Middle School Life Skills class-need suggestions

[balancingact]

Since January I have worked in a middle school life skills class. We had to do the alternate assessments and get the shape into some order(I was the 4th teacher this year). We now have some semblance of order and I am looking for more ideas for this age/ability group. Cooking? Going out into the community..small jobs? Jobs around the school?...any suggestions would be welcome. We do some reading and math, plus short science/social lessons. They go out for music and APE. There are at present 12 kids ages 12-15 with greatly varying abilities-some will never walk or talk and it's difficult to gauge the level of comprehension and there are students who may go on to vocational training. There are 8 aides...the kids are easier to deal with.....

Anyone work with this kind of class?

[Chef Dave]

I haven't worked with this sort of class, but I've read about it as a way of helping kids to successfully bridge the change between Middle School and High School.

1) Teach kids basic study skills.

2) Teach them about bullying and peer conflict resolution.

3) Teach them about teamwork.

On a personal note, I wish more kids would learn how to balance a checkbook.

[FrazzleDazzle]

What kind of intellectual abilities/disabilities does this class have? I teach this kind of class in a high school setting; my kids all have IQs under 60. (Just for the record-- I don't put a lot of stock in those IQ scores. Two 16-year old students-- One who couldn't recognize the letters of his name and one who could read at a 5th grade level had the same IQ.) Back to the question-- if you tell me a smidge more I can tell you what I do that might be relevant to you.

[NewSPEDTeacher]

I would do cooking/baking on a weekly basis and sell the items made on Friday afternoons. Maybe students who are higher functioning can run the register with help from the assistants and lower functioning students maybe can wrap items in Reynolds Wrap, pass napkins to buyers, etc.

[balancingact]

Thanks for the replies! My students vary greatly in ability-one is(I believe)normal or near so but blind-and they range down to the equivalent of under one year. One may have greater abilities intellectually but is so seeverely handicapped physically it's hard to assess.

The bake sale is a good idea, I'll hve to see if it's possible.

[FrazzleDazzle]

Cooking is a good idea. “Cooking” can mean any food prep, too—making sandwiches or reading the directions to microwave something, for example. I try to make things I can imagine them making on their own (if not now, then someday), so not a lot of complex recipes. I have a book called “Look ‘n’ Cook Microwave” from Attainment Company and “Cooking to Learn” from PCI. This can lead to shopping as a community trip, which of course leads to paying and using money. Money skills are important, but every student doesn’t need every skill. I have students that are no longer trying to count change but are instead learning to “cover the change” with one extra dollar when paying.

Community trips are excellent. You are teaching a lot through exposure to different settings and events that you don’t even realize they need to learn. I found that many of my students are often left home on shopping trips, etc. because it’s easier for the parent, and just my taking them out and giving them an idea of how to behave in public goes a long way. Really, anywhere you can go has a social skills aspect to it. If you don’t have access to transportation, you can practice crossing the street safely. But ordering in restaurants (fast food or sit down), reading the signs on the street or in stores, finding items in stores, following shopping lists, using the post office, reading mall directories to find bathrooms are some more functional things.

Leisure skills are also functional because the extent of many students’ leisure activities is watching TV. Teaching them card games is good. I have found it hard to find age-appropriate board games that are also skill-appropriate, but there are some.

I also liked the idea about cooking and then selling it—it gives income for all those shopping trips you’ll want to take. Then you’ll have cash to use instead of needing to use a purchase order, which doesn’t teach the kids how to use money. We would make muffins and sell them during lunch periods to students (check with the principal and Food Service about any Health Dept. restrictions), and we’ve also passed out order slips to faculty and staff and sold muffins weekly to them (Health Dept. doesn’t seem to be as concerned about the adults). We sell breads (boxed mixes that we bake at school) to faculty and staff before Thanksgiving and make quite a bit of money, too.

For job around school, we have washed transparencies for teachers, done mailings for the Main Office, swept the hallway in front of our classroom, vacuuming in some of the offices like Guidance or the Main Office, cleaning the teachers’ room, putting plastic silverware in bins for the cafeteria before lunch, and bagging cookies that the cafeteria sells at lunch.

[balancingact]

Thanks Frazzledazzle! As soon as I get a chance Ill see if our district has those books. I really like the idea of selling things we cook, but I have the feeling the health department wouldn't be as enthusiastic. Just for adults is an idea though...

What games have you found that are good for your students but avoid the whole fuzzy duck thing? We have played War and they like improvised scattergories with adult input.

[dcoombs]

I would suggest for in class life skills of setting up a cooking schedule. This way the students know that on this day at this time they will be cooking. Have them help plan the meal with foods that they like. That way they will want to participate and it will be interesting to them.

As for going out into the community speak to people at the stores or restaurants and ask them if they would be willing to participate. Then give the students information on what they will be doing and asking for. You can create a script or social story about it so they know what to expect. We have done this for one of our students and it has worked great. We take him grocery shopping once a week and to the town library once a week.

Also another thing that has worked very well for us is giving our students "chores" that go with general life skills they will need. They run preset errands in the school, sort and wash laundry, vaccum, wash dishes and tables.

I hope this gives you some ideas.

[avid reader]

I teach this same type of class at the high school level. We also do a lot of cooking and everyday household chores.
We also have paper recycling. Each classroom has been given a 5 gallon red bucket to put paper in. We have a large building , so the students go everyday for one set and empty the buckets into boxes on a cart. They do a different floor or wing each day. The boxes are emptied into a special dumpster where it is taken and recycled.

We also have two students who volunteer at the local humane society thrift store. They help sort donations and straighten in the store.

We are lucky enough to have a washer and dryer, so the kids wash their own laundry during the weeks that we have pool class. We also house the lost and found, so we sort, and wash clothing found, along with checking the names in folders or books and trying to return to the original owner.

If it is anything like my class social skills are huge. We try to work on getting along, and appropriate behaviors for different situations.

I also try to teach them how to be as independent as possible, for some this is how to open a carton of milk, and for others it might be how to read a tv guide, or to point and tell somebody they want something.
There are so many fun and exciting things to do with this level. Good Luck and enjoy.

[bella mundi]

As far as job-type activities go, that's pretty much what my classroom is based on. Here are a few ideas:

We make crafts and sell them. We also do a lot of cleaning stuff too. We clean people's offices, bathrooms, PT equipment, play equipment, etc. We'll vacuum, wipe down, mop, sweep, whatever. That can be done in-house. Also, we have a couple of food selling ventures. We have a mobile cart with coffee, muffins, and bagels in the morning, and a table with bottle of water, healthy snacks, etc. Teachers especially love the coffee cart! Some teachers take their kids for walks (and wear gloves) to pick up trash on the street. We also go out in the community and deliver inter-office mail at a nursing home, clean the mirrors and floor at a dance studio, and assemble pizza boxes. If you have access to regular transportation, lots of places would love a few free volunteers to do easy tasks.

[luv2teachsped]

Lots of great ideas here! I have taught in a CI room at the elementary level for 17 years, and will be teaching at the high school level this year. Last year, in middle school I taught hobbies once a week, cooked once a week and took my class to the basic kiindergarten where we had "buddies". My students loved working with the younger kids, and it was a great way to get them to read at their "level" without dumbing them down! I also teach money skills, and coping skills. Good luck! luv2teach