Combining Art, Music, and Movement

This is likely an activity that is geared more towards the preschool age student or early elementary student.  However I suppose that variations could be made to use it with older students.

I love this activity to combines art, music, and movement.  It is a musical chairs game with the use of art. This a great way to not only teach students about different art concepts such as texture and concept but also allow students to move and burn some energy!  This version does not eliminate a player, which is great for allowing students to work together as a team.

During the winter months I love to pull several students together for a social skills group to build Frosty the Snowman.  I hand out the parts of Frosty and we sing a song to build Frosty.  If you are familiar with the song Mat Man (to the tune of the bear went over the Mountain), I typically sing the song as "Frosty has one nose, one nose, one nose, Frosty has one nose so that he can freeze".  I end every verse with so that he can freeze.  I hand out the parts of Frosty to different students.  As they build Frosty, they need to request the items from another student.  It allows them to work together and they often love singing the song.

Daniel Tiger

I work with preschool age students.  I think that everyone has heard a preschooler just randomly break out into song.  They love music.  Cute, catch tunes usually gain their attention.  They also of course love watching cartoons.  I am a huge fan of this little guy.  His name is Daniel Tiger.

I love to find simple songs that help with basic social skills or behavior skills.  Paired with a visual, especially a cartoon is amazing.  The Daniel Tiger cartoon on PBS is a social skills and positive behavior based cartoon.  They have many songs that go along with positive behaviors.

The following is an example of a song about a needed social skills.  It discussing talking about doing something new.




Here is a link to a list of all of Daniel Tiger's songs.  I love the Find a way to play together and When you Feel so Mad you want to Roar.

There are books that just were published outlining many of the Daniel Tiger shows.  They also have the characters for purchase at most toy stores.  They are great for acting out many of the social skills outlined in the show.  I love that Daniel Tiger embraces the multi sensory approach to social skills- visually watch, listen to the songs, move to practice the social skill.

Red and Green Choices

When I taught school age Autistic support our school used Green Irene's red and green choices behavior management system for one year.  You can check out her website with the above link.  I liked parts of the program but I did not embrace the entire program.  

Last year I worked with several preschools who had difficulty displaying appropriate behaviors.  I decided to try out a simplified version of the program.  We talked about red and green choices in one-on-one situation or in a group of two students.  

 

I laid out cards that were green or red.  I first discussed the red choices- or negative choices and then we discussed the green- or positive behaviors.  We sometimes acted out the green choices.  When I used this system as part of a school wide behavior system we were encouraged to also act out the negative behaviors.  Our behaviorists in the school made a video of both red and green choices.  After my students viewed the video, two of my students proceeded to act out many of the red behaviors throughout the school day.  I know that they simply wanted to show off and display attention seeking behaviors however I really was not on board with acting out the red choices.  I do not think that reenacting something that a student should not do is necessary, I think that practicing and modeling the positive behaviors is important.

I think asked students to decide which pockets the cards belonged in, the red or green pockets.  I wanted this to be a no-fail situation so the cards of course could be sorted by color.  If the preschool teachers were on board, I provided them with red cards that corresponded to the current negative behaviors displayed by the student and pictures of the requested/desired behaviors (green).  I suggested that the teachers have them handy so that they could approach the student when the desired behavior was seen and say something like "good job, Johnny, I like how you are_______" and then pair the verbal praise with the visual.  If they notice a negative behavior, the teacher can show the student the red card and say "I need you to stop" paired with the visual and then "This is what we should do" and pair it with the visual.

This strategy can be paired with a traffic light system.

This is a system that can be used individually or as a whole class.   Students often have their names or pictures attached to a clothespin that is hooked onto the traffic light.  Everyone starts out at the yellow light everyday.  They can move up or down depending on their positive or negative choices during the day.  Activities just as playtime, computer time, extra outdoor time, etc is tied to the traffic light.  I often made my traffic light with 3 green lights, 2 yellows, and 2 reds.  In some classrooms, teachers are hesitant to move students back to green once they have displayed inappropriate behaviors but that is important.  Students need to know that one mistake is not going to ruin an entire day.

video modeling new skill --Sue Bank

This is an example of video modeling a new skill.  In this video, I model how to answer a phone in a classroom.  The script is also posted on the wall next to the phone for visual support. 

Once a student previews this, he can then practice the skill.  As a formative assessment, I can record his progress and we can review and discuss strengths and needs. 

Ball toss for engaging in group activity --Sue Bank

Using a ball toss with a few students provides movement when eliciting responses as a group.  This method allows for turn-taking and teamwork.  It can be used with students of all ages.

For example, when teaching a problem-solving process I like to have my high school students come up with a problem in need of solving.  Rather than asking individuals to answer, we start with a prompt such as "One day when I was in (name a place), I realized that I didn't have my (name something I needed) and that if I showed up without it, I would (name a consequence)."

Each time someone answers, they would toss the ball to another participant for the next answer.  Everyone has ownership of the activity and all are engaged in movement while processing thoughts.

Meta-Analysis supporting Learning Style Model --Sue Bank

Meta-Analytic Validation of the Dunn and Dunn Model of Learning-Style Preferences
Rita Dunn, Shirley A. Griggs, Jeffery Olson, Mark Beasley
--St. John's University
Bernard S. Gorman
--http://www.jstor.org/stable/27541998?origin=JSTOR-pdf&Nassau Community College

ABSTRACT Forty-two experimental studies based on the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model and conducted be tween 1980-1990 were identified to determine the value of teaching students through their learning-style preferences. The studies were rated according to Lytton and Romney's (1991) Quality Rating Scales. A jury determined that, of the 42 studies, 6 studies evidenced serious threats to validity. The 36 remaining studies provided a database of 3,181 participants. Results were synthesized through meta-analysis. Eight variables coded for each study produced 65 individual effect sizes. The overall, unweighted group effect size value (/*) was .384, and the weighted effect size value was .353 with a mean difference (d) of .755.  Referring to the standard normal curve, this suggests that students whose learning styles are accommodated would be expected to achieve 75 % of a standard deviation higher than students who have not had their learning styles accommodated.  This finding indicates that matching students' learning-style preferences with educational interventions compatible with those preferences is beneficial to their academic achievement.

Preview jobs using photos -- Sue Bank

Using photos to preview a new job, such as this one shelving books in the school library, helps to prepare students for learning before they enter a new environment.