"Ugly" Christmas Sweater

This is super late, I forgot to post this before the Christmas holiday- but I had to post it, bc the kids had so much fun decorating their "ugly" Christmas sweaters! Download the free template and put it in your file for next year!

Items needed for this activity:

sweater template (free) from Crafts on Sea:  XmasSweater

Glue, pom poms, markers, crayons, felt, craft beads, stickers, or any other random embellishments

Tis the Season- Seasonal Scented Play dough

I love the scents of the holiday season! Here are some ways to incorporate those scents into some tactile sensory play: 

Gingerbread Playdough:

 https://www.learning4kids.net/2015/11/15/scented-gingerbread-play-dough-recipe/

Candy Cane Playdough

https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/79418/candy-cane-play-dough/

Hot Chocolate Playdough:

https://thesimpleparent.com/chocolate-playdough/

Sugar Cookie Playdough:

https://www.frugalmomeh.com/homemade-playdough.html

4 types of Christmas Playdough: egg nog, cranberry, mint and gingerbread

https://www.inthekidskitchen.com/christmas-play-dough/

Heavenly Scented Christmas Playdough: Cranberry Sauce,  Peppermint Candy Cane, Christmas Tree, Gingerbread Cookie 

https://onetimethrough.com/heavenly-scented-christmas-playdough-recipes/ 

Structured Work Environment

I often come across instances where the curriculum needs to be adapted to the unique needs of my students. While it is not necessarily my role to adapt the curriculum, as an OT I can provide suggestions to team members and staff as far as types of activities or in which type of format activities could be presented that would be beneficial to our shared student.

In our special services unit, we often use portions of the TEACCH model to set up a structured work environment for students with ASD. You can learn more about the TEACCH method here:

https://teacch.com/

Structuring the work space that our students work in is important to limit distractions and provide predictability- what is being expected of them now and next. It is also important that activities be presented in a clear sequence so that there is a definite plan of how to complete them, with a clear beginning and ending to the tasks. An example of a structured work space that I recently help set up for a preschooler is below:

On the wall is the visual schedule of that task boxes to be completed. The student chooses the top visual card, and matches it to a bin on the shelf to find that task that is to be completed. Bins/boxes that contain the work tasks are located to the left of the student's work space so that the tasks can proceed in a left to right progression. The student completes the task at his/her desk/work space. When finished with the task, the student places the visual activity card in the "done" container (in this case it's a small orange bin on the table) to indicate that that task is finished, and sets the finished work task bin on the shelf to the right of the work space. He/she then checks the visual schedule of tasks for the second task to be completed, and so on. The number of tasks to be completed depends on the individual student. Sometimes even completing one task at a time is the goal- some kids can complete several in a row. Task boxes provide organized activities that have a clear beginning and end.

To make things easier, I went to Teachers Pay Teachers and found some visual supports for task boxes that I paid a small fee for and downloaded- much easier and faster than making my own. They are available from Melissa Finch at Autism Adventures. Check them out here: 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Task-Box-Labels-832997

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Task-Box-Visual-Directions-Templates-For-Autism-Programs-2003038

There are many ways to set up a work space that works for your student, a variety of visual supports that can be used for the visual schedule and many many types of work tasks that can be incorporated into a work format such as this. This particular work station and the visuals provided suited the preschooler that it was set up for. Use your knowledge of the student's individual strengths and needs and your own creativity to come up with a work environment that will allow your student to be successful.

Visual Motor/Tactile Hack

Use a glue gun:

• For teaching kids to color within boundaries- trace the lines on a coloring worksheet. This will give kids some tactile feedback for coloring within an area.

• For adding some tactile input to worksheets and pre writing tasks- trace various lines, letters and numbers with a glue gun for kids to trace with their fingers for practicing letter and number formation. 

• To add dimension to an art project. We did this for an Earth Day watercolor painting project. Free heart earth template is available from: https://theclassroomcreative.com/2015/03/earth-day-craf-for-kids/

Spring Art Activity- Flower Garden

Looking for a cute spring art activity?? This is a flower stamping activity using empty paper rolls- just the right size for younger kids or kids with limited hand function to hold onto, but fun for any! 

Supplies:

tempera paint- a few colors

large piece of white paper

empty paper rolls (for paper towel rolls- cut in thirds)

scissors

black marker

Make snips in the end of a paper roll- you can vary the snips so that your flower petals look different:

Fan out the snips at the end of the roll. Dip the snipped end of the paper roll in tempera paint and stamp on the paper. We used a different color for each different flower. 

When the paint is dry, draw the flower middles and stems/leaves. An adult can do or assist with drawing for the preschoolers, older kids can do their own. 

Sensory Activities for Valentine's Day

Oh my gosh, I love Valentine's Day! I love the pinks, reds, purples, glitter, sparkle, candy, flowers...all of it! It's a great time to remind and show the people that we love that we love them! It's also a fun time of year to do some fun and creative Valentine themed activities- I've found some for you to try below:

Sensory Bottle- Visual input

 https://fun-a-day.com/heart-glitter-jar-valentines-day/

Who doesn't love to watch glitter swirl in a bottle??

Shredded Paper Sensory Bin- Tactile Input

https://www.theottoolbox.com/valentines-day-sensory-binand-dying/

A bit of a different take on a sensory bin filler, this would be great for kids who have a hard time with wet or sticky sensory bins.

Valentine's Day Sensory Bags: Tactile and Visual Input

https://www.playlearneveryday.com/2016/01/valentines-day-sensory-bags.html

25 Must Try Valentine Sensory Activities from Lemon Lime Adventures: 

https://lemonlimeadventures.com/must-try-valentines-day-sensory-activities/

Valentine's with Visuals:

Valentine's Day Adapted Books- you can access these free resources from the Autism Helper to make adapted books with visuals  for your students:

https://theautismhelper.com/?s=valentines

Multi Cultural Crayons

We all have our own unique skin tones- consider that for years kids only had 2 crayons to choose from when coloring people: peach and chocolate brown. How many of us can say that those 2 colors accurately match our skin? The following are some multi cultural crayon options, along with a couple of very cool initiatives started by some young girls to have these types of crayons made available to schools-

Crayola Multicultural Crayons- pack of 8 crayons

Crayola Colors of the World: 24 pack of skin tone colors

Crayola Colors of the World: pack of 32 crayons; 24 skin tones along with 8 colors for hair and eye color

Colors also available in colored pencils, markers, washable tempera paint, construction paper

Examples of all can be found and purchased on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/s?k=multicultural+crayons&crid=2HP4YAPN6H7MB&sprefix=multicultural%2Caps%2C227&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-a-p_1_13, but are also available at other retail stores such as Target, Walmart, Michael's, other school supply stores, etc.

Bellen's More Than Peach Crayons: This 9 year old girl started a non profit organization to help people stop thinking of peach-colored crayons as the ‘skin-color' crayon.  This nonprofit organization is called More than Peach™ and you can learn more about it here: https://www.morethanpeach.com/

Help Fill Madi's Treasure Box: This 7 year old girl started an initiative to raise enough money to donate 1000 crayon boxes and 500 books to schools.  Under this initiative, each teacher/classroom will receive 25 packs of multicultural crayons, one ream of multicultural construction paper, and a set of books with diverse characters. Madi has a Go Fund Me Page and Account, and you can learn more about it here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/madis-treasure-box