My students need access to a variety of engaging and hands on toys, such as, magnetic letters and numbers, Hot Potato, and Play-Doh, in order to learn age appropriate social skills such as play, communication, sharing, and taking turns.
I teach kids. My classroom consists of kindergarten, first, and second graders with autism. But before anything else they are kids.
Like all kids they want and need to play, have friends, have fun, find enjoyment in their environment.
Unlike some kids, they may not yet have the social and communication skills necessary to do these things.
Our classroom is part of a typical early childhood through grade five elementary school, and like other classrooms we learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. We also learn communication, school behavior, social skills, and self-help skills. My classroom has a very low student to teacher ratio as to allow for more direct and individualized instruction. However, my students also spend parts of their day in class with their general education peers, and sometimes peers come into my classroom for activities such as structured play groups and group games.
My Project
Kids love toys. It's that simple. Having a variety of engaging toys such as magnetic letters and numbers, Hot Potato, and Play-Doh, in our classroom will allow me to keep communication and social learning varied, interesting, and engaging. Not only will this motivate my students to learn and practice communication and social skills, it will allow my students and others to interact naturally, playing with toys as all kids do. As a teacher of students with autism, it is part of my job to create and support interactions between my students and their peers. With a variety of engaging toys, I can do so in a more age-appropriate way.
This project will enhance the learning of the students in my classroom.
It will impact students throughout the school who come to play with my students. It will let all of our kids to just be kids.
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