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Plan of Study MD
Plan of Study MD
usually writing, such as tracing, coloring, name-writing and onto basic writing, math
and so forth.
9:50 Morning Circle Time Incorporates all subjects and varies daily but always
includes:
1.
Exercise with music
2.
Daily name recognition and sign-in
3.
Lunch Choice
4.
Songs and finger plays
5.
Read Aloud
(Assistant One 15 minute break during this time)
Other things circle time might include are: calendar skills, felt board or Boardmaker
activities, lessons on various subjects, obstacle courses in the classroom and more.
10:30 Recess (we went out by ourselves 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes
in the afternoon because my students had a very hard time sitting still for very long at all
even though my classroom is very active)
10:45 Restroom and juice snack My students drank their juice from
breakfast at this time.
11:00 We called this Group Time and included Gross, Fine Motor and Sensory
Activities combined with pre-academic skills. This is also the time when three third
grade peer mentors came over to join our group time activities. This is also the time of
day when Assistant Two goes to lunch for 45 minutes so the activities had to be fairly
controlled.
At the beginning of the year, we changed activities about every five minutes. By the end
of the year we could do a 30 minute activity.
Group Activity Examples Art activities, play doh, sensory bins, obstacle courses,
dancing and singing, A read aloud with a follow-up activity and so forth.
11:45 Restroom and morning reward. Toward the end of the year, I started giving a
reward at the end of the morning and afternoon for everyone who was on green we
only have green or red Ill get to that later. Usually it was mini-trampoline, vestibular
swing or one of our favorite finger plays to act out Ten in the Bed.
12:00 Lunch in the classroom My lunch (30-45 minutes)
12:30 Educational video, independent books at desks, and restroom.
12:45 Music Math Group This became a very challenging time of day for us.
Assistant Two went to lunch (12:45 to 1:30) and I tried a lot of different activities to keep
the children interested in Math. I started using the Super Simple Songs CDs to teach
math skills and the children loved it! We sat at one big table and it worked well.
1:30 Exercise On Mondays and Wednesdays we had Adapted P.E. at this time. On
Tuesdays and Thursdays we did physical activity of our own. We love the Move N
Groove video or I would come up with exercises of my own.
2:00 Recess
2:15 - Snack
Assistant One goes on afternoon break
2:30 Play time and clean up At the end of the day the students who have been on
green in the afternoon are permitted (I should say encouraged because I believe so
strongly in play) to play with toys. I keep bins of toys and they rotate. The children just
dump them on the carpet and play. We had to teach them how to play. They had no
idea how to play at the beginning of the year.
Monday farm animals and barns
Tuesday baby dolls and kitchen set (housekeeping)
Wednesday cars, gas stations and the like
Thursday musical toys we do these all on one day Drives us crazy but the kids love
it.
Friday Blocks or something different I bring in to share.
3:00 Clean up and teacher does communication notebooks The tv is on for a few
minutes at the end of the day. At the beginning of this school year, they wouldnt even
watch t.v. so the fact theyll watch it for a few minutes is a blessing at times.
3:25 Busses I had to help get the children to the busses because we had some who
were uncooperative.
Multi-Sensory Books
Note that they include sound, textures, movement, bright colors, and other
multi-sensory elements.
Name Symbols
Accessible name symbols for each individual student are an important way to be able to
label their chair, locker, and other personal spaces, as well as to use during attendance,
morning meeting and other activities. Name symbols may include a combination of a
photo, print, braille, and a tactile symbol.
Note in this photograph how each student's flower pot is labeled with a different tactile
symbol, as well as with braille.
Similarly in the photo at the right, the child's chair is labeled with a shape (green triangle) that
matches the same symbol at his or her place at the table. Braille and print labels should also be
included. Note that ideally the symbols should have meaning for the child, but should not be
something that is found everywhere. For example, it is better not to use a lego block as a
symbol, if there are lego blocks throughout the classroom, as it may be confusing to the child.
Children should be exposed to basic positional concepts holding a book, including top/bottom,
left/right, front/back. They should also have practice turning pages and examining what is on
each page. Visits to the library, as well as creating a personal library, can be helpful ways to
reinforce these skills
We hope you will explore the options outlined here and share your ideas for other books
and activities!
Object Books
Predictable Books
Accessible Books
Power Point E-Books
Modifying Books
Adapted Adapted Literacy
Object books are similar to Language Experience Books, but may be more general
than one specific experience. They can be used to explore routines (bath time, meal
time, gym class), teach counting, or to reinforce concepts, such as big/little, short/tall,
rough/smooth.
As the name suggests, object books are made using real objects, which should be
taken from the student's daily activities and experiences. Whenever possible, students
should be included in the creation of the object book. It is important to begin with the
part of an object which is most salient to a child and which represents her experience.
For example, when choosing an object to represent the playground, a small piece of
wood chips that the student touches on the ground may better represent the experience
than a miniature plastic swing.
Predictable Books
Accessible Books are popular childrens books that have been recreated
through the use of scanning and recording to enable the non-reader to access
them via technology. The graphics and text of a selected book are displayed
on the computer screen with narration added through either digitized (human
reader) or synthesized (computer speech) speech. These books are created
using software applications with graphics and speech capabilities that enable
switch and adapted access methods.
Accessible Books are generally at the emergent through early conventional reading
levels, from pre-primer to approximately the grade 3 reading level.
Books for the Accessible collection are chosen based on the following criteria:
E-Books are relatively simple to make. On this page I will provide a quick and simple recipe to
create electronic books using Microsoft's Power Point application. It is included in Microsoft
office, it is a presentation tool that can combine graphics, animation, sound effects and speech.
Sorry guys, these instructions apply to Mac users only, although if you are a PC user you should
be able to follow along without too much difficulty
1. Open PowerPoint
2. 2. Click on the square with one horizontal bar at the top of the page with the
rest of the square blank, then OK
3. 3. Click on the Blank slide (it looks like a plain box with a border), then OK
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
those who want to play with the animation feature, you must highlight the graphic
first, otherwise PowerPoint doesn't know what you want to animate.
What are the educational objectives for reading this book? (e.g. concepts,
specific vocabulary words, braille or print recognition, book handling skills, social
interaction).
What are the child's interests?
What are the challenges the child faces in reading the book, including vision,
hearing, cognition, and physical abilities?
Where will the child read the book? (at home, at school, with friends)
Will the child be reading this book alone?
Are other students in the class reading the same book?
Simplifying the content and using symbols the student recognizes are helpful
in adapting age appropriate materials, such as magazines, to an individual's
reading level.
Simplify the background. Take out busy or low contrast background and replace
with a solid, high contrast background.
Highlight the main idea of the picture.
Highlight the picture with a preferred color so the childs eye is drawn to the
picture. (This may be especially helpful for students with Cortical Visual
Impairment.)
Provide tactile enhancement of the picture
Use an object in place of the picture
Children with multiple disabilities may have difficulty holding the actual book or turning
the pages, especially if they have a physical or motor impairment.
Make the pages thicker using cardboard.
Place tactile markers to help the child to locate specific parts of the book, as on
the buttons pictured to the left.
Add "page fluffers" These are simply small squares of foam or cardboard
attached to the corner of a page to make them easier to flip without skipping
pages.