I am one week into my summer vacation and the creative juices have yet to flow. I had this same problem last summer too. I had all these plans and it just wasn't there. This summer I am determined to get some things done! I have a folder titled "need to work on" that includes about 15 projects that range from a page with a simple title, to books that have numerous pages completed. I practically forced myself to finish one today. Of course I picked one that didn't require many brain cells since most of it was already complete. I got this idea from a speaker at an autism conference I attended last year (I love the ideas I get at conferences!). This book requires a bit of work putting together, and of course more Velcro, which I forgot to bring home this summer!!! So, 1 down 14 to go! Here's to wishing me luck!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Functional-Academics-Sequencing-1311039
Here is a fun activity book that can be put together for the kids to practice the dollar-up method. My kids actually got pretty good with this last year. Since we work on money weekly, I always throw in a few minutes of dollar-up practice at the end. The majority of my kids really struggle with coins, and this method has proven to be very helpful for them. This activity book can be put together in about an hour. It has ten activity pages where the students will Velcro the correct dollar amount showing how much they would need to pay for each purchase.
You can find this product here
I finally have all the tools I need to bind my own books for my kids! I love making these books and coming up with fun educational activities for them to do. I know it's not rocket science but here's how it works :-)
After printing each page in your book. Laminate and trim them to about 1/8 inch. I bought this laminator at Costco a few years ago for about 20 some bucks and it has worked like a charm for me.
Once all your pages have been cut, its time to put the book together. I purchased this binding machine last week from webofficemart.com for 45.00. It's not the best of quality but for what I will be using it for it's fine. You simply place each sheet inside the slot and pull the handle down to make the cuts.
Here is how each sheet will look when cut.
Once each sheet has been punched it's time to put the binding on the book. These plastic bindings are 5/8" and work well for a 11 page book (card stock + laminated), tho smaller ones would work fine too. Slide the plastic piece onto the metal combs that are placed along the bottom of the machine.
Pull down the lever on the side of the machine and the plastic bindings will open. Simply slip the open comb into the holes you punched on the pages. Pull the lever up to close the comb. Your book is now complete!
This is a fun matching book I put together where the students have to find the ingredients from the store shelves for the recipe on each page. There are 9 recipe cards, each recipe with 4 ingredients, and 36 food grocery items that will be velcroed onto the pages.
There are two grocery store shelf pages. One has the food items on it and one doesn't which will allow the students to put the food back wherever they want. I prefer to use the one with the items and I use see-through velco. This way it is as much of a lesson putting the items back on the shelves as it was removing them. Here is a copy of this particular book if you're interested. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Grocery-Store-Recipe-Match-1277964
I'm having a blast putting together these fun Velcro book for the kids. Here are two using logos found in the community. I picked stores in my community that my kids would be familiar with. I can easily change one or more of them if they don't match stores near you. I was fortunate to find this clear Velcro at Walmart so the kids can still see the picture through the Velcro. It was in the sewing sections and came in about half inch circles. My kids are mostly non-readers so this way they can see where to return the picture when they are done
with the book. Kind of like getting two lessons in one! I added an extra sheet that has no picture, just the word, in case you have readers and thing that will be more beneficial to them. There has been quite a bit on interest in them in my classroom and with a bit of prompting and help all my kids have been able to do them.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Community-Logo-Activities-970170
Have a great rest of your week!
I got this great book idea from Kara over at Sped-ventures. http://spedventures.blogspot.com/ She has a couple cute ones that she has put together that I absolutely loved. I decided to make a few of my own to use with my kids. I tried to make them relevent to things we have been working on. We have one on personal hygiene, one on kitchen foods and another on clothing. So far the kids love them! Some of my kids breezed right through them and others really struggled. I put the velcro in more then one spot (3 on some) so the answer is not so obvious.
My co-worker has this neat machine that binds the books and she was kind enough to do that for me. (I think I will be using some of my teacher budget money to get myself one soon). The options of making your own books are endless! Kara has many on her blog that would work great with a variety of students. I suggest you go check them out!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/3-Life-Skills-Preposition-Books-961760
