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Goal

Life skills training equips people with the social and interpersonal skills that enable them to cope with the demands of everyday life.
The goals of using a life skills classroom in my class is to build self-confidence, encourage critical thinking, foster independence and help my students to communicate more effectively.
Another goal is to improve student's individual independency in their daily life, to prepare them to live as independently as possible, and prepare them for job skills to be a productive community member.
Another goal is to help improve safety concerns with daily living skill (signs, fire extinguisher, operating appliances, electrical safety around water, etc), health - brushing teeth, grooming, dressing, etc. (if you have dollars left, order toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, soap, etc). and how these skills need to be introduced early and often in order for our students to do them automatically or with minimal cueing.
 

 

What will be done with my students

This grant would help our students with several essential living skills needed to become successful members of society and grow in self-dependence which later helps them with their own independence. It will also help with daily living skills for cognitively and/or developmentally delayed students that require training and constant repetition. With the use of these materials, my students will not only develop a sense of independence but it will allow them to further develop their social skills, organizational skills (folding laundry, stocking cabinets, putting up dishes/utensils), math skills (counting money, inventory, graphing, measurements of liquid and dry ingredients), reading skills (reading a menu, school map, community connections, recipes) and most importantly life skills including job preparation! Also, having these accessible in the classroom for teaching my students would also help benefit them on how to safely prepare simple meals using both a microwave and stove, washing and folding clothes, washing and putting away dishes, stocking cabinets and refrigerator with appropriate food and to set and prepare table. By teaching these skills, it will help incorporate all functional and educational skills needed to be successful throughout their lives. Starting at a younger age will help prepare them when they move on to other grades in their educational career.

These items will add to what the classroom has already purchased for this year, and help to create a more functional and appropriate learning environment.

List of items requested for purchase and their usage:
The Kitchen Hutch will promote teaching real life organizational skills, stocking, sorting, counting, awareness, and fill and stack for the students. Students will experience job skills as related to being able to stock shelves, etc.

The Sink will promote teaching real life experiences such as sorting, safety with water, hygiene, and be a valuable helper with big kid chores at home. Dishwashing is an important practical life activity through which the students will develop concentration, become aware of order and sequencing, gain control over their movements, become more independent, and learn to care for their surroundings

The Range will promote teaching students practicing how to use and operate it, adjust the power level, clean it, and know the basic principles of operating, caring for, and also use of cooking on a stove and in a microwave oven, as well as the safety concerns with all appliances. Student's will use knowledge of numbers sense, reading skills, and communication skills.

Melissa and Doug learning accessories:
-Pizza play food set will promote teaching students real life experiences on how to prepare a pizza for home or a job skill. They will learn how to put toppings, cutting and serving up six custom slices for their friends, family and even happy customers in their community. Student will use math skills, reading skills, and safety skills.

-Wooden Slice and Stack Sandwich Counter will promote teaching students real life experiences and help encourage counting, sorting, and fine motor skills, imaginative play and storytelling, and also job skill training. The deli counter includes a play meat and cheese slicer for the wooden play food, and felt sandwich roll and toppings to create sandwiches ordered from the menu. There is a wooden dressing bottle, play snacks, and a cup with drink insert to round out meals that customers can pay for with the included play money! An illustrated guide helps with sandwich prep and shows students how to use the accessories safely.

-Slice and Toss Salad set will promote teaching students real life experiences, help students develop hand-eye coordination, motor skills, and social skills when sharing with peers or grown-ups. It will also promote teaching students helpful job skills, and with using the reusable menu by take orders from family members or other students, will help improve reading, listening skills, and communication skills.

-Wooden Pantry Products will promote teaching students real life experiences for creative expression and imaginative thinking, communication, stocking, organizational skills, and generalization skills with similar products.

-Slice and Bake Wooden Cookie set will promote teaching students real life experiences with the slice and bake pretend play food, to experience how to bake, decorate, and serve cookies, all while practicing fine motor skills, learning number concepts, and more, all while learning valuable job skills.

-Wooden Food Groups will promote teaching students real life experiences helps children plan a well-balanced meal by introducing the basics of nutrition, and it can be used to teach early number skills, color recognition, sorting, and grouping.

-Stainless Steel Pots and Pans will promote teaching students real life experiences using real cookware, Student will experience real time play when using the cookware while preparing food.

-Stir and Serve Cooking Utensils will promote teaching students real life experiences and aid in recognizing, differentiating, and develop recall by using repeated practice with the pots and pan. Students will develop better hand-eye coordination and experience actual food preparation.

