Pre-School Checklist

One of my OT buddies just recommended this checklist, which she thinks is great:

Preschool Checklist Link

Not sure if you can purchase it, or not.  Maybe it's an in-house resource for the company???  FYI.

Math Project on DonorsChoose.org site

Shameless begging for blog readers to fund a math project...

I've created a classroom project request on a 501(c)3 charity website called DonorsChoose.org.  I learned about this organization from one of my high school teachers last year, who was funded for an adapted classroom swing for her students who have severe physical and cognitive disabilities.

I'm writing to ask for any donations possible toward an iPad mini to use for writing math.  No matter the size of your donation, it will help the students I work with, especially students who have difficulty "writing" math.  I plan to also use the device for handwriting remediation, using apps I've written about previously in the blog.

This week only, any donation you make to my project will be doubled! If you know anyone who is passionate about education, please pass this along. Your tax-deductible donation will have a direct impact on students and teachers.

1. Visit my Page, Math Project info on DonorsChoose
2. Choose my project, enter the amount of your donation, and click "Give"

3. During check-out, enter the word INSPIRE where it says "Match or gift code", and your donation will be matched dollar for dollar.

The INSPIRE match code will double your donation for the next 7 days.

Please feel free to send me any questions you may have, and know that I and the students I support greatly appreciate your support.  Plus, you'll get to see lots of photos and info about what we learn about writing math!

Visual Recipes

Oh my, this is a goldmine!

Visual Recipes

College Cooking--Smoothies

On Monday morning the high school students in a class for students with autism practiced making fruit smoothies.

 Of course, strawberries and bananas taste even better with a little bit of peanut butter and/or chocolate.

 We reconstituted the PB2 to make creamy peanut butter.

 It was the duel of the single serving blenders--which would make the smoothest smoothie???

 Our friendly SLP was looking for some good sentences.

Most of the students were real comfy with peeling and slicing bananas.  You could tell who had practiced before.

 After tasting the smoothies the students rated their finished products.

 There were definite preferences--some students went straight for the chocolate and some only chose fruit.

On Tuesday, students in a class for students with emotional disabilities made smoothies, too.  However, ice was added to the mixture today.  We had avoided ice in Monday's smoothie recipe since blending it was VERY LOUD.

 To make the Magic Bullet blender work you had to hold down the top.  Lots of good vibrations.

 All the students demonstrated excellent accuracy when pouring.

One student wasn't crazy about consuming his smoothie, but agreed to create one for the classroom teacher.

We triple-checked to make sure the lids were secure before operating the blender.  The smoothies looked a lot more like store-bought when we used ice.

Home Responsibilities (AKA Chores) for Teens

The great thing about this short video and article is that the teens are so imperfect when demonstrating the chores--the shirt has enormous wrinkles in it while the teen is ironing, the vacuum cleaner cord is going to trip the poor kid any moment and how in the world will those sliding glass doors ever be sparkly with that half-hearted polishing?

Hey, it's real life.  10 Chores for Teens

And here's more info if you run into any resistance from the sweeties:

Guidelines for Parents

Vivid Butterflies, or Maybe Dragonflies?

Noticed this beautiful activity when I was at one of my middle schools last week.  The students and staff used the homemade heart stamps we made around Valentine's Day to create these knock-out color butterflies.

I was wondering why the paint was so vivid.  Well, it's called "Vivicolor!"

If you live in Central Virginia be sure to visit the butterfly event at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden this May:
Butterfly Event

May Day Celebration

The middle schoolers in the classroom for students with significant cognitive disabilities celebrated May Day this morning.  Students started out their morning by watching a couple of brief videos of children performing May Day dances, so they'd know what fun was coming along. 

What did we use for the May Day pole?  A telescoping IV pole wrapped with a swim noodle.

 We did splurge and buy streamers at Wal-Mart for 97 cents apiece.  These were wrapped at one end around a cut out circle shape...

 ...and attached to the top crossbar of the IV pole.

 There, you can hardly see the IV pole underneath.

Our RN walked the May Pole down to the front office and we all followed.  8 adults and 7 students performed for administration and school visitors.  Good PR, I think.

Sorry, no more fun photos.  My camera battery gave out once the music and dancing started, shucks.

Afterwards, we filled out worksheets based on the activity, with students choosing their responses by dabbing the correct answer with bingo daubers.