Missing Pictures

When I logged on today, I found that all of my pictures had disappeared. I have redone the pictures in most of my posts. I couldn't find my pictures for a couple of posts so they are no longer available. If I find the photos, I will add them. I'm not sure why the photos decided to do a vanishing act, but I realize that I am not the only one.

AER Conference Presentation

In April, I presented a workshop at the AER Conference in Virginia. I am sharing some of the slides from my part of the presentation. 

Many of my students have Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI). I love the blank books from www.barebooks.com. The shiny red paper comes on a roll from the Dollar Tree. I got 11 - 12 pages from each roll. I used double sided adhesive paper on the back.

 On The Way to Literacy Books are available from APH. Consider making a kit to go with them to use not only with your student but your student's peers.

Story bags are available from APH. I like to use them to keep a student's Dots for Tots materials from the Braille Institute. You can also use them to keep together a student's objects for a calendar or a favorite book.

Feel and Peel Carousel of Textures has to be one of my favorite products from APH. This picture is a binder that I created so that students with CVI had their favorite background when making choices.

The Carousel of Textures makes a nice addition to the Rolling Right Along Construction Kit. I also enjoy letting students use textured cutout to make repeated line books.

They Symbols and Meaning Kit is a newer product from APH. I like using the plastic pages to make books for students.

 I used rubber cement on the back of these numbers so that they are restickable. I used the textured paper from the Carousel of Textures from APH.

Using the iPad with Students with Visual Impairments

This has been a very busy year. I have been working with a student who needs to learn finger isolation skills and using a light touch. I went to the Virginia AER Conference this year in April. I went to a session on using overlays with the iPad. The session talked about using the overlays with reading and writing programs. I came up with the idea to use an overlay to encourage my student to use a light touch and practice finger isolation skills.














My student enjoys music so I pulled up a piano app and designed an overlay. I purchased the protective cover at the Dollar Tree. I left the cover intact and used Wiki Sticks to create the design. You could use puffy paint or hot glue. I wouldn't suggest using the hot glue while the overlay is on the iPad.

I use my personal iPad with my students. It has the a cover with a magnetic keyboard. I slid the overlay between the case and the iPad. Store the overlays in a binder using page protectors.

I look forward to making a few more to use with my students.

Spaghetti Textured Painting

One of the classes I work with was learning about Italy.  I combined spaghetti and the Italian flag.  Here is what we did.

Directions:

Cook the spaghetti the night before.  Add a little oil to keep it from sticking.  Refrigerate overnight.  I read The Longest Noodle before doing the activity.  Have the kids put a handful of spaghetti into two baggies (2 handfuls total).  Add one color of paint per bag.  Shake the bag to mix the paint and pasta.  Add more paint if necessary.  Put an 11 by 17 piece of heavy paper into the bottom of paper box top. Shake the box top or use utensils to move the spaghetti around.  Dump the excess spaghetti into the trash.  Some may stay attached but that is okay.  It adds texture to the finished product.  You could also add glitter to the paint.  Glow in the dark paint might be fun too.

Wax Paper Stained Glass for the Light Box

I have a few students who benefit from light box activities.  This activity can be created on the light box.  After it dries, it can be used with the light box.

Directions:

Draw a simple shape onto a piece of wax paper with a black permanent marker.  If the student can rip tissue paper, have him rip the paper into small pieces.  You can do this in advance and cut the paper into small squares. Spread enough glue to cover the shape.  Place the tissue paper pieces onto the shape.  It doesn't matter if you go over the edges because the shape will be cut out with scissors.  When the shape is completely covered with a single layer, cover the paper with glue.  I used thin lines because when you press the project together, the glue will spread.  Place another piece of wax paper on top of the glue.  Smooth the paper.  Allow the project to dry over night.  Cut out the project.

Here is a picture of the butterfly that I did with one group.  I also made an earth.  The outlines can be changed to match the curriculum.  (pyramid-Egypt, shapes-math, etc.)

Background Binder

Many students benefit from different backgrounds when presenting choices.  I created this binder for a specials teacher that works with many students.  She uses the shiny backgrounds when working with students who only visually attend to shiny things.  I included a black background and a few others.  I added the Velcro dots to the outside of the binder so that the backgrounds can easily slide into the binder.

Patriotic Art

I paired this activity with a book about the American Flag. We talked about the attributes of the American Flag (stars, stripes, red, blue, white).

