My Obstacle Course: Engage, Encourage and Empower

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

Obstacle Course Mom

Emotion/Feeling Stamps

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 and aches of all sorts. I thought it was a cute question but also showed me that he is thinking about feelings.

"I Feel" Stamps
"I Feel" Stamps - other side

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Read the situation and stamp how you would feel.

  • Write out a brief situation that your child might encounter during the day. When they get to the station, read the situation with them and talk about how they might feel. Have them find the stamp that matches what they would feel. Stamp the feeling on the situation card. Show with your face how you would look if you felt that way.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Feelings Story

  • Use the stamps to illustrate a story (Character series books like “Franklin” or “Arthur” books are good because they usually have some sort of situation that frustrates them before they figure out how to resolve it.). Provide a clean sheet of paper and as you read through the story, stamp the emotions that the characters might be feeling.
  • Make your own story showing how one can go from an angry situation to resolving it and being happy. This would help to illustrate that one’s emotions aren’t set in stone and that feelings can change as one’s thoughts about what is happening or what has happened changes.

Social stories and activities like these help children to have knowledge about feelings they may experience and also allows you to model appropriate ways of handling emotions and resolving issues. It shows them that it’s okay to feel a certain way but gives them an opportunity to work through those feelings in a safe, pretend way so they are better equipped when it actually happens.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

Enchanted Learning

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 check it out first, I have a membership because it gives me access to a greater amount of printable materials, including some basic books I used with Andrew to work on counting, reading and coloring.

A lot of times, I will print out a page and cut it apart to fit the activity I am doing. It doesn’t take long to glue pictures to a calendar cutout, thematic notepad sheet or index card in order to make it colorful, sturdy, and kid-friendly!

Here are some ways I have used material from this site:

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Clothesline Clipping the Picture with the Word Name

Picture/Vocabulary matchup on thematic note paper.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Connect the Dots to Match Up the Picture with the Word Name

Working on connecting the dots to match up pictures with their names. (School readiness skill)

 

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort the Pictures by Beginning Sounds

Sorting by beginning letter sound

I printed out the pages of the beginning sound we were working on (click here to see page), cut out the pictures that began with those sounds and then mixed them up. I got some cute little file folders at the teacher store, wrote one letter on each folder and placed out the folders for the letters we were doing. We would say the name of the picture and decide which beginning sound it had and place it into the correct folder. This really allowed me to see which sounds he was hearing and because all of the pictures were stored in the folders, it was so easy to mix and match letters/sounds in other Obstacle Courses. This also helped build his vocabulary and picture recognition because some of the things were new or looked different on paper.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Look at the Pictures and Count “How Many”

 

Thematic “How Many?”
Thematic “How Many?”

If you are looking for thematic ideas or materials to incorporate academic skills into your station activities, I encourage you to check out this site!

Note: I have no affiliations with Enchanted Learning, I just really like what they offer!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

 

Dr. Seuss’ Birthday

Dr. Seuss’ Birthday is coming up on March 2nd and every year I am reminded of a story one of my kindergartener’s parents told me. She had been living in California at one point in time and had the opportunity to go to Dr. Seuss’ house and he would sit in a rocking chair with his “Cat in the Hat” hat on and read his books to whomever came to listen. How great would that have been!! I was just trying to see if there was any information online about this and while there wasn’t, I did learn that he did not have any children of his own. When asked about this he would respond, “You have ’em; I’ll entertain ’em.” Love that!

Last year at this time, I decided that incorporating some Dr. Seuss activities in My Obstacle Courses would not only allow me to reinforce something he was doing in school, it also gave me a great opportunity to work on other skills.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Peel and Stick to Make the Same

Make the same.
Make the Same.

I found some Dr. Seuss stickers at the teacher store and used them in a “Make the Same” station activity to work on visual discrimination and also the fine motor skill of peeling and sticking the stickers in the right order.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Read Aloud and Listen For Rhyming Words

Dr. Seuss Book - Green Eggs and Ham
Dr. Seuss Book - The Foot Book

Reading a Dr. Seuss book out loud or having your child read is a great station activity to incorporate reading skills like listening, comprehension (understanding what is read), and fluency (one’s reading rate, use of punctuation for pauses and also using expression). If your child is reading, I suggest taking turns with books like this, which can be long. The goal of this is to practice reading skills in a fun way, not to tire them out.

Children who struggle with reading tend to use up a great deal of “energy” decoding the words they are reading, leaving them less able to answer questions about what is happening in the story (comprehension issue). This is why it is important to stop and point out what is happening in the story. Talking through stories helps to keep them engaged in what is going on and to see the purpose of reading as an enjoyable activity and/or a way to get information, not just to get through a bunch of words so they can move on.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Rhyming Word Read and Sort (using rhyming words from Dr. Seuss book)

Choose a Dr. Seuss book and go through to see what rhyming words are used. Write down the word endings and rhyming words on calendar cutouts or index cards for the child to read and sort. (Click here for my post on word family/rhyming word sorts.)

Dr. Seuss’ “Seussville” Website Link:

Here is a link to the Dr. Seuss Suessville website (I turned down my volume because the music while loading is a bit much 🙂 ) where there are games and activities that you may want to use with your child.

These are really easy and basic ways to reinforce something your child may be learning about in school into My Obstacle Courses. I love doing this because Andrew always gives me a look like, “I’m doing that in school and YOU know about it too?” This doesn’t just apply to Dr. Seuss but can be done with any theme, skill or concept you may find on the teacher to parent home letter.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

See and Spell Puzzles

Thanks To My Obstacle Course, Another Toy Saved From The Island (Or Closet) Of Unused Toys!

