Hands-on Activity Ideas

Hello!
It has been quite a while since my last post, but I have had a student teacher this semester and since I haven't been teaching, I haven't been documenting :-)
I do want to catch up before I begin teaching again and I will be posting more often (hopefully!). Todays post I want to go over a couple of activity ideas for hands-on learning because this year I have a lot of students that require hands on manipulatives to stay engaged on on task.

I will begin with something fun that I made that was under $20.00 and I made 3 of them! I made tactile sensory matching cards for students with low vision or that are hands-on learners. We have been brainstorming a lot this year to find appropriate activities for our students.
Here's what they look like. I bought small black cardstock and laminated it, then I purchased different textured paper and cut and hot glued in onto the cardstock. These ones feel like alligator, shiny, basketball, cork board...

And these ones are glitter, burlap, dots, leopard fuzzy and crimped. The last two have matching counterparts but for the sake of not having to take another picture I just put them together.

These will make a great activity for using hands purposefully, working with objects for a purpose, matching skills, visual and tactile learning, etc.

We also made these visual schedules for outside our classrooms. We are working a lot with our grade level teams in our PLCs (we call them TBTs) so we have different kiddos going different places all day. We keep this outside the door so that therapists, nurses, childcare attendants, etc. know where the kids are.

We made them for our rooms, kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. The cookie sheets were from the dollar tree. So cheap!

So, I can post pictures of some of these things later, but some activities we have been doing at our center time for hands on learning:

Reading: Tactile ABC pages, we made igloos out of cotton balls for I, we made newspaper collages for N, we are sticking flat lollipops on the page for L, we made a fuzzy cat for C, etc. We are trying to incorporate the common core standards extended with activities that are appropriate for our student's levels. 

Handwriting without tears, building with the wooden pieces, making marks on the smartboard

Using smartexchange, my student teacher has been trying to make reading cause/effect items with visuals and sounds for the letter of the week. 

Letter tubs: We have printed the items that are in the letter tub into a communication device so students can practice using communication devices to request preferred items.

For each letter of the week, we have two items to play with and have been using two switches to program those items so they begin to learn that hitting the switch has a purpose and a consequence for which toy you get to play with. 

We have been working on requesting "more" and "all done" or "yes" and "no" when listening to letter of the week songs or videos on the smartboard. 

For "Words Their Way" we have been doing a sort at one of our stations, usually a color sort, or a bumpy/smooth sort, or a pasta sort to begin sorting skills.

We have a word of the week that we practice saying with the switch and usually do a group writing about. For example, the word of the week is want, so we make a giant sentence strip and kids help put on "I want" then they can pick a picture or item to write about.

Math: We have a "color of the week" and we are almost done with that but we would do various color activities like using those colors on the lightbox, sorting the color and "not that color"

 Simple switch games, like we have a spinner that is switch activated to numbers 1-4 then we would practice counting 1-4 and feeding a toy dog that many biscuits or building a tower that high and having a switch toy knock it down. 

We have a counting jar so students can work on putting things into a container and taking things out, getting one thing at a time off the table. 

There is an interactive numeracy board where the students can put objects onto velcro to count out that number, they can make marks to tally the number, they practice giving the teacher a "high-three, or high-two (similar to high-five but with those fingers)", they practice putting the dots in a ten frame.

We have a big book for both math and reading where they can differentiate the letter or number of the week in different fonts and pull it off and put it on our letter/number of the week strip. 

Pictures to come!

Welcome to the 2013-2014 School Year!

