Today, of course, is Friday, which means it’s cooking day! The cooking activity is pretty straightforward….just make a batch of sugar cookies with your students. You can make them from scratch, use a mix, or just make them from a roll…your kids won’t care! I would be willing to bet that they won’t care if you use cookie cutters to cut them into holiday shapes or if you just make simple, round cookies. They will just be happy to be able to handle the ingredients and the dough (with clean hands, of course!), smell it, and taste it once it has baked! After baking the cookies, let your students ice them with colorful icing and sprinkle them with green, red, and white sprinkles. Yum!
Since the art activity is 2-steps….you could actually carry the decorating into your fine motor activity. Once your students have finished decorating and eating their cookies, you can hand out the lacing cards and have your students lace them.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Winter Holidays, Day Fourteen
Today’s art activity is a torn paper Christmas tree. Give your students a simple pattern of a Christmas tree on green construction paper (I would probably just make it a large triangle…) and have them cut it out. After they have cut the tree, give them a single hole punch and have them punch holes all in the tree. They may need to fold it to get to the center. Once they have punched the holes in their tree, have them tear or cut tissue paper in a variety of colors (I like to use a choice board to let them choose their colors), then have them glue the tissue paper flat to the back of the tree. Once the Christmas trees have dried, you can hang them in the window (you could laminate them for durability) and the light will shine through the tissue. These look great with the light shining through them.
You will need to do a little prep ahead of time for your fine motor activity. You will need a large pinecone for each child. Prepare a batch of plaster of Paris and put a smallish mound on a piece of waxed paper; press a pinecone into the plaster of Paris. Do this for each pinecone. Once the plaster has dried, you can write the students’ names on the bottoms. Have your students “paint” their pinecones with glue that has been thinned with a little bit of water. Have them sprinkle green glitter on their pinecone and shake off the excess, then sprinkle a little glitter in other colors. Once they have dried, they will look like adorable Christmas trees!
You will need to do a little prep ahead of time for your fine motor activity. You will need a large pinecone for each child. Prepare a batch of plaster of Paris and put a smallish mound on a piece of waxed paper; press a pinecone into the plaster of Paris. Do this for each pinecone. Once the plaster has dried, you can write the students’ names on the bottoms. Have your students “paint” their pinecones with glue that has been thinned with a little bit of water. Have them sprinkle green glitter on their pinecone and shake off the excess, then sprinkle a little glitter in other colors. Once they have dried, they will look like adorable Christmas trees!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Winter Holidays, Day Thirteen
Today’s art is a silver bell. For this activity, each child will need a medium to large paper or Styrofoam cup, a pipe cleaner, a small jingle bell, and a large piece of aluminum foil. The children will need to wrap the aluminum foil around their cup, starting with the bottom of the cup, and completely cover the outside of the cup, wrapping the edges of the paper around to the inside of the cup. Once they have finished, they will poke both ends of their pipe cleaner through the bottom of the cup, making a loop to use as a handle. For this next part, the students will need adult assistance. Push the loop all the way up against the cup so that the ends of the pipe cleaner come out the top of the cup. Slide a jingle bell up a couple of inches on one of the ends, then wrap the ends together to secure and pull the loop back up. You can use masking tape to put each child’s name on his or her cup.
I like to send the Christmas crafts that we have made home in a shoebox wrapped up as a gift, so I have the children make wrapping paper. For fine motor, give each child a large sheet of butcher paper. Put out plates of red and green paint and Christmas-y cookie cutters, and let the students use the cookie cutters to “stamp” their paper. Once they have dried, these cookie cutter paintings make great wrapping paper!
I like to send the Christmas crafts that we have made home in a shoebox wrapped up as a gift, so I have the children make wrapping paper. For fine motor, give each child a large sheet of butcher paper. Put out plates of red and green paint and Christmas-y cookie cutters, and let the students use the cookie cutters to “stamp” their paper. Once they have dried, these cookie cutter paintings make great wrapping paper!
Helpful Links
This is a great website that supplies premade Boardmaker materials and lots of ideas:
http://www.speakingofspeech.com/Home_Page.html
Here's a great, very thorough website of preschool ideas:
http://www.preschoolexpress.com/
http://www.speakingofspeech.com/Home_Page.html
Here's a great, very thorough website of preschool ideas:
http://www.preschoolexpress.com/
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Changes to come
Just letting you know....I am going to be making some changes to the way that I present the information in this blog.
Rather than going day by day, I will post a suggested lesson plan format weekly. Each day I will post all of the activities for a specific component (e.g. on Monday, I will post books and songs for circle time, on Tuesday all art activities, on Wednesday all cooking activities, etc.). This will allow me to include more activities that may not necessarily be included in the suggested lesson plan. I also think that I will be able to suggest more modifications this way.
Rather than going day by day, I will post a suggested lesson plan format weekly. Each day I will post all of the activities for a specific component (e.g. on Monday, I will post books and songs for circle time, on Tuesday all art activities, on Wednesday all cooking activities, etc.). This will allow me to include more activities that may not necessarily be included in the suggested lesson plan. I also think that I will be able to suggest more modifications this way.
