Time Telling, with Paper Plates...

So today i've been working with the lil bro to teach him the time. He is dyscalculia and has high functioning autism. He has forgotten a lot of stuff he learnt as a child as he has gotten older.
In order for him to become more independent, we decided he needed to learn the time.

He is a very hands on boy, and just talk talk talking at him causes him to zone out, so i thought id try out this idea i'd seen ages ago on Pinterest. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/17592254769069415/

The idea here is to take paper plates, one with the clock face on top, and the 5-30 minutes on another plate underneath, with flaps cut around so you can peek underneath. 

In order to understand what LB knew, i got him to draw on the clock face. I asked him to 'draw the clock face' and he looked at me like i'd gone off!! I explained to him thats what its called, and got him to draw a face on the clock so he'd remember. He's also a lefty, so had to draw the arrows of clockwise onto the plate for him!

So we went on to begin learning that each side is either past or too, and goes around in 5s, however LB's brain works slightly different and he was very interested in the little minutes in between, i tried explaining what they were to him, and he insisted i drew them on,because he'd remember better! Eventually he got so confused, as there was too much info on one plate he couldn't take it in... so we started again.

We took another plate, drew on the clock face, and split it in half so it said TO and PAST. (LB already knew about O'clocks) I re explained its basically the 5 times table up to 30 on the Past side, and then it works its way back round on the TO side.


I wrote this information on a separate plate to show him, and he could use it to refer too if/when he got stuck.

We moved the hands around the clock, counting. Once he'd cracked the PAST side, we moved onto the TO side. He picked it all up so quickly!!!





Then, just to be sure he had the right idea i drew around a glass, and made up some clocks for him to practice with. He got every single one right! HIGH FIVE LB!


I was so proud, in the space of an hour and a half, he'd learnt to tell the time.
Yes, we had a few hiccups, like him getting upset over having to be re-taught all this info, and things he knew. I solved this by saying "you tell me where you're stuck and i can help you, if you say nothing and act all moody we're not going to get anywhere, are we?"  (solved the past/to problem)
And, also the fact that i overloaded the plate with so much info he couldn't take it all in. This was my fault, as i didn't think about it. So we took a break, started over on *SIMPLE, QUICK, and PRECISE* information and instructions, and i also moved extra distractions, such as glasses, coasters ect away from his view. and Viola, it worked :)

On To Pastures New..

Hey!
So i've been away from the old nursery since feb, however finally hit the jackpot this week with landing a new job in a nursery, doing breakfast and afterschool clubs in term time and playscheme style during the holidays!! YAAAY :)

I start next week, and im so excited. Already gathering up ideas! So stay tuned for the fun things we'll be doing from now on xx

Under The Sea..

Under the seaaa... Under the seaaaa, Life is much better (8)

Afternoon!
So at creche we have these amazing sea life toys that the kids like to play with, i never imagined how much learning i could get out of these simple toys!
It began by listening to the 'wind and the sea' in the shells. Then began a discussion on the types of animals, and we grouped them together. Next i filled the tray with water, and we talked about what was under the sea, and what a diver could see. Then we played some target practice - throwing the animals into the water! Can you tell i look after lots of boys?!

Sea Life Play.

After putting the animals in groups, they began to be put into order of size, little-big or baby to daddy!
This also worked for the coral and shells. This turned into abracadabra play, making big/small animals disappear! Later we found an Under The Sea book, with a magnetic submarine.. Although, we'd lost the submarine! Doh! This led to using the diver from the toys, and putting him through the holes in the book, and him diving off the book into the toys, and talking about what animals he could see, and what the animals were eating. Including the diver being eaten by a few sharks!

Lastly, we made our own book, of the favorite things we could see under the water, crabs, turtles, shells, string rays, fish, seahorses and sharks! I drew the pictures and the words first for most of the book, and the kids copied.

Salt Trays.. Pre-writing.

Hello!

Found the most amazing pins on Pinterest for pre-writing skills! SALT TRAYS.. RAINBOW SALT TRAYS.

Inspiration came from this site tray/ http://www.learning4kids.net/2012/06/05/rainbow-salt-tray/ We deffo had to give it a whirl. It was soooo much fun! Both adults and children spent ages on this task!

We got out the big sand tray, and layered coloured paper into it. We put all different colours in rows, as we had a funny shaped tray, and it made it look much more exciting! The children enjoyed helping us pour the salt... we had a large tray, and used two pots of salt, and could still have done with a bit more! They enjoyed playing in it even more!

