Animated Step-by-Steps®: 2016

Monday, December 26, 2016

Another Great Literacy Component

Where Does Milk Come From? is a reverse ‘farm to table’ tale, tracing milk back to it’s origin, the udder of a cow (Where does milk come from? ….a refrigerator? …. a jug or carton? … a shelf in a supermarket? … a milk processing plant? … a truck and a farm? … a cow on a farm? … the udder of a cow!). This resource is available on the Teachers Pay Teachers site in three formats: Regular (no symbol support), SymbolStix (n2y) and Picture Communication Symbols (Tobii/Dynavox).

http://bit.ly/WhereDoesMilk

After completing this journey, students are invited to 'weigh in on' which is faster .... milking by hand or milking by machine. Students are then guided through the steps for conducting a simulated milking by hand activity using a disposable glove filled with warm water tinted white.

I’m always searching for ways to creatively engage students in the learning process. Animated Step-by-Steps® strive to heighten engagement by allowing students to trigger animations that support what was just read. They also strive to incorporate opportunities for problem solving to promote more active learning. In the Where Does Milk Come From? story, for example, numerous ‘fill in the blanks’ are designed to build in suspense and provide problem-solving opportunities, e.g. Calcium. Good for your _______ ★(teeth). Good for your ________ ★(bones). Yikes! What happens when the child correctly guesses ‘bones’, but ‘teeth’ is the first animation in the animation sequence?

To circumvent this dilemma, each blank is offset with an initial letter cue. e.g., Calcium. Good for your t__ (teeth). Good for your b_ (bones). This initial letter cue is crucial to maintaining the correct animation sequence, but it does have the added benefit of providing a nice literacy component for students working on letter-to-sound identification. After the ‘mystery word’ has been successfully guessed, the remaining letters appear in the blank and a supporting visual animates on to the scene, e.g., y__ (letter cue)… yogurt text enters… yogurt photo enters … ‘yogurt’ spoken word is heard.

I was raised on a farm with cows that had to be milked each day. And yes, one of my favorite childhood memories is Dad milking the cow and squirting milk at the cats!

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

Visit my website http://animatedstep-by-steps.com

Follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/@AnimStepbySteps

Follow me on facebook www.facebook.com/AnimatedStepBySteps

Follow me on instagram https://www.instagram.com/animatedstepbysteps/

Follow my blog http://animatedstepbysteps.blogspot.com

Email me canadiangoosse@gmail.com

Visit my digital store http://teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Bloom

Augmentative Communication Consultant

Speech-Language Pathologist

Special Educator

Monday, December 19, 2016

Color Match the Flowers

This simple Animated Step-by-Step encourages young students to point to a designated flower. “Find the yellow flower. When the child touches the requested flower from a field of six, the correct choice is confirmed, e.g., “ yellow flower”. If the child points to a non-target flower, the negating audio, “ huhugh” is heard. After the child points to the requested target, a butterfly (of the same color) can be animated to land on the target flower … “A yellow butterfly on a yellow flower ” is heard.

Much like the I Spy with My Little Eye and the Helping Mister Potato Head titles, this resource combines both animation and choices on the same page. To allow this resource to function in this way you must activate the embedded animations at the level of the stars. Behind the flowers (the field of choices) there is a false background that has been assigned the action setting : Play Sound ‘silence’. If the child misses a flower target it will NOT prematurely trigger the next animation in the animation sequence. So if you are confused as to why the animations don't seem to be working, move the cursor up to click on the corresponding star.

Supplementing this Animated Step-by-Step PowerPoint is an extension activity involving butterflies. In addition to the PowerPoint file this resource provides .pdf of the materials needed for constructing a flip book for matching colored butterflies. Adhesive male (hook) velcro is attached to the back of each laminated butterfly. Adhesive female velcro is attached to the faded butterfly on the right hand side of the laminated flip book.

Different disciplines use this resource in different ways. A Teacher, Classroom Assistant or a Speech-Language Pathologist might conduct this activity as a desktop task.

The Occupational Therapist, in contrast, might use this activity creatively to add a little pizzaz to a movement agenda. Given a butterfly match flip book, Kristin, one of my favorite OTs suspended the child prone in a hammock swing, and set up a task in which the child was required to select a specific butterfly from a field of two laid out on the mat, e.g., “Find the green butterfly.” After selecting the correct butterfly, the child was required to reach up using her core muscles to velcro that butterfly into the book held aloft by the OT. Don't forget a small pen light can be used to provide errorless learning when the child is selecting the requested color or it can be used to reinforce where the butterfly must be placed in the butterfly book.

This resource is available in three formats: Regular (no symbol support), SymbolStix (n2y) and Picture Communication Symbols (Tobii/Dynavox). http://bit.ly/ColorMatchFlowers

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