Animated Step-by-Steps®: 2015

Monday, December 28, 2015

Working in a Theme

In Early Childhood Classrooms I’ve always loved working within a theme format. For students with Special Needs and especially children with Complex Communication Needs a theme-based format ensures that vocabulary/symbols will be revisited numerous times over the course of that theme.

As I gradually add titles to the library of Animated Step-by-Steps™, I’m always looking for content that will pair well with existing content. So you can imagine my glee when I discovered a recipe for making Play Snow ... the perfect sensory companion for the Snowman Bundle!

The Snowman Bundle includes an ASbyS

poem (5 Little Snowmen),

story (Let’s Make a Snowman),

craft (Bottle Snowmen), and

recipe (Play Snow).

The Snowman Bundle (4 titles for the price of 3) is available on the Teachers Pay Teachers site in your choice of three versions: Regular, SymbolStix or PCS http://bit.ly/1U8izvY

In colder climates, children can go outside and make a snowman, then return to the classroom to make a Bottle Snowman. The next day, during morning meeting, they can view the 5 Little Snowmen Poem on the interactive whiteboard then use their bottle snowmen to act out the poem during playtime using the ASbyS on the classroom’s iPad. On yet another day, they can use the Play Snow in a rectangular pan or plastic bin to make a snow scene and use miniature props or make Lego creations to populate their winter scene.

Surprisingly, Play Snow actually looks and feels like snow. You can store it in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator and … wow ... now it even feels cold like snow!

Play Snow is made with baking soda and white hair conditioner. As a cautionary note, choose your hair conditioner wisely, as your Play Snow will take on the strong scent of whatever conditioner you choose. Most hair conditioners have a floral scent. I don’t know if one exists … but I’d love to find a white hair conditioner that has a ‘forest/evergreen’ scent. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Depending upon the consistency of your chosen hair conditioner, you may need to increase or decrease the amounts of baking soda vs. conditioner, slightly. Personally, I like the consistency to be amenable to making a stacked snowman. Cleanup is relatively easy, but I would still recommend that you put down a plastic drop cloth to expedite the cleanup process.

As mentioned earlier, the Play Snow can be stored in a ziplock bag … so the fun can continue for the duration of your Snowman/Winter Theme. "Let it snow ... let it snow ... let it snow!"

…’til the next post … (new posts every Monday)

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Augmentative Communication Consultant

Speech-Language Pathologist

Special Educator

Monday, December 21, 2015

Temporary Symbol Storage Options

In earlier posts, we discussed creating simple symbol-supported extension activities to revisit the language content initially introduced on the interactive whiteboard or iPad using an Animated Step-by-Step™ (ASbyS).

Dual=Representation symbols (symbols with the picture symbol on one side and either the printed word or the photo on the flip side) were presented as a wonderful way to reinforce the use of AAC during these ‘hands on’ extension activities. (http://bit.ly/1HaO55H)

I Spy with My Little Eye and Mary Wore Her Red Dress are two examples of ASbyS lessons that are conducive to simple extension activities that serve to provide practice with the content or alternately provide ‘a better learning fit’ for that student with complex needs in your class.

Both activities have a slot-filler format, i.e., symbols can be rotated through a slot in a repetitively used sentence, e.g., I spy with my little eye something that is _______; Mary wore her ______ _______ to school today. The visual complexity of the sentence frame represented with symbols can be adjusted in keeping with the needs of the individual student. The I Spy With My Little Eye example depicts a full sentence structure, while the Mary Wore Her Red Dress example depicts a less complex setup intended for a younger child. When manipulating the many props (e.g. the cutout graphics of the clothes, the Dual=Representation Symbols), a temporary storage option is necessary to organize the materials to promote efficient use during the lesson. There is nothing more debilitating for a potentially great lesson than material manipulation that is a needless flurry of activity. Tempory storage options are required to help you organize those materials for efficient use.

Commercially-available storage options (depicted above) include the following:

portable bi-fold communication folder (about $36) http://www.nationalautismresources.com/portable-communication-folder.html

multipurpose fabric easel (about $62) http://www.mayer-johnson.com/multipurpose-fabric-easel

It is also possible to make your own velcro-receptive storage option by attaching indoor-outdoor carpet (carpet with a loop rather than a cut edge) to a firm base. I recently made six, 9” X 12” boards for a school using new carpet remnants (thank you to the construction worker at our new neighborhood TD Bank) and ‘burlap art panels’ purchased on sale at Michaels (a craft supply store).

As the carpet had a self-adhesive backing the process was quick … no messy glue required …. AND … best of all, given that sale at Michaels, those six temporary storage boards cost a grand total of $3.00.

Summary: Many of the classrooms serving children with Complex Communication Needs require a continuum of options to best serve the continuum of students enrolled in those mixed ability classrooms. Animated Step-by-Steps™ provide a great starting point. Introduce the lesson on the interactive whiteboard, then follow that up with a one-on-one lesson on the iPad, or a more concrete extension activity using Dual=Representation Symbols.