We used our fingers to make lines, letters, numbers and patterns. We even added Mr Potato heads arms, trains, cars and trucks to make marks. It also calmed the more lively children down too! Bonus!

SpaceSpaceSpace

So today at Creche, i decided to take in some left over supplies from Xmas... wrapping paper, tubes, string, silver ribbon, glitter, selotape and glue!
The theme this month is space... so i had a eureka moment at stupid o'clock this morning when i couldn't sleep, lets take unused things in and make rockets! Dont know who was more excited, me or the kids!

We made the rockets, by cutting up the tube roll, wrapping it in wrapping paper and then cutting circles of card out for the top, we made slits in so they pointed! I also taped some knotted string into the circle so the rocket could be hung up. :) The silver ribbon was used to make fire ect.
The gold coins, however were an addition from the child. Something he'd pulled out of his lunch box and suggested we used them as windows! Genius child!
We went mad with the glitter, and ended up making an alien tree and an alien with crazy hair and flailing arms and legs. We used up majority of the glitter on the tree so drew on the alien.

This task took almost two hours, and there were only two of us. We did leave it and come back to it, but the fact he was engaged all that time (and me too!) is fab.

We are very proud of our rockets, and aliens and had great fun playing. Hope you do to.

To Infinity and Beyond...

Greetings, Earthlings!


So today i have spent all morning putting my 'creative' and research skills to use. I've been searching other blogs, and found this one http://crazyspeechworld.com/start-here very inspirational.
She had a load of galaxy related activities, however my littluns are too young to use the amazing things she'd made! :(
Our theme this month is Space, and i'd love to encourage some space related speech for my kids. And i wanted to make something from scratch very ambitious!
So, i set out making my own shapes (it took ages) to use for a flash card and word matching activity.
Here it is.... I am very proud even if i do say so myself :)

Space Shapes I Made Myself

Space Clipart from the Internet

Update

The kids LOVED this activity, we got an awful lot out of these space shapes! I began by cutting them out, and the kids wanted to help, we lost the alien and the moon due to this! We practiced the words, and made space scenes with the shapes on black paper. The boys loved making the rocket whizz around, and the shooting star too! We even ended up turning out the lights, sticking the pictures onto a disco ball and shouting out the words as they came around. Mission Accomplished :)

Brain Wave... Homemade Pecs Book

Hello Again!!

So, as you know my 1:1s have language delay, and i have noticed how often they get frustrated because they can't explain how they're feeling or what they want. I have also found visual prompts work wonders for these children.

Having worked with autistic children previously i decided to use some autism visuals with the boys. These include the 'Traffic Light System' (red, yellow, green circles) to tell them to stop, wait and go. They cottoned on very quickly! I even added red circles around the room for things they aren't supposed to touch, it works... most of the time. :) I also have a thumbs up sign, which they love, and a sit sign. These help at snack and meal times.

I began to notice they boys would quite often throw tantrums if things weren't to their usual daily routine at nursery, and when they got bored of activities.
I decied to make feelings cards for them to explain how they were feeling. This was so much fun, watching them copy faces and learn actions! It worked too. Found out when they were happy, tired or cross, although still not why. The parents loved the idea, although the cards where pretty big and clumpy! :(

On the routine note, i noticed they needed some kind of routine cards where they could be shown what we were going to do each day.... i'd asked at work for resources but decided to take matters into my own hands, as i didn't want to wait and it was madness with Christmas coming up and managers/staff  leaving!!

I researched online, I already knew about PECS books from previous work, but my god they are expensive! I found some fabulous recourse cards, (FREE), printed them off, took them to work and laminated them. I told my manager what i was going to do, and she seemed happy.
Then i found this http://www.educateautism.com/make-your-own-teaching-aids/make-a-pecs-booklet.html#.UsGbtsRLLm5 BINGO!!!  I gathered everything i needed, and got to work.



After a lot of time, a million wonky lines, and sore hands later id finished the book!
I decided to add green for the sentance strip, and two other strips on the front of the book. A blue one for routine, and a red one for what they children dont want, or what i dont want them to do.
The use of the green will also help me visually aid the children with what i need them to do, without carrying around 10000s of bits of paper!


Soo, here it is. I cant wait to try it out! :D