Hello! I am so excited to have a new blog post before the beginning of the school year. I have been working very hard with my co-teacher to create a simple and easy classroom set-up as well as routines and procedures to begin the year with a solid plan. We are both special education teachers and will have 13 students between the two of us and 2 instructional assistants each, making 6 adults and 13 students. We teach kindergarten. We agreed that since we have involved students with many needs, small groups would be the best to spend a majority of the day. We are fortunate that we can be flexible because we have 6 adults! We know the benefits of inclusion as well as whole group, so we have incorporated a lot of that in our planning and want to tweak as the year goes by after we get to know our students.
To accomplish the small groups, we have broken our classroom into 5 sections, or tables. These are based on a color (red, orange, yellow, green and blue). Each table also has a food associated with it (apples, peaches, bananas, grapes and blueberries).  The food groups are called the "Home Base" groups which do not change throughout the year. One adult (and one table sharing an adult due to instructional assistant break schedules) will be assigned a food group and 2-3 students will as well. These groups will be at the appropriate colored table for their food for the entire year for "hello groups" (breakfast groups), science/social studies, and "goodbye groups" (snack/dismissal) (We call them hello and goodbye because some students don't eat regular food and have different feeding times so we will plan a hello or goodbye activity for them to participate in, instead of waiting around for peers to finish eating). Then, the colored tables will also be centers. Each table has 2 AM centers (reading/writing) and 1 PM center (math). Adults rotate the centers weekly (for example, if I was the red table one week, the following week I would be the orange table, seeing 2-3 kids Monday, 2-3 different kids Tuesday, 2-3 different kids Weds, 2-3 different kids Thursday and 2-3 different kids Friday-eventually seeing each student 1x/week assuming they are not absent any days). The two teachers (myself and my co-teacher) are always green and blue for everything (each day, each center) for simplicity sake, so instructional assistants rotate between red, orange and yellow. The students in each group change daily (stay at the same table in the AM and same in the PM for transition sake and then rotate to another color the following day). Whatever adult is at a table for the week they complete one activity 5 times with eventually all of the students. So, my co-teacher and I basically plan a red AM and PM center, an orange AM and PM center, and a yellow AM and PM center for the week and the kids rotate through. Less planning, all the students get to all of the material, you aren't running around a whole group making sure everyone completed everything, therapy pull-outs, etc.
It is helpful that my co-teacher and I are always green and blue and our time is "flexible" to allow for IEP data, assessments, possibly inclusion in typical kindergarten, etc). It may seem confusing but I have included a lot of pictures to help make it understood.
Welcome to our classrooms!

Here is the door where I will post bus numbers for both classrooms (because we will be in our "Home Base" food groups for snack/dismissal, students from both classrooms will be exiting down to the bus)

To the area directly to the right of the door I have created a "calm down corner" for students who are having trouble during the day. There is a small desk and a cart filled with individual work tasks (a lot of fine motor). I believe that students may need a break when experiencing behavioral issues but I also don't want that time to be too reinforcing (which is why I have the individual work tasks for them to complete). Still doing work, but able to talk it out, get a reminder of the expectations, learn how to try again, and regain their composure. The location also helps with students who enjoy flipping on and off the light switch :-)

To the right of the "calm down corner" is my SMARTboard area and you can also see the classroom library. I made a hula-hoop shower curtain reading area with a mirror and bean bags.

Right by the classroom library is our first center table! Home to the red apple table! As you can see, each table has a binder that clearly labels what the 2 AM center topics are and what the PM topic is. Each table also has a cart or drawers of some type, one drawer housing the feeding equipment (for the red apples hello and goodbye groups), one drawer housing AM center materials and one drawer housing PM center materials. The binder includes IEP goals for the topics for each student as well as alternate activities to do when plan A just doesn't seem to be working, which never happens ;-). All of the materials are kept by that center. For example, with this center, we made it close to the SMARTboard for writing work, close to the big dry erase and small dry erase boards, writing materials are right there on the shelf above, reading books/reading nook, etc. Oh, and number work has SMARTboard activities too!

To the right of the red table is my group center time. I am the group teacher for reading and my co-teacher is the group teacher for math. We will start off the day in her group area doing math tasks (calendar, who is here today, daily schedule, weather, number of the week, etc), then break into AM reading centers, go to my room for group reading (letter of the week, word of the week, alphabet, story of the week, etc), then go into AM writing centers, lunch/recess/specials, quiet sensory time, PM math centers, sci/social studies whole group (rotating between my co-teacher and I Mon-Thursday) then complete the task in small home base groups, then goodbye groups and home. On Friday instead of sci/social studies we do an inclusion activity with typical kindergarten and for the first couple months, a color parade around the school for the color of the week.

