Turning a Woops into an A-Ha!

This baby brain is causing some uncommon crinkles in my typical school day. ;) Normally I'm super organized & prepared, but in the last few months I forget things often & feel a little confused at times. Today was no exception. I arrived at my afternoon class with only half of what I needed for the planned craft. We're learning about animals & were going to paint stripes on zebras by rolling marbles in paint in trays. I had the zebras, I had the paint, I had no marbles, I had no trays. Last minute rethink! I was really beating myself up for foolishly forgetting yet another simple thing & decided to just pull out thin paint brushes & have the kids paint the stripes by hand. I sat down with the first 5 kids, demonstrated what we were doing & watched them happily paint their zebras with perfect stripes. The next batch of kids came & my mistake turned into a very happy accident. I discovered that three of my students could not successfully motor plan how to make controlled lines. No matter how many times I demonstrated or hand-over-hand helped them, they could not do it. If I had not forgotten those materials I would still be assuming this was a basic skill all my kids had, now I know what I need to work on & am making plans for focusing on this skill for those 3 kids. Who knew such a silly mistake could result in something so important?

Come to Your Senses

Anyone who works with young children will (or at least should) know, that when you want them to really remember something you have to engage as many of their senses as possible. This is even more important for students with sensory processing disorders and/or various special needs.

So every day I make sure we have at least

2 activities that are purposely designed to

be multi

-sensory. I thought I would take a moment to share a few of my "greatest sensory hits" with you.

Freeze your paint before you fingerpaint

. That's right. Freeze it. Try putting it into popsicle makers so kids have the option of holding onto the stick. Or just freeze into ice cube trays and pop them out on the paper. I often add glitter for a little texture. This works really well during a winter theme if you freeze white paint & call it "snow".

Bring the weather indoors. Is it fall? Then

fill an under-the-bed plastic bin with leave

s & pinecones & bring it indoors to dig through.

Winter? Fill it with snow & sand toys for winter fu

n inside where it's warm. My kids are always totally blown away when I bring snow inside to play with. So cute!

Move past sand & water. They aren't your parents se

nsory bins anymore! Be creative. Sand & water tables are great, but jazz it up sometimes. Try dry rice & beans (you can easily dye them with vinegar & food colouring), shaving foam is always a hit (but very messy), fill a tub with pom poms or marbles. Doing a construction/transportation theme? Fill a bin with small rocks & put diggers & bulldozers in. What a giant bin of buttons? Use your imagination, the kids will love it!

Use those scraps. We all have them. Bits & pieces, odds

& ends from other crafts & activities that we refuse to throw out, cuz, well we're teachers & we don't through anything out! So put them to use! Make mult-sensory collages out of scrap ribbon, fabric, foam stickers & pom poms. Create a masterpiece where each piece is made from a different texture (see my Sense-ational Snowmen below) like sand paper, felt, foam and cl

oth. Lay out several objects & let kids use crayons & paper to do rubbings & explore what each texture looks like on paper. You've held onto it for years, now put it to good use.

Get cooking. I cannot say enough about how important it is to cook & bake with young children. It teaches them all those things you're worried about them learning. Following directions. Waiting. Pre-math (counting, measuring). Vocabulary. Hygiene & healthy eating. Safety in the kitchen. Plus, it engages all the senses. Kids love to cook & bake. So let them! A few tips. Start off with no-heat recipes that simply require kids to assemble ingredients in a certain order. Snack mixes are good for this, as are various sandwiches. When adding ingredients slow down & let them explore. Have them guess what the ingredient is. Let them smell it & talk about it. Let them taste a small amount (yes, a fingerfull of flour won't hurt them) & discusswhat it tastes like. This will also help with not eating out of the bowl while you are mixing. Have anti-bacterial handwipes ready for the inevitable times they will pick their nose, etc while cooking. Enforcing handwashing every time they do something unsanitary while preparing food is important. Try having colour coded measuring utensils so kids can be more independent. "We need 2 blue scoops." is an easier direction to follow than "We need 2 tablespoons." Have a visual timer for when food is baking, this makes the waiting much easier to bear.

A Welcome Update!

