Lotions for days of the week in Calendar

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! It always goes by way to fast! I was actually able to get a lot of my school work done for my masters what did you do? 

So as you may have seen in some of my other posts I have a couple of kiddos that need a lot of sensory input. One thing I do that I have had a lot of people say they really like and are going to steal the idea is, for every day of the week I use a lotion from Bath and Body Works that smell means the day of that week. I really feel like the kids that its really for understand the concept and of course the other kids have to have some because they think its so fun haha 

Here is a pic of the ones I use in order from Monday on the left all the way to Friday on the right. I use these ones because they are the ones that will never change or leave Bath and Body Works during all seasons and you cant start using one kind and then if it goes out of season you just switch on the kids and use a different scent of lotion that would really throw them off and defeat the purpose. I hope someone can use this during their calendar time! I know I struggle with some of mine an what to do but I really like this and have had a lot of success and hope you will to! 

Thanks for stopping by! Please follow me and leave comments I LOVE them! Have a good week! 

Switches

Happy Thursday!!!

Boy has this been a long week! Got all my STAAR ALT stuff ready and will be starting next week, ready to get it over with. Luckily I only have 3 kids to do, any one else doing STAAR ALT? 

This post is about using switches in the classroom to make choices. I have a couple of students I use this with and it works really well with them. Any one else use switches in their classroom?

The box in the middle allows you to plug 4 different devices into it and use at least 2 different switches.  So you see the yellow switch and when the  student hits it the fan turns on. You can pick how long it stays on which is one of my favorite things about it. The red button when hit turns on the pink pillow that vibrates. These students are having to learn that every action causes something and they have done really well. I use these two the most because this just so happens to be these students favorite things. I also use head phones with music and lights. Hope this makes since!

Thanks for stopping by! If you have any questions please comment! Please follow me!

Have a great weekend! 

Sensory Board

HAPPY MLK DAY EVERYONE!!!

I am enjoying this beautiful 70 degree day off in Austin today! Hope everyone else is off as well! 

Today my post is about a sensory board I had put in my room in October and then I added things that would stimulate specific needs for my students as well as things they don't like.  I use it for 3 of my students that are non-verbal and need a lot of sensory play to get them interested in things and to talk or make noises. This is also a way that they can make choices on things they want or don't want. I have one student that is working on reaching for things in front of him rather then to the side this has really helped him a lot. One of my other boys that uses it has CP and in a wheelchair. He is working on sitting criss cross in front of the board while keeping his head up instead of it just falling- controlling his head and neck. While sitting there he has to reach forward and crab things on the board. Here it is:

As you can see there is a verity of items on the board from music instruments, lights, or things that are  textured in some way. I can easily change the things out when needed. Does anybody else have anything like this? Or use anything like this? 

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to comment! Please follow me!! 

Hope you have a great Monday!!  

Object Calendar

Happy Hump Day!!

WOW what a week, my birthday was on Monday so I went out of town to Washington DC to visit a friend and had a blast and just got back yesterday! I had never been before and really had a lot of fun! Any one else ever been to DC? I loved all the History and historical places! Any way this is a really quick post about an object calendar one of my students uses. He is Blind and has multiple other disabilities, but since he is blind I cant use the typical picture or PECS schedule with him. 

Here is a picture of it. Its divided into 5 sections for the first part of the day starting from left going right. first is calendar next the toilet paper tube is for bathroom the ball is for PE the book symbolizes reading and the spoon symbolizes lunch or time to eat. So he goes to it and touches the item before we begin whatever it is. Then at the end he goes and takes it off the calendar and it should drop into the bucket below meaning were finished with that moving onto the next thing. There is an object for everything he could possibly need at school as well as for our field trips. They are all labeled and the pictures on the wall are for incase I am not there someone else knows what is what and what it looks like. There is also his schedual next but it got cut off in the picture. This is so nice because everyone that works with him knows how to use it and what to do etc. Does anybody have a student who uses something like this? Any suggestions? This is my hardest kid... I am sure we all have one! haha 

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week! Thanks for stopping by and please follow me! Thanks so very much! 

Making Choices

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!! 

