Preschool Unit 1, Day 1: The Color Red!

     Thanks to some research on Nothing But Monkey Business and the fact that I want my first classroom to follow a rainbow decor, I decided that it would be a perfect unit for Trevor and I. After all, he is working on identifying/sorting colors. It became a longer post than I thought it was going to be, so stay tuned and I'll attach links and lesson plans for the rest of the week ASAP! :)

   

Our Schedule Board
This is great for non-verbal students being able to
 follow along throughout the day and make choices!
Special thanks to the wonderful Dollar Tree for the
Schedule and lined cards!

• 9:00-10:00- Free Play Time
• 10:00-10:30- Circle Time
• Go over schedule for the day 
• Weather Bear (I will be posting on the next lesson plan showing how I use the Weather Bear!) Click here to find the free PDF I used from A View from the Pew.
• Day of the Week Song
• Number Practice (1-10)
• Alphabet Song
• 10:30-11:15- Outside Art and Play
• Finger Paint with red.
• Click here for coloring sheets, categorized by whatever colors you want to focus on! (Thanks to Twisty Noodle!)
• Free time outside.
• 11:15-Noon- Changing and Lunch
• Noon-12:45- Art Project
• Trevor will tear red construction paper and place on glue in rainbow outline.
• Click here to find rainbow outline. (Thanks to Projects for Preschoolers for free download!)
• 12:45-1:15- Occupational Therapy Practice
• 1:15-1:45- Sorting Colors



I used a die cut for the apples
and laminated them.
Obviously have many more to
cut out...

• Here, I will give him one of the apple cut outs and lay two baggies filled with apples separated by color on the table. He will be asked to place the apple in his hand in the appropriate stack. 
• Note: I limit his options (only 1-2) in activities like this one because that is how we are working to help him concentrate and increase in accuracy. This activity can easily be advanced for a more developed child, involving more color options and motor skills involved in opening and closing bags.
• 1:55-2:15- Music
• The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That- The Rainbow Song
• Then, I will ask Trevor to select which picture he thinks is the rainbow, based on the video and song we just watched. This is something that he works on in music therapy to encourage comprehension, even though he is primarily nonverbal.
• 2:15-3:00- Reading

• "What Makes A Rainbow?" By Betty Ann Schwartz and illustrated by Dona Turner.
• I like to give Trevor plenty of time at the beginning to look through the pictures and hold the book himself before I read the words and talk through the pages with him. This gives him time to really experience the book.
• 3:00-3:45- Number Practice
• Counting 1-10 using fingers.
• Pointing and counting aloud.
• Writing numbers by outlining with pointer finger.

Smarties, Snakes, and Sorting!

So... my 2nd year of college is ending. WOW! Where did all of the time go?? Finals week seems as long as the whole semester combined! But thankfully, I had some great friends who helped me de-stress...

This is my bestie Maria!

She is an aspiring Elementary school teacher as well, and she's got all the right requirements! For a program she's in called the PPN, she spent all semester in a single classroom working intensely with 25 students and their teacher. She collected data, taught lessons, and reformed behavior... needless to say, she was BUSY!

 But all of her hard work paid off as tears welled up in her eyes the day before her last trip to the class. So, as a goodbye to her kiddos and as encouragement for upcoming state testing, she made these CUTE smartie-pants!

 

Maria had seen the idea on Pinterest, so we went to work! We used blue envelopes for the "pants" by lining up the Smarties inside and bending the paper around it to form the crease we needed. Then, cutting at an angle, starting at the lower corner, we created the side of the first leg. Using a hot glue gun, we finished the first side and the placed the second Smartie in there to create the other crease. After cutting and hot gluing some more, we just used Elmer's glue and glitter to create the seams and pockets. And WAA LAA! 

Although this endeavor was pretty cheap (probably around $10), it did take both of us 3 hours to make all 26. However, this was a great 3 hour break from finals! (Visit Maria's blog at http://simplymaria.weebly.com​ to see some more of her fun and creative ideas!​)

After getting some FREE midnight pancakes that night at the BCM, I got up my last day on campus to go hiking. I LOVE the outdoors and the beauty of nature... but do NOT like bugs! I just have this problem where I flail around my arms to try to keep tiny flying things away from my face, and then I scream before covering as much of my eyes, ears, and nose as possible.... So although I agreed to go into the woods around the lake with my boyfriend for some peaceful cardio, I waited until the last possible minute to go.

