A Meaningful Day

We're Back!

2010-08-26T16:59:00.002-05:00

After months of the computer freezing when I tried to access any blogs, it's finally working again! Yeah! I've got some photos to share about what A18 has been up to in the past several months---unit studies on ice cream, July 4 and the seashore.

Janice Van Cleave Science Books

2010-01-13T08:15:00.001-06:00

After checking several of the Janice Van Cleave science experiment books out of the library, I was happy to find a couple in a clearance bin. These are great to have as part of your home library. Many of the experiments use items that you already have around the house. Earlier in the week, we did an experiment that used ice, sand and salt. A17 loves science so we'll be doing more of these.

Katy and the Big Snow

2010-01-11T19:28:00.004-06:00

Last week A17 and I started our study of Katy and the Big Snow. This is one of the titles in the Five in a Row curriculum. We have been using FIAR loosely since last spring ( more on FIAR in another post!). The book has been a favorite of A17. I chose several lessons from the teacher's manual and adapted them a bit to fit. A17 colored a picture of Katy and used that to make the basis of his lapbook.

One of the lessons involved reading maps. We changed this a bit. A17 colored pictures of town buildings from the story and we glued them on poster board. I found these by googling Katy and the Snow printables. We worked on the words "above" and "below" instead of more typical directions. For example, the library is below the railroad tracks.

Another lesson had to do with identifying street signs. We read a wonderful DK book called Signs in Our World. Then we made a tab book about signs. We left a spot in the lapbook blank to add a photo of his poster map.

We first started with FIAR because of all the science lessons. This time it was about weather patterns and snow. We did several simple experiments. One involved putting salt or sand on ice cubes then seeing which one melted the fastest. If forgot to take a before picture, so in this one the ice cube is all but melted.

Snow crafts

2010-01-11T19:02:00.004-06:00

With all the snow falling A17 and I figured it was time for some snow crafts. The first idea I found online. You make this snowflake print by cutting a bell pepper in half. Dip each half in white paint or use a paintbrush to paint it on. Be sure to cover the parts in the middle too. Press the pepper down on a sheet of blue paper--press hard on the middle. It didn't turn out as well as we had hoped, though A17 thought the pepper was cool! We had to add a little more paint to the center to make it more snowflake-ish.

The second snowlflake was made by putting glue in the center of the paper and using qtips to make a snowflake pattern. Two very quick and easy snowflake crafts!

Christmas Countdown Calendar

2009-11-30T19:14:00.004-06:00

A17 has been requesting magnet activities so we made this magnetic Christmas countdown calendar. I found ideas for it here . I modified the ideas to make this easier and cheaper. We bought a cookie sheet at the dollar store as well as mini ornaments. I already had the scrapbook paper, adhesive and magnetic tape.

To make this calendar, cut scrapbook paper to fit the cookie sheet. Mark 25 squares on the middle sheet. Use tape runner or other paper adhesive to glue down the paper. Place number stickers on square . If you don't have number stickers, just use a marker. Embellish with stickers, mini ornaments, etc. Cut small sqares of magnetic tape and adhere to back of counters. I used these presents because they were light weight and stood up so A17 could manipulate them easier.

Enjoy the countdown to Christmas!

Touchmath Cubes--free!

2009-11-28T18:41:00.003-06:00

The Touchmath website has some freebies for those wanting to sample the program or add to their curriculum. This fall they added these cubes as a special download for their 35th anniversary. Each month several cubes are available. 1 and 0 will be out in December.

We have used the cubes to play counting games. You can also use them to create simple addition or subtraction problems.

Fall Crafts

2009-11-28T18:25:00.005-06:00

A17 loves crafts. He made these leaf decorations with his Grandma. They collected leaves and ironed them between wax paper.

They were hung by punching a hole with a hole punch and tying coordinating ribbon.

He also made these leaf rubbings with his Grandmas. Leaves that were thicker are easier to see when you rub the crayon over them.

These foam and pom pom turkeys were made with a kit I found on clearance after the holiday last year.

Next up--Christmas crafts!

Columbus Lapbook

2009-10-12T17:29:00.002-05:00

A17 and I read the picture book In 1492 by Jean Marzollo today and put together this lapbook on Columbus. I found some printables at Enchanted Learning and ABC Teach.

We used Boardmaker pictures to write a sentence about Columbus and highlight the dates. I did the cutting and A17 helped with coloring and gluing.

