Towler Life

I've just wrapped up my first month at Tammy Lynn.  October was a blur, but it was also full of exciting learning opportunities as I created activities and lessons for my students who are all diagnosed with multiple disabilities (including functional blindness).  The focus is on alerting as many senses as you can while engaging the students in meaningful learning experiences.  After the Frankenstein faces (that the students helped create by using voice output devices to dictate the facial features) we continued our Fall/Halloween theme.  Here's a sample of just a few fun projects...

1. Candy Corn Puzzles-  adhered with velcro in three pieces, students can count/sequence to 3 with a communication device, work on fine motor skills to grasp each piece, and tacitly explore the corresponding foam numbers.

2. Monster Puzzles- each monster picture is cut in half to allow you to velcro together (fine motor skills!) either matching colors or funny mismatching monsters while counting and feeling the pipe cleaner numbers I sculpted.

3. Candy Corn Counting- laminate templates then trace the numbers in puffy paint so students can feel them.  Before we counted the candy corns, I emptied half a bag into a tin tray that we shook to hear, played with between our fingers, and smelled (students that can eat small candy can also taste).  Then they used their communication devices to count the number while we helped them pick each candy up and place it in the correct jar.

4. 5 Little Pumpkins- Check out the song and video that go with this super cute project.  After singing the song, students count the pumpkins with their communication device to glue on their popsicle stick gate (a great tactile idea).  Then, I had them recount while we added the glitter glue numbers that are another tactile addition once dry.

Looking to November and Thanksgiving I have tons of inspired plans to keep us discovering even more.  I'll give you a sneak peak at one activity I found that we will be completing in the coming weeks...

Make sure you enlarge the picture and read the details of this kid-friendly Thanksgiving story representation.  Fabulous (and generates conversations at home)!

Outside of the classroom, the inspiration continues at home with the addition of another barn wood project-

And new curtain rods + curtains in the dining room-

A special thanks to Ferguson for again supplying the materials we needed to accomplish this terrific industrial look.

October also had us at the State Fair for a concert-  pretty nice seats for the Eli Young Band.

It was a successful first Halloween in the neighborhood, too.  We even got compliments on our artsy pumpkin.  Thanks Martha:)

And finally, the fire pit has been the perfect way to spend time on these cool fall nights!