Trob before I went back to school I worked at a preschool, these are some of the activities that I did with my 2 year olds. Many were one on one activities.
Glitter and Sand art. You control the glue, put the glitter and sand in shakers. They can dump the whole thing out and it is ok. You just pour it back in the shaker.
Marble Painting. Place a piece of paper in a xerox box lid. Drop several marbles on the paper using a spoon and have fun.
Make goo. Use a ziplock bag, elmers glue, starch, temper paint. They mix it in the ziplock bag and can play with it out of the bag. It is a great tactile activity.
Collages. Glue pictures, buttons, felt, foam pieces,etc...
Nature painting. Paint with leaves, feathers, rock printing, sweet gum balls or anything you can find.
Printing. Use potatoes or apples.
Stamps. Use store bought stamps. They can even make their own Christmas cards.
Trob:
I do have art ideas for you. I need to run now, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't let me forget that I have them for you. I'll check with our SD teacher for some ideas too.
Off the top of my head: blow painting (might want to get the speech therapist in there to help with this, if you can). Put a glob of paint on a tray with the paper inside, give them a straw.
Put thinner (not real thin) paint in squeeze bottles, and squeeze it out in abstract lines, then add glitter. They'll need help holding and squeezing... but I've done this with really low functioning kids and they love it.
Dot painting with bingo markers. There are always ways to adapt materials. One of the easiest I've seen involved shoving a implement into a potato! Do you know who the occupational therapist is that works with the class?
There are assistive tech ways to paint too. ACK! Gotta go to work... will check back tonight, I hope. Private message me if you want!
thanks so much for the ideas and let me know if you think of anything else. i taught kindergarten for 16yrs before moving to art and most of these kids are not even able to do the things i did with my 5yr olds. i have always said that it takes a special person to work with these kids and this year i am thinking that i am not one of them. i loved the group of kids that i had last year and i feel so sorry for the two that have returned to me with this new group of kids. they are as lost as i am. they stand in the back of the room before we leave and just hold onto each other. it is so sweet and so sad at the same time.
Evening Ladies,
Trob let me think on the ideas. I will get back to you. I will even ask our occupational therapist if she has any ideas. I know what you mean about how the kids latch on to each other and hold on to each other. My kids this year have been together for several years and all act like one big family. They look out for each other, help each other, and tell each other when to get back on track. It is kind of nice, since I don't have to be on their cases all the time. Hope things are going easier for you than you thought.
Mouse, sounds like you have been having a busy first week back to school too. Don't you just love having to write new IEP's on kids that you don't even know? Sorry you are not able to swim the rest of the month. That must be stressful for you, since I know that it relaxes you. Please go to the doctor and get your health problem checked out. You need to take care of yourself. You are too good of a person to let something like that go by without medical attention. I hope you made an appointment to see your doctor soon.
Angela, still enjoy being off on leave. I got so use to not going to work during the summer and hanging out with our friends in the evening until late at night. That I hate to say I am a little jealous of when my dh goes and hangs out with them,while I am stuck at home having to go to bed early. Oh well I only have another 176 more days until summer vacation. I don't like this school year where I have to move to the new middle school next year and leave all my co-workers at the elementary building that I am at currently. So that is why I have the countdown on already. When do you have to go back to school? How are the boys doing?
Robyn, so when is your offical first day back with your little angels? How does your boys like being in the middle school and high school? So are you still going to Curves? I haven't made it once this week to Curves. I am too tired once I get home from school. I think I will just make it through this first week at school and then try to work in my trips to Curves starting next week. But I have been getting up early and doing my walking videos before going to school. So atleast I am getting some exercise. Going to go to WW's on Saturday? Wish you a great weigh-in!
Ginny, when are you coming back from vacation? We miss you. Hope you are having a great time. I keep throwing my change in my tin, so I can go to the beach next summer with just my dh and no stepkids. (Don't get me wrong I love them to death, just need a vacation away from them and their mother.) But I think our one friend wants to ride down with us and stay in our hotel room with us. Atleast that is what he is saying as of now. Since there is going to be a group of us going. I have been doing my walking videos faithfully every morning this week since school started. So I am getting back into that habit.
