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Blog #1 - Background (August 24th, 2020)What are Task Boxes?
Task Boxes are used to help special needs students learn and better understand their motor skills. Motor skills including simple tasks such as standing, walking, and going up the stairs. These task boxes will help students improve their fine motor skills such as; finding and sorting. Our Connection: My fellow group members (Kennedy Stephenson, Whitney Miller, and Addie Halter) and I graduated all from Doe Creek Middle School. When we were there, Mrs. Amos was one of the resource teacher. She assisted each and every one of our special needs students. She not only encourage them to learn, but was a bright smile we saw everyday walking through the hallways. Project Proposal: During Our Project Proposal we presented our idea to Mr. Large, our fellow students, and administrators. We laid out our objectives and the logistics and finally asked for their input on our idea. We got lots of positive feedback as well as things that would help our cause. Our goal was to get the needed materials and put together the task boxes within the next week. Putting Together the Boxes: Mr. Large thought it was a good idea for our group to apply for a grant to receive the necessary money needed to obtain items and the materials that we needed. We then took a day out of the week and traveled to the Greenfield Dollar Tree. My group and I found various items that we thought would be exciting for the special needs students to interact with. To start, we decided to put together three different boxes that would help in different aspects of the students lives. One box we called the, Everyday Findings. In this box we placed various different items that would be found in someones day to day life such as; a cup, fork, toothbrush, and hair tie. We created this box so the students could place the items into categories that they belonged too. (toothbrush with floss, hairbrush with bow, cup with fork, etc.) Next, we created a box that would enhance their sensory skills. We filled this box with rice as well as small fun objects. The objective is to find every object in the box through the rice. Our final box we called the Color Sort. In this box the students will have to sort each object into a pile with their coordinating color - so all the pink items would be grouped together and all the blue items would be grouped together etc. We thought it was a good idea to only start with three boxes to see what the response from the students would be like. Our goal is to have a positive outcome on the boxes and be able to create more. Blog #2 - Next Steps (September 4th, 2020)Giving the Boxes:
Last week we gave Mrs. Amones the task boxes we put together. She gave us some feedback for the future boxes, but overall she really like what we put together. For our future boxes she told us to create more ideas for the boxes. Then after testing them out for a few weeks we could use the rest of the grant money we received, to purchase more supplies to make the boxes that the kids liked the best. The New Boxes: We came up with three more box ideas. Our first box idea is to help the students with their numbers and letters skills. For this box we will cut slits in the box and place letters from the alphabet above the cuts. The students will put the correct numbers and letters in the correct opening. The next box will have pipe cleaners and beads in the box. The object of this box is to thread the beads through the pipe cleaners based off of a key that we will provide in the box. The last box is going to help the students with memorization and consists of jewels and beads. There will be a key and the students will follow what's on the paper; correctly matching each jewel on the paper. Getting the Supplies: We traveled back, as a group, to Dollar Tree in Greenfield, with our masks in hand. We spent about an hour walking up and down the aisle finding the necessary items that we needed. (All the items were purchased with out left over grant money.) The first 20 mins were spent simply looking at what the store had to offer and how we could use certain items in our boxes. The Preparation: For this upcoming week we will begin putting together the next three boxes. Since we don't have school on Monday, due to labor day, we will start putting together the boxes on Tuesday. We plan to finish this sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday, and then take the boxes over to the middle school sometime next week. Blog #3 - More Boxes (September 18th, 2020)Completing the Boxes:
We used the ideas and materials purchased the week before to complete the new boxes. We ended up making three more boxes to give to Mrs. Amones. They consisted of block patterns, letter matching, and bead sorting. We then took the completed boxes to the middle school to drop off to Mrs. Amones and the special needs students at the middle school. New Box Ideas: Our next three box ideas took a lot of thinking. Whitney wanted to create a box where the students would do something with pom pom balls. After looking on Pinterest, we came up with a box that would be fun and again, work with the students sensory skills. In this box the students will place the pom pom balls in ice trays using tongs. Our next box contains keys and locks, the students will pick a lock and find the matching key. Our third box we called Bead Patterns. In this box we had Ziplock bags that contained pictures, beads, and directions as to how to complete this box. Our final box is called, Fill in the Number. This box has popsicle sticks with the numbers 1 through 12 with a missing number. The objective of this box is to place a clothes pin with the matching number on the popsicle stick. Giving the Boxes: We were able to pass along the boxes to the Junior High this week as well. With all the boxes we have been making, Mrs. Amones told the resource teacher at the high school about our service project. Our next goal is to create boxes for Ms. Westerman, the resource teacher at the high school. Blog #4 - October 1st, 2020Getting the Supplies:
This week we worked on getting new supplies for new boxes for Mrs. Westerman's resource class. On Monday, we left class and went to Walmart and to the Dollar Tree. At Walmart we purchased sturdier boxes that we learned were batter quality than the boxes at the Dollar Tree. Mrs. Westerman sent us with a list of things she would like us to get, so at the Dollar Store we purchased; utensils, containers, and little Etch-A-Sketches. The Boxes: The first box consists of knifes, forks, spoons, and a container for each utensil. The object of this task box is to sort each utensil into their own box. The next box, we printed and laminated photos of clothing items. The students will sort out the items into the correct container. Finally, the third box, we wrote out pre-primary words on paper and laminated then. The students are supposed to write on the Etch-A-Sketch boards the words that were laminated. For the Future: The end of the quarter is this week, so we tried wrapping up our project. We don't have Service Learning until quarter four, so we plan on picking up where we left off. We might extend our branches out to more schools in the county to help other resource classes. We plan on coming up with new, exciting ideas that we can apply to the new boxes. Blog #5 - April 8th, 2021A New Start:
With the start of fourth quarter, our service learning class started back up again. My group and I still wanted to continue our Task Box project through the end of the year. The responses and feedback we got from the teachers last year were very positive. At the start of the quarter we created an outline on PowerPoint of what we were going to be doing the weeks leading up to spring break. Our Ideas: The week before spring break I looked up new ideas for our upcoming projects. On Pinterest I screen-shotted different possible task box ideas that we could use. We went down to the special needs classroom to show Mrs. Westerman our new ideas. She loved them and also gave us more possible ideas. Getting the Supplies: The week of March 15th my group and I went to the dollar store to get some needed supplies. We got small wooden blocks that we planned on painting so the student then matches the color block to the matching color square on a piece of paper. We already had toilet paper rolls, so we bought tissue paper to Mod Podge onto the rolls. For this box the objective is for the student to place the objects of the coordinating color into the toilet paper rolls. Box Ideas: Mrs. Westerman asked our group if we could create 'task boxes' that where in folders to save storage space. I found many different folder ideas that would help the student further develop their motor skills. One task folder will include Velcro and household objects on small pieces of paper. The goal is for the student to stick the the household item onto the coordinating room in the house. For example, we printed off silverware, table with chairs, and a refrigerator - the student will place these items in the kitchen. For the Future: We plan on completing the boxes/folders next week and delivering them the week after. We might try to expand our reach to the elementary schools in the near future. |