The Fallen Leaves Seem Awful Gummy

Time for those fun fall posters.  Students in a high school class for individuals with Autism identified fall scenes vs. another theme (Jobs) and glued the newspaper photos to a large poster.  An adult wrote down the descriptive words used by the students as we reviewed each photo so we could recall those words later on in the project and include them on the poster.  Students collected fallen leaves several days prior to the activity so the leaves were nice and dry and ready to glue on the the poster.  The teacher contributed die-cut paper leaves for the students to use in copying their descriptive words--you can only write so big when you're constrained by the size of your leaf.

What a great way to see the students' functional handwriting skills and observe their sensory preferences for handling the gummy glue sticks and brittle leaves.  We made sure we had lots of "out of your seat" time by placing the poster way across the room and leaving the classroom desks and chairs in place so they became a nice "obstacle course" as the students wove their way across the room.

AlphaSmart Fun

Do your students have difficulty with far and near point copying their words when using a word processor?  Try using Scrabble size letter tiles and put them right on the screen to make copying easier.

Note:  The pink letters are not part of this activity, just there to help another student.

Turkey Time

We'll be seeing lots of turkey feathers this month!  Help students practice creating 3-D feather shapes before asking them to draw them 2-D cold turkey. Those incredible Wikki Stix are to the rescue again--just be sure to model all the steps for your sweeties because some students don't have lots of experience making feather shapes.  P.S.  Feathers can start out as circles and squish down to pointy ovals.  Be sure to press the Wikki Stix tightly to the paper so they don't wiggle while the student traces around the edges (and trace inside the edge if you want, too.)

Just in time for Halloween--Handwriting Fun with Spiders

Here's a tip from Amanda, one of our hard-working OTs:

Below is a link that models letter formation and gives a writing pad to practice on using the mouse (you can open both screens and set side by side). A spider draws the letter which might be fun for Halloween and it's an alternative to pencil/paper writing practice. Check it out if you haven't already seen it.



http://www.meddybemps.com/letterary/guide_and_archives.html

Drawing

I love Ed Emberly but I guess there are other friendly artists out in the world, too.  Just found this blog which promotes the writer's books; the enticing "how-to" on this post is interesting:

Mind Map Inspiration

Cartooning is intriguing to me since it's a very inexpensive, quick way to explain the steps to a process and can be included in a Windows Movie Maker project as one of the "slides."  Just think of those famous UPS whiteboard commercials done a couple of years ago.  Kids love cartooning since it allows them to create a fantasy world and feel powerful for a little while.

The Falling Leaves Drift By Our Classroom

Last week in our combined speech and OT group we made cinnamon leaf rubbings with a group of high schoolers in two classes for students with autism. Students in another class had already cut out the large leaf shapes for us, I peeled the wrappers off some fall color crayons, we grabbed the glue and recycled white paper and were ready to get to work.

As I modeled and led the activity, the SLP used picture symbols to elicit language from the students. We initially gave hand over hand assistance, then watched the students show us what they could do. We heard vocabulary and sentences pertaining to the activity that the students often have not demonstrated and the SLP was able to take lots of data on each student.  One class did the rubbings on individual pieces of white paper and another class made a mural.  We discovered quite a bit of artistic talent in the classes--students and adults.

Let the photos guide you in seeing how the activity works:

All Lined Up in a Row

Last week I showed a teacher for students with Minimal Intellectual Disabilities (MiID) an idea for easily keeping a clipboard at an optimal angle for viewing while keyboarding.  Well, she grabbed the clipboard stand from me and took it home for her husband to make a bunch of them, then had them ready to use in her classroom within a few days.

Rather than only using them for keyboarding, she places different lacing/fastener boards in them for better viewing by the students as they work on the tricky laces, zippers, buttons and snaps.  They can see what their fingers are doing a little better when the work is up at an angle.