Behavior : Good or Bad choices (right or wrong) This worksheet activity for the students in your group as well as students who have a hard time making good choices. (Decision Making right, wrong, good or bad worksheet,activity, social skill kids) Which students behave as good students and which ones aren’t? The students can color the smiley face for Yes or the sad face for No. Enjoy and If you like the this worksheet Please follow my store Thank you so much. (Educa Studio by AJP)
A day in the life of an adult transition program catering to students with moderate to severe learning disabilities. Our main focus is life skills, social skills, job skills, and community awareness.
23 hands-on Montessori practical life activities and materials for kids in Casa and Lower Elementary that develop fine motor skills and promote indepedence.
As my kids get older, I think a lot about what I need to teach them. When they were little it was all about surviving. Don't get me wrong...
Do you want to work on life skills in your classroom? Are you looking for hands-on special education life skills activities that your students will love? If so, you've come to the right place. Because today, I'm sharing my top 10 life skills activities that you can do in your classroom. 1. Washing Hands One
Free Life Skills File Folder Activities for the independent work station in special education classrooms. Practice life skills for community integration!
From developing fine motor skills, letter and number recognition, sight words, sorting, sequencing, reading, and math, these task boxes for autism tasks will help develop important life skills and beyond!
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
Come check out how I organize, decorate, and utilize spaces & activities to be functional on this Adult Transition classroom tour!
Age-appropriate chores for young children (and older children) are so important - with or without a chore chart! They help raise children that work hard and are not spoiled. It's the reason that we use these Printable Chore Cards because they teach kids that they have to do their chores in order to have downtime.
Conversations from the Classroom is a collaborative teacher blog for educators. Our teacher bloggers share tips and ideas to help and inspire others.
Teaching theme is not an easy task! Not only do students need to have a strong comprehension of the story's elements (like plot, setting, and characters), but they also have to be able to make inferences to find the author's message, since most themes are not overtly stated by the author. So, what are some of my favorite activities for helping kids understand theme? I'll list a number of them here. 1. Make an Anchor Chart Anchor charts are a great way to make learning visual and to have a record that kids can refer to when they need a bit of extra support. Theme may be defined in a number of ways. To me, the theme is the author's message or what he/she wants the reader to take away/learn from the story. It is a BIG idea, with a real-world or universal concern and can be applied to anyone. Besides talking about what a theme is, you'll also want to go over what it isn't. For example, some kids confuse the main idea of the story with its theme. To help students understand the difference, it's helpful to use stories that everyone in the class knows, like previous read alouds or classic stories like The Three Little Pigs. You can take each story and discuss the main idea (what the story was mostly about - specific to the story) vs. the theme (the lesson the author wants the reader to know - not specific to the story), to contrast the two ideas. The second area of confusion for some kids is that the theme is not specific to the characters in the story. In the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, for example. The theme would not be that...A little mouse named Chrysanthemum learned to accept the uniqueness of her name. The theme would be larger than the book and would be something like...It's important to accept oneself. Also, you'll want to explain to your students that often times, a book has multiple themes and there are several answers which work equally well to describe a book's theme. Since theme is very subjective, I tell students that I will accept any answer, as long as they have the text evidence to prove it. For example, in the book, Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, one might argue that the theme is about friendship, another might say family, or even courage, or kindness. Any one of these themes would be right, and counted as such, since they each fit the story and could be supported by text evidence. 2. Use Pixar Shorts to Practice Theme Besides the sheer enjoyment which comes from watching these mini-films, your students can learn a lot about reading concepts from these. They're great for ELL students or for struggling readers, and for all readers really since the text complexity piece is removed. You can find these clips on YouTube, but you'll want to make sure to preview them first, so you're more familiar with the plot and are able to focus on theme questions. Here are some of my favorite Pixar Shorts for teaching theme: Piper Partly Cloudy Lava Boundin' 3. Use Mentor Texts Mentor texts are one of my go-to teaching tools as picture books are able to portray examples of just about any reading concept you need to teach. One thing I like to do when using mentor texts for theme, is to vary the types of questions I ask. Rather than always saying What is the theme?, I might ask... What is the deeper meaning of this story? After reading this book, what do you think matters to this author? Which idea from the story do you think might stay with you? What did the author want people to learn from this story?... Once kids answer, you might say, Ah...so that's the theme! Some of my current mentor text favorites for theme include the following: Ish by Peter H. Reynolds I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe Journey by Aaron Becker (a wordless book) Beautiful Oops by Barry Saltzberg The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed If you're looking for more titles, I have a FREE Mentor Text List for Literature which includes a page on theme which you can download from my TpT store. 