How to Make Multi-Coloured Rice for Sensory Play

Here is the instructions for making the multi-coloured rice that we use:

1. Put one cup of rice in a medium sized bowl

2. Add a couple tablespoons of water

3. Add a few drops of food colouring (whatever colours you want), the more food colouring you add the deeper the colour

4. Stir until blended and it is the colour you want.

5. Spread on a baking sheet to dry

6. Occasionally stir the rice around to ensure all the rice dries

7. Repeat until you have as much rice as you want

8. Store in an air-tight container

9. Take to school and enjoy

Matching Activity

Today I created a new matching activity. I used a small binder so the students also work on turning the page to continue to work. This activity can be changed to make it more difficult. For instance the pictures that are matched can be black and white or the same character but not the exact same picture.

Fine Motor Activity for Outdoor Snow Play

Today we went outside to explore the winter wonderland. We added food colouring and water to Dollarama spray bottles to "paint" with. Squeezing the triggers on the spray bottles is a great way to develop fine motor control. The students really enjoyed "painting" the snow.

Single Click on Mouse

Double clicking the mouse to access programs can be very frustrating for students with fine motor difficulties. The quickest way to fix this is to turn your mouse into a single click mouse following the instructions below (for Windows 7):

1. Go to CONTROL PANEL
2. Select FOLDER OPTIONS
3. Select SINGLE CLICK TO OPEN AN ITEM
4. Select APPLY/OK

Great Website for Cause-and-Effect

Staff from Holland Bloorview introduced me to a great website called HelpKidzLearn. I have been using the free trial with my students on the Interactive White Board. There are several activities that are touch activated and can be used with a single clicker mouse (I will post instructions on how to turn your mouse into a single clicker soon) or a switch-activator button. My students are really enjoying the stories "5 Little Firefighter" (this has become the most requested activity on the board - surpassing ever the Wiggles Big Red Car video), and "Car Wash" and the early years game "Mystery Egg". Check out the link to the site below.

HelpKidzLearn

Quick Matching Activity

One of my students in a big fan of Thomas the Train. Using Boardmaker and Google Images, I created a quick matching activity for him to work on.

I apologize for this not being rotated, I have saved it numerous times
in the right orientation but it keeps uploading like this

Scent Jars for Sensory

Today I made six scent jars. This is a really inexpensive way to meet the sensory needs of some of our students. I got a six pack of small plastic jars at Dollarama ($3.50) The lids were very thin and I easily poked two holes in them with a small screwdriver. I asked the other teachers in my schools if they had any extracts at home I could borrow. My co-workers came through well and I only had to buy cinnamon sticks ($1.50). So I made these for around $5.

The scents I used were:

• Cinnamon sticks
• Vanilla extract
• Orange extract
• Lemon extract
• Imitation coconut
• Imitation maple

We placed a few drops on cotton balls and placed them in containers.

Simple tricks for puzzles

Here are a couple simple tricks to use when accommodating students who are working on puzzles.

Using a three inch binder to raise the puzzle so the student can see the top of the puzzle easier.

 

Mixing the pieces from two puzzles together to add a challenge to put in puzzles

for students for whom put in puzzles are too easy.

 



Hands on Fun at the Water Table

This week we built a new hands-on activity at our water table. The goal was to have the students use squeeze materials (turkey basters, squeeze bottles) to help develop their fine motor control. We used wire cube shelving pieces, tubes, and funnels to develop the activity. The students were extremely excited about trying it out. It has been a huge success and students who have previously shown limited attention at activities have stayed and played for more than 40 minutes. We ended up adding blue food colouring so it was easier for the students to see the water moving in the tubes. The wire shelving and tubing were purchased at Home Depot, and the funnels, turkey basters and squeeze bottle were purchased at Dollarama.

All set up.

Learning to use the turkey basters to squeeze water into the tubes

 

 

With blue food colouring added. Working together to fill the container at the bottom!

Experimenting with squeeze bottles.

We All Go Traveling By

My students have really been enjoying the book We All Go Traveling By by Sheena Roberts. Each page has a different method of travel in a different colour and a specific noise. I made an activity where after reading the story my students identify the colour of the specific object from three choices.