Songbird Studio

My first video is nothing special, truly, but I had to record it for a class that I was going to miss, so decided I'd go ahead and share it here.  It's a simple and fun project that can be completed in one class, which is always nice.  Enjoy!

This is another free smart board download featuring Frozen characters for addressing basic rhythm composition.  Each page features two different Frozen icons, one with one sound (quarter note) and one with two sounds (a pair of eighth notes).  There are also four, eight, or twelve boxes that each represent a beat.  Students simply drag the icons of their choosing into each box, and create their own rhythm composition.  I generally call each student to the board to compose, and then we read the composition together as a class using body percussion or instruments. FROZEN Rhythm Composition Again, you'll want to be sure to reset the page after each use, and let me know if you have any questions!

I recently (finally!) was able to alter some art materials for one of my students.  She has visual impairments, and due to her cognitive and physical disabilities, it is also difficult to test just how much she is visually impaired.  She has not been in a school environment very much, and frequently has temper tantrums when guided to hold school materials and complete tasks.  She occasionally explores an item by touch and smell, and inspecting visually, but then will throw it when she is finished.  So our basic goals for her are for her to tolerate assistance, hold objects when asked, and not throw them when she is finished.  :) To that end, we wanted to increase her ability to engage with art materials.  There is a product called Carousel of Textures that is made just for this purpose--increasing textural contrast and interest in order to increase engagement or ability to locate items.  You can also explore your local crafts store and look f...

This is a fun, basic activity for helping student take the first steps in rhythm dictation. Each Frozen character or icon below has their name grouped with their image, and broken into the appropriate number of syllables.  Students take turns deciding how many sounds (syllables) are in each item's name.  Next, they get to drag the icon to the door that matches (because "Love is  an Open  Door!'  LOL)  The blue quarter note door matches one sound.  The red double eighth note door matches two sounds. If they are correct, the icon will disappear through the door.  If they need to try again, the icon will bounce back to its original spot on the page. When finished, be sure to right click and select "Reset Page," or go to "Edit," "Reset Page" so everything reverts and the activity is ready to go again.  The link is below--and please let me know if the link doesn't work or you have questions! FROZEN Rhythm Sort

Our final step for our Northern Lights adaptive art project provided some icky, sticky fun in the form of DIY texture paste!  I used the first recipe provided here at My Little Craft Things .  I mixed it beforehand due to time constraints, but some of my students would have really enjoyed mixing it up, too!  Here is a shot of my first batch.  We used a spoon and spread the thick paste along the bottom of our scene, talking about snow on the ground as we did so.  We also dabbed our spoons all over each our project, to add snow falling from the sky.   I attempted adding glitter to the paste, but it just mixed in and was covered up, so we sprinkled glitter across the top after we spread it on our paper.  I LOVED the intense texture of this finished piece.  Between the paste, the fringed trees, and the scraped, multicolor painted backgrounds, this produced a really engaging finished piece for my students, with a lot of depth...

Our next step for our Northern Lights project was to create the trees, putting our cutting skills to the test.  Depending on the student's abilities and the time available, I either had the triangles for the trees already cut out, or asked the student to cut the triangles.  We then folded the triangles in half, and practiced cutting on a line and stopping before the edge. All of my students required the lines to be drawn in order for them to understand where and how to cut the trees.  About 2/3 of my students were able to cut on the black Sharpie line and stop when the line disappeared.  However, about 1/3 required an extra little visual prompt to stop at the end of the line before cutting all the way through the tree. I just added a small cross mark and used verbal or physical prompts as necessary to further delineate the end of the line. (By the way, these are some of the adaptive scissors we used.  My green push scissors are frequently used, ...

Hi!  I'm excited to share my first adaptive art project with you here!  Adaptive art is just that--art projects, experiences, and education that have been adapted for students with special needs.  I take into consideration my students' sensory needs, fine motor abilities, processing and perceptual abilities, as well as any non-art goals they may be working on, such as functional cutting skills, reality orientation, or non-art academic concepts. Art-related objectives that I addressed with this project include: Painting technique cutting on a line creating texture in a variety of ways Non-art-related objectives include: parallel extension grasp using scissors reality orientation following directions (always a big one!) I use a lot of process-oriented art to make backgrounds or create pieces that we then die-cut from.  We also frequently use templates and stencils.  Whenever I can make the work less abstract and *very* concrete, it increase...

Hi, everyone.  Long time, no see. :) One of my most enjoyable routines with my older music groups is to start with a short music video.  In some way or another, it relates to the activity of the day or current events, and is an opportunity to practice a leisure skill that is also more age-appropriate for my tweens and teens than a hello song.  And now, since we are just returning to school this week from our winter break, we are practicing a lot of our routines and procedures, and need a variety of music to use for our activities.  So, I created a playlist on YouTube and let students choose which song to start class with, and then also, which songs to use as we practice handing out, collecting, and cleaning instruments.  This helps increase motivation and engagement.  Ann Marie's Winter Music Video Playlist I am constantly adding to it, so it will grow over time.  I hope you bookmark it and can use it in your classes and groups!  The songs are...