My Obstacle Course: Engage, Encourage and Empower

A fun, structured, systematic way to work on your child's strengths and weaknesses at home!

Archives for March 2011

Sentence Strips

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Sentence strips are strips of lined paper, usually colored, that are used in classrooms to build literacy skills. They can be found in teacher supply stores or online (You can google sentence strips or click here for a link to Teacher Heaven where I got mine.) As a classroom teacher I would use them to write out sentences provided by the students for our "daily news." Afterwards we would go back and read what we had written, find words that had certain beginning sounds, words that … [Read more...] about Sentence Strips

Using Timers for Motivation and Self Regulation

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I am someone who LOVES  (and needs) to use a timer. I tend to get distracted easily (wonder where Andrew gets it from!) but there is something about a timer that helps me to focus. It is great because when the timer is on, I think, "Ok, I can do ___ for x amount of time." It seems like the same is true with Andrew. If there is something that he is not really into or is avoiding while doing My Obstacle Course, I will bring out a timer and say, “Ok, let’s see how much we can do before the timer … [Read more...] about Using Timers for Motivation and Self Regulation

Emotion/Feeling Stamps

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We received these stamps as a Christmas gift this year and they are awesome! They allow us to build the fine motor skill of stamping while talking about and modeling different situations that might result in different feelings. We are definitely going to be using these in an upcoming My Obstacle Course, primarily because Andrew asked me just the other day, "Can you have hurt feelings?" He had been sick with the flu and then got an ear infection so we have been talking about hurt tummies, ears … [Read more...] about Emotion/Feeling Stamps

Enchanted Learning

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Enchanted Learning is one of my favorite websites to find thematic materials and ideas to use in My Obstacle Courses. I began using the site years ago while teaching because they have thematic materials for multiple grade/age levels and all academic areas. The information and activities are well organized and have great information for children to are ready to do research (click here for an example of their resource material). While there is some free material for those who would like to … [Read more...] about Enchanted Learning