"Classic" Folder Games for Math, Reading, and Colors
I was recently looking for folder games for math and I remembered that I'd made some games like this when I first started teaching in 2006. You'll have to forgive the "goofy" names and non-fancy graphics, but I still think they're pretty decent! :) Here are the ones I made that you can print on colored paper and use to make folder games. Instructions for use and assembly are included on each one. Counting Objects to 10
One-digit Addition Facts (1s and 2s)
One-digit Addition
Making Patterns with Christmas Ornament Crafts
This is a quick post, but I wanted to share a way that I worked on making patterns with one of my students. I bought these ornament crafts a couple of weeks ago at Michael's (when they were 60% off!). When making these ornaments, we put the beads into patterns and I had the student extend the patterns in a row on the table. He then took each bead and put it onto the wreath ornament. It's just a quick, easy idea, but I thought I'd share. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday s
Christmas Textures Art Activity
I just wanted to post a quick art activity that I did with one of my students this week. I gathered a few Christmas items (bubble wrap, ornament hooks, an ornament, tulle, a Christmas tree branch, a bow, tissue paper, and ribbon) and had the student do rubbings of each one on a piece of tracing paper. After we did all of the items, I had the student trace a Christmas tree and then color the tree with the piece of a Christmas tree branch under the paper. I let him choose which
Christmas Social Narratives to Help Your Child Prepare for the Holiday
A social narrative is a written description of an upcoming situation, often accompanied by pictures, to help a student understand what will happen in the situation and what the student will be expected to do (National Autism Center, 2015). You can also write a social narrative for a situation that a student faces on a regular basis, if he or she has behavioral challenges in that situation.
Social narratives should be written with a positive and supportive tone, with the goa
Viewpoints on Special Interests: A Survey of Adults with Autism
In a recent research article by Koenig and Williams (2017), 86 adults with autism were surveyed about their special interests and how they impact their lives. The vast majority of these participants (approximately 96%) believe that children’s preferred interests should be encouraged, however only about 10% of respondents indicated that their teachers were supportive of their interests. A higher percentage (a little over 50%) reported that their parents supported their interes
Using Story Maps for Reading Comprehension
A story map is a visual organization strategy that utilizes a diagram to show the characters, settings, and sequence of events in a story (Li, 2007). This diagram contains important elements of a story, such as main characters, settings, events, problems, and resolutions/conclusions. Using story maps can help remind students of different components of stories and how they work together (Hennes, Büyüknarci, Rietz, & Grünke, 2015).
I use graphic organizers to help students pr
Fishing and Graphing Game
I'm working on graphing with one of my students, and I made this game to go along with the printed worksheets I made (which you can get as a free download here). For the worksheets, you cut out little images of fish, glue them on the graph, and write down how many you have of each kind. The worksheet packet that you download has other activities too, such as interpreting a graph, and coloring in the bars to make the graph (rather than gluing in the fish), so it's really a who
"Types of Lines" Art Activity Using a Child's Interests
One of my students loves art, so we've been working on art activities to teach both art concepts and language skills. One section of the art curriculum that we're using is about types of lines, so we worked on activities about those a few months ago (see examples and a review of the art curriculum here). This student is really interested in Star Wars, so I decided to make a project for him to review "wavy" lines. This art project involved drawing wavy lines on paper with diff