We also did a simple experiment with a ship, water and wind. The ship is made from a plastic lid, playdoh, a toothpick and a square of paper. We set it in a tub of water and blew on it to see how fast it went and where it would end up. A17 really loves any kind of experiment!

Christmas Bags by Kendra

2009-09-23T17:29:00.005-05:00

I know it's early, but if you are like me, things that aren't planned in advance don't get done! Kendra over at Aussie Pumpkin Patch posted about her Christmas bags. This is a wonderful idea for organizing and completing holiday crafts. Basically you put the supplies for a craft in an individual bag. These bags are then given out one at a time. I like that it helps me be ready in advance with supplies. I also think more craft would be actually completed this way. These would also work well for workboxes.

First Day of Fall!

2009-09-22T16:54:00.005-05:00

September 22 is the first day of fall. The smell of apples and cinnamon, crisp fall air, the sound of crackling leaves --our favorite season!

We've had a slow start to school, but have made some plans for enjoying the fall season season. We're planning a trip to the apple orchard followed by crock pot applesauce, a wheelchair accessible hayride, fall leaf walks, pumpkin decorating, and a halloween party.

One of our favorite fall books is The Apple Pie Tree.

We are also thinking about fall crafts. A17 picked out some fall/halloween themed foam crafts at Joanns. We also found some fall ideas on the Crayola website.

Happy Fall!

Teacher Book Bag

2009-08-10T21:28:00.007-05:00

Have you looked at Teacher Book Bag? I just received the August PreK-K Book Bag, Seasons, Trees and Me, to review and I am very impressed! I have purchased the book bags in the past and have always liked the product, but I think I will like the new format even better. Now, the company offers 3 different levels of book bags each month. You can pick the level that best fits your child or combine levels for multiple children. They are very reasonably priced and are packed with activities. You can also purchase a year's worth at a time for the best value.

Seasons, Trees and Me has three different units. Each unit has ideas for reading, language arts, math, movement, art, booklists and more. Each section comes with suggested variations for the activities. For example, there are several different writing and cutting pages so you can choose the one that best fits your child's skill level. These variations would also be helpful for adapting materials for a child with special needs.

The seasons unit came with a story cube that you can print on cardstock and put together. The cube can be used for several activities for the books on the list such as " What do you wear?, "Find this in the story," etc. I really like the story cube idea! I'll post more when we have delved further into the book bag. Can't wait to try out the seasons graph and tree art with Ds!

If you are looking for units that you can pull out and do with a minimum of prep, lots of variety and engaging activities, then check out the monthly book bags from Teacher Book Bag.

HSS: Lots of new materials!

2009-07-29T21:32:00.005-05:00

Homeschool Share recently completed it's annual Blast contest and has posted lots of new materials on the website. They have new units, lapbooks and things for workboxes under a new category called Workboxables. Some of the new items Ds and I are looking forward to using are the units and lapbooks for How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA and Christmas Around the World.

There are also new units and lapbooks on Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, a Spanish lapbook, lapbooks on bears and beavers, Goodnight Gorilla lapbook and a unit on the Laura Ingalls Wilder classic Farmer Boy in addition to many other fabulous parent created materials.

Planning for Next Year

2009-07-04T15:33:00.007-05:00

I am starting to plan for next year based on some choices A17 has made for science topics. Some of these topics include volcanos, polar bears, pumpkins, and birds.

We will start off the school year with a unit on the human body. I am gathering resources from several places including Little Otter's Science Curriculum. This is a wonderful human body study geared toward preschool--first grade and would work well for some special needs students. Our library has many of the books on the suggested reading list.

I will also be taking pieces from several HOAC lapbooks including Human Body and Germs.

We will doing some projects from this book.

In addition to science units, we will be continuing with Touchmath. I am considering supplmenting Touchmath with some living math books from the Mathstart series. I have read a lot about a Living Math approach on Kendra's and Heather's blogs.

Since A17 has been very interested in arts and crafts, I have been putting together a unit for him on art which I hope will have us exploring some different types of projects. We will be using this book :

plus some stories about artists and their work. One of these is the Katie series by James Mayhew.

We will also be checking out the Smart About Art series and Touch the Art which is a board book series with textures.

I like to have a general plan down on paper and then tweak things as we go along. If A17 is really into something I want to be able to spend more time with it or if interest is flagging I can switch gears.

If you are homeschooling or creating a meaningful day, have you made any plans? Comments and links are welcome!

