Tomorrow I teach Leisure Skills. In that class, we work on a lot of different "hobby" areas, finding areas that our kids enjoy, and exploring ways that they can be successful. For our youngest group, who are around a toddler developmental level, we have four centers. At the beginning of the school year, we have a rotation schedule, so the kids go to each station and take turns, but as the school year progresses, we begin to let them have free exploration time.
We always have four centers, based in the following areas: building, fine motor, sensory, art, dramatic play, and gross motor. For example, one month we'll have building with alphabet blocks, a seasonal sensory bin, a collage art area, and mini golf. Another month, we may have building with mega bloks, a dress up area, paper dolls, and a cardio drumming area. We generally always have building and gross motor centers, the rest flux depending on what else we decide to try.
In general, we don't expect the kids to "do" whatever the activity is "supposed" to be--we just want them to have access to the materials and to our support, so whatever they do with it, they can find some success. For example, with the mini golf, students might work on simple catch and throw, tossing the balls in the laundry basket goals, "putting" with the foam hockey sticks, counting the balls, or practicing identifying the colors of the items. In a building station, they may sort blocks by color, build towers out of only rectangles, or count only triangles, etc.
One of our students' favorite centers this year has been a Hair Styling Busy Board.
It was fairly quick to make.
1) Cut down TWO PIECES OF foamcore to desired size. Mine were roughly 9" x 12". Set one aside.
2) Choose fabric, and cut with approximately a 2" allowance on all four sides, so a total size of 13" x 16". Hot glue fabric to board, folding around the back and hot gluing to secure.
3) Cut silhouette from felt. Hot glue to board, leaving approximately 1-1 1/2" at the top and back of the head unglued.
4) Choose yarn colors (for a more realistic look, have 2-3 shades of yarn).
5) NOW HERE'S A TIME-SAVING TIP! Wrap the yarn around the board. Yep, just like you were winding a long cord or something. Just wrap the yarn around the board until you have good coverage in the front.
6) Then CUT the yarn at the top of the board and again at the bottom of the board. Now bring the yarn from the back TO THE FRONT and add it to the yarn there.
7) Take all the yarn, tuck in ends behind the silhouette where you left it unglued, and GLUE THE HECK OUT OF IT.
8) Finally, trim the ends so the hair is the length of the board or shorter.
9) Add a coordinating ribbon, approximately 13" long, tucked behind and glued--GLUE ONLY ON THE BACK.
10) Add a variety of clips, pins, and barrettes to the ribbon.
11) Now get that second piece of foamcore back--and hot glue it over the back. This will make our board practically indestructible. :)
ENJOY!
We always have four centers, based in the following areas: building, fine motor, sensory, art, dramatic play, and gross motor. For example, one month we'll have building with alphabet blocks, a seasonal sensory bin, a collage art area, and mini golf. Another month, we may have building with mega bloks, a dress up area, paper dolls, and a cardio drumming area. We generally always have building and gross motor centers, the rest flux depending on what else we decide to try.
In general, we don't expect the kids to "do" whatever the activity is "supposed" to be--we just want them to have access to the materials and to our support, so whatever they do with it, they can find some success. For example, with the mini golf, students might work on simple catch and throw, tossing the balls in the laundry basket goals, "putting" with the foam hockey sticks, counting the balls, or practicing identifying the colors of the items. In a building station, they may sort blocks by color, build towers out of only rectangles, or count only triangles, etc.
One of our students' favorite centers this year has been a Hair Styling Busy Board.
It was fairly quick to make.
1) Cut down TWO PIECES OF foamcore to desired size. Mine were roughly 9" x 12". Set one aside.
2) Choose fabric, and cut with approximately a 2" allowance on all four sides, so a total size of 13" x 16". Hot glue fabric to board, folding around the back and hot gluing to secure.
3) Cut silhouette from felt. Hot glue to board, leaving approximately 1-1 1/2" at the top and back of the head unglued.
4) Choose yarn colors (for a more realistic look, have 2-3 shades of yarn).
5) NOW HERE'S A TIME-SAVING TIP! Wrap the yarn around the board. Yep, just like you were winding a long cord or something. Just wrap the yarn around the board until you have good coverage in the front.
6) Then CUT the yarn at the top of the board and again at the bottom of the board. Now bring the yarn from the back TO THE FRONT and add it to the yarn there.
7) Take all the yarn, tuck in ends behind the silhouette where you left it unglued, and GLUE THE HECK OUT OF IT.
8) Finally, trim the ends so the hair is the length of the board or shorter.
9) Add a coordinating ribbon, approximately 13" long, tucked behind and glued--GLUE ONLY ON THE BACK.
10) Add a variety of clips, pins, and barrettes to the ribbon.
11) Now get that second piece of foamcore back--and hot glue it over the back. This will make our board practically indestructible. :)
ENJOY!
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