-House Wash and Dry Dish set will promote teaching students real life experiences and aid in learning job skills. Students will learn how to set the table, wash dishes, build social skills, encourage communication, and even get practice doing big-kid chores.

-5-Piece Condiments set will promote teaching students real life experiences for creative expression and imaginative thinking, communication, stocking, organizational skills, and generalization skills with similar products. Students will be able to use and reusable menu card with creative combination ideas.

-Wooden Fridge Food set will promote teaching students real life experiences, aid in fridge food set up, and help to promote creative expression while teaching basic shapes, colors, words, and number recognition. Students will be able to us these as novel manipulatives for counting, sorting, and more. Students will be able to engage with all accessories by identify which items belong, such as in the refrigerator and which belong in the freezer, or asking them to identify letters of the alphabet on the food items.

-Grocery Cans will promote teaching students real life experiences such as how grocers stock and shelve grocery cans, boxes, bottles, etc. Student will be able to learn how to sort and group, color recognition, and awareness of different types of food. Student will be able to stock a pantry with this collection of lidded cardboard play-food cans. Students will be able to open and close, fill and stack, sort and match the canned foods. Students will experience related job skills by stocking, sorting, separating, and organizing shelves.

 

 

Benefits to my students

My students are dependent upon adults for most of their self-care needs which includes all meal preps, washing, folding, and putting away clothes and all hygiene care. They need to be able to do as much as possible for themselves to prepare them for their individual functional level of independence for future needs.

Household Skills:
People with special needs can be trained to have practical living skills such as maintaining the safety of a house. Cleaning the house and shopping for groceries are some of the things they can be taught to do. They also need to learn how to store food properly, and check the expiration date of meat, canned food, and other edible items. This emphasizes both their reading and math abilities.

Community Skills: Community living skills are any behaviors that contribute to independence in the community and include such skills as shopping, meal preparation, and cooking, restaurant use, apartment upkeep, personal hygiene, laundry skills, public transportation use and pedestrian skills, leisure skills, use of technology, job skills.

Hygiene Skills: Personal hygiene is part of a daily ritual that usually follows the same pattern. Making it part of students' daily routines, where they do the same things in a specific order each morning or night, will help them remember what they need to do. This routine can be written out in the form of a checklist for students to refer back to. Here is an example that students might use for their morning schedule before school, such as 1. Wake up. 2. Shower: wash hair and body. 3. Get dressed. 4. Brush or comb hair. 5. Eat breakfast. 6. Brush teeth. 7. Put on socks and shoes. 8. Get backpack. 9. Walk to bus stop.

Job Skills: Teaching Important Job Skills to People with Special Needs requires these important skills to be taught with repeated practice: Punctuality. Reliability. Strong work ethic. Ability to follow directions. Willingness to accept and respond to feedback. Solid decision-making Problem-solving skills. Good social and communication skills. Strong time management skills.

Safety Skills: Cooking and baking can be lots of fun, but students have to know the safety rules so
they can avoid injuries or food poisoning. Teaching students how to: explain ways to stay safe in the kitchen
discuss why kitchen safety is important, create a plan to stay safe in the kitchen.

Academic Skills:
1. Math
Count the ingredients
Identify numbers and fractions on measuring tools
Teach and compute simple math concepts
How many ⅓ cups will we need to get to 1 cup?
We put in 1 scoop of flour but we need 4. How many more scoops do we need?
2. Reading
Read the recipe
Read, or listen to, the recipe and answer comprehension questions
Letter or sight word hunt throughout the recipe
3. Sequencing
Lay out 2-4 steps of the recipe and have the child sequence them into working order
4. Bilateral coordination
Use the “helper hand” (i.e. non-dominant hand) to stabilize the food/container while using the “worker hand” snips, cuts, chop, or stir
5. Motor Coordination
Scoop ingredients and pour into containers
Carry ingredients from one place to another
6. Writing
Have the child write any words they know from the recipe
Copy the recipe onto DIY recipe cards and mail to a friend or family member
Make place cards for members of the family by writing their names on paper
Write out a menu for dinner to share
7. Executive Function
Ask questions around the process of the recipe that gets the child thinking critically. For example, what do you think would happen if we cooked this for 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes?
 

 

Budget Narrative

The total monies of $865.85, will go towards the play kitchen hutch, sink and range, and are the big equipment pieces to be used to set up functional learning area within the classroom. The total monies of $224.06, will be for accessories to use as tools to perform the lessons being taught for functional skills to be learned and to promote their independent level of self-care, and be productive community members.  

 

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