Winter fun in the summer

Staying active is sometimes hard when it's so hot out. It has been so hot here that we have just been sitting in front of the fans (we don't have air conditioning) trying to cool down. Does all this hot weather make you think of snow?  Today I was thinking about the winter carnival we had a school last winter.  It could easily be adapted for the hot weather.  Or you could keep it winter for a fun winter activity in the middle of summer.

One of our fabulous educational assistants, designed this obstacle course for the children as part of our winter carnival celebration.  It was made for children of all abilities.  Here are some of the things they had to do.

The children had to pull a wagon with a mummy dog through pylons to pick up a baby dog and come back again.

The children had to take the gingerbread man through the house and around the red mat, where he got eaten by a dog.

This is the groundhog tunnel that the children had to crawl through then put the date together correctly for groundhog day.

 The children had to shovel "snow" from one bucket to the other.

 The children then had to walk the plank of the pirate ship

 Blowing "snow" onto the paper with a straw was very tricky.

Next the children had to feed the bear.  They had to reach into the box and find something that the bear would like to eat.

The children had to put the gingerbread man back together.

Could they spell the words correctly?

Lastly, they had to throw "snowballs" into the egg cartons.

The children had a blast that day doing all the fun snowy activities.  If you need a little cooling down, you could do a snowy fun day in the middle of summer and cool down too.

Amanda Myers has been teaching a self contained special education classroom for the past 20 years.  She writes about her class and tips for working with special children on her blog A Special Kind of Class.

Adapted Art

I am so excited be a guest blogger today.  My name is Amanda Myers and my regular blog is A Special Kind of Class.  I have truly taught a special kind of class for 20 years.  The 7 children in my class each year have either a physical and/or speech disability.    Many of them do not speak at all and many have little to no fine motor skills. This makes participating in the regular school program challenging.  My job is to figure out the best way for them to participate and learn before sending them back to their home school board.  I thought I would share a little about how I adapted an art project for my students.  Adapting lessons for children with special needs often does not require any special skills, just a willingness to think outside the box.  Oftentimes ordinary items can be used.  Most of the items featured below came from Lakeshore.  They were not specifically designed for children with special needs but are easy to use.  I hope my post inspires you to try something new with your students.