We    ASL

Making Teaching Supplies

 

Head over to the Parents Printables page for printable teaching/parenting supplies!

 

Making your own teaching supplies is not hard. Here's a few things to have on hand before you start that will make it a lot easier, but I'm sure you can think of even more great materials to work with! Use whatever you have on hand, or pick up some crafting supplies on the cheap at the dollar store to make your own fancy teaching supplies! P.s. - some dollar stores even sell some teaching supplies, don't forget to check that section out!!

 

My Favorite Supplies for Making Supplies (ha..) :

 

Construction Paper            Glue            Thermal Laminator(Okay, this is not a dollar store find, but you can get one at walmart for $26, a worthy investment!)

Colored Pencils          Markers           Glitter Glue          Tape

Sequins          Paint             

 

 

 

Flash Cards (Level - Easy) -

Flash cards are an easy and creative way to start helping your kid. Flash cards can be made to be simple on index cards, or very elaborate and full page size. When Lizzie was a toddler we had full sheets of construction paper we would make flash cards from, then laminate. We did the letters of the alphabet with the handsign drawn on back, as well as our routines, and common household objects. Now that she's older we do index flash cards for our spelling, math, and signing. Flash cards are a great tool to create yourself because when you make your own you have complete control over what's on the flash card, from subject matter to difficulty level. A word of caution, sitting down and doing flash cards for 1/2 an hour might work for older children, but don't expect more than idle playing and a few minutes of attention per session with a toddler. Always work at your child's pace and take frequent breaks if need be.

 

Auditory Training - Ling Sounds (Level - Varies) -

If your child is only hard of hearing, or implanted, or for whatever reason..you have chosen to use auditory english with your child, these are sounds you will need to know. Spend some time researching the Ling sounds. They are as follows: "Oooh", "Aaaah", "Eeee", "Ssss", "Shhh", and "Mmmm". The basic idea behind the Ling sounds is that if you can hear these 6 sounds you can hear all (or most) of spoken language. The first step is to obtain or make some Ling cards. We've had some our speech therapist made, and some I had made for home use. The next step to playing with the Ling sounds is to train your child on a visual representation for each sound, so they can sign to you which one they hear. For us a train track made the "oooh", and airplane flying made the "aaah", sliding down a slide was "eee"(as in, 'weee!'), pretending to eat ice cream for "mmm", putting the finger over the mouth as if to hush for "shhh", and signing snake for "sss". After your child can clearly label all the Ling sounds quiz him/her. Start with 2 possible choices, 2 cards out. Make the identifing sound for one card. For example, you might be showing "Ooh" and "Shh", then you would vocalize one or the other, and expect your child to select the right one. For a child who has usable hearing this is a great way to get them paying attention to all sorts of different sounds as well as distinguishing them from each other. As the child gets better you can put down more cards for them to choose from and cover your mouth so they must depend soley on the sound to identify the card. This can easily be done by covering your mouth with your hand, a book, a folder, or a sewing loop with some dark fabric in it, which is what our therapist used. I just used whatever was near me and not too fascinating, as to avoid distractions from the game itself.

 

Auditory Training - Distinguishing Words (Level - Varies) -

This is another form of auditory training we were taught by our therapist. It can be done to an easy level, or you can move up and make it more difficult. This game can be played with a wide variety of objects including dolls, puzzles...basically anything with assorted pieces that could be assembled and have different names. So, the objective here is to start with 2 syllables and move your way up, and this helps your child learn to notice the differences between words. I'll give an example here of how to do this with a baby doll, and a puzzle. First, we'll have a baby doll in front of us and she will have a bottle, a jacket, shoes, socks, and maybe a bear or something. I'll put two objects in front of lizzie, say a sock and a bottle. I will say the word and count the syllables on my arm with my index finger. (See video below) So, for sock I would say "Sock" and count once on my arm. For bottle, I would say it and count twice with the word "bot-tle". Over time you can move up to larger syllable words and more choices, but as always, go at your childs pace.

 

Flower Pot Chore Picker (Level - varies) -

All 3 of my older girls loved this when they were smaller. I used this with them from ages 4-7, roughly. We filled a small flower pot with small pebbles, you could also use sand if you weren't scared of a mess and sealed the bottom, but rocks worked for us. I had the kids think of their favorite chores to help with, and then let them help me color popcicle sticks with green marker and shape pipe cleaners into flowers. The girls picked their favorite pom-poms, and while they had a snack I assembled the chore flowers. I wrote a chore on the bottom in magic marker, and on the top I hot glued a flower and a pom-pom for a center. It helps to either use small hand writing or use tongue depressors instead of popcicle sticks. After they're all dry shove their bottoms into the pebbles, hiding the chores on bottom. When it's time for everyone to help the kids can take turns picking flowers and finding out what they GET to help (rather than have to help) with until everything is done. This is a fun way to divy up who does what and keep everyone on task without having them fight and argue over who gets to do what. No one picks this way, and yet, they all got a chance to! :) Everyone wins...especially Mom, who know has an army of cleaning minions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dry - Erase Anything - A great trick I picked up working with Lizzie's teachers over the years is that anything laminated is now dry erase. Blank pages become small portable white boards, math sheets can be done over and over again (save on printing!), maps and territories can be practiced! You are limited by your own imagination! Lamintion is also great for flash cards you want to keep around.