Dollar More

Dollar More - With Visual Supports

I love teaching the dollar more strategy. For kids that have greater difficulty adding coins and bills together this strategy is genius. What you do is provide the students with a price for example $2.80. The student gives $2.00 for the bills and a "Dollar More" for the change to equal $3.00. What I created was a visual support to help students understand the difference between money before the decimal and the change after the decimal. This visual support has been extremely effective in teaching money skills. I like to place several pictures with the prices in front of the student and have them select the one they want to work on. This way we can also work on the skill of knowing if you have enough money to buy particular items. Here are a few suggestions to help with generalization and motivation.

1. Always use real money. If you are worried about stealing, keep the money in a locked box but use real money.

2. Find things the students would be interested in buying to have them practice their money skills. Then use a picture or the actual item while they practice. 

3. While teaching this skills also work on having the student identify if they have enough money to purchase an item. I like to place their favorite picture/item in front of them and then give them slightly less money than they need. This way they understand that just because you have money doesn't mean you can buy anything you want.

***4. If you have a student who is reluctant to work this can also be used as a behavior motivator. I will start the student off with $1.00. Then ask them which item they would like to buy and these are things that are classroom reinforcers such as run time, sensory time, extra recess, book time, special toy, small snack, anything reinforcing. Then I tell them that it will cost $6.00 to earn that particular item. The way they earn their money is to complete tasks in the classroom. One line of math = $1.00. One fine motor task = $1.00. Reading a story = $2.00, etc. This is like the "I am working for" program but requires a high level of thinking and a real life connection to money and the value of money. As the students become better at working I increase the amount of money to earn a given reinforcer.

5. You can also provide the students with a set of prices and bills to complete this task in your TEACCH system - You would want to closely monitor the money. One way to do this would be to have price cards in the TEACCH box and then the students would request the money from the teacher and return the money afterwards.

6. After the students are comfortable with using dollar bills then increase the difficulty level by having five dollar bills, then ten, and twenty dollar bills.

Dollar More - With Real Money  Visual Support

 Dollar More Printable

Positive Behavioral Supports

Visual Behavioral Supports

This is my behavioral system I have used in a classroom for years with students with a variety of ability levels. Below you will find a link for the visual cues. I purchased library pockets, wrote the students name on each pocket, then the kids added stickers. Each year we have a theme. This particular year was the ocean so the stickers are all from Finding Nemo. Then I laminated each pocket and made it so the pockets could open again use either an exacto knife or small sharp scissors. Each pocket has 4 pieces of laminated colored construction paper cut to a 3x5 size. The colors are green, yellow, red, and black. 

Everyday the students began their day with a green card. This meant their behavior was good. Then if they broke a rule all I had to say was "go pull a card" this meant they had to place the next color in front which is yellow. Yellow is simply a warning, to help them remember to follow the rules. Now if they changed their behavior and worked hard I would tell them to change their card back to green. However when they continued to misbehave they would pull another card. This would result in a red card and required them to fill out a "cool down card" (explained below). Even from a red card they could earn their way back to green, so there was always something to work towards. The final color in this system is black and this meant that they did not change their behavior and now the cool down card would be sent home and required a parent signature.

For those students who always stay on green I wanted to add an incentive to keep them motivated. I added stars to our behavioral system. When a student shared, played well with others, worked hard, etc. I would say go place a star by your pocket. Then at the end of the school day we would have a small reinforcement for each star the child earned. This ranged from stickers, small treats, extra play time, and more. At the beginning of each year I gave out "star prizes" every day to get the kiddos motivated. As they became motivated I moved to a random reinforcement schedule (at least 1 time per week). Now if a child had earned a star or 2 and then they had to pull a card they lost their stars. This behavior system was powerful. I have taught students with significant behaviors and for the most part, all students stay on a green card all day, and earn stars. I don't consider myself a pushover teacher either. I expect my kids to work hard, play hard, and learn lots. The fact that they can control their behaviors, earn positive rewards is incredible. 