As you can see, since I am the reading group teacher, I have just reading things in my group circle. I have the alphabet, a pocket chart for letter of the week vocab, letter of the week, color of the week, word of the week, classroom rules. My big books are organized to the right with story props underneath and circle time supplies in the rolly cart. There is also an easel for stories and felt.

To the right of that is my exposed shelving, all cleaned up and organized with new labels! I wanted all the same bins so they stacked the same and all the same labels for easy access. The adults are the only ones grabbing these bins so they are just in writing and no pictures. The picture labels I did last year seemed cluttered and not very useful. It took just as long to look in the clear view so the labels weren't helpful. These are bigger and easier to read from a distance. I also put all the craft supplies to the left, math in the middle and reading to the right. On the top I have my fall, winter and spring/summer bins. Other storage too (fridge, swing, etc).

This is another angle next to the puzzles where the big toys are kept.
















  To the right of that is dramatic play. Even that is organized!

To the right of that is the green table-my table! Instead of binders we have bulletin boards. You can see mine hanging. I also have the expectations hanging on a ring (the same for the classroom and all centers-4 simple rules) and a magnetic timer for data. We will have IEP binders for each students with data sheets in them so blue and green tables will use those.

Here is a close up-I made the clipboards with printed duck tape.

The back of our clipboards and the back of the binders have the same behavior chart on them for the use in small group time. We made it simple because each kids consequence and reward is so different. All of the students velcro names are located at the center so once you begin your center you can say hello, find names, put them on the group names section, review rules and behavior plan, etc.

On both of the barn doors (left open because we are using both rooms this year) to the right of my green table are a space saver pocket chart from Lakeshore (love the size-it was perfect for my things!) I have our color of the week, our theme of the week and a place to post my essential questions based on common core extended standards. We have already gone through and made a theme and book for each week and the colors go for a couple months then we are toying with the idea of doing shapes of the week. On the other door is a home base chart. Remember, these do not change throughout the year so they are just posted here.

To the right of that is my student computer station. We are supposed to get new computers before school starts-keeping my fingers crossed! I have everything out, intellikeys, EZ keys, speakers, etc.

To the right of that, behind my teacher desk is the orange table. This table is reading center letter work, then writing center typing and then math center counting. So, my classroom has the red table, green table and orange table. The yellow table and blue table are in my co-teacher's classroom which is semi-open to my room with the barn doors. 

Here is my teacher area. It has a semi-private entrance off the cubby area so students won't be tempted to come inside. Two big filing cabinets line the inside (I should have taken pictures of how I organized them! next post...) and they have different schedules and information posted on the outside. I have my monthly lesson plans by the printer. 

Then, here is the cubby and sink area next to the door. Now you have seen the entire classroom!

Here is my co-teachers classroom. She hasn't set up everything yet but she has an amazing group area space for math group time in the morning! That chart you see in the background is our daily and weekly center rotation (see close up below)

She doesn't have her blue table set up yet but here is her clipboard.

Here is the yellow table. This table is my favorite because it is listening and sensory. My co-teacher has the most excellent sensory tools, light boxes, visual stimulation, switches, etc. etc. etc. 

Here is our center rotation board. The clothespins are students names that rotate daily. The colored boxes refer to the colored table. The top half is AM, the bottom half is PM. Once we figure out which IA is where, we will fill in with velcro names the red, orange and yellow and rotate those weekly. We are also going to add break times to this as well.

I hope you enjoyed my classroom tour! I have been so excited to post this. Please let me know if you have any questions and please comment! I love comments :-)

Here's to an excellent school year and best of luck to my fellow teachers!

Pizza Box Drying Rack

Hello! Here is a Pinterest project that I recently did that will be helpful in my classroom! We do a lot of projects that require paint, glue, things that need to dry and we don't have many surfaces in my classroom, so I decided to make a drying rack! This project cost me less than $2.00 (for a 3 oz can of spray paint) and I made two of them. Granted, I already had white duck tape, clear packaging tape and pretty contact paper, but those things are pretty inexpensive.

I went to Donatos and they were very nice to me and graciously donated 16 pizza boxes to make two drying racks with 8 slots each. Thank you Donatos!