Well I am really tired tonight and mad at my dh. He promised me that he would spend the whole evening with me, since we really don't see each other much during the week after I go back to school. So we went out to dinner and while we were eating his phone rings. It is one of our friends wanting him to come over and play cornhole. They play that for awhile and decided that they are going to play cards. So he says sure I will play cards with you. Let me have Kerry take me home so I can get my truck. So I only got to spend about an hour with him before having to share his attention with everyone else. It just makes me mad that I get shoved to the backburner at times. I think I am just going to start telling him that I have plans when he wants to spend time with me. Or tell him sure I will spend the entire evening with him and then only spend about an hour with him and go off and do something else. Well I am sorry that I had to ramble on and on, but it just makes me so mad. I do everything anyone's asks of me and then when I want something in return no one has the time of day. I guess I am just need to stop being Mrs. Nice Person and turn into a mean person. LOL
Well you all have a great evening. Have a great Friday. It is payday for me. I will be rich for a brief second and then poor again once I start paying our bills. LOL
Take care,
Kerry
It is amazing how busy you can be when you stay home with a newborn. I don't know where the day goes. Today I finally got the birth announcements. Now I have to address them. Tomorrow I have to go to the dentist - Yuck! Brantley is getting tired of staying home with me and he is getting angry at me for spending too much time with baby brother. Yesterday while I was feeding Jonathan Brantley painted his toes bright red with nail polish. He did a pretty good job too. So today I sent him to stay with the sitter for a while. I am paying her anyway to hold his slot. Well I only have one more full week off. I go back after Labor Day. I am not ready to leave Jonathan but I am kinda ready to go back to school. I am thinking about going up to the school next Friday and having a little party for my kids, maybe popsicles.
Evening all.
We spent the day doing data analysis. Because I don't teach a core subject, I did school climate. It was an interesting day, but I was glad when it was over.
I need to get busy on those IEPs. I did call my doctor, and she wants to see me tomorrow. I know I've said before how awesome she is, but I just need to say it again. We don't have access to our leave time yet because we're required to be here and not allowed to use leave. We have to get special permission and fill out a special form. I said that I'd just suck it up and bear it, and my doctor says, "well, you know... the afternoon is better for me. How about 4:00?" She doesn't see patients in her office on Fridays! She does surgery in the mornings, and other things in the afternoon. I get off at 4:00, though, so I don't have to even ask to leave early. I did have to tell my disaster specialist that she needs to find somebody else to pick up the bread for the bike tour, though. She wants to do a biopsy and look around, which she can do in her office, but I'm a little nervous about it. She promised I'd be okay by Sunday, though, because as she put it, she has a selfish reason... She does the bike ride every year, and its a huge fund raiser for my Red Cross chapter, so we provide logistics and technical support by running the rest stops and doing the feeding. I'm one of the managers at one of the stops this year, like I was last year, and she said she wants to make sure she gets fed.
Speaking of absences... our head principal is the absentee person this year, so if you're going to be out you need to call her at home. EEEK! I hate having to do that: I usually have really good attendance anyway, but I just hate the thought of having to call the head principal at home.
Well... its 11:30 here, time for this mouse to go to bed. We get to work in our classrooms tomorrow all day, and I've been putting in a lot of time at home making stuff, and today we used my room while we looked at data, so I kept my hands busy cutting stuff and sticking on velcro. I need something to do while I listen or I get antsy...
TGIF!!! Need I say more ladies! LOL This week has sure been a long one. I can't wait for a few days off. I just hope that I am able to get my lesson plans finished this afternoon before going home. I have a half hour break while my kids are at music. I guess I could get a big chunk of them done then and take home the rest and work on it Sunday night. Well I need to go and use the restroom before going outside to do recess duty. Talk to you all later! Have a wonderful weekend!
Take care,
Kerry
TGIF is right!!! this has been the longest week in history.
i hope that everyone has a restful weekend.
chances are that it will look a lot like mine ....laundry, dishes, house cleaning, yard work and then more laundry...it just never ends!!
kerry- do you work with children that are severely mentally and physically handicapped? i am needing some art ideas to use with these kids. i have a class of 9 with only two aides to help me. any suggestions?
I thought you all would like to know about the doctor's appointment. I got out of school by 3:30, so I was on time. My room doesn't look too bad, although I haven't tackled organizing my desk or the supply wardrobe. I forgot the organizers I already own at home today, so have to wait. I have posters on the walls, I got my new desks, 2 bulletin boards up and my calendar. I still need to figure out the word wall, but I need to go to Home Depot to get painter's or electrical tape so I don't totally kill my blackboard.
Well, my doctor's office was hopping (I found out later it is because she had a family emergency and will be out of town until Tuesday). But, she had fit me in anyway. I am definitely bleeding, and she's pretty certain its not menstrual in nature. Even I noticed that it didn't look the same as it had last time I had a cycle. In any case, she wasn't able to see as much as she wanted to see, and she thinks she saw/felt a polyp. She's also concerned because my total tesosterone has gone up again, although my free testosterone is normal. The latter is only normal because the amount of the binding hormone I produce has gone up also. The only thing that causes that to go up is estrogen. There are only two ways I produce too much estrogen: if I've gained weight. I don't think I have, and I asked a friend that saw me last week and my mother. Neither thinks I have...
