My Obstacle Course: Engage, Encourage and Empower

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

Social Skills

Farm Themed Memory Match

by

This is a really easy way to create a thematic memory match game using stickers and index cards (or cutouts). Here is a link to an earlier memory match post I wrote. I like including this game because it helps to build concentration, encourages basic game skills like turn taking and provides a good opportunity to make connections and build vocabulary based on the stickers. My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Thematic Memory Match This station activity takes me only about 5 minutes to prepare … [Read more...] about Farm Themed Memory Match

Summer Themed Memory Match

by

If you've been following my posts, you know by now that Andrew is crazy about memory match games. Using colored index cards and stickers makes it so easy to create new, thematic memory match games that go with whatever we are doing. (Here is the link for the original Thematic Memory Match post with step by step instructions.) Since it is summer and we are still in our "beach" theme, I made a game with lots of different colored fish. Through this basic game, we work on social skills and game … [Read more...] about Summer Themed Memory Match

Beach Ball Questions

by

June is here and I cannot believe it! Time flies when you're having fun! I will be posting on some summer themed station activities to help make skill building and reinforcement a bit more fun. I got this idea from a company called Clever Catch that makes inflatable balls for classroom use to work on math facts. The balls are preprogrammed with things like numbers and equations and when the student catches the ball, they have to say or do what their eye sees first. A great way to keep … [Read more...] about Beach Ball Questions

Recognizing Feelings Using Photographs

by

This is an early My Obstacle Course station activity that I did with Andrew (he was four at the time). I wanted to help him recognize and understand facial expressions in other people and thought that it would be a good idea to start with pictures of himself. My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Match the photograph with the expression/feeling state. I looked through pictures and found some that were very obvious in what they were showing - happy (pictures of him while he was laughing or … [Read more...] about Recognizing Feelings Using Photographs

Cootie Catcher

by

I received some wonderful materials from Creative Teaching Press and these “Cootie Catchers” were included. Seeing this activity sent me back to elementary school days remembering when we would make these out of loose-leaf paper in order to determine who best friends were, who we were going to marry, and all sorts of  other goofy things. Creative Teaching Press has taken this idea and turned it into a fabulous way for children to get to know other people. (I also got a book with 20 … [Read more...] about Cootie Catcher

Emotion/Feeling Stamps

by

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