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One of the things we've been working on this week is having our five year old daughter learn my cell phone number. I feel so much better now that she knows it and will be able to contact me on my phone. While we were working on it, I came up with this fun and easy game to learn a phone number. It also works great as a game for learning numbers.

I used:

I began by cutting the paper in half horizontally with my favorite paper cutter. Of course, if you don't have a rockin' paper cutter like me (thanks, Mom!), you could use scissors. And extra large index cards would probably work well also.

Then I wrote the numbers 0-9 onto the paper. For some reason I thought writing the numbers would be quicker than just printing them off the computer. Yeah, not so much. So you can either write them if you're feeling creative or just print the things off and save yourself some time. 😉

You can choose to laminate your numbers at this point. I didn't at first, but once I realized all the different ways I could use the number cards, I knew they needed to be laminated for later use. And why yes, I do have a favorite laminator as well. Has my nerd factor just gone off the charts?

Next, you will want tape the numbers onto a large open area on your floor in the order you would find them on a phone.

Now for the fun part! Have your children toss bean bags - or other objects that do not bounce or roll when thrown - onto the digits of the phone number they are learning in the correct sequence. We didn't have enough bean bags, so we used a juggling ball and a koosh ball too.

To get the wiggles out, my kiddos practiced the phone number by jumping to each number in the correct sequence. This is where lamination comes in very handy! You could also play a variation of this with the "pop" learning game I shared last year. Even our three year old was able to enjoy this game by practicing simple number recognition.

And because the fun and learning never stop around here, we turned the game into our own version of Twister with numbers! This is good for number recognition and practicing left versus right.

You can find more ways to teach children their phone number here. The post includes songs, crafts, and more for learning both phone numbers and addresses! Do you have any fun ways you practice learning phone numbers with your children? We'd love to hear about them!

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Fun Game to Teach Children Their Phone Number

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One of the things we've been working on this week is having our five year old daughter learn my cell phone number. I feel so much better now that she knows it and will be able to contact me on my phone.

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Level 3: Expressive Language

Conversation skills are something we take for granted. We engage in conversations seamlessly and without second thought. We don't need to remind ourselves to comment when someone is telling us a story or what appropriate body language looks like when engaging in small talk with a coworker. It's second nature. All of those social skill rules related to having a conversation are engrained in our head. We know the correct volume to talk, we know to ask reciprocal questions, and we know how to switch topics appropriately. We are lucky. However for some of our learners with autism - navigating the dangerous minefield of engaging in a conversation is about as terrifying as a Monday morning without coffee. Keeping track of all of these rules is overwhelming to say the least. Some of our kids don't pick up these rules naturally - they need to be directly taught. The pressure is on, teacher friends!

So where the heck do we even start with this monumental task?

Here a few key skills to focus on:

Commenting. Commenting is huge. You may want to work on this with your husband too and teach him the importance of those head nods and uhuhs as you tell him the 25 minute story about what happened to you while you were at starbucks this morning. Commenting is essential because it lets others know that you are listening to them. It lets them know you are engaged and you are paying attention. People like to talk to people who pay attention to them. Cough, cough... husband. We want our students to be people that others want to talk to.

Reciprocal Questions. It's generally considered rude when someone asks you how you are and you don't ask them back. People take that as a lack of interest. It's just not very nice. Friends are interested in their friends. When a friend gets asked a question, they ask it back because they are interested in their friend's response. (Social Thinking's Unwonderer)

Staying on Topic. Sometimes our kids can be all me, me, me. If given the option the would spend all day talking about Cars 2 and Lightening McQueen and be completely happy as a clam. But guess what? Nobody wants to be friends with that kid. Nobody wants to spend all day talking about one topic. We need our kids to be flexible and be willing to talk about topics that aren't their favorite. That means staying on topic and not diverting it to reptiles or American Airlines the second they get the chance.

Initiating Conversations. Some of our kids may be great conversationalists once they get on a roll when someone starts chatting them up. But what about beginning a conversation on their own? It'd be a boring world if we sat around all day waiting for others to talk to us. We want our learners to appropriately and effectively initiate their own conversations without missing a beat.

