Winter Fun Friday

Winter Fun Friday

We did a science experiment to see if salt or sugar would melt ice faster... And had interesting results.  Each child made a prediction and then saw if the prediction was correct or not as a result. 

We made a snowflake art project.  We drew a chalk lined snowflake on black paper.  The children used cue tips to dot the chalk lines and then, with teacher assistance, sprinkled glitter on the paint to add some sparkle.  

We had winter bingo with 2 levels. One level is picture matching (right) where the child is handed a picture and they velcro it onto the matching picture.  With the other level, the kids use a chip and cover the picture. We have kiddos that do much better with the words on the pictures, so we try to include them in bingo when we can.

Vocational Centers

I build vocational centers in my class to combine academic skills like following written directions and independent skills that will help my students in the future. This quarter I have a post office center and a grocery store.

The Post Office

This activity is weighing items on a scale.  The child gets a package from the left basket, puts it on the scale, reads the scale and then selects the correct weight from the container of pieces in the middle.  They put the amount on the package and then puts it in the finished basket on the right.  (What I learned this year is that all the packages need to be the same size, because my students had memorized different shaped packages and never weighed them) This year I used old CD cases filled with a variety of items to change the weight, and then covered them with the same colored paper.

This is a mail delivery task.  The sections are labeled with the people in the classroom.  The containers to the left are labeled for specific children.  Children that can read get envelopes with names and addresses on them to put in the mail slots.  Children that cannot read as well get envelopes with pictures and a name on them to deliver.  They all know which container to choose and are independent with this skill.

This is a beginning envelope stuffing task.  The student gets an envelope on the left and an index card in the middle.  He/she puts the card in the envelope and then puts it in the finished container.

The Grocery Store

This activity is a coupon match.  The child gets the coupon from the container on the top right and matches to the item on the coupon.

This activity is to pack groceries by a list.

The student gets a bag and a list and then puts in the correct groceries.

Once packaged, there is a place on the right to put the completed bags (not pictured).

Fun Friday- Spring

Spring Fun Friday Activities

This is a craft activity to make a caterpillar.

Here is a communication board to assist the students in the project.

The final product

Another art project that included science standards.

Finished product

We created a Flower Game for this week.

The child spins a spinner and sees what color it lands on.  He/she then either gets to keep the color if it corresponds to their flower, or they have to give it to their friend.  We encourage as much language as possible to increase the interactions with peers.

Because a large number of our students have special dietary needs and allergies, cooking is challenging.  One thing all the kids like and can eat is fruit!

We used plastic knives and had the kids help cut some fruit for the salad.  Then they each got to eat a portion of it.

After eating the fruit, they each got to tell their favorite and they graphed it.

Fun Friday- The Lorax

We had Fun Friday activities to go with our field trip to the movie. 

We created a Lorax Game

The child spins the spinner and it lands on a color.  The child then will either say that it is for "my tree" or "_____'s tree".  It makes them interact with their peers and then we have the children say "Here _____" to their peer as they are giving them the pom pom piece.

We made a bingo board that had the pictures from the movie and book.  One board is picture matching and the others we use chips to cover the pictures.

For our art project, we made a Truffula Tree.  We had visual directions and a communication board so the children could choose which color they wanted to make.

This paper (though hard to see) has pencil marks on it to show the children where to put glue and the paper for the Trufulla tree.

Our Trip to Lunch and the Movies

These are pictures from our field trip to the movies last spring.  (I got distracted and stopped posting for a while)  We took our students to see The Lorax and to lunch at Chick-fil-a. 

Here is the overall schedule of our field trip.

Here is a schedule of what to do in Chick-fil-a.

Here is a choice board to help order food.

This was the story written for the children that were used to playing on the playground at Chick-fil-a.  We didn't have time on this day to play and we wanted the children to learn that they don't get to play on the playground every time they come to the restaurant.

Here is the concrete example.

We used this small story to help the children that had been to the movies with their family.

This one is a simple level to help our children that needed a simple reminder.

We put each child's money in a bag, so they could each ask for their ticket. They had a visual to know what to say when asking for their ticket.

This is a schedule of what to do in the movie theater.

Fun Friday- February

This month, we decided that we would do the same basic activities for several weeks.  That way the kids can learn to be more independent with each activity.  We will create a new art project and we are still deciding on the recipe.

We also still use a basic schedule for each group of students.  We got smart and made generic labels for each center (game, art, BINGO, kitchen).  This way we can use the same schedule for various themed activities.

This game is a good game to build into math.  The players spin a spinner (or you could use a dice) and you get that many cubes for your board.  It was interesting to see how challenging the task of adding 4 more to a board was for many of the students.  Several of mine just wanted to put blocks on the the square that matched the number of the one on the spinner.  They learned pretty quickly to get the amount of blocks on the spinner and add them to their board.

The visual rules of the game are below.

This is a spinner that we had in our manipulative kit.  We just added stickers to this spinner for now.  Most of the students required hand over hand instruction of the spinner for several turns.  I would gesture to the spin visual cue and then hand over hand them spinning.  Then I would try to fade the prompt by cueing with the spin visual and taping the spinner.

This is the game board that we made.

Here is this themed BINGO game.  We have the basic board to use typical BINGO chips with as well as the one that has pictures to match to the board.

Here is a recipe that we made up for a Valentine's Day slushie.  With several different special diets in our classes, cooking is always a challenge.  This is a recipe that everyone can eat and all of the kids enjoyed.  We used my Magic Bullet blender so the kids could easily put in the ingredients and each child could have an opportunity to help blend safely.

Here is a communication board that our speech therapist made to go with our cooking activity.

Here are the directions for the Valentine art activity we made this week. 

Here are the materials needed for the activity (except the crayons and glue sticks).  We try to keep some materials so the kids have to use the communication boards to ask for them.  Our speech therapist will work this station to work on each child's speech goals.

The students also incorporate in the communication board below to talk about what family members they love.

Fun Friday- Christmas

Here are the activities for our Christmas Extravaganza...

The Recipe of the Week was to make Gingerbread Ornaments. 

The craft was to make a Christmas tree and decorate it.  Here are the directions with the materials divided in a container to have easy access.

This is a game that we made up for the week.  The student will roll the die and see how many decorations for the tree they need to get.  The first person to fill up the tree is the winner.

We made the die out of a toy block and put both numbers and dots on the cube.  This way students can work on identifying numbers as well as counting small number sets.

Here is the Bingo game of the week.  It is very similar to the Kwanzaa bingo game from last week.