gray’s work at this link  www.thegraycenter.org/social-stories.   

Our Greet and Treat Social Story 

Today, we will be Greeting and Treating. It is just like trick-or-treating.  We will walk quietly in the hall in search of five classrooms with light bulbs outside of them.  

When we find one, we will knock on the door and say "hello”.  The person who answers the door will say “hello” back and give us a treat. We can only take one treat and we may not go into the classroom. We are only stopping by for a visit. Then we will say "thank you" and "goodbye".  

Next we will search for more light bulbs.  When we have all five light bulbs, we will quietly walk back to our classroom and put our bag of treats in our backpack so we can show our families after school.  

Greeting & Treating is lots of fun when we follow the rules.  We stay close to our teachers.  We walk quietly in the hallway and we use our best manners to greet teachers and say "thank you" and "goodbye".  

The story is written on Boardmaker using visual cues.  If you would like a copy of it, just shoot me an email at considerateclassroom@gmail.com.

Next, the children line up to go on our "Greet and Treat".  We walk down the hallway in a line in search of rooms with numbered light bulbs affixed to their doors. When we get to one, the children knock on the door and say "hello" and then receive a treat.  Many of our children have IEP goals that work on appropriate social greetings so this activity is perfect.  

For those students that need extra support, we provide mini language aided boards to facilitate their language.  For nonverbal students, we bring a step-by-step communicator for the students to say "hello", "thank you and "good-bye".  (Refer to this link for more info http://www.mayer-johnson.com/step-by-step-with-levels .) 

Mini Language Aid Boards used to support non-verbal students.

Instead of the step-by-step communicator, this year I am going to try using our iPad so the student has to choose what they will say rather than just hitting a button.   I plan to use the Answers: Yes No App by Simplified Touch. Using this app I can program two buttons for the kids to choose from to communicate with.  I am going to use "hello" and "thank you".  We also work on waving and signing thank you as appropriate. Instructor's Insight:  Sometimes by having the staff wave or sign thank you, the children have a cue to do the same and often add language to it.  

Often our first stop is Miss Andy, our Speech Clinician.  She then joins our quest and serves as additional support. The activity also provides great data on greeting goals.  It is amazing to see how many of the children greet appropriately for a treat.  It is a highly motivating activity that serves a dual purpose of getting the children ready for the evening’s events.  

Some of our students have never been trick-or-treating because parents are a little nervous to do so, but after they see their child’s success at our Halloween party they are more likely to give it a try. (All parents and caregivers are invited to join us for our Halloween party.) I also provide my address to families if they would like to trick-or-treat at the house of a familiar face later that evening.
 

** A special thank you to my little sister, Julie, for helping me brainstorm this idea five years ago when I started teaching Special Education Preschool.  

Pumpkin Sensory Activity

As a preschool teacher, I am always trying to come up with new ways to use our sensory table. This year I am putting navy beans and lima beans in our table with orange, yellow and brown pipe cleaners (cut at various lengths) to serve as the inside of a pumpkin.  

Before playing at the center, we will cut a pumpkin open and explore it’s insides so the students understand the correlation.  So often children do not like touching the yucky insides of a pumpkin so this will be a touch friendly version of pumpkin guts.   

My son, Payton, testing out the pumpkin sensory table.

I will add various-sized plastic pumpkins so the children can work on stuffing the pumpkins using size relationships.  We will work on stuffing small pumpkins with smaller seeds like navy beans and larger pumpkins with larger seeds like lima beans.  We can also add magnet wands for the student to pick up the pipe cleaners later in the week.

Teacher's Tip: I usually change what is in my sand table weekly, but as the week progresses we add more items, skills and concepts to the table.  To start the week, the goal is simply appropriate exploration, playing with the materials inside the table, getting used to the new textures and items in the table.  

Instructor's Insight:Many students with special needs need time to adjust to change.  Then as the week goes on, we add more items and skills.

 

Extra Credit:  The items in the table such as corn, beans and rice seem to be too loud and it bothers students’ sensory systems.  I place a soft padded carpet at the bottom of the table to make it less noisy.
  

