Why challenge ADHD students?

When teachers see ADHD on an IEP we often have misconceptions or predetermined ideas of what thses children are capable of. The fact of the matter is that most children with ADHD are very bright, they mostly need guidance and challenge. In the classroom I see the most discipline issues with my ADHDers when they are bored or are being made to work on learning skills that they have already mastered. The best way I have found to counteract this is to 1. Make my whole group lessons highly challenging 2. Make my small group lessons challenging for the particular set of children and 3. differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all in my classroom. Of course this is easier said than done, especially with our ADHDers. When we are working with group 1 what is group 2 doing? Chances are your ADHDers are bouncing around the room and causing issues. Give them a challenge, and I don't just mean a worksheet, this can come in many forms and should be something that interests our ADHDers. I have used yoga balls to bounce on while reading challenging text, playing a computer game while lying on the floor, completing a challenging worksheet upside down (taped to the bottom of the desk), doing jumping jacks etc. while reciting multiplication facts. All of these can be used with the entire class as well. Notice they all involve kinesthetic (movement) learning. I believe this is the key to teaching our ADHDers and not underestimating their intelligence. Till next time, Christine

ADHD and summer vacation: don't fall into the summer slide

So, it is summer vacation and motivating my ADHD son to do anything but sit around and watch tv is difficult. I have given him a week with no work to do but now it is time to start making sure we don't fall into the summer slide. I find that a schedule is the best way to keep my child in line with the summer expectations. Here is our plan for the summer weekdays:

Summer workbooks for reading and math, 2 pages of each after breakfast.
Computer time: Lakeshore Learning Software and Earobics software
Outside Play
Lunch
Swimming
Blog Entry and quiet journaling time
Dinner
TV time
Reading for 1/2 hour-his choice
1/2 hour cleanup time
Bedtime

The best part of this summer schedule has to be the blog. My son has a bearded dragon that he loves to write about, so we started a blog where he could share his thoughts about his lizard with others. He has started by sharing with family but is starting to get interest from others, this is keeping him excited about it.

This schedule has more purpose than doing homework. My son knows that he will have a great summer where he is ready for the next year and will go in confident and ahead of the game.This also keeps him on a proper sleep schedule which is important for all children, even more important for ADHDers. The schedule is predictable, he knows what comes next and he knows the expectations. This cuts down on the fights, frustrations and struggles that often comes along with these kiddos.

My son is generally very compliant but I know not all ADHDers are so when we hit those walls I give him a break, have him read or offer him a reward for finishing if he is just frustrated. I also give him special rewards "just because" to help keep him going throughout the summer. For example and unexpected day off from work, a trip to the zoo or splashpark etc.

 I hope this helps your summer go well with your children!

Till next time, Christine

p.s. If you want to show my sons blog to your little ones here it is:
www.myadventureswithmax.blogspot.com
It is free and easy!

Free classroom bin labels!

Hello Everyone,

I have just redone my kids playroom! I love summer! The room now includes organizational labels to help them stay organized and to make cleanup easier. I am so happy with how these turned out that I intend on using them in my classroom next year as well. You can download this set of 25 labels by clicking the following link:

Classroom-Bin-Labels-for-toys-manipulatives-and-centers

Enjoy! Please join my blog and follow me on TpT for more freebies and educational ideas!

***these are the labels I have now replaced address labels with that I had mentioned in my last post. A picture and the word will be sure to help my 4 year old as well as my ADHD 9 year old!****

ADHD and ABC Order! Tips and Tricks to help!

My nine year old 3rd grade son has been struggling with ABC order for as long as I can remember. Each time he has his list in front of him he has to go through the entire alphabet out load to figure out which first letter he is looking ofr next. It is excrusiating as a parent and teacher to watch. I have come up with a few ideas that have helped him tremendously. As an added benefit his spelling grade has gone up, I believe as a result to his being able to manipulate the words instead of only writing them.

Here is my plan of attack:

1. I start by writing each word on a lined sheet of paper (this eliminates the other distractions on the workbook pages.)

2. I then give my son 4 small post it notes and have him place them under each word that starts the same. He can then concentrate on only those words. I have him cross out the first letter then look for the next letter and so on. If you were looking to order the words anywhere, anytime and anyhow you would place the post it under each, cross out the "any" and look at the fourth letter to decide which word came first.

HERE'S ANOTHER APPROACH

I use this next activity as a prep for an ABC order quiz and as a starting point for spelling lists with more than 4 words with the same beginning letter.

 1. I write all 30 words on a seperate small post it note and attach randomly to a blank sheet of paper.
 2. I then divide 2 pieces of notebook paper sitting side by side into 4 columns.
3. I instruct my son to find all of the letter "a" words and place them in the first row. ( I also label each row from beginning sound to #4)

After he has all of the letter "a" words we then examine them to see if any have the same second letter. In this case we are dealing with i,l and n. Since i and l appear only once both move to colunm 2. Since there are three words with n second we look to the third letter and they are all y. We move all three of these words to column 3 since we are examining the third letter.

We determine that the colunm 2 words must be first and second in order since we are only going to the 2nd letter.

We still have to figure out what letter we are going to use to determine the order of these three words. Looks like the 4th letter will help us out.

From the third row we can decifer that the fourth letter will determine the ABC order for these three words. We label them with numbers and copy them to our homework sheet.

Continue this same routine until all of your words are in order. At first learning how to do this was a struggle and took some practice however it was well worth the time. My son not only cut his homework time in half using this system but also has improved his spelling grades. I hope you find the same success with this approach to ABC order and spelling!

Till next Time,

Christine