The estrogen could be causing the bleeding. The other reason would be a cyst or tumor, or possibly something involving cortisol again.
So... next week, probably Thursday or Friday evening... she is going to do an outpatient surgery procedure at the hospital she has privileges at, look around, and remove anything that doesn't belong there. I can go home that night.
In the meantime, I have to get everything ready for work just in case... I have those 2 IEPs due, and I need to get some lesson plans written out for my TA. I will feel more comfortable doing this procedure if my ducks are in a row for school.
mouse- wish there was some way that i could help you out with all of your school work. i know how hard it is at the beginning of the year without having to deal with any added stress. you just take care of yourself. i will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.
I hesitated many times to write on this thread because you guys know each other so well it can be hard to follow the thread without previous history knowledge.
I'll introduce myself: I am a teacher aide at a deaf school. I have my BA but can't teach until I have my MA (which I can't work on at the moment).
This week has been stressful. My teacher decided she had other stuff to do this week and left me to completely do both of her classrooms. I did 7 bulliten boards the first day. She gave me a few pointers but I knew pretty much what the class should look like and what needed to be organized so I went with it. I completely finished one room but the other room I left 10 things still needing done (mostly surface cleaning and cleaning her desk..no decorating). Sunday I am meeting her so we can talk about the first week of school. (Translation: she is picking my brain for ideas).
This teacher is on probation this year (she's been working 5 years) because while she is good at what she does when she does it, she has poor work ethic and she isn't good at planning (she tends to copy what other teachers have done in the past). This will be her first year solo (if you call it that).
On the other hand, I do stuff after school (no pay), and come up with minor projects (mostly craft or for word study). Last night I stayed with another teacher until 8:30pm and helped her with her classroom. (I was tired of working on mine and my teacher has to do something). It was a good chance for us to chat about the summer etc. I brought home books etc to work on this weekend. That is the LEAST she could have done all week is take some stuff home.
My teacher is a pleasant person and she does well teaching students (though she isn't good at thinking of the students she has to accomodate (I do that)) but I'm definately nervous about the potential uneven work load.
The kicker: My principal told me not to let her take advantage of me but at the same time the principal allowed her to do this extra curricular activity (they had plenty of people, they didn't need her). I thought she was gonna be gone a few hours, not the whole freaking week. Because volleyball is a season long thing, she will be missing classtime frequently for it. For a teacher on probation, that's not a smart decision in my opinion.
hello smart, glad to have you join us. i only joined this group a few months ago and i know how it is trying to keep up with everyone. i am sorry that you are not getting a good start to you school year. i know that it is stressful to work with someone who does not pull her weight. i had just the opposite expericen a few years ago with a full time aide working in my classroom. things got really ugly before she was finally let go. just rememeber that there are always others watching what is going on and know the truth. it sounds like your principal already knows what to expect. good luck and glad you joined us.
hello smart, glad to have you join us. i only joined this group a few months ago and i know how it is trying to keep up with everyone. i am sorry that you are not getting a good start to you school year. i know that it is stressful to work with someone who does not pull her weight. i had just the opposite expericen a few years ago with a full time aide working in my classroom. things got really ugly before she was finally let go. just rememeber that there are always others watching what is going on and know the truth. it sounds like your principal already knows what to expect. ???
Part of me wants to say though "HELLO I'm NOT the TEACHER!!" I don't get paid the double salary that they do. At the same time if I get too picky about I don't get to do some of the teacher type stuff I love to do. I started looking at colleges this morning. I can't afford it. Sigh.
Hi, Smart.
I started out as a deaf education major, but I'm afraid my ASL is now in the 'makes me sick' department. One of my Deaf students a few years ago told me that, "Your ASL makes me SICK!". She definitely wasn't shy about sharing her opinions! I keep saying that I'm going to take classes at the community college to brush up, but I haven't had time.
Anyway, welcome to the mad house. I'm a special education teacher in Northern Virginia at a high school. I have what the district calls "Cross-Categorical Self-Contained", but it just means I have all the kids that don't fit neatly into a program or who need life skills. I have 4 new students this year, so it'll be interesting.
I have worked with teachers like the one you describe, and it alwasy drives me nuts. Fortunately, the severe disabilities teacher that I do most of my work with is really good. And my TA is quite decent.... he was with me for most of last year, and far better than the TA they managed to get to leave.
That TA has a similar (though milder---her version actually responds to treatment!) endocrine disorder to my own, and she used it as an excuse to miss a lot of work. She never ever gave me any warning, and never called the school to let them know she'd be out either.
(Which, incidentally, is one reason that I'm freaked by this whole thing... I work so hard not to let this damn endocrine thing make me miss work or any of my responsibilities!)