I got this great set of Melissa and Doug See and Spell puzzles to help with letter recognition and introduce word building with Andrew when he was around four. He wasn’t really interested in it until I began using it as a My Obstacle Course station activity with him and then he was hooked! We would talk what the picture showed, the letters that made up the word and the sounds the letters make. It was also great for me to see him needing a certain letter, like a “b” and watch as he would pull out a “d” and try to get it to fit. I could then point out that even though they kind of look the same, they were different letters. I would help him find the “b” so we could compare and contrast them and see which one fit. It may seem really basic because the puzzles have the letters cut out and labeled, but he still needed to find the correct ones to make the word.

Melissa and Doug Wooden Word Puzzle

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Find The Letters To Make The Word

This is super easy to set up and allows your child to be part of creating a word without the worry of having to spelling it on their own. I would choose one or two puzzles for a station activity and depending on your child’s letter recognition skills, set out only the letters needed for the word or set out a bunch of letters for them to locate the correct ones.

The station set up with letters provided in the correct order.
The station set up with letters provided but not in order.
Match up the letters so they fit in the space provided.
Letters in and the word spelled!

Even though this may seem like such a simple thing, it is a quick and easy station activity to see where your child is with letter recognition and also how they apply those skills. Even though Andrew is a good speller and hasn’t used this toy in a long time, I held onto it so I could share it here and with parents who are working on these skills. I had forgotten about it until Andrew found it in my office the other day (he loves getting in there with all of the My Obstacle Course supplies and goodies 🙂 ) and put them all together. He was so proud of himself and was clearly having a great time! It reminded me that sometimes he does enjoy doing things that don’t have power buttons and it was so nice to see!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

My Obstacle Course Video

I thought I would share a video I made for a tele-class I am taking (I posted it on Facebook as well so my apologies if you have already seen this!). My original intention for the class was to create “How To” videos for my website, which I’m still working on, but decided to begin with a video showing why I came up with My Obstacle Course, how much more Andrew is engaged when we are doing the station activities and the progress we have made in determining what he knows and what he can do. When I first heard the song “War Of My Life” I thought, that is what we as parents, teachers and therapists feel when trying so hard to do anything we can to help our children. I hope you enjoy it and thank you again for allowing me to share with you!!

Video Clip Interpretation:

There are several video clips of Andrew doing station activities and it may be difficult to understand what he is doing or saying. I have always been really good at knowing what he is saying (even before he was “speaking”) so I will interpret for you :).

Video clip 1 – He is sorting shaped buttons and is doing so in a specific order. He says “Circle first, then comes square, then comes triangle, then comes oval.”

Video clip 2 – He is “reading” a clue that says “Pick the animal the says “ribbit” and then he picks up a frog and says “frog.”

Video clip 3 – We were playing a Valentine’s themed memory match game.

Video clip 4 – He was searching for things in the snowy sensory bin and found a snowman.

Video clip 5 – He is reading from a book called “Snow” and says, “Gray clouds crawl across the sky.”

Video clip 6 – He is stacking 6 blocks without them falling over.

Helping Andrew achieve all that he can is the “war of my life” and sharing this with others has become another passion. Feel free to pass this on to friends or parents that you think it could help. It has already found many people that needed it and my heart is filled with gratitude that I have found something that is making a difference!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Dice

If you are looking for a fun way to sneak in basic number identification, counting skills and/or math facts, try using something you probably have sitting in a cupboard inside of a board game box – dice. I like to use dice because it keeps things random, requires no set up, helps build motor skills and planning and can easily be paired up with manipulatives (any item that helps represent what is being counted) to provide reinforcement. If you want to mix things up a bit beyond the basic white cube with black dots, they make lots of different kinds of dice. (Note: The dice shown in this post are from my local teacher store, Teacher Heaven and a favorite toy store of ours, Brilliant Sky Toys.)

Dice

There are dice made from foam that work great for gross motor station activities

Example station activities:

  • Roll the die. Jump up and down on the mini-trampoline x times.
  • Roll the die. Pass the ball back and forth x number of times.
  • Roll the die. Do x jumping jacks/forward rolls/donkey kicks.
Large foam die
Small foam die

There are basic dotted dice that go up to 6 that can also be found in fun colors. I like to pair these with colored puffs to reinforce what addition facts actually represent. These work great for basic math fact practice – addition, subtraction and multiplication.

Example station activities:

  • Roll two dice and add them together.
  • Roll two dice and subtract the smaller number from the larger one.
  • Roll two dice and multiply the numbers.
Colored dice

Dice that have numbers on them can be used for number identification and/0r can be paired with the gross motor activities mentioned above. They can also be used for math facts (addition, subtraction and multiplication).

Dice with numbers

More complex dice can also be found with 8 sides…

8-sided dice

all the way up to 20 sides. These are perfect for when your child is ready for more of a challenge with number identification or if you are working on double-digit addition, subtraction and multiplication. The addition and subtraction equations can be done with manipulatives or if you are working with them so they know how to do it on paper, these help to keep things a bit more interesting.

20-sided dice

One thing that I found very interesting when I first incorporated dice into My Obstacle Course stations was that the actual rolling was a skill that we had to work on. Andrew tended to pick up the dice and just drop them until I showed him how to make a cup with his hands, shake it back and forth so the dice would wiggle and turn and then releasing the dice without throwing them across the room. We did use a plastic cup with his hand over the top and also found a cardboard box lid which was helpful to catch the dice.

Here are some previous posts on My Obstacle Course station activities that use dice:

Easy Math Organizers

Race To 100

Engage, Encourage and Empower!