Functional Life Skills

This year my students are aging out of elementary school (K-4) and currently there is not a self-contained middle school program. Guess who is piloting one this upcoming school year? Yup, we are. With the help and support of my supervisor and district BCBA, we are creating a completely individualized community based program. My students will practice self- help and daily functional living skills in the classroom, which in turn, will hopefully generalize to the home setting. We are also planning weekly field trips to work on safety, community and social skills. I already started to turn my classroom into a functional living setting for my students. Here are a few examples of what I've been working on:

Sort the recycling!

I ordered three cheap recycle bins from amazon.com and labeled them paper, plastic and glass. Recycle bins

I made these file folders by laminating pictures and using Velcro. My students have to place the right picture on the right page, depending on the item. 

   

These recycling visuals can be found Here on the amazing autism helper blog. I get lots of inspiration from that blog, along with The autism tank blog. 

In the bathroom area, I have set up a grooming station to reinforce daily hygiene and good habits. Here, my students are learning to brush teeth, hair, apply deodorant etc. After each skill is mastered, a grooming schedule is implemented to maintain the skills. Here is an example of a schedule one of my students follow:

Here is the station set up with the materials needed for each skill (face wipes, deodorant, tooth brushing and lotion)

Here is a schedule for applying deodorant found on boardmaker share.

This laminated worksheet is also set up in the bathroom station, and my students have to match each labeled body part to the picture (Velcro!) This worksheet can be found here from the education.com website. So many great resources at this site!

We also have a kitchen station, with a microwave and refrigerator so my students can learn how to use both. The students also set the table and sort utensils. 

Setting the table template found here

I found these utensil draw organizers for cheap on amazon.

That's all for now!