Hands-On Activities to Help Kids Overcome Classroom Struggles

Guest post by Laura Pearson (edutude.net)

Hands-On Activities to Help Kids Overcome Classroom Struggles

Whether you’re homeschooling or not, watching kids struggle with lessons can be heartbreaking. Of course, you want to help your kids and make things easier, but finding ways to do so that will keep their interest can be difficult. The trick is to disguise the subjects and lessons they’re struggling with as fun activities and projects.

If you’re not sure how to do this, the following creative tips from The Bender Bunch might be helpful.

 

Spend Some Time Stargazing

Is your child having trouble with science? Then maybe they just need some exposure to science in the everyday world!

Take them out into your backyard at night and look up at the stars, for a fun at-home science lesson they’ll never forget. You’ll want to plan your backyard stargazing session for a night when the moon isn’t that bright so you can really see the stars and planets shining. Use an app like Sky Safari to help your child identify stars, planets and constellations.

You can take those lessons one step further by looking up interesting facts about stars and constellations. Once your kids find out what stars are made of and how they’re born, they may become more interested in science lessons back inside the classroom.

Do you need an activity you can do indoors and during the daytime? This DIY snowstorm is a fun alternative! Using some simple ingredients, your kids can put together their very own mini-blizzard. They can also fill out worksheets to set the experiment up and find out how everything works.

 

Work on Some Creative Writing

If your kids have a hard time paying attention in English class, having them work on some freestyle writing could provide the encouragement they need.

You can keep things simple by using these suggestions from the National Endowment for the Arts to prompt creative writing sessions. Pictures work best because they allow your family members to express themselves freely. Have your kids pick a country on the globe and write about it, or choose an everyday object around your home. You can even have your kids keep journals so that they get in some extra writing practice.

Before your kids start writing and researching, you’ll want to make sure they have the right tech and equipment. That could mean picking out a new laptop or tablet, which is also helpful if your kids are learning from home. Since this is a bigger purchase, you’ll want to look for laptops that are user-friendly and durable, while also having all of the features your kids need.

 

Give Kids More Time for Gaming

Is math or geometry making school tough for your kids? If so, letting them play more video games may be the answer. No, seriously!

As you may already know, kids love playing Minecraft. And that could be good news if they are also having a hard time in math class. That’s because there’s a new version of this game that is basically one giant math lesson! As your kids keep trying to draw an uninterrupted line, they are actually working out a mathematical puzzle known as an Eulerian Cycle. Now, if math isn’t the issue, there are other learning games that can help your kids perform better in school.

Since many of the best games are online, you’ll want to make sure that your home is connected to a reliable and lightning-quick internet service. Besides providing your kids with a smooth gaming experience, a faster internet connection will also provide your entire family a boost when it comes to remote work and online learning. This is notably true if you have older kids who are using Virtual Reality or if any of your children are attending virtual coding camps.

Learning doesn’t have to stop once school is over! In fact, if your kids are struggling with science, English or math, the learning really shouldn’t stop. You’ll need to get creative to provide opportunities for enrichment and improvement. Most of all, you should keep lessons outside of the classroom fun so that your kids stay motivated and interested.

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Family Engagement Day Halloween Fun!!

Have some Halloween fun by hosting a Family Engagement Day! This year the special education teachers in my building have teamed up to host a Family Engagement Day every month! Family Engagement Day is where parents or other family members of our students can come from 9 am - 10 am on that day and engage in hands-on learning centers with their child. Each month will have a specific theme. There are 4 of us, the early childhood Pre-K teacher, our KIDS program teacher, our primary self-contained teacher, and me--the intermediate self-contained teacher. So each of us is responsible for creating a hands-on center. 

Our first Family Engagement Day was yesterday and it was a HUGE success! We were amazed at the amount of parent participation and engagement!

This is the center I put together. 

Younger students used counting mats or mini jack-o-lanterns to count candy pumpkins or candy corn and my intermediate students got to use candy to solve basic addition problems by placing the sum of each problem in the jack-o-lantern cups. 

These mats are free from "A Special Kind of Class," but I added the numbers myself. You can find them linked up on my SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies post on my blog from last week. 

  Our KIDS program teacher did Frankenstein handprints!

Our Pre-K teacher put together spaghetti spider webs.

She also brought some fun peel and stick foam skeletons for families to make!

Our primary self-contained teacher organized "Ghostly Bowling."

It was so much fun for everyone, and soooo much family engagement going on! It made my heart full seeing the parents so engaged with their kids!

We also played the Monster Mash song and danced! I'm already super excited for next month, which will be a Thanksgiving/Fall theme! I hope this inspires you to get your own Family Engagement Day going at your school!

Pin it to save this idea for later! :)

For more inspiration, check out my Halloween Pinterest board for more Halloween ideas!

Student-Led Conferences in the SPED Classroom

When our principal announced that everyone at our school would be doing student-led conferences this year, I first thought, my students? Student-led conferences??

While I knew she would make an exception for my students...I am always determined to provide my students access to EVERYTHING that their typical peers have access to and set very high expectations for them. So I began to think of ways to make this work for my students! If they can do it, my students can too!! :) 

Well let me just say, I won't be going back! I will be doing student-led conferences for all of my future conferences! I am so excited to share the success with you! 

After some brainstorming, I came up with the idea of a scavenger hunt. Who doesn't get excited over a scavenger hunt, right?! 

Students had to show/complete 10 different activities with their parent(s) and cross them out as they were completed. 

