Make Tracking Fun!

Early readers can experience great difficulty when attempting to track words through the pages of a book. I have several readers right now who are pros at reading sight words off of the card, but when all the words are strung together in a sentence the words become unrecognizable. I use a variety of interventions for students with this issue, but the first one I try is introducing the child to a fun reading tool I call the reading tracker. Students often get very bored when asked to point and follow each word with their finger. However, students are less hesitant to use this all-important early literacy skill when given a fun tool. As you can see in the picture above, the Dollar Tree is my friend! I have found magnifying glasses, rulers with a magnified strip, skeleton hands, zip ties, paint brushes, little critters, a variety of magic wands, and even crazy straws! The rocket and open book trackers I simple made by taking small bulletin board icons (again from Dollar Tree) and slicing a reading window into the center with an Exacto knife. That alone is usually sufficient, but I was overly ambitious that day and also glued a tiny zip tie to the back for added tracking appeal. Young children are motivated by the easiest (and thankfully cheapest) little doodads. Anything to bring visual appeal and interest to the learning scene, right? So, go raid your Dollar Tree today! 

Happy Wednesday!

Sensory Reading Fun!

I hope you all are enjoying your spring break as much as I am. We actually had some sunshine today and are rumored to have liberal doses of this long unheard of pleasure for the next several days! Before trotting off to enjoy the rest of my break, I thought I would quickly share a couple of fun literacy activities that also address the sensory needs of young learners.

Have you seen the large chenille stems that have become popular in the party sections of stores like Walmart and Dollar Tree? Kids of all ages (myself included) are fascinated by these large, furry bendables. In class, students each get one stem to form a letter. Then we work cooperatively to put the separate letters together to see how many words we can make. Working this way also saves a lot of time if each kid is making only one letter instead of every letter needed for a given word. 

Another activity I like to do with these stems is to have each child make two letters and then pick up the letter that stands for the sound she hears at the beginning (or middle or end) of a word. Not only addresses the sensory needs of students, but also their kinesthetic needs during a simple phoneme isolation activity.

Another item I love to use comes this time from the craft section of the store. Plastic canvas! I cut it into strips long and wide enough for students to trace their sight words across the canvas with their finger. Again, plastic canvas is also a great medium for phoneme isolation activities as well. I don't leave it accessible all the time, but bring it out for "special" times once or twice a week so it doesn't lose its allure. Plastic canvas is available in a rainbow of hues for a relatively cheap price considering you get a good 8-10 strips out of each sheet. 

Now, go enjoy the rest of your spring break and have a happy Easter! ;-)

Anticipating St. Patrick's Day!

I was surprised that only one out of my 11 Kindergartners seemed to have a clue what Saint Patrick's Day was about. I wanted to get their imaginations revved up quickly to celebrate this holiday since we only have about a week before our classroom celebration. I decided to appeal to my students' love of sensory input (and wet paint in general) by having them create shamrocks with their fists. I told them to make the letter "a" in sign language, then lay their fist down flat into the plate of paint. I guided their hands to the correctly rotated position so the leaves would fan out. Then, students took a paint brush in their clean hand and made a quick swoosh down and over for the stem. I enjoyed seeing the looks on their faces as their fists dripped green paint! It was priceless! 

The next morning, I had them cut out their dry shamrocks (having previously traced around them in highlighter as a visual guide for their scissors). Each shamrock turned out unique to the individual. We hung each one onto a bulletin board by the door. Every morning so far, at least one of them comes in and admires their work wondering what exactly we are going to learn next week about St. "Paddick's" Day as one of my kiddos says. I just love seeing their excitement grow!

Happy Friday!

Connecting Sounds Through Signs

Today's classroom is an intriguing mixture of abilities, learning preferences, sensory needs, and communication styles. At this time of the school year, it can be hard to get such a diversity of students continuously excited about isolating the beginning, middle and end sounds in words. How can I continue to meet all the unique needs of my students while teaching an often ho-hum (although vital) foundational skill? 

In our class, we have taken turns, chorused together, shouted, whispered, and squawked our answers to phonemic isolation questions. We have written our answers on whiteboards as well as in the air with our finger. We have even answered by sliding our fingers through piles of shaving cream on our desks. But still, questions such as, "What is the beginning sound in jet?" or "What is the middle sound in sun?" have produced decreasing amounts of enthusiasm from my learners. 

