Begin your Fall curriculum by taking students on a nature walk. Look around at all of the changing colors. Take some bags along and have the students gather leaves (try to encourage them to get dry-not soggy-leaves!). When you get back to the classroom, have the students sort the leaves to practice visual discrimination. They could sort them by shape, color, or texture. Use a premade graph* to graph how many of each different type, color, etc. you found.
Let each student choose several leaves to use for today’s art activity: leaf rubbings. Help the students put the leaves down on their table, tray, etc. Let the students help you pull tape from the roll to tape construction paper on top of the leaves. Allow the students to choose which Fall color they want to use for their art. Remember, for students who can talk, your goal is to get them to actually say what color they want, not just point! Try using an “I want” board-write “I want _______” on a piece of cardstock, laminate, and put a piece of Velcro on it. You can put a picture of the student’s choice in the blank and show them the board to prompt them to say, “I want orange.” Students who are non-verbal can point or use picture exchange to make a choice, and students who have limited use of their hands/arms can use eye gaze to make a choice-just be sure that you use adequate spacing of the pictures or objects so that you can tell what the child is actually looking at!
Next, let the children choose several crayons. Fat, stubby crayons with the paper peeled off work best for leaf rubbings. It may even be good to melt some crayons into muffin pans to make jumbo crayons for students who have a lot of fine motor difficulty. Again, use visuals to allow students to make their choices. This is not about making things easy; it’s about teaching children communication skills and allowing them to have some control over their environment!
To make leaf rubbings, students just rub their crayons all over the paper taped over their leaves. Students with physical disabilities affecting their upper bodies will obviously need some assistance. The adult that is helping the child can allow the student to show them by eye gaze (or tell them if possible) where they would like to color on their paper, and then the adult can provide hand-over-hand assistance as long as it is comfortable to the child.
After making their leaf rubbings, students can choose where to hang their artwork up in the classroom or hallway and help the teacher hang it.
For another fine motor activity, cut out and laminate leaf patterns on card stock. Punch holes around the edges and have the students lace the cards with shoestrings. Each child can have his/her own lacing card or a classroom supply can be available so that the children have access to different leaves throughout the unit.
*I LOVE graphing activities. To make impromptu graphing possible, make a large grid on a large sheet of chart paper; leave all the spaces blank. Laminate the grid. Keep a supply of dry erase markers and Post-It notes in your classroom. Voila-instant graph! Dry erase marker can be easily erased from laminated paper using a baby wipe.
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