Games with Books

2009-06-15T20:34:00.004-05:00

I wanted to make a quick post about a book I found at my library called Games with Books by Peggy Kaye. The book includes activities for 28 popular children's books. Books include such titles as Chrysanthemum, Blueberries for Sal, The Carrot Seed, Winnie the Pooh, Charlotte's Web, Beezus and Ramona and The Borrowers. The ages go from preschool to third grade. I think many of the activities can be adapted up or down if you want to do them with a group. The activites range from something simple like making blueberry ice pops or a dot game to silly sentences, creating graphs and crafting a Borrowers home. The ideas can be adapted for other books as well.

Peggy Kaye also has other titles such as Games for Math and Games for Learning.

Ocean Unit

2009-06-01T19:34:00.006-05:00

A17's Ocean unit this spring ended up so large that instead of using a file folder lapbook, we put everything into a Bare Book. Bare Books can be purchased in a variety of sizes and are great for big projects or something that is ongoing like our Flat Stanley project. This ocean book contains resources from Homeschoolshare, project packs Under the Sea and Clownfish Adventure from Hands of a Child, activities from Evan Moor, Enchanted Learning and other online sites. These first pages also include booklets listing the books we read, for example DK Eye Wonder Ocean.

At the end of the book is a separate book containing all the coloring pages of various ocean animals. Most of these were taken from the Color and Learn series book entitled Ocean Life.

A17 chose to focus his report on what he called a "shamu" whale or orca. On the left page is a fact sheet containing things he wanted to remember from the books we read. On the right are photo cards and one fact of different types of whales. Last is a whale pop up book featured in a previous post

A17 chose which ocean animals to read about including dolphins, sea turtles, jellyfish, star fish and sea dragons.

Underneath the minit books for dolphin pod and echolocation, A17 put Boardmaker pictures for the definitions. For mammals in the ocean he used dolphin and whale.

This page uses Boardmaker pictures to describe why ocean are important and has some glitter fish.To go along with the Clownfish Adventure lapbook, we watched the Nemo movie and read a book called Just Keep Swimming. These pages include minit books about clownfish and manta rays, and information on characters on the Nemo movie including the Tank Gang and Bruce the great white shark!

We made several more pop up books based on the whale pattern. This one is called My Book About Dory.We included photos of some of the art projects that A17 enjoyed. You can find these posts here.

The last couple of pages are pocket pages that contain several books on ocean animals we found on Enchanted Learning and in our Evan Moor books.

Pirate Lapbook

2009-05-29T18:50:00.003-05:00

For a pirates lapbook we read a Magic Tree House chapter book , Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne. Many of the Magic Tree House books have research guides which go along with them--in this case we read Pirates. These guides are packed with lots of neat info and drawings and A17 really enjoys them. Another great book was DK Eye Wonder: Pirate.

The lapbook components came from several sources including Homeschoolshare and Hands of a Child. I purchased the lapbook Ahoy Matey! from HOAC. The Magic Tree House items were found on the Random House website which has teacher guides for some of their books.

The left side of the lapbook contained a minit book on some key vocab from Pirates Past Noon, a list of the books we read, a tabbed minit book on pirates, a minit book on parrots and minit book of A17's favorite pirate jokes.

The right side has an eye spy minit book, a Magic Tree House Passport, a book on words with the letter P , and minit books on island and compass. The MTH Passport includes 4 pages which are used to summarize the book. For compass you might want to try an experiment making your own with a cork, needle and a pan of water. There are several variations of this online.

Pirate Crafts

2009-05-29T18:39:00.003-05:00

A17 finished a fun unit on Pirates. We decided on a pirate unit after he had so much fun doing a pirate skit at AAC camp last summer. Aarrgh!! For this craft we found a wooden box ( JoAnn's) and painted it black. Then he glued on wooden decorations also found at the craft store. Inside are gold coins cut from craft foam. We also used the foam coins to play a pirate board game.

The second craft is a foam kit from Michaels. This was a bit trickier due to all the glue and needed to be completed in stages. The sails didn't go on exactly right, so we improvised!

For the map we started with off white paper and printed out a map. We crumpled up the paper then smoothed it back out. To give it an old look we used a wet tea bag and "painted" all over the paper. For a quick dry, I used my hair dryer.