Now that we have some skills to focus on - how do we teach these concepts? It's all about modeling and practicing. Our kids need so.much.practice on this. They need to see the appropriate way of doing things time and time again before they are able to do it on their own. Don't let this discourage you. It will get there. And when it does - it's oh so rewarding.

Tips for Modeling and Prompting

Have two adults in one social skill group. It's hard to model a conversation when you are by yourself. You sound like a crazy person talking to themselves. It will be hard for your student to see the natural flow of a conversation when you are trying to model alone. Consider scheduling your social skill instruction during a time when a paraprofessional or clinician can be in your group with you. My speech therapist and I always work on conversation skills when she is in our room so we can model each concept accurately. Works like a charm!

Directly prompt your students what to say. Initially your student may not pick up on what phrases they are supposed to repeat or imitate after you model. You may need to directly prompt them to say certain phrases. Tell them, "Say oh cool" at first until they are consistently repeating you. Once they are successful with that - a simple nudge, eye contact, or "What should you say?" can be effectively at providing a prompt.

Follow the same conversation pattern for multiple members of the group. If you are asking each person in your group the same question - such as What did you have for dinner last night? Your student will have the opportunity to hear the conversation structure several times and by the time it's their turn - they should be familiar with what they are supposed to say and ask.

Use social stories to review conversation rules. Social stories are perfect to review the rules and structure of a conversation. Before starting your conversation time or beginning a social skill group - read a social story on a specific concept you want your student to improve on. This will allow them to have these prompts fresh in their head before rolling into the conversation. These conversation specific social stories are from our Visual Social Story Packet Communication Set 1 and Communication Set 2.

Try Out Social Story Adapted Books. My new obsession is social story adapted books. It combines two of my favorite resources: Social Stories and Adapted Books. It gives students the opportunity to engage in a hands on task while working on behavior skills. Our first resource in this series: Communication Skills: Social Story Adapted Books contains 4 adapted books I Don't Interrupt, Asking Politely, Commenting, and Being a Good Listener and our perfect for this topic!

When to Practice Conversations

Weekend Chats. My favorite way to practice conversation skills is doing a pre and post weekend chat. My kids love this so much that it's the first thing they bring up Friday and Monday mornings. God forbid I forget one Monday and get several teenage eye rolls followed by, "Umm... Ms. Hallagan - you forgot chat about our weekend time." Once you get your kids in a routine - they will want to follow it. It's a great reminder and prompt for me. Us teachers can't remember everything all the time! So how this looks is on Fridays we ask everyone what they are going to do over the weekend. This familiar topic allows my students to pick up what comments and questions they should be asking. On Mondays, we ask everyone how their weekend was. I encourage my students to ask specific questions to their peers using their "friend file" (see Social Thinking). They need to remember what their peers talked about on Friday. So instead of "how was your weekend?" they should say "how was your brother's birthday party?" I have been amazed and beyond proud of my kids' progress at this throughout the year. In the fall, it was pretty rough. There was a lot of prompting, a lot of robotic responses, and a lot of quiet wait time. But after time, it got more natural. It got easier. By spring, my kids barely needed me to even be involved in this. It was seriously amazing to see.

Conversation Topic Cards. Conversation topic cards are another favorite way to work on a variety of conversation concepts. These prompt cards provide a topic and some example questions. This gets us our of the rut of talking about the same old thing and opens us up to new vocabulary and new themes. This is a great place to start and it's easy to differentiate this activity to make more complex.

Morning Meeting. Morning time or circle time is a perfect time of day to work on social skills because it is natural. You generally talk to your coworkers or colleagues in the morning. Think about the small talk you engage in on a regular basis. Consider adding a question of the day or designated conversation time to your morning group. This will give your students the routine and structure they need to help them be successful.

This post is part of the Cooking Up Communication Summer Series!

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Teaching Conversation Skills - The Autism Helper

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Conversation skills are something we take for granted. We engage in conversations seamlessly and without second thought. We don't need to remind ourselves to comment when someone is telling us a story or what appropriate body language looks like when engaging in small talk with a coworker. It's second nature.

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pg. 86 of chapter six talks about you should include peer review for the students, and how it will be worth while. We did this in a language arts class of our narrative stories, and I want to include it in my classroom. Students will give 2 stars which are things they did well, and one wish which can help them.