Quick Prompt

Several of my students are very impulsive.  They have difficulty waiting and often touch everything in sight.  They need support in learning how to use "waiting" hands. 

The Solution: I printed visual cue cards with "stop" and "waiting hands" on them for my staff to present to the students when they are impulsive.  

The Rework:  Unfortunately, we could never get the visual cue cards out quick enough to be effective until I attached them to a pull string name tag clip. 

***Money Saving Tip: You can often ask local businesses to donate these pull-string name tags. Several medical and pharmaceutical companies give them away as freebies to advertise their businesses.

"Stop" Visual Cue Card

"Waiting Hands" Visual Cue Card

Now, my staff and I wear the prompt on our aprons and quickly pull them out to be at the student's eye level.  

Our 6-pocket aprons are super handy! They are available for a good price
at restaurant supply websites like KNG.

My staff & I always wear aprons to keep everything we may need accessible. We keep hand sanitizer, various fidgets and other motivators (like M&M’s, stickers, mini marshmallows, etc.), Kleenex, one set of rubber gloves, and band-aids with us at all times.  

Instructor's Insight:  Visual prompts are more concrete to children with Autism and other disabilities.  It can take a student much longer to process the words "Stop" or "Waiting Hands" than it will for them to respond to representative images.  Also visual prompts are easier to fade than verbal ones.  Children are less likely to get dependent on a visual prompt compared to a verbal prompt.  

In my experience, children are able to comply with a visual prompt quicker and with less defiance.  When an adult tells a child to do something, it is easy for them to say "no". But when the visual cue is telling them to do something it is no longer a power struggle almost as if the child thinks the card says stop so I need to stop.  

One final note, research by Dr. Becky Bailey, 2001 states that "children think in pictures until they are 9 years of age”.  Children with disabilities may think in pictures much longer.  You can learn more about Dr. Bailey’s research at the www.consciousdiscipline.com. 

Home Adaption:  Nametag Quick Prompts can also be used at home or on the go to prompt children to look, wait, be quiet, stop, etc.  Parents and caregivers can attach them to their purse or jacket so they have them when they are out and about.  They're a great way to remind children how to behave in public.  

Literacy Workbox Idea

Purchase board books with various pictures and concepts in them.  Have students find certain items and pictures in the books.  Ask them to mark or circle the pictures using Dry Erase Crayons.  (You can purchase dry erase crayons at any craft or department store or at Crayola.com.)

By using dry erase crayons, the student’s findings become more visual and concrete.  The activity is more like a task box where there is a clear beginning & end.  Take the book in the picture below for example.  

Here the student has been asked to identify and mark certain items in the board book.

The child knows when all the wording on the page is crossed out that they have found everything and may move onto the next page.  This activity supports a students ability to stay on task, as well as addressing listening and comprehension skills.  There is also a fine motor component to this workbox.  

Extra Credit:  You can break your dry erase crayons into small pieces so that the students have to use the correct pencil grip in order to hold them—we call these "Crayon Nubbins". 

Teacher's Tip:  "Crayon Nubbins" are a great way to address  pencil grip.

Another extension for this activity is to use dry erase crayons on seek and find books that are printed as board books or on "I Spy" floor puzzles.  

The student has been asked to draw a line between the puzzle key
& the matching image in the picture as he finds them.

Instructor's Insight: A Task Box, which is sometimes referred to as a Workbox,  is an activity that is designed with the following three major components in mind. 

1. How much work? 
2. What work? 
3. When is the work finished?

This concept is based off of the TEACCH model and research done by the University of North Carolina.  Students with Autism are visual learners. By presenting the work in this manner, it helps the child's level of anxiety go down making them more successful and independent, which in turn builds their confidence. 

You can learn more about task boxes by visiting the Tasks Galore website or by reading the book "How Do I Teach This Kid? by Kimberly A. Henry. One great blog to visit to get your taskbox library built up is Building Blox.