Work Job Board

2009-05-25T22:01:00.001-05:00

Although we have been doing the workbox system lately, I wanted to share another type of visual schedule that has been a big help to A17. We have used the work job board at home and at therapies for years. For us, the workbox system is an extension of our work job board. I made the board above from an inexpensive dry erase board I found at Walmart.

The child picks a preferred activity--for A17 it could be computer, music, or any other fun activity. I have specific cards for these but keep a generic treat card for something unexpected. At therapy the "reward" is doing a favorite activity like gait trainer. Then I or the therapist chooses the work or "job" activities that must be completed before a favorite activity. When each job is completed, he takes off the card. This helps him know what is expected and gives him something to work toward. I also use this to break down a more difficult task into steps.

Craft Box

2009-05-16T16:58:00.006-05:00

One thing that has been a suprise to me this year is how often A17 requests to do crafts. He has enjoyed coloring in the past, but not much else. Now, he asks me to get out our craft box. I put together a basic craft box at the start of the school year so we would be able to do some basic crafts whenever the mood strikes. He needs lots of help due to fine motor issues but really enjoys choosing supplies, colors and pointing where something should go!

The box is a tall clear tote with a lid and a handle. I keep the paints in a separate box in case of leaks.

A look inside shows:

sheets of felt in several basic colors

colored pipe cleaners

googly eyes

jingle bells in gold and silver

beads

glitter paints

glitter in sprinkle tubes

Elmers clear washable school glue

Elmers glue sticks

crafts sticks--regular and jumbo--plain colored

pom poms--variety of colors and sizes

colored feathers

Crayola washable kid paints

paint brush with thick handle

Crayola So Big crayons

Crayola washable markers

Our biggest craft find has been foam stickies that you can buy in tubs at craft stores. These have been a huge hit with A17! He uses these to make cards, bookmarks, door hangers, collages, etc. We have also purchased several themed kits-- a pirate ship and a log cabin--to go along with our unit studies. I prefer to buy the ones with the sticky background so we don't have to mess around with gluing small pieces.

For anyone doing the workbox system, we have found that the following crafty items really work well in the boxes.

Kumon First Steps Workbooks--Let's color, Let's sticker and paste, Let's Fold,

Crayola Color Wonder books and markers

Let's Draw with Chalk ( or other chalk books)

paint with water books

aquadoodle

washable stamp pads and stamps ( we use an adapted handle and tape/velcro the stamp on)

A17 uses adapted scissors. These are a push down type. I put the paper in and move it as necessary while he pushes down on the handle.

Wipe-Off Books

2009-05-11T12:25:00.004-05:00

Since receiving new dry erase markers ( see Touchmath post), A17 loves using them. He can't write due to his disability, but he is enjoying several pre-writing books. He needs some assistance with hand eye coordination to follow the lines. Some books in this series can be found at Target.

The Get Ready to Print book features animals and a construction theme. A green star shows the child where to start and the red dot shows the end. The book starts with simple draw a line activities and gets progressively harder as you advance through the book.

A second book titled Pre-Printing with Mazes features a mouse. Each page is a maze with another adventure such as find the buried treasure, get through a cave, fly in outer space. This book has a black arrow to show where to start and a piece of cheese at the end.

DK Wildlife Gardening

2009-05-11T12:14:00.004-05:00

A17 and I love this new book we found! DK's Wildlife Gardening --How to Bring Birds and Bugs to your Backyard by Martyn Cox. We are looking forward to trying some of these projects. Projects are listed as Watch It, Make It or Grow It.

Here is a sample from the table of contents:

Keep a nature diary

Make a butterfly house

Grow smiley sunflowers

Make a wormery ( this looks really cool for A17!)

Make a ladybug sanctuary

Grow a wildlife hedge

Make a flower pot birdhouse

Watch a pond dipping

Make a frog and toad home

I'll update when we have completed some of these projects.

Weather/Calendar board

2009-04-18T17:32:00.003-05:00

I made a weather/calendar board for A17 using familar boardmaker pictures. I used a cheap clipboard from the dollar store. I used a clipboard instead of cardstock so it would be sturdy when trying to velcro the picture. For other boards I have used inexpensive white boards to velcro pictures.

We are mostly focusing on day of the week and not the number. He especially likes to do the weather! Every morning the first thing he wants me to do is open the curtains so he can see outside.

He picks from a choice of 2 or 3 pictures when we do the board. For the I am statement, this means describe how I am feeling. This is a tough concept for many kids with special needs. For seasons, we also have an interactive book where he needs to put pictures under the proper season.

