Saturday, March 19, 2016

Jelly Bean Task Mats

When I came across these jelly bean erasers in the Target Dollar Spot the gears started turning right away! I loved the idea of creating a resource that allowed you to work 1:1 with a student to test a variety of skills, or focus on just one skill.

Then I thought, wait, wait, wait. Not all Dollar Spots have the same items and when it comes to some things, if you don't come across them in the first few days, you can miss out on a great find. So I knew not everyone would have these erasers, but may still want the task mats.

So instead of just focusing on the 4 colors included in the erasers, I made the activities to include the colors of a traditional bag of candy jelly beans as well. Now you can complete these tasks with either the erasers or the candy.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jelly-Bean-Tasks-Mats-2455277

There are six different tasks included, some tasks have more than one activity page. I printed mine on regular printer paper and laminated them to be placed inside of report covers. I liked the idea of flipping through the pages like a book as you complete the tasks. The same idea can be achieved with a binder and page protectors. I don't know about you, but I feel like the price of a binder (with the clear view cover), has gotten a little steep, so I wanted to present this idea in a more cost effective way.


Here are some snap shots of the included activities. I ate most of my "research" so most of the example pages are shown with the jelly bean erasers, but the same activities are included for jelly beans and in traditional jelly bean colors.







Some of these activities have more than one activity sheet included. The counting sheets are available with and without colored squares like shown above in the photos. Are task mats something you can see yourself using in your classroom? Head to my TpT store to snag them!


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Saturday, March 12, 2016

Visual Supports for Play Activities

Even though I was planning on writing this post about two weeks ago, it managed to sneak up on me and I almost forgot about it!

I wanted to share with you some visual supports I keep handy around the classroom to support our non-verbal students during free play/center activities. I started making these boards a few years ago when I realized there was no way I could expect to keep visual supports for activities like this in a student's communication book for PECS. They just aren't big enough for something like that.

These play boards were my solution to providing students with visual supports during play opportunities without cluttering their communication books with pictures that would be used far less seldom than the pictures to communicate their every day wants and needs.


I should have snapped of photo of this, but of course that didn't dawn on me. I use command hooks on the wall in my play centers and punch a hole in the top of the play boards. Depending on what toys are available in the different centers, I hang the play boards up on the hooks. This keeps them out of the way, but makes them quick and easy to grab when you're playing with a student, or they're even excellent resources during push-in speech services. They are also hanging at student height so they can go up and access the board themselves.

You can grab this board for Free from my TpT store if you want to try something like this with your students. I have a few more I've already created that I'm working on getting added to my store.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Potato-Games-Visual-Support-2442807


What creative ways have you found to provide your students with visual supports during games/activities? And don't forget to follow We Teach Sped on Facebook to keep up with each of the daily posts and see what's coming next on the calendar!


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