I've been given the additional calling the be the Primary Secretary. Things will change a little bit with my calling to work with M., but I am confident I can work things out. I will no longer be in his classroom (except when needed.) He is doing great in class, and we were concerned that he would feel singled out if I was always there. Sharing time and singing time are still a challenge, so I will continue preparing weekly quiet activities that he can do during those times.

Computer Woes

Sorry for the lack of posts. Our computer has been spending some quality time in the shop! Now that it is back, I'll continue to post :)

CTR A Lesson 4 Worksheet and Visuals

Here is a worksheet that the CTR 7 teacher in my ward created for our class. I modified it slightly by adding pictures, as M. does really well when he has visuals. Instead of highlighting the sentences, I'm going to have M. glue pictures that represent "choosing the right" onto green paper, and pictures that represent the opposite onto red paper.

Class Schedule Idea

The awesome CTR 7 teacher in my ward has a great schedule I thought I would share. Having a schedule helps all of the children know what to expect each week in class. Breaking the lesson into several sections helps maintain the kids attention throughout the entire hour.

10 Minutes
Arrival Time: The kids come into the class and choose a small picture of Jesus out of a tin. Each picture has a job on it. The jobs are: Calendar Helper (this child holds the calendar and helps the class count down to the next big thing ie: a birthday, baptism, holiday, etc.), CTR Ring Helper (this child goes around the room giving a small candy to all who have their CTR ring on), Binder Helper (this child passes out the binders when it is time for worksheets), Roll (this child fills out the roll and slips it under the door), Sit By Teacher (this child can sit by the teacher during sharing time), Opening Prayer, Closing Prayer, Class Song Leader (this child leads the class in our class song which is Choose The Right Way from the Children's Songbook.)

10 Minutes
Opening Prayer
Calendar
Class Song

15 Minutes
Lesson

15 Minutes
Binders--Each binder contains colored pencils and a mechanical pencil. Each week Sister M. puts workpages and activities into the binders for the kids to do. These range from worksheets to coloring pages and puzzles.

If there is extra time, we usually do songs (the class is learning I Am A Child of God in sign language right now.)

Child Information

When I was first called to work with M. I decided to speak with his parents to get a better feel of what they were hoping for in a helper for M. They helped me to better understand M. and his needs. Because I had spoken to them, I felt better prepared to help M. in primary. Here is a form you could give to parents, or better yet, go to there home and work on it together.

January 2010: Week 4

CTR A Lesson 4 "I Chose To Follow Jesus Christ"

I will have pictures 240 from the Gospel Art Kit and picture 2-4 from the library on hand as a visual. Other than the pictures, I do not have any modifications to this weeks lesson.

Sharing Time: Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ Love Me
*Having the words to the song I Know That My Savior Loves Me was a huge help last week. I think I will try to print off many of the other songs we sing during singing time.

*Towards the end of primary, during sharing time, my little guy was really struggling. He really needs a wiggle activity at this time. Since we can't just stand up and wiggle (doesn't that sound fun though?!) I've decided to try to put together a little book that incorporates each weeks theme in sharing time that M. can look at. He loves books, so I think this might be helpful for that last little part of church where he starts to get anxious. I am going to print out the following for this week. I will color, laminate, then hole punch the top and loop some string through it. If M. starts to get the wiggles I will pull this out and let him flip through it during sharing time. I think this will be the least disruptive to the little ones around him, while still providing something to do.

Pictures are from January 1992 Friend Magazine

Pictures for Songs

I noticed that the little guy I get to hang out with is struggling the most during Sharing Time. There is a lot going on, and it can be quite overwhelming for him. He really has had a hard time during music--lots of words, not many pictures or visuals. So I printed out the pictures and words to this months song. Next month I plan on doing the same thing, but will print off the "Thumbnail Version" that is offered to help save on ink.

Here is the link for this months song:

http://www.jollyjenn.com/IKnowThatMySavior.pdf

The website with all of the Children's Songbook songs is www.jollyjenn.com

Schedule

All kids, with and without disabilities, can benefit from knowing their schedule. Here are a couple of pages that you could use to make an easy and portable schedule board. I use one with the little guy I work with, and he consults it quite often to see "where we're at." Mine is laminated. All of the pictures are laminated as well, and have little pieces of velcro on the back (the soft side.) The board has a strip of velcro on it (the rough side) that the pictures can stick too. This makes it so that I can change the schedule based on what is going to be happening that week. (All pictures from Sugardoodle.net)

January Week 3 Sharing Time

Theme: Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ Love Me

Coloring Page:

CTR A Lesson 3 Visuals

This lesson has lots of visuals already. Here are the visuals for the story found on p. 14 of the CTR A manual. Click on the image and then print--these images are set to print as 8.5 x 11

Uses for These Pictures:

1. Visual for the story
2. Sequencing Cards
3. Make 2 sets for a matching game

I have recently been called to work with a 7 year old little guy in my ward who has autism. As I began to search for resources, I realized that there were very few--especially pertaining to primary. With my special ed degree in hand I decided to work on creating activities that correlated with the lesson in both this little guys primary class, as well as in Sharing Time. I am definitely learning as I go! This little boy is in the CTR A class, so my information will be mostly associated with that lesson manual.

I will also post additional more generalized information about working with young children with disabilities. I hope this blog can provide information and resources as we serve the youngest of Heavenly Father's Children.