Nature Journal and Sun Prints

2009-04-18T15:18:00.004-05:00

A17 started a nature journal last fall. We use a binder that he decorated with stickers. In the binder are sheets pre-printed with room for the date, weather, items found and animals/birds seen. I printed out sheets of boardmaker pictures of common items to use a stickers.

Here is one journal entry. He went for a walk and collected an oak leaf, pine cone and small yellow flower. We then glued the corresponding boardmaker pictures in. We also have several nature books that we can use to look up items and find out more information.

Since A17 can't sketch, we are using Sunprint paper to make pictures of the things he collects. I found mine at my local United Art and Education store. It's very easy to use. Put the items down on the paper and leave out in the sun for several minutes. Next, lay the paper in a shallow pan of water to set the prints. Last, dry the paper out of the sun. You will then have a nice sun print!

Science Experiments

2009-04-09T18:55:00.003-05:00

A17 loves science! This year we have had fun adding science and experiments to all of our units.
While we check out tons of books from the library, it is nice to have some experiment books of our own so we can do an experiment any time. I have found some neat books at the half price bookstore and in the bargain racks at Borders.

Here are some of our favorite experiment books:

Janice VanCleave's Science Around the Year
Janice VanCleave's 203 Freezing, Frosty, Cool and Wild Science Experiments
Janice VanCleave's 200 Gooey, Slippery, Slimy, Weird and Fun Science Experiments
Pop Bottle Science
501 Science Experiments
DK Kitchen Science
The Everything Kids Science Experiment book

Math Games

2009-04-09T18:39:00.005-05:00

I found these jumbo sized foam dice at the teacher store. They are easy for A17 to pick up, hold and throw. We are using these for number practice. After a throw, he needs to count the dots and pick which number it is from a choice of number cards or use his Dynavox to tell me. They can also be used to write simple addition problems.

We are using dominoes in a similar way. Because regular size dominoes are too small for A17, I made some using large rectangles of black cardstock. You can either use paint to make the dots or use a large circle punch.

Funtastic frogs have pattern and activity cards as well as workbooks. I found a fantastic clearance sale on the books and cards at Bookcloseouts.

DK Math Wizard game reviews numbers and counting.

Workbox Ideas

2009-04-03T20:33:00.002-05:00

In the past A17 has worked on job boxes--shoe boxes containing a fine motor activity such as sorting plastic silverware. Now we are broadening that to include workboxes. I went through my totes and made a list of what would work in the boxes. Found some things I had forgotten about! LOL

Here are some ideas that we have tried or intend to try. I'm always adding to my list!

Math:
Touchmath sheets
magnetic counters
other counters ( bears, large colored spools, Toob animals)
magnetic pattern cards
themed pattern cards and counters
Funtastic frogs
balance scale
dice game ( using a jumbo sized foam dice)
domino game
velcro book for counting

Reading:
chapter books
easy readers
non-fiction books related to unit study
audio books
vocabulary cards using Boardmaker
Leap pad

Everything else!
unit studies
lapbooks ( ie minit books)
craft supplies ( paints, foam stickies, markers, etc)
lacing cards
lacing beads/blocks
chalk book
Discovery Toys Busy Bugs
Lauri sorting and stacking frogs
sticker books
Learning Resources weather game
magnetic doll with clothes
velcro books with interactive pieces ( ie survival signs, street signs, colors, counting)
file folder games ( ie Evan Moor and Carson Dellosa)
magnetic letters
knob puzzles
sorting games ( use color sorting bowls)
number pegboard
card games ( ie Arthur)
dot markers and art book
magnet matching puzzles
flashcards
stamps with handles and washable stamp pads
Kumon books for fine motor skills ( cutting, pasting, coloring)
magnetic books
ice cream scoop color game
wood bead stacker
bristle blocks
magnetic wand and discs
sensory boxes ( ie beans, rice)
playdoh and cookie cutters
giant pegboard
alphabet game ( homemade-match upper and lower case)
homemade dictionary ( notebook with pictures cut from magazines and pasted on letter page)
stencils
Leap pad
music ( cd's, instruments, Kindermusik stuff)
Early Visual Skills ( tracking, patterns, size)
nature journal and stickers
scavenger hunt
experiments ( Janice Van Cleave books, pop bottle science, etc)
Color Wonder books
matching games ( ie memory)
bean bags
clothes pin games
Magna Doodle
dry erase books, maps
Discovery Toys Opposite Pairs game

Penguins Lapbook

2009-04-03T19:50:00.003-05:00

This lapbook was completed in January. We focused on penguins and antarctica. Along with reading several non-fiction books about penguins ( including books by Gail Gibbons and Bobbie Kalman) we read the story of Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. It's the first in a series of books that A17 enjoys. He really enjoyed making the two wheels. We used a brass fastener to hold the layers together.

