Crumbled Paper Painting

I realized I hadn't gotten my PreK kiddos dirty in a while! We all need a good ol' mess once in a while. I took a12x18" piece of manilla paper and cut it in half. They had to write, or try to write their name on one piece and crumble the other. There is something about crumbling paper that kids LOVE! They got to choose blue, green, or purple paint. They dipped their crumbled paper in the paint and started dabbing. This was great for any ability level! Some needed assistance to hold the paper, make the "up and down" dabbing motion, and staying on the paper. Others could do it completely independently. After they covered most of the paper, I added white. We looked at what happened when we add white to the paint. Then more dabbing! We repeated the process a 3rd time, then threw away our crumbled paper. After all the pieces were dry, I glued them to a larger piece of construction paper to give them a finished frame! I think they look pretty great and the kids had a great time!

Magazine flowers

This was a great project for the younger grades, moderate, severe, and profound ID students. I had pre-cut the magazine circles because I realized it would be very difficult for them to see the circles drawn on the magazine paper. One option could have been to tape down a template made from a manilla folder. They would be able to see the folder and not cut through it. But I had them cut (or tear) the grass, the stems, and leaves out of wallpaper and construction paper. They used oil pastels or Slick Stix to add interest to the background.

Color mixing and foot prints

This is a pretty simple sensory activity that I did with my Severe and Profound classes. Because most of the student's hands are clenched or hard to open, I painted their feet the different colors of the rainbow. Most of them enjoy it! Some even laughed!

Ok.... Here we go!

A fellow Adaptive Art teacher introduced me to the world of blogs at the beginning of this school year. At this point, I have about 30 blogs that I check weekly. I am in love with this new resource! I spend a lot of time looking through peoples’ lessons, classroom management plans, ideas, thoughts… Whatever! From there I ADAPT what I see to my students. And there is a lot of ADAPTING!! In this age of information, I haven’t been able to find much on the tiny world of Adaptive Art. I know we are few and far between, but I have to believe that there are more of us out there!

I teach students in self-contained classes that range from Preschool Special Needs, Kindergarten Special Needs, Autism, Mild, Moderate, Severe, and Profound Mental Disabilities, Physical Disabilities, and Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities.  My students can enter the school system on their 3^rd birthday and graduate on their 22^nd birthday. I teach at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. So I see them all! I see a huge variety of ages and abilities! Fortunately, I do not teach the same groups all the way through high school. When they graduate elementary school, they usually go to a different middle school, but most likely, I will see them again in high school.  Sometimes I am very glad to see them again, sometimes I’m not. ;)

                So, after all that, I decided to start my own blog. I know that I will be terribly inconsistent. I know that I am not much of a writer. I know I am terrible at spelling (thank you spell check), I ramble, and I don’t always explain things clearly. This is my attempt at sharing things I have learned. I am very open to suggestions! Please talk back to me!

              Thanks and have a great day! ~kt