Animated Step-by-Steps®

Monday, January 4, 2016

300 Products!

It’s official ... I now have over 300 products on the Teachers Pay Teachers site. Whew! Definitely a labor of love.

This library of products includes 84 distinct titles of Animated Step-by-Steps™ available in three versions: Regular (no symbols), SymbolStix and Picture Communication Symbols (PCS). There is one How To Make It Resource, Constructing and Eye-Point Frame, and the remainder of listings are Animated Step-by-Steps™ Bundles that typically offer 4 titles for the price of 3!

In the Bloom … Where You’re Planted Store it can be a bit overwhelming sifting through 300 products, so please know that they have been assigned to categories (on the far left) to provide more efficient viewing.

The Regular files are categorized according to Recipes, Crafts, Science Projects, Games, Poems/Songs and Stories. If you are looking for a Craft you can quickly establish what’s available by selecting Crafts. Then enter its name in the search box.

If you are looking for symbol-supported files (SymbolStix or PCS), select the Symbol set of your choice to view all the listings that are symbol supported.

In a perfect world … you would be able to assign more than one category to a file to expedite viewing. For example many of the poems are actually science based poems so I’ve coded the regular version as a Science Project but have coded the symbol-supported versions according to Symbol type.

In short …. use the category feature on the left to narrow down what’s available then use the search box to ‘whistle up’ a specific title.

Happy browsing! Looking forward to an equally productive 2016!

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

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Augmentative Communication Consultant

Speech-Language Pathologist

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!"