This is the front of the first lapbook. The file folder is layed open flat and each side is folder in to the center. I found the minit books as well as other lapbook items on Homeschoolshare.

The Seaworld teacher page also has some nice stuff for kids about penguins including the food chain, maps, and crafts.

Other printables were taken from Mailbox magazine and Evan Moor's Theme Pockets January.

Whale Pop-Up Book

2009-03-30T20:14:00.002-05:00

As part of our continuing study on the ocean, today we studied whales. A17 made a very cute whale pop-up book. It was very easy to do by following the template. I helped with the cutting and the writing. I found this idea and reproducibles in the Evan Moor How to Make Books with Children Series: Read a Book-Make a Book. This book has projects for 38 different books such as Stellaluna, How to Eat Fried Worms and Peter Rabbit. The projects can be adapted for a variety of different stories. For example, the duckling pop-up could be used for any story about deucks or Easter. In addition to pop-ups, the projects also include layered books, pull tab books, slit books, and double hinged books.

Boardmaker

2009-03-21T20:13:00.003-05:00

Since I have mentioned Boardmaker on several other posts I wanted to elaborate on it a bit. Boardmaker is software that is used by people with disabilities to communicate, for visual schedules, and to assist with learning.

Boardmaker software from Mayer-Johnson can be used in several ways. You can print out picture cards with it to use for communication. We have used these picture cards in A17's lapbooks too. It can also be used with Boardmaker add-ons to make books, all types of schedules, worksheets, etc. Boardmaker pictures can be used to make interactive books and games. These pictures are often used in PECS ( Picture Exchange Communication System ) too.

Boardmaker offers other software such as Boardmaker Plus and Boardmaker Speaking Dynamically Pro. These are used on the computer for intereactive learning games or on speech devices such as Dynavox.

Ocean Craft Projects

2009-03-19T16:16:00.003-05:00

A17 is really enjoying doing crafts this year--especially foam projects. As part of our ocean unit we have completed several neat projects.

I found this foam fish bowl and bucket of foam sticky backed ocean shapes at Joann's. They were on sale and I used my teacher discount card.

The plastic fish bowl is an idea I adapted from Family Fun magazine. For their project they put magnets under the lid and a paper ckip in the fish for it to stand up. We couldn't get that to work right, so we weighted down the bottom with sand, shells, and glass rocks ( all from Joanns) and put foam shapes taped to pipe cleaners. Turned out cute I think!

The last project is an idea from the Hands of a Child Clownfish lapbook. I had to adapt it a bit for DS. Instead of using the pattern included in the pack, we used a foam shape. It's taped to a popsicle stick that was cut in half. We cut a styrofoam ball in half. A17 painted it. Next we cut pipe cleaners in half and stuck them into the styrofoam to make it look like anemones. We then stuck the fish in and put the whole thing on a plastic magarine lid.

Workboxes

2009-03-19T13:08:00.005-05:00

Recently on the Five in the Row boards and Homeschoolshare boards, moms have been talking about a new way to organize the school day using Sue Patrick's Workbox System. She developed this system to help her son who has autism, but it can help any child or parent who is looking for more structure or organization in their school day. Her book ( either spiral bound or ebook) explains the system in detail and gives lots of ideas. With purchase of the book, you will be able to download forms and cards to get started. For convenience, these are also available for purchase on her website--already printed and laminated. The cards use Boardmaker pictures which is helpful since A17 is familar with it. One of the cards is a work with Mom card. This is used to tell students which activities are to be done with Mom and which are to be done independently.

Very simplified, the system has you use 6-12 plastic shoeboxes on a rack and put one piece of work into each box. The idea is to promote independence, focus, and attention in a structured learning environment. The student sees what work is expected and as the number of boxes is emptied, can see progress being made. In addition he can anticipate a fun activity by looking ahead at the boxes. Hopefully this will promote motivation. It helps the mom with organization--no more hunting for supplies at the last minute and losing the student's attention. It also helps to add more "fun" educational activities into the day. If you're like me you have lots of cool stuff packed away in the closet or a tote that you mean to pull out or forgot you had! The workbox system helps you get those items out and into the boxes. Learning centers, file folder games, unit studies can all work well with this system. The book includes lots of ideas for the workboxes.

