I have asked my classroom be allowed to have the specials of PE, Music, Library and Art. This has been difficult for some of those working with my kiddos since they can be a bit more challenging than a regular education classroom. I have had a couple of teachers really step up to this challenge.
The one I want to mention in this particular post is one of my art teachers. She has made activities that were perfect for my kiddos. She has had multiple conversations with me and has been very open minded about what htey were going to do and how they were going to get it done. Here are a few things that we came up with together regarding art:
1. Art is about the journey, not about the destination.
- The point of art for some of these kids is to build up tolerance of certain textures, smells, etc.
- What you think the art piece is going to look like....well give up that idea. They are going to make it look the way they want and it is going to be beautiful.
2. Do not use two similiar items and have rules for one that are not rules for another. An example of this is using shaving cream for the kids to draw in on the table. If you use shaving cream then don't switch over to whip cream and tell the kids they can eat it. This will simply confused them. This also goes with regular play-doh and then introducing edible play-doh. They can't see a difference and will try and eat the regular play-doh.
3. Think outside the box. The simpliest activities like stringing beads and rolling out playdoh can be great fine motor activities that can be very easily set up.
4. Be Flexible and HAVE FUN!!! If you aren't having fun then they aren't either. Monitor how they are doing. They aren't going to like everything but if they like nothing....then readjust. It's ok to adjust on the spot and make changes as you go.
Here are a few of the projects my kids have done to this point:
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| Happy Spider (made of a top and pipe cleaners) |
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| Spiders attached to spiderwebs (spiderwebs are string pushed through large foam boards) |
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| Scarecrows and pumpkins |
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| Turkeys |
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| Fall trees (Trees already drawn, kids used q-tips to dot paint on then put on glitter) |
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| Pumpkins |
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| Tissue Paper Pumpkins |
Just remember it is about the journey. :-)
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