I teach mostly non-verbal and autistic children and once they complete their assignment in my reading or writing group they get to make a free choice of something to do for the remainder of the class. For the majority of them they each have a board like this

This is one of my students and the things he likes best. I tell him to go make a free choice and he walks over pics what he wants using the visual image and place it in the "sentence" I make him say I want____ (whatever it his he chooses) Then he gets it. So he is using his words in a sentence form to get what he wants. This is the best way for children to learn to make choices and as soon as he gets this well enough I will move to just basic PECS pictures or Symbol with Writing images. This also helps children put meaning to pictures and actual objects and match them up. I have these all over my room and they have worked wonders and I have seen the children that use them really benefit and become more successful! Just an idea, hopefully some one can use this in their room! Does any one else use something like this? 

Thanks for stopping by, please follow me! I would really appreciate it! :) 

Magic Noodles

WOW the first two days back from the break have been crazy!! I got two new students and with all the rain my kids have been crazy! I am also really excited because on Friday I am leaving and going to Washington DC for my birthday on Monday with some girl friends! I am missing Monday and Tuesday next week so I am busy trying to get everything together for the sub! I wanted to do a quick post about these awesome things my adaptive art teacher showed me that my students LOVE. I swear they will do anything to play with these! 

They are called Magic Noodles! Any body else use them?? You can get them at Hobby Lobby- they are $6.99 but a lot of times there 30 or 40% off and if they aren't  and you have an I phone use the hobby lobby website and get a coupon for %40 off and they are even cheaper! These are fabulous for keeping kids busy, my children with autism are fascinated with them. They are like packing peanuts just dyed with food coloring. The student has to touch it on their tongue and then touch it to a piece of paper and it sticks. Then they can get two of the noodles and touch the ends on their tongues and the two noodles will stick to each other. The students love to make art work or what I call masterpieces with them. I also have my students make letters and words with them! 

Hope you all have a great first week back! Hope someone can find these useful and have as good of an experience with them with your children as I have! Please follow me and I love comments! :)

Community based instruction

Happy New years Everyone!!! 

So at my school we do community based instruction which is taking the students out into our community for them to explore and learn by using the skills we teach them everyday and connect them with the real world environment. We go to Target, Central Market, Barton Creek Mall, Randall's, Capital area food bank to volunteer, Bowling, and more. We walk to these places, take the city bus, or school bus, this way the kids learn as many way of transportation as possible. Here are some pictures of us bowling. Hope you enjoy! Have any questions please feel free to ask! 

Heres kind of a group shot of everyone! They just LOVE bowling and have the best time! 

They also have these awesome ramps for my guys to use that cant do it on their own! I love it because everyone can join in the fun! 

Look at that smile!! :) to cute!! 

Another great example of how everyone can bowl and use the ramps! SO awesome!! 

I'll be sure to show more pictures from the other places we go! I know with all the budget cuts its hard for a lot of schools to do this but I highly suggest it if you can! I have seen huge improvements and differences in my students from just one semester! 

Have a great day! Please follow me!! :) 

Late Christmas

Happy late Christmas/ Happy Holidays and HAPPY NEW YEARS to everyone!! My new years resolution this year is to blog more I promise!! I am gonna do better!! So here are some late things we did in my classroom during December for Christmas/ the Holidays. 

This is one of the classroom doors the kids made the snowmen with their faces on them, turned out so cute! 

Other classroom door! Kind of ran out of time to make it to cute :( 

Our class bulletin board! The kids made the stockings by using their feet and cotton balls! 

Here is our class tree, all the kids made the ornaments you cant really see but they did such a great job!

I did Elf on the Shelf with my kids and they absolutely LOVED it!!! I didn't take pictures of each day I was just so busy, but I will next year and will post them, promise! I recommend every teacher and parent using this its so great! 

We do Community Based instruction at my school and so we took the kids to the Barton Creek Mall and they let us take a group picture with all the kids and Santa for free! it was great, we gave copies to all the parents for Christmas! 

This was the last day of school! We had a party and all the kids had a book exchange, it was perfect! 

Hope you enjoy and maybe get some ideas for yourself or classroom! Please follow me and I love comments and questions!

How I am gonna try and enjoy the rest of the break, its going by way to fast! :)