We are building a fun, exciting classroom for special needs with very little money and need help anywhere we can get it. These materials will help my students learn through sensory play, and hands-on. It will enrich their curriculum by giving them a chance to explore through their senses. As a first year teacher in a hard hit district, from budget cuts to hurricane impact, it’s difficult to create the classroom experience these special kids deserve on a teacher salary. The materials will be used in centers, daily individual challenges, art projects, STEM, and so much more. Kids learn through doing and when we can make it fun, it sticks.
Many of these items will help grow muscle strength using fine and gross motor skills. The ice cream scoop teaches kids to hold a pencil or crayon correctly while also building the strength to do so. Any time my students can physically touch, manipulate, smell, make noise with or build with creates a real life scenario that they will be able to associate into their daily life and will be more likely to remember. Timers are an essential part of any autism classroom. We thrive on now/then charts so when tasks are completed or time has passed we move on to the fun stuff. Timers make it a visually attainable goal for students to sit through lessons, individual work, and independent work. I love the idea of my kids being able to build ramps and see how they will or will not work. They see what needs to be reinforced and what does not. This is a wonderful STEM piece that has many lessons available that are fun and engaging. One of the hardest parts is keeping students interested in what they are learning.
About my class
We are building a fun, exciting classroom for special needs with very little money and need help anywhere we can get it. These materials will help my students learn through sensory play, and hands-on. It will enrich their curriculum by giving them a chance to explore through their senses. As a first year teacher in a hard hit district, from budget cuts to hurricane impact, it’s difficult to create the classroom experience these special kids deserve on a teacher salary. The materials will be used in centers, daily individual challenges, art projects, STEM, and so much more. Kids learn through doing and when we can make it fun, it sticks.
Many of these items will help grow muscle strength using fine and gross motor skills. The ice cream scoop teaches kids to hold a pencil or crayon correctly while also building the strength to do so. Any time my students can physically touch, manipulate, smell, make noise with or build with creates a real life scenario that they will be able to associate into their daily life and will be more likely to remember. Timers are an essential part of any autism classroom. We thrive on now/then charts so when tasks are completed or time has passed we move on to the fun stuff. Timers make it a visually attainable goal for students to sit through lessons, individual work, and independent work. I love the idea of my kids being able to build ramps and see how they will or will not work. They see what needs to be reinforced and what does not. This is a wonderful STEM piece that has many lessons available that are fun and engaging. One of the hardest parts is keeping students interested in what they are learning.
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