Dad Can Do Anything

Daddies don’t just love their children every now and then, it’s a love without end. -George Strait

The book I selected for this last week of school with the theme of ‘Dad’ is called “Dad Can Do Anything” by Martin Thomas. This is the same author I used for the Mother’s Day story. This is a sweet story about how dad can do anything in the eyes of his child; reach up high, turn on light switches, and much more.

The book descriptor reads:

“It’s not easy being small. Especially not for Little Elephant who isn’t tall enough to reach things, like the hook to hang a coat, a shelf to get toys, or the pedals of a bike. Kitchen counters, the shower, and a light switch are all too high. But with dad close by anything is possible and nothing is out of reach.”

If you’d like to preview the book before buying, check out the Dad Can Do Anything Read-Aloud on YouTube.

The skills worked on this month are many. Here’s but a few:

Book knowledge (i.e., title, author, page turning, image walking)
Use of low vision tools while reading the book
Develop hand and eye coordination
Soliciting assistance appropriately
Fine motor
Communication
Animals and their habitats
Choice making
Creative thinking

Father’s Day cards

Making cards continues to be something my students really enjoy. This is an interest I have built on to work on social skills and community service. I am thinking of expanding this next school year. I love that I can also tie in a wide variety of goals/skills in the creation of cards:

Folding paper/cardstock in half
Coloring images
Writing a personal message
Using stickers (optional)
Social skills (giving a gift/card)
Putting a card in an envelope
Mailing (optional)

A speech therapist I work with in the ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) program had a cute craft idea that went along with the unit on construction that the classroom was focused on for the month. The speech therapist drew an image of a toolbox that she made copies of on regular sized cardstock. She then had images of different tools to color or images of real tools before cutting them out. I REALLY liked this idea. So, I went online and did a search for color pages of toolboxes because I am not an artist. I didn’t see any that I liked. I tried a search for color pages of briefcases and found one I liked! The only problem with the image was that it was closed and was rather small. I made 2 copies and trimmed the bottom of one to rest just under the bottom of the other image. This way once the “toolboxes” were cut out, it was easy to fold them together to make a card with a ‘handle’. Using this copied version, I enlarged it to 200%. The image now fits on 11” x 17” paper.

I went on a search for images of tools. As the school year is coming to a close, time was a commodity I didn’t have. I looked for color images of the tools: hammer, screwdriver, wrench, pliers, and a tape measure. Using scissors (regular or adapted) they cut out the images to glue down inside the “toolbox”.

I created a message to go along with the theme of the card which was based on the tools previously mentioned. My message is similar to ones I used to send my own Father for Father’s Day or his birthdays. I did a search for images using the words “Father’s Day” and “tools”. I happened to find one that had tools as a border around the image. Both of those were cut out by me in the interest of time. The students decided whether to orient the cover image in ‘landscape’ or ‘portrait’. They either signed their names or used their name stamps.

For this craft I needed

11×17 Gunmetal Parchment Cardstock (use whatever color you prefer)
Adapted scissors…there are many. Talk to your OT as to which to use. Here are a couple that I used:

Table Top Scissors with Base Adaptive Scissors Spring Loaded

Spring-Assisted Educational Scissors

Elmer’s Disappearing Purple Glue Sticks

Tips

Talk to the OT (if the student has one) about assisting with the lesson. A couple of my students were able to have their materials cut out with their OTs prior to the day we worked on the card.
Laminate finished project upon student request
To help the student with cutting out the image, using a black Sharpie draw a box around each shape to aid the student
Discuss what each tool is used for