Cool Down Card - Behavior Support

The Cool Down Card gives your students a little time to think about what they have done. I have used this cool down card for students with a variety of ability levels. My students that are lower functioning I have them tell me their answers for each question. If they have the capability to write I write their answers with a yellow highlighter and then they trace the writing. If the student cannot write I write the answers for them. My students that are higher functioning I have them fill the paper out on their own. This process allows the student time to cool down, process what they did wrong, and then rejoin the class.

On a side note my classroom walls are covered in carpet so everything is stuck up with Velcro.

 Cool Down Card
Visual Behavioral Supports

Money Library Pockets

Money Library Pockets - TEACCH

Money Library Pocket with Touch Dots on Money

Money is such a challenging skill for kids to learn and then to generalize to real life situations. This is an activity that I made to incorporate money skills into independent work in my TEACCH system. I found these money stickers at a teacher supply store. I put various amounts on each library pocket. One version has touchdots and one without. Then I made corresponding cards with pictures and prices. This is to help the kids learn to read price tags.  

Ideas for generalization of money: Vending Machines. Field Trips to a dollar store, if you cannot go to a store bring the store to the classroom and use real money to purchase items. Class stores with class money to learn about saving, spending, reading prices, and understanding if you have enough to buy a particular item.

Inclusion Idea

I know the push for students with disabilities is to get them into the general education classroom. One challenge I have faced is determining how my students are coping in the general classroom. When a paraprofessional or I look in on them I need to be able to decide if help is needed for the student or the teacher. I just saw a wonderful idea when I visited a High School. The students took with them a 3x5 car that was folded in half. One side was green and said, "doing fine" the other side was red and said, "I need help". I could simply walk by the door and see how each student was doing in the classes, without making a big deal, walking in, interrupting. Obviously a little training would have to be done to teach the student when and why to turn the card from green to red.

Velcro and the Many uses

My classroom had the carpet on the walls which was wonderful because all my bulletin boards were held up with Velcro. One other use that I have loved for Velcro is to label areas on the carpet. I purchased sewing hook, rough side Velcro (non-sticky back). Then on the side, that does not have Velcro and using a Sharpie you can label your Velcro tags. I placed a strip of Velcro by my 2 classroom doors that said, "Line Up" For my carpet area I had a few kids that could not sit by each other so I placed their names on Velcro and placed them away from each other. With Velcro you can easily pull it off the carpet and move it somewhere else when need be.  

Scooting

How many times have you sat down to work with a student and when you turn your back they have scooted away from you. Then you spend the next few minutes trying to get them back to their desk or table. I found that if you put the sticky-back Velcro hook (rough side) on the bottom of the chair legs the student will not be able to slide away easily. The Velcro will hold to the carpet. This also helps with kids that like to tip their chairs back on 2 legs.This is nice because when you no longer want the Velcro on the chair it comes off with a little sticky remover. 

K12 Money

Looking for another way to reinforce money skills check out the ipod/ipad app called K12 Money. This is a free app. It will allow you to work on counting money, making change, giving money, matching amounts, and showing values of money. Within each type of activity you have the option to choose easy, medium, or hard and also coins or bills and coins. Great versatility with realistic looking money.

Color Wheel TEACCH

TEACCH Color Wheel Task

A simple TEACCH task that involves fine motor with clothespins and matching colors. To make, simply create a color wheel out of different strips of paper, or an even simpler way is to make a pie chart on the computer and color each section a different color then print and laminate. I colored my clothespins with permanent markers. Some variations to this task would be to write the color word on the wheel and then match the colored clothespin to the written word (this would make the task a little more challenging). 

Step by Step Cooking

Cooking is an amazing life skill and one that can bring independence. For students that requires additional support to learn new skills here are a few ideas on how to teach basic cooking skills. Begin with basics such as toast, mac & cheese, quesadilla, (make sure it is something the individual will want to eat). With a camera take pictures of each step involved. For example if I were teaching quesadilla I would take a picture the fridge, cheese, tortilla, plate, cheese on the tortilla, microwave, amount of time on the microwave, and then eating the quesadilla. These pictures then serve as the prompt for cooking simple things. A little independence helps with self esteem and also helps the caregivers. There are places where you can purchase picture cookbooks. http://www.pcieducation.com/ This is an excellent place to buy items that work on functional life skills that can be worked on in the classroom and at home.