So, I was excited to discover (quite by accident) that my Kinders are once again eager to isolate phonemes when they can connect the sound with the corresponding letter from the American Sign Language alphabet. The kids think it is great fun to be able to communicate with their hands and no speech. Several of them seemed mystified by the idea that hands could convey so much in place of the spoken word. Thus, we are happily addressing various learning, sensory, and communication needs while simultaneously hitting key Kindergarten learning goals ~ including exploring the diverse populations around us. Woohoo! I am glad this learning train is picking up the speed it needs to make it to the end of this year.

Happy Monday!

P.S. When first introducing this skill, I would focus on isolating only 2 sounds at a time. For example, teach students how to make the c and d signs then sharing only words with that initial phoneme. My students have now built up such a repertoire of sign letters that I can generally present words with 4 or 5 different phonemes at a time. 

Just Bob

The Common Core strongly recommends students get daily exposure to literature that is two or three grade levels higher than their current grade. A Snowman Named Just Bob fit the bill and then some! This tale of friendship uses many vivid adjectives which dance across the pages in poetical cadence. My Kindergarten students loved the rhythmic sound of the story as well as the charming illustrations and were eager for me to read it to them again.

After reading the story, it was time to get messy with a fun sensory activity! One of my Kindergarten team members shared with me her recipe for "snow" which is simply 1 part white glue to 1 part shaving cream. Mixed together it makes a fabulous goo the kids adore. My students opted for using paint brushes, but it could be used as a finger paint material if preferred. After painting a basic snowman shape, the students then cut miniature hats out of felt and chose two pipe cleaner "twigs" with which to embellish their creation. A dusting of sparkles to finish off was a big crowd-pleaser. My colleague had a treasure trove of sequence she let her students use as eyes, nose, and buttons. The goo dries puffy making it look like un-meltable snow. The kids went crazy over this! 

To weave in some sneaky writing practice, I gave each student a small strip of lined paper to write the name of the snowman from the story. In this example above, you see green highlighter with pencil markings close about each letter. This student has great difficulty writing independently and currently receives O/T services. At the beginning of this school year, he was often unwilling to even try holding a pencil without someone there to hand-over-hand the writing with him. Now, he will typically sit down without complaint and attempt to write independently just due to the simple use of highlighter on his paper! Green is his favorite color which adds to further the success of this intervention. I love seeing my students grow and improve over the course of the school year!

Stay tuned for some new web-resource shares coming soon. Have a fabulous rest of your week!

Huge fan...

... of the aims and designs of this school in Mentor, Ohio. I especially appreciate the fire alarm system! Why don't all schools have these?

Incredible Blog

NPR recently highlighted the life and times of Lisa Daxer a 27 year old student at Wright University. She is an up and coming scientific scholar who lives with autism. I had not personally seen this story, but am grateful a friend at work thought to pass it along to me. In the article was a link to Lisa's blog entitled "Reports from a Resident Alien." I perused the articles by topic title along the left side of her page intrigued by the insights she had to share and drawn in by her straight-forward style. Her posting entitled Safe Place was of especial interest to me as it confirmed some professional decisions I had been questioning. I really feel confirmed in my current stance now that I read this article. I strongly encourage educators and non-educators alike to check out Lisa's blog. Humans are meant to learn from one another. The plain life-lessons I gleaned from Lisa Daxer's life observations will stay with me for a long while to come. Hope you find some inspiration, too.

Multi-Sensory Approach

Okay, so I was researching sensory-based reading strategies and stumbled upon this very informative and idea sparking video from the folks at the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education. While this is a link to a promotional video, I have never had the training personally nor do I gain any commission by sharing this link. However, in viewing it, I was inspired to incorporate some fun and novel sensory strategies into my classroom routine this September. Hope you take something positive and daring away for your classroom, too. ;-)

http://www.orton-gillingham.com/Promotion/Promotion6.htm

Sensory Stimulation

Today, I had fun searching Amazon.com for some helpful, innovative additions to my sensory diet plans. I have found that such plans are successful not only with students who are exhibiting behaviors that align with the Autism Spectrum, but also with students who have ADHD. 

The first Amazon seller to catch my eye was the Sensory University which offered the items below at fairly reasonable prices. 

I LOVE this. What a great desk tool!

The second company of note was ToysnGamesEtc. which offered these items at competitive pricing. This company also received a slightly higher customer satisfaction rating than the Sensory University did. 

Peel n Play food items - life skills and sensory activity in one

Sensory stimulation combined with budgeting skills