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Kindergarten Measurement - Elementary Technology Lessons

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Help your students be more independent! For use as a visual aide for children to reference in following directions for activities. This is especially helpful to post in areas where students may be completing small group activities or in your whole group area.

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As you are getting your procedures ready for back to school time? Here is a wonderful, FREE tip and trick to help you with your boys and girls in the hallway!
We use line order in our classroom.
The students line up in ABC order by last name.

It works great, everyone knows their place and no one starts fighting because "so and so" gave "so and so" cuts! No one is screaming, "she skipped me" "they hurt me" You know, you've been there ~ you get the picture!

There is nothing worse than your class walking in the hallway looking like clowns piling out of a clown car.

You may be an amazing teacher, but when your class is pushing, shoving and fighting in line, that image of you as a teacher is what parents share with each other at soccer, ballet, the park, etc!

Now, back to what A YES LINE means... A friend of mine taught me this and the kids ♥love♥ it!

When you are walking to lunch, they need to be quiet, facing the right way and have their hands, feet and objects to themselves. If they get to lunch correctly, they may move around and sit with a friend!

That's where the name comes from ~ Yes, you may sit with a friend, a YES LINE!

I spend every afternoon with 14 boys and this is the best thing ever for them!

If you have to go to recess or Music, you can carry over the theme of a "YES LINE" as they go there. Give them 5 extra minutes of recess if it is a Yes Line, or whatever reward your class likes, make it something they earn quickly each day or lose it quickly to prove a point!

You will stay upbeat and positive and your entire day will improve...
Continue Reading On My Blog
- Originally posted on Teaching Blog Addict

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Classroom Management "Yes Line" Behavior Trick! - Teach Junkie

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As you are getting your procedures ready for back to school time? Here is a wonderful, FREE tip and trick to help you with your boys and girls in the hallway! We use line order in our classroom. The students line up in ABC order by last name.

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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/23573598025230433/

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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/400679698071603083/

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Young students can easily be taught this method of conflict resolution. See how students in Ms. Hawkins pre k class use the Stop Sign method for conflict resolution.

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Conflict resolution for young students. Teach students the phrase, a Bug and A Wish! Students learn to work through problems with friends first. This cute poster can be used in your classroom to help reinforce this concept!

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This week, I'll be sharing a few of the classroom lessons I use with my Pre-K students. The first lesson in this series is one I use at the very beginning of the year with my Pre-K 3 students, and it is all about following rules and directions. Enjoy!

Since this is the first time I am going into these classes and meeting these students, I introduce myself as the counselor and ask the students what they think a counselor does {which always provides some fun answers...}. My main goal when going into the Pre-K classrooms is to make sure they know that I'm a counselor and that I help people. That way, they know who I am, what I do, and that I am someone in the school they can trust.

Once introductions are out of the way, I ask the students to tell me what rules they have to follow in their classroom and why it's important to have rules at school. Then, I read the book David Goes to School by David Shannon.

When I'm done reading, I let the students tell me their favorites parts of the book, and we talk about the different rules that David had to follow.

I then tell the class that we are going to play a very special game that will test how well they can follow rules and directions, and I show them my "magic wand" {cue oooohs and aaahs from the kiddos}.

This "magic wand," which is really the Magic Moves Electronic Wand by Educational Insights, is one of the best purchases I've made for a lesson. When you press the green button, the wand gives an instruction that the students have to follow, such as, "dive like a dolphin" or "crawl like a crab." While the kids do their best to follow the direction, music plays from the wand. When the music stops, the students have to freeze {another rule to follow}.

My pre-k students really enjoy this game and ask me throughout the year if I'm ever going to bring my magic wand to their class again. It's a simple, fun way to hold their little attention spans while giving them a chance to practice following directions.

Later this week, I will be sharing my pre-k lesson on kindness using the book One, so check back soon for a new post!

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Pre-K Lesson Series Part I: Following Rules & Directions

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This week, I'll be sharing a few of the classroom lessons I use with my Pre-K students. The first lesson in this series is one I use at the very beginning of the year with my Pre-K 3 students, and it is all about following rules and directions. Enjoy!

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Good idea for helping children learn to problem solve, and help themselves and others! Great conflict resolution idea for early learners.