Preparation for the activity (This can be done with the students if you have enough time):
Use painters tape to make random lines on the canvas or poster board. (Canvas works better than poster board when you remove the tape and stickers)
Add some star shaped stickers. ( I made the stickers a little less sticky by sticking them to a fuzzy piece of material first.)

Activity:
My students used sponge brushes to paint on the red and blue paint. Their job was to completely cover the white. I added glitter to the paint for a little sparkle.

After the activity:
Let the paint dry completely, then carefully remove the tape and the stickers.

Sensory Sundial

I work with a group of students who are studying Ancient Rome.  The Ancient Romans told time using a sundial or a water clock.  I chose to adapt the sundial.  
Materials:
Air-dry clay
small paper plates
small rocks
gold glitter (of course)
small craft sticks
glue

Directions:
Push the clay to the edges of the plate.  It does not need to be really thick.  Make a lump in the middle for the stick.  Sprinkle gold glitter on the clay.  Push the glitter into the clay.  Push small rocks around the edges of the clay.  Use glue to add glitter to the craft stick.  Push craft stick in at an angle.  Once the clay dries (at least overnight), tear away the paper plate.

After we finished the sundials, I turned off the lights and used a flashlight to demonstrate how the sundial was used to tell time.  Our sundials were not accurate.

Sensory Valentine

Valentine's day is a great day for a messy sensory project.  My students made Valentines.  I started with a white heart and coated it with glue.  The students added fake rose petals, tinsel, textured shapes, and glittery foam hearts.  We glued the hearts to a piece of poster board.





Most of the materials were purchased at the Dollar Tree.  I would suggest cutting the tinsel into shorter pieces.  It was really long.

Cardinal Sensory Activity

Since we didn't get any measurable snow in January, I decided to incorporate snow into my sensory activity.  I gave each student a picture of a cardinal glued onto a piece of construction paper.  The students added snow (shredded white paper that I ran through a crosscut shredder), pipe cleaner legs, and feathers.  I chose this activity because our state bird is the cardinal, and the teacher was doing a unit on winter animals.

I found my feathers after Christmas at Michael's.  The bag came with red, green, and white feathers.  All I had to do was separate them.  

When I was cleaning out my basement, I found an old box of tractor feed paper.  I ripped off a few pages and ran it through my shredder while I got ready for work.  It was a lot faster than shredding one sheet at a time.

Sensory Trees

This year during the weeks before our holiday break, I decided to do a textured tree.  The idea popped into my ADD brain one afternoon.  I shredded green computer paper in my crosscut shredder and used the paper as pine needles on the pre-drawn pine tree shapes.  I drew the tree on poster board cut into four pieces. The first step is to spread glue to cover the entire tree. Don't be stingy.  The next step is to sprinkle the paper pine needles all over the tree, then pat them down.   Shake all of the excess needles back into the container.  If there aren't enough, continue to add more to fill in empty spaces.  
Sprinkling methods 1. Place the paper on your hand and have the student knock it onto the tree. 2.  Have the student pinch the paper and sprinkle. 3.  Use an extra large spice container with a big opening.  

After the tree is green, you can add ornaments.  I used the many left overs that I had from my time in a classroom.  You could add string, or other materials.  

If you have a student who is blind, you may want to mark the lines with hot glue.  This will help if the student uses her finger to spread the glue inside the lines.

October 2012 Activities

This month I focused on attributes.  I read a book called The Littlest Pumpkin which focused on big and little.  I created some pumpkin eggs to demonstrate heavy and light.  I filled half of the plastic eggs with fish gravel.  After I drew on the faces, I used clear packing tape to keep the eggs from coming open.

The eggs could be used for a sorting activity for some students.  My students dropped the eggs into a metal bowl and listened to the different sounds.  

I used the ball with an elastic strap with my students with Cortical Visual Impairment.  I added the face to the bright orange ball.

Butterflies

My students created a book called "Where's My Mom?"  Each book had a textured caterpillar on the cover page.  The next two pages said, "That's not my mom."  The last page said, "That is my mom.  The goal is to match the "mom" butterfly to the caterpillar.  I used an Ellison Press to cut the butterflies and caterpillars from textured paper available from APH.  It was a good lesson for teaching the concepts - same and different.  If you present the caterpillar, matching butterfly, and a non-matching butterfly, the student can find the texture that is different.  I continued this way until the butterfly that was left was the "mom" butterfly.