With A17's special needs, we needed to change the system a bit. We are starting with 6 boxes for now. Since he can't physically get to the box, I will bring it to him. My goal in implementing this system is to become better organized for our school work and to think very carefully about which activities A17 can do on his own or with very little help. We have used a visual schedule in the past. This is just taking that a step further. In box 1 is Touchmath, box 2 is magnetic counters and pattern cards, box 3 are books to read for our oceans unit study, box 4 has lapbook materials, box 5 has a craft, and box 6 has a chalkboard book plus chalk.

If you would like to see how some other moms have implemented this system, check out these blogs.
Our Lifesong
Joyful Mother of 6 Children
Walking By the Way
Teaching 2 in TX

Snow lapbook

2009-03-16T16:48:00.007-05:00

Even though spring is around the corner I wanted to post A17's snow lapbook that he completed in January. We were able to do several experiments with snow such as measuring how fast it takes to melt in different containers and measuring snow depth and temperature. We also talked about what to wear in winter.

This is graphic organizer for other words associated with snow. He really liked doing this and I want to find more ways to add in graphic organizers.

Our words that start with S mini book.

Snow crafts: A cotton ball snowman whose eyes fell off! A foam door hanger. A snowflake made from pipecleaners . We wrapped them around a pencil to curl then tied a bunch together with string.

The Mitten lapbook and animals that hibernate

2009-03-15T18:28:00.005-05:00

In December we did a lapbook on the book The Mitten by Jan Brett. As a go along to this, we studied about what animals do in winter such as hibernate. Some of the lapbook components came from Homeschool Share. I found some extra information on the animals in the story at Enchanted Learning ( see link in sidebar). I used a type it in template from Hands of a Child to make my own minit book on what animals do in winter. As a go along to The Mitten, we read Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. We rounded out our study with nonfiction books on hibernation and animals in winter. For the front cover of the lapbook I cut a mitten that A17 colored in half. Individual pieces were put in small baggies so they wouldn't fall out of the pockets but could still be used again. The green minit book of the left side of the lapbook contains four flaps--animals that hibernate, animals that fly to warmer places, animals that gather and store food, animals that must find food all winter.

Touchmath

2009-03-13T21:10:00.005-05:00

We started a new math curriculum this year called Touchmath. It is a multisenory math program that I hope will help A17. He can identify numbers but is still working on number concepts ie 2 means these two items. It uses a tapping or touching method to help kids learn their numbers. You then move on to addition, substraction, multiplications and division. We will only be focused on counting and maybe basic single digit addition--depending on how this goes. I made up a binder with practice sheets in page protectors to make then last longer.

We use dry erase markers to tap and color the dots. So far A17 is really liking the tapping and the markers! LOL Erasing is fun too! We are doing tapping verus touching since it's easier for A17's fine motor.

We are starting with the basic number sheet and an open dot for tapping/coloring.

Then you progress to another item represetning the dots, and finally no dots. You tap in a particular order for each number.

Starfish art project

2009-03-05T17:36:00.003-06:00

As part of our big unit on oceans, A17 read about starfish or sea stars today. We found a neat craft project to go along with our study. We traced starfish shapes onto sandpaper, cut them out and painted them. We painted them the same colors as the ones we read about in Rookie Read-About Science : Stars of the Sea by Alan Fowler. The pictures don't do them justice since you can't see the great texture! I think this would work great for sand dollars or coral too. I found this project idea in the back of Let's Read and Find Out Science 1: Starfish.

Frog Lapbooks

2009-02-28T19:25:00.007-06:00

A17 ( recent birthday!) finished two frog lapbooks. The frog's tongue on the front cover moves in and out.

The lilypad flapbooks each contain a fact about frogs such as What does a frog eat? The answers are Boardmaker pictures. We used resources from several places including Homeschool Share. We read books from the library prior to completing the lapbook pieces.

Several of our favorite books were A Tadpole Grows Up by Pam Zollman and Frogs and Other Amphibians by Bobbie Kalman.

A cool frog experiment is cooking tapioca beads to simulate frog's eggs! You can find this experiment in back of the book titled Why Frogs Are Wet ( Let's Read and Find Out Science) by Judy Hawes.

