The Life Skills Room is one of those things that has been looming near the bottom of my to do list for weeks now. We had partially set it up – enough for some of our kids to use on a daily basis – but it wasn’t set up to my OCD like standards. We still had to make a new schedules, new numbers, and update a few visuals. Well – needless to say it FINALLY got done!
What is it? The Life Skills Room is a small supplementary classroom that another teacher and I use to work on life skills tasks. We asked my principal a few years ago for some extra space and he say yes! We use a room in the basement that is out of the way and that way nobody is jealous of our extra space 🙂 This room contains bigger tasks that work on life skills and vocational tasks. Some of these bigger tasks wouldn’t fit in my classroom.
Why is it important? Many of the parents of my students do not even realize everything their child can do! Although we have an academic focus of course – we need to incorporate life skills training as well! Our kids don’t learn these skills naturally and often need direct instruction on how to accomplish common daily tasks. This will allow our students to become a contributing member of their family and give them greater opportunity for functional independence in the future!
How do you use it? Several students work in small groups with the assistance of a paraprofessional or teacher. Some students use this room more often than others. Students who need more work on these types of tasks go this room daily or several times a week. Other students go once a week or every other week!
How is it organized? We use a visual color coded number schedule. Each task is labeled with a number and students have a mini schedule to show which tasks they need to accomplish. They match the schedule number to the task number, do the work, and then put the schedule number in the finished folder when they are done (spoiler alert: This schedule setup is part of tomorrow’s Freebie Friday!!).
I store the numbers like this:
What tasks are in the Life Skills Room?
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18 Responses
I love these ideas! I need to incorporate some into my classroom!
Kate
Great ideas. Where did you get the lovely placemats from?
Ugh – I can’t find them! I thought I got them from enasco.com but they aren’t on their any more. Some similar ones are here: https://www.zeebop.com/store/table-setting-placemat-04428.html also I found these worksheets which could be fun to make your own and laminate? https://info.sadlier.com/investigate-prek/bid/83366/Template-Tuesday-Table-Setting
Thanks Kate! 🙂
Fantastic! Thank you for that. Unfortunately for some of my students, dinner consists of sitting in front of the TV and eating with the hands (McDonald, KFC etc ). I have incorporated shared meals, table setting and table manners in to my cooking program. These will be helpful for two of my guys. Thanks again and have a great weekend!
Thank you for all of these great ideas! I will be starting a vocational/ transition program in January and these are some great ideas!
You’re welcome Barbara! Thanks for reading 🙂
This exactly what I am trying to set up. My 7/8 functional academic group needs practice with all of this and our OT had the sense to suggest a designated class. The way this is organized is exactly what we need! Thanks for sharing!
Although the kids my not eat at a table at home it is also a work skill. It cold potentially land them a job in a restaurant – bussing and setting tables. so great skill to learn all around.
Great point! This is awesome for job training!
i wish you were my sons teacher! I learn so much, as a parent from your products, and wish I could get the teacher and the district we are in to buy into the way you teach and structure the days. Would probably stop tons of behavior. Keep up the good work!
Awww that is so sweet! Thanks for reading! Good luck with back to school time!
Do you know how amazing you are!!! Thank you for loving your students as much as I do mine. Your ideas and fresh insight keeps my brain rolling!!! You’re a blessing to many. Thank you
Thank you so much! This sweet comment made my day!
This is very nice! Hope to apply these ideas soon 🙂
Awesome! Let me know how it goes!
Hi. Do you track these activities or your task boxes activities. Which tracking sheets do you use ?
Thank you.
Amazing ideas!!