We also made a butterfly from a coffee filter.  Some of my students painted their butterfly on the Mini-Lite Box from APH.  I used shiny pipe cleaners to make the antennae, and bright colored clothes pins for the body.  We used watercolor paints and brushes.  Try not to let the filter get too wet, or wait until it dries to add the antennae.  Wrap the pipe cleaner around the body, then twist.  I used plastic clothes pins, but you could use the wooden pins and paint them.

If you have a student with low vision or CVI (Cortical Visual Impairment), shiny pipe cleaners can be a quick way to highlight pictures or objects.  

That’s Not My Bear

I read the book That's Not My Bear available from APH.  After we finished reading the book, my student made her own book.  I showed her four bears made of different textures.  She chose the one she liked and that became "her" bear. We placed this bear on the page that said "That's my bear," then she chose which bear she wanted to put on the cover and the other pages of her book.

ECC Open House

Our department recently hosted an ECC (Expanded Core Curriculum) Open House.  I worked with two other teachers on the area of Sensory Efficiency.

We decided to base our display on the book Rosie's Walk.  We developed sensory activities that could be used with the book.  We matched the activities to the pages in the book.

Each element of the picture was outlined with a different tactile.  The barn was outlined with a pipe cleaner.  The fox was outlined with hot glue.  The hen was outlined with Wikki Stix.






The pond was a silver bowl of water with light up ducks.  The larger ducks were found at the dollar store.

 


The fence was created with a cardboard box surrounded by a sheet of brown poster board.  We placed a tactile matching activity behind the fence.

I filled 12 yellow plastic eggs to make 6 pairs of matching sounds. The eggs were placed in yellow "hay."  When the student matches two eggs they are placed in the egg carton.

This light box activity was easy to create.  I used foam "bees" and glitter in yellow colored hair gel.

We included a "taste test" with a data collection sheet.  The students had to mark the chart under the color jelly bean that they thought was the sweetest.  We made this more difficult by using sour jelly beans.





Sensory activities can be used with many children's books. 

March Ideas

I used St. Patrick’s Day as my theme this month. My son helped to write the book Five Little Leprechauns using Boardmaker. I mixed glitter in with green paint, and used green peppers to stamp clover onto white paper. We explored the green peppers before we used them to stamp. The students touched and smelled the peppers.  If you would like a copy of the book, you can download it from here. Print it out, laminate, and bind

Tactile Discrimination

Pin It

 I saw an activity like this on Pinterest, but I couldn’t find it again. I have learned to pin or like anything I want to see again. Pinterest is a great place to find ideas and save them with a picture to remember what you have saved. It is a visual list of your "favorites." Each picture is a link to the web page where you found the activity, idea, or picture.

One of the pre-braille skills students need to learn is to discriminate items or textures by touch.  

We have an abundance of long file folders in our office, so my goal was to make use of them.  I used the embosser to create dot hands and placed them on the folder.  I used also used 6 different textured papers/sheets. I placed one of each texture under the hand, then used a Velcro dot in the middle of the hand.  The Velcro on the back of the textured squares is larger to make it easier to stick it to the piece on the hand.  The object of the activity is to explore the texture under each hand and place its match in the hand. 

Weather

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I used the Rolling Right Along Construction Kit to create a book for a preschool student. The weather pictures are created using textured papers. Each type of weather has a different texture and shape. The student rolls the ball along the velcro path. The words of the class weather songs are included so the student can read or sing the words as he moves the ball across the pages.

Textured Snowmen

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I love snow and especially snow days, so this month some of my activities have centered around snowmen. I created this activity for my students who are blind or have low vision.

I created a snowman using QuickTac by Duxbury. This program allowed me to turn a picture into raised dots. If you do not have access to the program or an embosser (braille printer), then you could use white Wikki Stix or hot glue to make an outline. I pre-cut the hat, nose, and scarf from textured peel and stick papers.

We read a "touchy feely" Usborne book called That's Not My Snowman. The students explored the different textures in the book before making their own snowman.
The students made their color selections, and stuck the items to the paper. The students had to pinch and pull the cotton balls and glue onto the snowman. The students used markers to draw a mouth and color the bumpy eyes. The activity was great for exploring some of the attributes that are tested on the Virginia Alternative Assessment (VAAP).

Rolling Right Along Construction Kit from APH

Here is a book that I created with the Rolling Right Along Construction Kit from APH. I used the Textured Paper to create the shapes. Students roll the ball as you read. If you create your own, remember to add a repeated line for an assisted communication device. I added braille over the large print for students to explore.


The last two pages contain a variety of shapes and textures that can be removed and explored.