Chalk is a disaster for my students. They get it everywhere, sometimes it stains certain knits, or they try eating it so frequently that I cannot keep up with redirecting them all. However, it is also a lot of fun for practicing handwriting and hanging out outside.
I had not seen much in the form of chalk paint except at craft stores and the colors are quite dull. I used baking soda, flour, and a few drops of food coloring (add more or less depending on how hot of a color you want). Depending on size and how thick you would like it to be, use about equal parts water and flour to make a mixture of 2/3s. Then, match that to 1/3 baking soda to complete the mixture. My students practiced tacting shapes, tracing, and holding the brushes with a more firm grip. I used a thicker mixture with students who had a harder time with fine motor skills. This helped it transfer to the concrete without the student showing more of a struggle than the rest of the class. After all, this is supposed to be fun!
I will definitely use this play based learning activity next year and have the students more involved with the measuring and mixing next time.
I have been using Emaze for about a month now. It is essentially a VERY learner-friendly version of google slides. Emaze let me use slides that were made by others or I could make my own presentation. Applying videos was a little tricky because some would not work, or work and play even after the slide, so I played around with the features for awhile.
My very first slide took me about 35 minutes start to publication. I took the vocabulary notes I already had printed, then made each one a separate slide. The playback took about an hour because I would pause the slides and ask separate questions that encouraged communication from my students. "What color is the shirt?"; "touch the boy"; "say 'pa-rade'". I even introduced intraverbal skills to all levels of my class by asking and helping specific students answer questions like, "the turkey is on the..?" If the student did not know to say plate, I would say it, ask them to tact, or receptively plate.
I like using emaze, but am currently into interactive videos. I took a webinar provided by the company and learned some cool shortcuts. However, being limited to their specific template themes is kinda....well, "mehhhhhh". That is also the brilliance of Emaze. It takes the humanistic approach out of presentations and chooses the basic applications for you so you can focus on just putting out your content. Extremely helpful if you are running short on time.
Have fun playing around and make sure you click the link above to look at what I have done. Remember I teach SpEd and most of my work is modified for students with Autism more on the severe side of the spectrum.