4. Use Posters with Themes to Chart Book Themes I like to choose 8 - 10 common themes and place posters of them in the classroom. These are included in my Theme unit but you could easily make them yourself if you'd like. After we finish a class novel, a read aloud, or a mentor text as part of a mini-lesson, I like to have the kids discuss the theme of the book. Once we decide on the theme, I place a miniaturized copy of the book's cover (about 3 x 3 inches or so) under the correct theme poster. You can also make the posters more interactive by allowing kids to write titles of books they have recently read on sticky notes, under the posters as well. 5. Use Songs to Practice Finding the Theme I love to add music to the classroom whenever possible. Not only does it add instant motivation for some kids, but it is also just good for them in so many ways. There are lots of songs you can use to teach theme, from current pop songs to oldies, rap songs, and country songs. While all of these work well, I especially enjoy using Disney songs. Disney songs are easily recognized for some kids, have catchy, fun tunes, and have lyrics that need no censoring (yay!). You can easily find the lyrics online to project on a smartboard or document projector, and the song clips may be found on YouTube, Here are some of my favorite Disney songs which work well for theme: Hakuna Matata from Lion King Just Keep Swimming from Finding Dory Reflection from Mulan Let it Go from Frozen Something There from Beauty and the Beast A Whole New World from Aladdin 6. Introduce Short Texts Using Task Cards Using task cards for theme gives your students a great deal of practice in a short period of time, which makes them a perfect way to begin to practice finding the theme using text. I love the fact that students can read multiple task card stories and practice finding the theme 20 - 30 times, in the time it might take to read a story and find the theme once. You can do task cards as a center activity, to play Scoot, or as a whole class scavenger hunt. One thing I like to do for the scavenger hunt is to make sure everyone has a partner and to pair stronger readers with struggling readers. 7. Add Some Writing After students have worked on theme for a week or two, I like to have students create their own short stories which show a strong theme, without directly stating it. This changes each student's role from a theme finder, to a theme creator and gives students insight into how authors create a situation that allows a theme to unfold. When I introduce this project, we refer back to the task cards we just completed, as an example of story length and rich content. In a matter of 2 - 3 paragraphs, students learn that they can include enough information to let our readers know our message. After students are finished creating these short stories, it's fun to share them in some way, to give more theme practice. Sometimes I have students meet in small groups to share out, with group members guessing the theme. Other years, I leave a stack on my desk and grab several if we have a few minutes. Either the students or I read the short story out loud, and the class discusses the theme. 8. Move to Passages, Short Stories, and Novels. Once we have scaffolded a great foundation for the understanding of theme, there comes a point where kids have to move on to text which is more challenging. I like to use page-long passages which I have created, before using short stories, and ultimately novels. If you're looking for some ready made materials to help you teach theme, here's a packet I love to use which works well for 4th and 5th Graders. Click here to read more about the Theme unit. Want some more teaching ideas and activities to teach theme? Click here to read Teaching Themes in Literature. If you like this post, make sure to share it with a teacher friend! Thanks so much for stopping by! For more ideas and strategies focused on upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter! Bonus, you'll also gain access to my FREE Resource Library which contains exclusive upper elementary freebies that you won't find anywhere else! I'd love to connect with you! The Teacher Next Door's Website Pinterest Facebook Instagram TpT Store
From developing fine motor skills, letter and number recognition, sight words, sorting, sequencing, reading, and math, these task boxes for autism tasks will help develop important life skills and beyond!
20 life skills children should learn that can help them for the rest of their lives. These skills can help for life's many challenges.
While school is great for teaching your tweens about algebra and history, there are a few things they won’t learn in the classroom.
Let’s talk about age-appropriate practical life skills for kids. It seems like such an easy thing — installing our kids with skills they need to be successful — but in real life, it's much, much tricker. Do you find yourself regularly feeding your 3-year-old? What about putting shoes on your
Teaching character education in the classroom gives students the practice and knowledge to become upstanding members of their communities.
Friendship-building activities help children in K-3 develop strong social skills. When relationships are an important factor in education, kids succeed in school and life.
From developing fine motor skills, letter and number recognition, sight words, sorting, sequencing, reading, and math, these task boxes for autism tasks will help develop important life skills and beyond!
There are some old-fashioned skills that kids should learn that will benefit them in life. While we often forgo teaching them to our children, thinking it's not necessary anymore, one day they could use those skills if they have them, even if they are labeled as "old-fashioned." Every generation changes. Things become old-fashioned and are
As much time as kids spend in school, you'd think that they would leave prepared for adult life. Here are some basic life skills that need to be taught.