As if I wasn't nervous enough about the postings and warnings about black bears and snakes for our hour long hike... in the first 5 minutes, we stopped to the sound of crinkling of leaves. Slowing slithering past us, only about a yard away was a snake that was coming out of a pile of leaves... and he just kept coming. We stood there waiting in silence for minutes until his tail finally came out and he moved a good distance away from us towards a tree. My boyfriend, Logan, got a picture of him to show to his friends... Sorry it's not that clear, but I was pushing him to run far away!

 And so, we continued on our trip, only to pass ANOTHER, smaller, but equally scary snake, have a funeral for a dead frog we poked at, and to run screaming from something that was about to push out of a snake hole under ground (we could even hear him slithering underground). One hour and a very sweaty t-shirt later, we made it out of the covered area and back onto campus. I had never been so grateful to be back at school...

And so... I packed up the last of my things, cleaned the empty room, and said goodbye to Logan. But summer brings another whole list of to-dos. With Trevor getting out of school soon, I'm working hard to develop lesson plans that will be both entertaining to his short attention span, but also educational.

I'm excited to say that our first week will be involving my favorite thing: RAINBOWS! Filled with finger paint, loading up Noah's ark, and dancing with ribbon streamers, I think it's going to be a great opportunity for me to decide what activities he likes best while introducing him to new experiences. Since I've got a few weeks until he gets out of school, I'm focusing my time now to work on his sorting activities. One of his goals is to be able to identify the correct object (whether that be his name, a letter, or a color) if given 2-3 options. 

I found this awesome download on teacherspayteachers that had the perfect labels for a color sorting activity (you can follow this link for a free download: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mr-And-Mrs). 

I'm really excited about printing these out and laminating them to become the main labels, and then using a crayon dye-cut to cut out different colored construction paper and laminating it as the colors Trevor will sort. Cheaper than buying anything, and buttons or small objects scare me because with Trevor, everything goes in his mouth!

Maybe you've had an adventure or tried a sorting activity with a child?? Please leave comments with any ideas! Feedback is appreciated! Have a blessed day! :)

Creating a Schedule

Getting into the swing of things can be HARD! Especially for young children... especially for young children with disabilities!
This is Trevor (I've changed his name for privacy sake, but the following is true).

Isn't he just precious! (In this photo, I actually gave him play dough to play with, but he's obviously having more fun with the container the play dough came in... )

Anyway, Trevor has Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (or CdLS). It's quite a rare and confusing disease, so I looked up the definition. www.cdlsusa.org describes it as " a genetic disorder present from birth, but not always diagnosed at birth. It causes a range of physical, cognitive and medical challenges and affects both genders equally. CdLS does not discriminate—it’s seen in all races and ethnic backgrounds. The occurrence of CdLS is estimated to be 1 in 10,000 live births."

For Trevor, this means that although he is 5 years old, he is unable to speak (although he giggles all of the time), is not potty trained, struggles with fine motor activities, and is fed with a feeding tube. He also has a very weak immune system, so he gets very sick a lot... starting Kindergarten this year has definitely been a struggle for him.

But, school has also been very helpful, because although he was doing physical, speech, and music therapy, now he is able to interact with his peers and learn at a whole new level! I am his caretaker, and a close family friend. I am also an elementary education major, so of course I want to see him progress! But how can I keep him learning when he hardly seems to comprehend who I am?

My thinking is to use a schedule system, to keep not only me but Trevor on track. He has learned this year that pointing to pictures can communicate, but is not using this system consistently. So I have been taking pictures as he is doing activities, such as playing with blocks or reading (as seen below... but don't let him fool you, he's not always this studious.)

Trevor studying Cookie Monster.   

I want to take these pictures, laminate them, and attach velcro onto the backs so that I can put them in order on a large poster board in the kitchen, and he will be able to see what comes next in the schedule. As we complete each activity, I will mark a sticker on a schedule for the week. Hopefully this will ensure that we change up the activities each day while still making sure that he gets as many experiences as possible. I hope that this will also give him positive reinforcement for doing educational activities, not just the fun ones.

Sorry for the poor quality, maybe I can figure out a better way to post a document as a picture next time...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Comment and let me know what has and hasn't worked for you, or maybe if you just have a strike of creative genius! I am open to new ideas for the success of Trevor, and the future students in my classroom. I am so excited to embark on this new adventure and will post soon to show you more! :) Have a blessed day!