JOURNALS

We are going to be doing  journal entries every day.  We will collect  their entries and put them  in their folder they decorated.  I am hoping this quick exercise (if done consistently) will help the kids explore their own feelings and encourage them to use their words to let others know how they feel.

 This is the template for the journals.

 

JOURNAL ENTRY- tell me how you’re doing today?

 

 NAME:_________________________

DATE: ________________

 ON A SCALE FROM 1 TO 10 WHAT NUMBER ARE YOU TODAY?

        ______________

1-      Super super sad

2-      still very sad

3-      a little sad

4-      just down or sleepy

5-      normal day

6-      feel calm

7-      feel like smiling

8-      happy day

9-      A day full of laughter

10-  The happiest day ever!!!!

What feeling are you today ?(use emoticons if you need help)

Examples: happy, sad, frustrated, tired, hungry, sleepy, silly, cool, bored, hyper, confused,  like running, like hiding, like yelling, like moving.

 I feel _________________________________________________________ today.

 

Question of the day?  Teacher will tell you.

________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 

This week’s lesson is on TACT

The video lesson for this week deals with TACT.  This is an interesting subject that I hope we can convey to the kids clearly.  Tact is a subtle relationship skill that is often overlooked by people regardless of disablities and yet is key to maintaining friendships and other relationships in life.  The art of saying  hard things to another in a way that keeps the peace and does not hurt their feelings is the underling message .

Worksheets for this lesson:

1.)

2.)

3.)

4.)

The Rain at HOPE

Last week was hard because the rain made it so we could not do our usual ouside recreation period.  This time is really important to a few of our kids who are really kinetically oriented and seem to need this outdoor time to get energy out. So we had to get creative trying to find other outlets so expend energy.

Body bowling proved to be quite successful and fun to watch!

Lesson for this week- BLURTING

This week’s lesson is about blurting. The video’s we watch go over why it is important to think before you speak. Sometimes it is best to hold your thoughts in if you think they might hurt someone esle.  This lesson is to show the kids that their words have the power to effect other people both positivily and negativly, so it is important to think about what they say before they say it.  

Bullet points of video:

Think before I speak

Will it hurt feelings?

Keep it to myself. 

WORKSHEETS FOR THE WEEK:

#1

#2

# 3

#4

#5

REVIEW #6

Valentine Talent Show

Today we did a talent show that was a huge success! All the kids had a blast and the energy level was awesome. Our highschool volunteers really added to this event as well.

Valentines Day Robot

For valentines day we made these cute robots of love.  First, I took some puff paint and made a heart on each robot and let that dry. This gave the kids a tangable shape to color inside of.  Next I took a picture of their face and put it on the robot head.  Then I made a page full of kind adjectives for them to look at. They were to choose three words that described their mom and glue those words on the back of their robot.  By asking them to only choose three and giving them so many words to choose from I feel these are genuine choices they made in describing their mom.

Here is the word list below, and picture of me as a robot:

 

MY MOM IS: 

  (Pick three adjectives)

 Caring                            Loveable

 Inspiring                       Good Cook

 Funny                           Great Hugger

 Sweet                             Understanding

 Patient                            Good Listener

 Smart                             Creative

 Sincere                           Special to me

 Helpful                           Awesome

 Fun to be                       Makes me feel

 Around                             Happy

 

 

Lesson Plan for the week- Voice Modulation

This week we will be discussing voice modulation. 

We are asking the question, what volume is our voice suppose to be in conversation? Usually a medium voice is a good level.  A medium voice means a voice level that is clear, not too loud as to be annoying to the listener and not too quiet where the listener strains to hear. If your voice is too low (quiet) people may not be able to hear you. If your voice is too high (loud) the listener might pull back and disengage.

However, depending on the environment, the ideal voice level may need to change from the usual medium. For example, in a library, a low quiet voice is probably best.  But, if you are at a rowdy baseball game, a  high level  voice would be acceptable.

NOTE: In these exercises we will also continue to bring in the importance of eye contact, good posture, and the correct position of the body when engaging in conversation regardless of the voice level.

The following pages are the worksheets I created to go along with our video on this subject.

Medium Voice Work Sheet

 

LOW VOICE WORK SHEET

LOUD VOICE WORK SHEET

REVIEW OF LESSON ONE

Blindfold Name Game

So I am still on my quest to make sure all our kids know everyone’s name at HOPE.  After thinking about how to get their brains to think a little deeper about who our friends are  I came up with the blindfold name game.  The underlining idea here being to really use other senses to figure out who is sitting in front of you.

First, I had everyone stand up and say, “HI” to the class. 

Then, we all talked about that person. How can we describe this person? We wrote all adjectives on the board.

Lastly, I had them sit in a chair and I put a blindfold on them. I asked another student (without saying their name) to sit across from the blindfolded student. We then went through the description we just did to gether as a class and asked them if they knew who was sitting across from them.  This was a very successful exercise, because it made them think, and the blindfold was so silly they found it fun.

Below is me wearing the blindfold trying to guess who is reading this blog….

The beauty of a cardboard box!

Sometimes the most simple things turn out to be the most fun.  As was the case for yesterday’s project, which only involved a giant cardboard box and paint.  I just finished moving and so had plenty of boxes to choose from. I remembered how fun it was to create forts out of these boxes and so thought it could be fun for the kids at HOPE.  First I had the kids finger paint, or sponge paint for those who do not like getting their hands dirty, the box.  Then we let that dry while we went outside and played some games.  Once dry I had the kids crawl through the box,  write their name on a giant piece of paper that was on the other end of the box, put on their shirt they painted last week,  and then run to Vy and give her a high-five.  This worked really well. Everyone loved the idea of crawling through the box! At the end of the activity I had them sit in front of the name paper and I read everyone’s name.  As I called out a name I had that person stand up and say their own name clearly and take a bow in front of the class.  I am determined to get everyone to know each other’s name!

The painted box:

Tree of scraps

Today the art project was a tree.  Prior to this project we did an art project using felt and so I had a lot of little felt scraps left over. I hate to waste anything, so I begain asking myself what can I make with these…and a tree came to mind.  Super easy to do, just pre-cut the bark using brown paper and have them glue it onto the paper.  Then have them grab a handful of felt scraps and glue wherever as leaves! The reslut is an abstract tree that looks really cool.