You have to cut the entire front off. I expected it to be just a flap and be super easy, but Donatos boxes are folded and tucked into flaps so it took a bit longer and I had to be careful. I saw on Pinterest they used Little Caesars? Maybe their boxes only have the flaps.

Then I tape the sides using duck tape. Once you take off the front flap, there is nothing holding those front sides together.

Here is how they looked once I completed that on all 8 boxes.

I tape them using clear packaging tape. I tried to make it as smooth as possible but it was hard. I started by taping them two at a time, then stacking them and taping the pairs, but my husband did the second one and I think he just taped them in one big loop.

I added duck tape and extra support from those cut off front flaps on the top and the bottom.

I covered it in pretty contact paper you saw in a previous post! And, I sprayed the inside with a thin layer of white spray paint to lighten it up, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't thick and sticky inside.

The lighting isn't the best, but it turned out well!

Spring has Sprung!

We have been working on the 4 seasons, weather and recently, spring and plants. Here are some of the things we have been working on! I apologize that some of the pictures are sideways :-/

We did a unit on the four seasons, identifying the months in those seasons and the weather conditions and range of temperatures we see at those times. I made this felt board tree that we manipulated with during our conversations and books about weather/seasons.

Summer Tree

Fall Tree

Winter Tree

Spring Tree

Here is just something I made for outside of my classroom so people knew where we were. I used velcro to attach the specials and its dry erase to change the times.

We did a Very Hungry Caterpillar Unit which is always fun. So much counting, identifying days of the week, identifying fruits, colors, butterfly life cycle, etc. On Friday we made a Very Hungry Caterpillar fruit salad, tried all the fruits the caterpillar did in the story, then mixed them all up to a fruit salad. We were almost late for the bus it was so delicious! A big thank you to my amazing speech pathologist who let me use a lot of these resources! We used those little fruit popsicle sticks as our "recipe" for fruit salad. I had them all in a basket and each student got to take turns pulling them out and reading me the recipe: how many and what fruit?

Currently, we are doing some plant experiments, learning about the plant life cycle and watching growth. Our current experiment is what do plants need to grow? We are tracking the growth of four different beans: one with sun and water, one with only sun, one with only water, and one with neither. Which one will grow? We are going to chart on our graph once they start sprouting.

Here is a cute printable that I laminated. I will use this during our counting stations on Thursday afternoons!

We are making grass heads and identifying parts of our bodies. Plants are living just like us! Once the grass grows, it will look like hair. A cute, but sometimes confusing analogy ;-)

Back to seasons, I made this sort with a common icon. First we colored all the icons the corresponding color, then added them onto our colored mat to see which months were in which season. It was a really cool way for the kids to understand the topic.

We made season wheels from plates. I loved these black plates for high contrast. We had a ton of leftovers from a City BBQ party. This also linked in with our felt board tree at the beginning of the post.

We did a bit about kites while talking about weather-wind. There is a 5 Little Kites felt board story that I made characters to. We did experiments: Will the wind blow it? and used a fan to blow different classroom objects and observed if the wind was able to blow it or not. Here was a fun math game that we played. As you can see, each one is differentiated. We used the dice that you can see in my previous post from January-March. Students had to roll their dice then find that number on their kite, color it in. The first person with all their kite colored won the game.

We read a story about a bunny and talked about the main character. Then we made him with paper plates, cotton balls (fine motor-we pulled them all apart and we threaded the pipe cleaners through the back of the plate), added eyes, nose and ears.

We focused on eggs, spring and bunnies and not Easter for obvious reasons. So we wrote a class poem called Wake Up, Spring and each line was Wake up, ________. They had to choose an egg and open it, identify what was inside and help me try to spell it using our knowledge of letter sounds. I had different objects in the eggs, ones that we have talked about in recent units and CVC words that we know (pig, dog), etc. Then we read our poem and made our own spring wreathes, see below:

I used paint chips from Home Depot to cut out pastel eggs and they got to choose some, glue them onto this spring paper plate that I cut the middle out of, and glued on pastel marshmallows on after counting them out.