With World Down Syndrome Day and Autism Awareness Month right around the corner, this is the perfect time to think about hosting your own disability awareness day to help students throughout your school better understand different types of disabilities! Last year, I used this Disability Awareness Day Kit from The Bender Bunch to host a schoolwide awareness day for 3rd-5th graders. I was lucky enough to have a principal that let me get a sub for the day to run this wonderful event. I set aside about an hour and 15 minutes per session and did each grade level at their own time. For the event, I sent out parent volunteer forms and got parents to sign up for a time slot to help run a table! Traci from The Bender Bunch included so many great things for me to use during this event. There are some things that you need to grab ahead of time that you'll see in my pictures, but overall it was really just making copies, finding volunteers, and setting up the stations! For my event, I created my own questionnaire to send out to teachers about a week before the event to have their students fill out. This gave me a great idea what they knew about disabilities already, what questions they had, etc. They answered a very similar questionnaire after the event so I could see what they learned! I also spend about 15 minutes at the end of the the event talking to each grade level about ways they can be a good friend to someone with a disability, asking them questions about what they learned, and answering any lingering questions. Overall, it was a GREAT success! In the future, I'd love to do it again (with help!). I did this event last year all on my own and although it turned out amazing, I would love to do it again with a little less stress (and someone to help me answer questions, those kids had some awesome questions!). Each station was set up at a table like this with everything you needed to run the station smoothly! I grabbed a bunch of gloves from our school lost and found and had the students trying to pick up pennies, tie their shoes, etc. It was eye opening for them! Finger spelling word puzzles, these were awesome! One of our stations had Google Chromebooks set up with a couple different things. One was white noise where they had to listen to the white noise while doing the specified activity. I also had some set up to show them a video through the eyes of someone with Autism. They all loved this! I e-mailed the Autism video to classroom teachers in case someone didn't get a turn. You can see the video HERE. I loved this station. All of the kids were like "I can't see that!!!" and I'm like "that's the point ;-)" haha! Have you ever done something similar at your school? If not, I highly recommend doing it! This event was a huge eye opener and big hit!
Spending the first week of school teaching classroom expectations and procedures is essential for a successful year. Glue is a tricky school supply for many little learners and there definitely needs to be instruction dedicated to teaching learners how to use this tool.Glue BottlesWhen learners are not taught how to use their glue correctly things
You won't regret adding these ten important life skills to your homeschool before your kids leave the nest to start a life of their own. They will thank you later!
Start your young entrepreneur on the right track by letting her imagine her own business. What would she sell? Who would be her business partners?
Fun ways to work on handwriting skills : developing the fine motor skills required for good handwriting. Apps and resources to help, along with activities
Free pizza fractions task box for special education classrooms! Learn how to use task boxes in your classroom.
Help your children listen better with these fun activities. Get your children to obey the first time you ask by playing one of these listening skills games
Don't let your teen go out to live on his own without being prepared! Make sure you have taught these 25 life skills for teens BEFORE your child leaves the house.
Challenge and Discover is a bimonthly science challenge link up co-hosted with Science Sparks. This month's challenge theme is Fun with Rulers.
Here is a new worksheet I put together over the weekend for my kids. I have felt so "un" creative lately for some reason, and actually haven't put together a worksheet in a couple weeks. I set myself a goal of covering 4 areas this weekend and finished 3 of them, so not that bad. This one is on citizenship. I hope you enjoy it! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Citizenship-Skills-Worksheet
If we want to raise gentlemen, we have to start instilling values in our sons at young ages. These are the 7 ways I am doing that.
Let’s talk handicrafts.We’ve been working on quality over quantity over here. I used to pull out every art supply we had so we could do craft projects. I threw so much stuff away. They were cute crafts but they didn't last. Sure, our children learned how to cut with scissors but I exhausted myself with the mess, not to mention I felt as though I was throwing our money out the window.Our children are learning life skills by spending time on handicrafts that can be enjoyed for years to come. A few
Montessori ‘Practical Life’ activities focus on the care of the child’s own person (personal dressing and grooming), care of the environment (cleaning, caring for plants and pets, preparing food), development of fine and gross motor skills, and learning courteous behavior and conflict resolution. The Benefits of Practical Life Activities Independence, Confidence, and Self-Care The activities […]
Learning how to use scissors is an important skill that promotes hand strength, hand-eye coordination, classroom tool use and bilateral motor coordination skills. Children need to practice fine motor skills when cutting with scissors in order to learn how to use scissors safely and accurately. There is a progression to help master cutting skills. A … Thumbprint Cutting Strips Read More »
