Art Project for Students with Multiple Disabilities: Create a Holiday Present

This calendar was created with students with significant multiple disabilities and visual impairments as a holiday present for the families of the students. It includes some creative ideas that can be used throughout the year. Cards or projects can be created for a single holiday (such as Valentine’s Day) or a series can be made into a calendar for the whole year. I found many of these ideas on Pinterest.

Materials

paint
Q-tips
balloons
photos (for photo art pinwheels)
dish brush
apples
paper
binding

Procedure

Students should be encouraged to participate as actively as possible in each step of this process. I have worked with students who write out the numbers of the dates, as practice for sequencing numerals. Students can also write out the month or match the written month to the corresponding page of the calendar. Braille can also be added. These ideas can also be used to design cards for various occasions throughout the year, such as Valentine’s Day and other holidays.

Each month has an illustration at the top and a print-out of the calendar month below, as shown in the examples for January and February.