I have got a bone to pick. With nobody in particular. Just an annoyance. Indoor recess. Part of me loves it because I don’t have to drag my lazy butt down to the playground and it gives us a few extra minutes to finish up our reading class. But at the same time – my kids get antsy. You can see it. They have got the squirms. The I-have-been-sitting-too-long-and-may-explode- squirms. I get it. They are kids. We needed a fun way to get them moving… but still in a classroom appropriate way. I also wanted to something that could become semi-indepedent because I have been loving using the few spare moments during recess time to pick up the room from the morning madness.
Problem solved: Move it or Lose it! I made 3 versions of visual cue cards for movements, emotions, and imagination actions. They turned out so dang cute and my kids love it! They take turns picking a card and everyone has to do the specified action.
These are great for a quick movement break in between activities. Research shows movement helps get more blood flow to the brain! Children with autism benefit from a visual cue when following one step directions. These cards are great to work on gross/fine motor skills, turn taking, motor imitation, receptive/expressive language, and following directions! Great to work on ABLLS tasks.
They were actually fairly easy to set up. If you cut the circle up – you can fit 6 on one laminating page. Then I just glued each circle to a popsicle stick. I stored each set in a pencil holder!
I also made a set with emotions. My kids love practicing emotions and it is GREAT for behavior management. Students with autism often don’t have the language to explain how they are feeling so working on emotions gives them the language to instead of having a meltdown. Practicing emotions has been essential for the progress of my students.
The last set I made is the most fun! These cards are all actions for imaginative or pretend play. They LOVE these. Some are super silly. I also included a cheat sheet for the movements so you know what the pictures mean!
Check out the video product preview to see what I’m talking about:
Move it or Lose it {Visual Movement Cues}
Move it or Lose it {Visual Emotion Cues}
Move it or Lose it {Visual Act it Out Cues}
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One Response
Have these and we use them ALL the time!