Space Lapbook

2009-02-14T20:26:00.006-06:00

A16 was really proud about the tabbed book on planets that we made. We also made a smaller book for other vocabulary. I found instructions here on how to make one.

A16 chose space and planets for a unit study this past fall. We took about 6 weeks to cover the unit and read many non-fiction books from the library. We used most of the components from Evan Moor's Science Works for Kids: Exploring Space. It has mini books, experiments, and projects.

Other components were taken from Home School Share. Squidoo also has a lense with lots of space and planet resources. This blog has pictures and links for a space lapbook. Enchanted Learning also has space and planet resources. Click on the link in my sidebar.

We read lots of great non-fiction books for this unit. One that A16 especially liked was DK Eye Know Space. Other good selections include: My Book of Planets ( Scholastic board book), Exploring the Planets in Our Solar System and Dr. Seuss There's No Place Like Space. Magic Tree House Research Guide : Space is also a fabulous book. A16 seems to like the research guides more than the fiction books in the MTH series.

Although this was a long unit, A16 really enjoyed it and wanted to read space books everyday!

2009: 100+ Reading Challenge

2009-02-03T23:02:00.005-06:00

Tara TX on Homeschool Share posted about J. Kaye's blog and the 100+ Reading Challenge. The goal is to read 100 or more books in 2009 and post the titles on our blog. Since I belong to an IRL book club as well as several online, I am going to give it a try. I find that I read in spurts--either nothing interests me or I have a stack waiting to be read.

1-Unnaccustomed Earth
2-Running Hot
3-Zinnia
4-Amaryllis
5-Orchid
6-The Way They Learn
7-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
8-White Lies
9-Truth or Dare
10-Light in Shadow
11-Falling Awake
12-A Picture's Worth

Who is Flat Stanley?

2009-01-31T21:49:00.000-06:00

For those of you who have never heard of Flat Stanley, he is a character in a series of books by Jeff Brown. In the first book he is flattened by a bulletin board and as a result is able to have all sorts of different adventures--including being mailed to visit relatives! Several years ago a teacher had the idea to use Flat Stanley ( FS) to promote reading and writing with students. The teacher had each student create a paper doll FS which was then mailed to another class of students. The host students journaled about their Flat Stanley's adventures and when the visit was over, mailed them back to their original owners. Since then many teachers and parents have come up with their own version of the Flat Stanley Project. In addition to language arts activities, FS can be used in a variety of ways for math ( how many miles did FS travel?), social studies ( what is the capital of California/reading maps), science, art, etc.

If you are interested in creating a lapbook about Flat Stanley you might be interested in the unit on Homeschool Share which includes minit books and a chapter by chapter guide of ideas. Live and Learn Press also has a Flat Stanley Learn 'N folder.

A16 is doing an ongoing FS project. A friend made a FS out of cloth for A16 ( thanks C! ) and FS has been making visits to friends and family. We are collecting a written journal and photos of all of FS's adventures. In addition we are making minit books and activities to go along with the book series as we read them. For example, in the first book FS acts like a kite so we read a book on kites and made a mini version. This project is easily adaptable for different ages and abilities.

Who know where FS will visit next?

First Lapbook

2009-01-29T20:24:00.000-06:00

A16 loves science. When he made his first lapbook back in September, he chose the topic of weather. We read books from the library and completed the weather words lapbook from Homeschool Share. With his special needs, A16 is unable to write. In order to write answers he chooses pictures from Mayer Johnson's Boardmaker software. Before starting a unit or lapbook I will print out a variety of picture words so he has lots to choose from. We then use a glue stick to paste his answers in the correct spot. He was so proud of himself when we finished this!

A Meaningful Day

2009-01-29T19:18:00.000-06:00

After a lot of thought I decided to start a blog to showcase all the work we've been doing this year. A16 is at home for school this year and doing very well. The title of this blog, A Meaningful Day refers to a new buzzword in the disabilities community. It refers to a type of program for people with disabilites who for whatever reason are not in supported employment or workshops. Instead they have chosen to develop their own program based on their interests--to create a meaningful day for themselves. This type of program is very individulized. It can include activities like community outings, volunteering, arts and crafts programs, shopping, movies, and learning about new things of interest. It can take place in the individual's home or in a community setting. This type of program is usually implemented after high school. However, A16 and I thought now would be a good time to start.

I hope to use this blog to showcase A16's schoolwork, including lapbooks, and show how we are creating a meaningful day program.