Happy St. Patrick's Day Activities

With a holiday known for it's celebration of a particular color, I had to look to the symbols and other meanings to help explain St. Patrick's Day to my daughter. We talked about "green" as well, as I try not to leave out learning about colors simply because she cannot see them. (We can't see oxygen, but we must learn about it, right?!) Here are a few activities we did this week. Her favorite was the Rainbow Art!

ART - 3D Rainbow art

MATH - Counting gold coins

We used 3D coins with textured paper underneath to section off each part of the problem tactually.
 Each texture is different to represent each part of the number sentence!
3+2=5

The coins are then moved to the right of the equal sign to find the total sum!

Pot of Gold Math worksheet

Also try making different patterns using cutout with glitter glue gold coins, shamrocks and leprechauns!

IMAGINATION - Let's Dress Up!

Madilyn learned about leprechauns by being one! Here she is in her Leprechaun beard and hat.

I purchased Madilyn's hat at Michael's Craft Store, but here is a cute way to make your own paper leprechaun hat (via Pinterest).

BRAILLE - Braille name on shamrocks (mix up game)

madilyn

close up

COMMUNITY - Talk about the meanings of each leaf of the shamrock – faith, hope, love and luck

In a simpler wording, the Golden Rule states "Treat others as you would like to be treated." For many kids with birth defects that may make them look a little 'different' than others, or sound different, or learn differently, this is a VERY IMPORTANT lesson to learn!
This is also a perfect time to reinforce the importance of respect and manners. We read a chapter from "Winnie the Pooh's Book of Manners" each afternoon. Available via Bookshare's Read2Go App.

Inspired by Pinterest - Sensory Christmas Cards for Kids!

So if you haven't been introduced to 'pinning' on Pinterest, then I'm here to make that connection for you. At first you will love me for it, then you will curse me for showing you a way to use up so much of your free time. Then you'll thank me again...

Pinterest is your personal virtual corkboard. You can pin and repin pictures from anywhere on the web, or even from your phone. It is the world of pictures at your fingertips, with shots of everything from DIY crafts to good to pass up recipes to places you may only see in pictures. Check it out yourself, but be willing to be captivated... and by that I mean spend a couple hours or more on there! www.pinterest.com

Since the idea themes are approaching infinity in the Pinterest world, I have decided to narrow down this post to Sensory Christmas Cards for Kids! I 'repin' and 'like' numerous pins I think Madilyn would enjoy AND unlike some people, I actually do a few of these projects! So here I want to share a few with you. Enjoy!

Since this one is my favorite, I'll show it first! We made these cards and used a different finger for each color, with the exception of "Finger 6". It was a great way to relate the numbers of the dots with each numbered finger. Finger 1 makes Dot 1, Finger 2 makes Dot 2, etc... I pretended to be Mr. Elf, the cardmaking elf, while we finished the craft. We used green, red and white string from the scrapbook store for the string and Stickles glitter glue for the metal parts of the lights. Madilyn really enjoyed my funny "Mr. Elf voice" as well as making the cards for her to send out to our family!

Fingerprint Holiday Lights http://pinterest.com/pin/684729801/

Footprint Christmas Tree http://pinterest.com/pin/684729437/

Thumbprint Reindeer Love http://pinterest.com/pin/695766045/