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I will resume talking about the NCPD evidence-based report, but I was very excited about this product and it just seemed a bit lighter for a Friday.  I will probably intersperse other types of posts with the posts about the evidence-based practices report as it is turning into a long series.   But don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten….

For many years I have been saddened to see that while young children in special education have bright and attractive materials and classrooms (because they are marketed for that age), so many times I see classrooms for older students where the materials are less interesting, don’t change much throughout the year, and aren’t as enticing.   That got me thinking about holiday activities and I decided that students who are learning life skills and functional curriculum often don’t get a lot of themed activities because there aren’t that many activities out there for them.  So I have decided to address that by creating some holiday themed life-skills activities.  And of course it made sense to start with Valentine’s Day.    Essentially my goal is to make attractive and interesting materials that don’t have to be for little kids.

I threw out a question to my Facebook peeps earlier this week about whether people would rather have all black and white print and go activities (i.e., worksheets) that don’t require color ink and/or laminating or if they would rather have color or both.  The majority of the folks responded they would rather have both, but a few said they would rather have just the black and white.  So, to address that need, I created two sets–or rather I created one set and then a subset of just the black and white.  I priced the one with only the black and white print-and-go sheets less than the other because it has fewer tasks and materials.  So, a little something for everyone.  I also tried to target skills that would address needs of students across the widely diverse populations of our classrooms.  So here is what is included and then I’ll show you the freebie I created from the set and tell you how to get it.

Both of the products focus on some basic life skills including money and sorting items by categories. They would be appropriate for any age of student who is working on these skills.  The color version includes time activities as well.

Then, each pack has money activities.  There are 5 color worksheets (as well as the same in black and white) that require the students to add a combination of coins (2 to 4 coins) and circle the correct amount from 2 choices.  These same worksheets are repeated with a place to write in the total for students who are working at that level. This allows for differentiation without having to do lots of work to modify the sheets themselves.

These activities would address goals such as:
Max will add up to 4 coin combinations to determine the amount of money he has and match it to the written price with 95% accuracy.

There are also 5 black and white worksheets (no color ones) in which the student reads how much money a person has and has to determine which valentine can be bought with that amount of money.  Essentially this is a next-dollar type of tasks, but the worksheets vary in difficulty starting with only dollar amounts with no change, moving toward even change (e.g., $3.20, $4.25) and then finally more complex amounts (e.g., $5.92).  Two of the worksheets have 2 choices and 3 of the worksheets have 3 choices for the students to pick from.  This might address a goal such as:

Given a specific amount of money, Max will identify which priced items can be bought with that amount from a selection of 2 (or 3) with 95% accuracy.

And finally, in the Print and Go and File Folders, there are 4 file folders in which the students match analog clocks and digital time.  There is one file folder for whole hours, one for 1/2 hours, one for quarter hours and one that has mixed times to 5 minutes.  They could be laminated as is and put in binders, but I also included labels if you want to make them into file folder activities. These are not included in the black and white package.

These would address goals such as:
Max will tell time to the hour/half hour/quarter hour by matching digital to analog clocks with 90% accuracy.

So, clearly the goals I’ve listed above would be taught and reinforced with more activities than just the ones in these sets.  However, I think it’s only fair that our special ed. students get to have fun, theme or holiday materials to practice their skills.  And we all know for generalization purposes, the more types of materials they practice with, the more likely they will be able to use the skill independently.  These materials could be used for teaching the activities but also can all be easily used in structured work systems since they would all have clear beginnings and ends.  The print and go materials also provide a permanent product for data collection.

Want to try one of them out with your students?  I’ve created a freebie that has one of the food sorting activities in black and white and in color.  Click the picture below to go to my TPT store to download it for free!

 To check out either of the two products, just click on the pictures below.