It's been quite the week. Winter hit with a vengeance and so did a cold I'm trying valiantly to fight off. On Wednesday it actually hit -48 Celcius with the wind chill. Buses were cancelled, almost no kids came to school. My nephew's grade two class across the hall from me had 6 kids in it. It. Was. Brutal.

So on Thursday it was a welcome surprise to get an update on a former student. My little J from last year (a boy with Autism I had in my class for 2 years) moved on to a separate school division so I hadn't heard a single thing about how he was adjusting. So imagine my delight when I ran into his mom in the hallway Thursday morning!

She told me he was doing well, he recently worked his way up to attending full day, full week school which is wonderful. He did get away from his class early in the year (he's a runner and QUICK) but he never made it out of the school, so that's pretty good!

He did however cause some excitement the day before (the coldest day all winter). He pulled the fire alarm and evacuated the school. In -48.

Now that's the J I know and love. ;)

Ring Around the Rosie.

A little girl in my afternoon class who has Autism was having a rough day on Monday. We were playing in the gym & she was extremely upset so one of my EAs distracted her by playing Ring Around the Rosie. Over & over again. As she began enjoying it & calming down she started verbalizing things like, "Whee, fun! Fall down, crash!" etc.

Until, I guess the fun got too much & she exclaimed, "Holy crap, this is fun!"

A Few Windows into Our World.

One of my amazing EAs blowing bubbles with two of my cuties. It's always amazing how bubbles make them SO happy!

Our little one with Cerebral Palsy (who is quadriplegic) was having "tummy time" today. With no prompting at all another little boy plopped down beside her & began to play with her. Eventually the two of the them were side by side on their tummies while he pressed buttons on her musical toy & then showed it to her so she could see the lights flashing. :)

Yet More Snippets...

Before I share another snippet from sweet little C, I need to explain that one of my EAs is very petite. I mean, very petite. We have Jr. High students in our school & she regularly gets mistaken for one. :)

So we're in the Sky Lounge (our indoor playspace) & one little guy with Autism crawls into this caterpillar tunnel we have (from Toys R Us). My EA crawls in to play a game of peek-a-boo with him, cuz, well, she can fit in there! Even before I got pregnant there was no way my 5ft 9in self would squeeze in there.

C peeks into the tunnel to see one of her teachers in there & starts giggling. She looks over at me & says, "*giggle* My teacher is so little! I told my sister Hailey one of my teachers is real little but she didn't believe me. *giggle"

In my afternoon class is one of my favs, A. He's a sweet little guy, but man is that kid hairy! It sounds mean, but seriously, he's full blooded Italian and hairy! His back, arms, legs, etc. which is kinda surprising on a 4 yr old.

So yesterday we were in the gym & I was doing a quick count to see if everyone had arrived yet, "Oh, A isn't here yet." I commented.

One sweet little guy looks around, "Oh yeah. A isn't here. Where is that furry little dude?"

Not ashamed to say I almost fell on the floor laughing. Wait, my EA did fall on the floor laughing. Yes, same EA so I guess she didn't have that far to fall.

Back to Reality.

Well today was the first day back after Christmas Holidays. I always dread this week. The kids have spent the last two weeks eating sweets, going to bed late, being over-excited & just generally having little to no routine or structure during Holiday craziness. This translates into absolute mayhem & meltdowns the first week back at school. They "forget" the routines & rules. They "forget" how to share, how to put toys back on the shelf, even how to take off their own boots. The week back after Christmas is always worse than September. Kids who haven't been aggressive since the beginning of the school year relapse. Kids who never have full blown meltdowns are on the floor of the hallway screaming.

I still remember this week 2 years ago, I thought it was going to kill me & my aides. I shudder every time I think about making it through that week.

So needless to say I went to bed apprehensive & in all honesty, kinda dreading today.

Well surprise, surprise, it went well!

The kids seemed genuinely happy to be back. They were excited about the "same old" toys again. They were very happy to see their friends. It was a busy but good day. A couple of my tougher students even did exceptionally well. I was shocked but I refuse to question it to much. I choose instead to be immensely grateful & hope against hope it sets the tone for the rest of the week. It was the pleasant surprise I needed to energize me for the second half of the school year.

Well, provided the other shoe doesn't drop tomorrow. ;)