Math Games

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

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

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

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

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

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

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