Winter Holidays, Day Twelve
Today you will make a cute reindeer to hang in the hall. I like to make a little "reindeer team" and put yarn on them to look like reins, then hang a picture of Santa in his sleigh to look like he is driving.
The reindeer head is what you will do for art today. This is one of those rare art activities where it is very adult-directed. You will need brown paint for the head and light brown (I usually mix brown and white) for the antlers. Paint the bottom of each child's foot with brown paint and press it onto white paper. Paint their hands with the light brown paint and press it onto either side of the head to make antlers. I recommend painting their hands and feet, not dipping them into the paint. This will make the hand and footprints drier and it will be MUCH less messy, plus you can go ahead and add the nose and the eyes. Have the children dip their fingertip into red paint and make a nose, then into black paint to make the eyes.
For fine motor, cut out a reindeer body pattern (I will post one later) for each child. Have the children paint the reindeer body with the same brown paint that was used for the head. Once the body has dried, cut out the head and tape it to the body.
The reindeer head is what you will do for art today. This is one of those rare art activities where it is very adult-directed. You will need brown paint for the head and light brown (I usually mix brown and white) for the antlers. Paint the bottom of each child's foot with brown paint and press it onto white paper. Paint their hands with the light brown paint and press it onto either side of the head to make antlers. I recommend painting their hands and feet, not dipping them into the paint. This will make the hand and footprints drier and it will be MUCH less messy, plus you can go ahead and add the nose and the eyes. Have the children dip their fingertip into red paint and make a nose, then into black paint to make the eyes.
For fine motor, cut out a reindeer body pattern (I will post one later) for each child. Have the children paint the reindeer body with the same brown paint that was used for the head. Once the body has dried, cut out the head and tape it to the body.
Winter Holidays, Day Eleven
I guess today is "candy cane day." For art, give your students a piece of cardstock with a candy cane pattern printed on it (I will try to remember to post a PDF for a pattern later in the week). Have the students cut the pattern out (or precut if you need to for students with physical disabilities), then have them cut or tear red paper (or you could let them use whatever color they would like) and glue it to their candy cane.
For fine motor, you will make candy cane suncatchers. You will need to prep the materials for this activity ahead of time. Cut candy cane shapes out of construction paper, leaving the outline completely intact. You could either cut it so that you have the whole sheet of paper with just the candy cane missing, or you could cut around it so you just have the candy cane outline. Whatever you choose, glue it to a piece of waxed paper, then have your students cut or tear red tissue and glue it inside of the candy cane outline. For students with more fine motor limitations, you could also use Con-tact paper, although this can get rather expensive and sticky! I usually just help them squeeze their glue on. Once the suncatchers have dried, run them through the laminator and cut them out. These really do look great in the window!
For fine motor, you will make candy cane suncatchers. You will need to prep the materials for this activity ahead of time. Cut candy cane shapes out of construction paper, leaving the outline completely intact. You could either cut it so that you have the whole sheet of paper with just the candy cane missing, or you could cut around it so you just have the candy cane outline. Whatever you choose, glue it to a piece of waxed paper, then have your students cut or tear red tissue and glue it inside of the candy cane outline. For students with more fine motor limitations, you could also use Con-tact paper, although this can get rather expensive and sticky! I usually just help them squeeze their glue on. Once the suncatchers have dried, run them through the laminator and cut them out. These really do look great in the window!
Winter Holidays, Week Three Lesson Plan
I am having some issues with embedding the document this week for some reason, so instead I am going to give you the link you to the PDF. If you click on File then Download you will be able to save and print.
https://acrobat.com/#d=5N286iBGxzE-PFDoMcXCjQ
https://acrobat.com/#d=5N286iBGxzE-PFDoMcXCjQ
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Winter Holidays, Day Ten
Today, it’s back to Christmas. We’ll be making paper plate wreaths today. First, either cut the center out of a paper plate for each child or have your students cut their own paper plate. Next, have them request green and red construction paper and glue verbally or using their Boardmaker symbols, a communication device, or a switch. Depending on their ability and/or their (or your) preference, students can cut or tear their paper into small bits. Have them squeeze glue all over the paper plate and cover it as completely as possible with the red and green paper (I give each student ¼ of a sheet of green construction paper and 1/8 of a sheet of red construction paper).
For fine motor, use your Christmas card lacing cards! For math, leave out a supply of construction paper strips. You can use Christmas colors or just leave out all sorts of colors so that students can choose their own colors. Encourage students to make paper chains while patterning or matching colors. They can use glue (glue sticks work best here) or tape to hold the strips of paper together.
For fine motor, use your Christmas card lacing cards! For math, leave out a supply of construction paper strips. You can use Christmas colors or just leave out all sorts of colors so that students can choose their own colors. Encourage students to make paper chains while patterning or matching colors. They can use glue (glue sticks work best here) or tape to hold the strips of paper together.