I placed one of these little numbered cups with a different letter in each activity center/area. Each time an activity was crossed off they received a letter for that activity. 

Once they had completed all ten activities and had earned all ten of their letters, the parent and their child had to use the letters to spell out my mystery phrase to both win a prize!

The mystery phrase was "Student Led," of course! It worked out perfect that it was 10 letters!

Students got to choose a prize from our class treasure tree.

Parents got to choose a prize from this basket! I also had candy bars and some other cool stuff in the basket, but forgot to take a picture at the beginning. The parents were just as excited as the kids to get a prize!

For my non-verbal, lower functioning student, I edited her scavenger hunt sheet to fit her curriculum and included independent task boxes that she was currently working on. So many of the boxes on her sheet read, "Task Box 1," "Task Box 2," and so on. 

One of the 10 activity squares on the scavenger hunt sheet was a "free choice" activity so that students had the opportunity to show their parent(s) one thing of their choice in the classroom.

I didn't tell my students anything about the scavenger hunt prior, but we did practice what they would be showing and doing with their parents prior to conference day so they could be prepared!

Here are a few photos of my students leading their conference!

It turned out better than I ever imagined. It brought a tear to my eye, watching how well my students did and how proud they were as well as seeing how surprised the parents even were!

I allowed 45 minutes for each conference, which ended up being the perfect amount of time. And although I didn't have to double schedule any students, you could easily have multiple families in your room doing this at once.

I love that the students were involved! In the past, students didn't even attend. It was just me and the parent(s). Now rather than just a traditional conference where I go over data, assessments, attendance, behaviors, etc. with the parent...now the parent can actually see firsthand what their child is doing and learning every day in their classroom! And when students actively participate in their learning, they are empowered!

Never second guess your students, they may just surprise you!

Thanks a Bunch, 

Classroom Skype with Animated Characters

I am beyond excited about what my kiddos and I got to do today. We got to skype with the animated character, Maria, from Wondergrove Kids!!! That's right! How cool is that? Very Cool! Maria let all of the students introduce themselves, ask her questions, and talked to them about all sorts of things!! See the first minute and a half of it for yourself!  

It really was one of my most exciting classroom experiences! The live chat lasted 25 minutes. I actually thought I was taping the entire Skype session, to find out at the end that my storage was full and I had only taped the first 1:38. Urghh! And to think I actually held my phone for 25 minutes, thinking I was taping....LOL!!! But you get the jist of the video of how fun and personalized it was for each student! 

Several of you have asked how it happened?? 

Well first off, it happened thanks to Wondergrove Kids. 

It is $98 for a one-year subscription, but so worth it that I'll be renewing in September. Kids just can't get enough of it! You can read more about their site and my love for Wondergrove Kids in this previous {post}. 

So....since I am a star user, "they said", they emailed me two weeks ago and asked me if I'd be interested in letting one of their animated characters live skype with my students in my classroom!!! What??! I said yes of course...who could turn this down? They asked me to provide the names of my students and a little info on each one's interests. We set a time and it was that simple! 

How can you do it in your classroom?

I have contacted them to find that out for you! I am sure you would first have to be a subscriber. Once I find out more information, I will update this post with the info for you. 

**Update: Unfortunately, at this time, this was only offered to a handful of teachers that use Wondergrove Kids with fidelity on a regular basis. If you use Wondergrove in your classroom, leave me a comment below and they can check to see if you are eligible. 

Make Your Desks & Tables Dry-Erase....For Free!!!

How awesome would it be to have these in your classrooms???

Whiteboard tables!!!!
I think pretty awesome!! I have been wanting a horseshoe whiteboard table for my small group ever since I saw one last year being used on "The Teaching Channel."

But, they run around $300. Yikes!!!

So I looked into the possibility of painting my horseshoe table using whiteboard paint.

But while you can purchase it for under $30, the reviews on the quality and issues applying the product are horrible!!!

So, I wasn't so sure I was ready to tackle this project!!! Not to mention, take the chance of ruining a school table and having to get prior approval!!!

And then I got to thinking! Dry erase marker will erase off of just about any laminated surface!

Right?!

And it just so happens that I had dry-erase desks and tables the whole time, and didn't even realize it!!!

Gotta love that backwards 9!! :)

But hey, she got it right and they are all so engaged in math now!! Every day now when they come to small group, they ask, "Can we write on the tables again today?" And of course I say, "Of course." 

Whatever it takes to get them engaged in learning! 

And btw, it erases just as clean as your whiteboard, if not a little better actually! We all know that certain colors don't even erase nicely on our traditional whiteboards. 

And any smears left are gotten at the end of the day by our classroom table washer! 

Do Any Worksheet on the ipad With "NOTABILITY"

Do you use ipads in your classroom? Even if you have just 1-2 classroom ipads, I am going to show you an incredible app that will allow you to upload and edit any pdf document, activity or worksheet on the ipad. With this app, you can not only save paper and time copying, but you will increase student engagement by allowing your students to complete their worksheets on the ipad. If you're into increasing student engagement through technology, you will definitely want to read on!

This app is "Notability." And it is only $2.99. So the first thing you will need to do is get the app. 

Tip: If you're having trouble viewing the small print, hold down your ctrl button on your keyboard and press the + button until it is enlarged to your viewing preference.

I am so excited about this app! 

My students are much more engaged and are wanting to complete worksheet after worksheet. They are actually begging me for more....IMAGINE THAT!