International Mud Day -- June 29, 2012

As a daycare staff who highly value the purpose of “messy” activities in developing language, social skills, motor skills and a positive attitude towards learning, we knew that International Mud Day had to be a big celebration!  This morning, our daycare director ordered a tractor bucket full of dirt which was dumped on the cement pad outside our front doors. All you need to add to complete the recipe for fun is kids and a garden hose!

We enjoyed the rest of our afternoon making some mud pies! The kids had so much fun. These activities were great to build gross and fine motor skills, discover the names of our mud pie plants in their natural environment and build some exciting vocabulary such as squishy, gritty, brown, cold, slimy and goopy!

Helping Hands

With fourteen kids in the room aged 5 to 10, keeping the room running smoothly could be a challenge on some days. For this reason, I introduced the Helping Hands in our room. For the older kids, it gave them a sense of leadership and responsibility. For the five year olds, they learned the value of taking care of their room. Some kids needed a job while some kids didn't. For this reason, I did not force the kids to do their job, but rewarded them with a "Caught Being Awesome" slip if they did.

For a personal touch I had each kid add their own hand print. I would have the kids move them around once a week. In a classroom setting, I have seen hand prints already made under each job heading. The students then move their names around to save space.

Job List

• Attendance Assistant
• High and Low Leader
• Awesome Catchers
• Room Rangers
• Snack Server
• Tidy Team
• Pet Patrol

The Black Book of Colours

It can be difficult to imagine what visual impairment might be like, but this book makes the challenge more attainable. Through a full Braille and written text, this book is accessible for a broad array of readers. It describes colours through the use of the other senses of touch, sound, taste and smell. The illustrations are also raised allowing every reader to explore the entire book through their fingers.

This book is an amazing piece of literature. Its accessible nature is not only great to include all readers, but also to teach students an alternative perspective and allow the world to be explored in a new way. It is truly a quality piece of literature.

Hearing Impairment Perspective Activity

In my Students with Special Needs course, we are learning about a variety of exceptionalities and inclusion strategies that may be used in the creation of a classroom community.

One activity that I particularly liked was a perspective activity that helped us to place ourselves in the shoes of a student who may have a hearing impairment.

1. Put music on and start quietly giving instructions for an activity.

• Give a high five to ten students
• Touch the four corners of the classroom
• Tap your foot eight times
• Complete four exercises
• Write down two thoughts about this activity
• Initial the board

2. Provide some students with written instructions, provide others hints, and for some students, reprimand
them for not listening.

3. Focus the discussion on the strategies that the students used to complete the activity. Make sure to hear the perspectives of the students with and without help. For example, "Was it easier to do the activity when you had written instructions?" or "How did you feel when you didn't know what to do?"

Perspective activities are a great way to help students understand and respect the struggles of their peers as well as the extra resources that they may need to be included in the classroom. If you ever have a scenario where students get jealous of the assistance received by a person with an exceptionality, this can reinforce the principle that "FAIR DOES NOT MEAN EQUAL." 

*Remember to consult the student with the exceptionality before engaging in these activities.*

Caught Being Awesome!

This summer my job was to work with the school aged students during their summer vacation. Knowing that I would be interacting with students from aged 5 to 10, all from different backgrounds and schooling expectations, I knew I had to develop a foolproof classroom management plan. Inspired by Chapter 6 of Inclusion of Exceptional Learners in Canadian Schools, Climate, Community and Classroom Management (really one of the only useful readings of my entire university experience), I developed a set of classroom rules with the students and a positive reinforcement system.

As outlined in the chapter, I sat down with the students and took their ideas for the classroom rules -- both for the students and the teacher. Of course, we had about 30 different ideas which we were able to simplify to six. These were posted in a common area and also around the entire classroom.

To supplement these rules, I used a positive reinforcement tool called "Caught Being Awesome." This is a reward system that I learned about in pre-internship with my amazing co-op! The students would be given a slip when I caught them following the rules. When they filled up the bucket with the slips, the class would get a reward.

Caught Being Awesome Slips

This system took about two weeks to really take hold, but once it did, I had a very harmonious summer :)