Life Skills Logistics

Yesterday, I posted some pictures of our Life Skills Classroom. Today, I will discuss more about how it works.  We started by creating a list of each task in the Life Skills Classroom.  We numbered the tasks 1-25.  Then we created large (different colored) numbers to post at each task which corresponds to their number on the list.  On the list,  I highlighted tasks yellow that an adult would need to take apart and left the others white (some tasks work both ways...they can be educational when being put together or taken apart, while others are only educational when being put together).  Also at the bottom of this list (not pictured here), I have each student listed with the tasks they are able to do independently/with assistance to help out whoever sets up the schedules.

Here is an example of the large number posted by this task (#20).  We then created smaller numbers (same color) to match.  These smaller numbers are used as our schedule pictures.

Here is a close up of the schedule in the Life Skills Classroom.  Each student is accounted for, and we place the numbers for their scheduled tasks next to their name.  Students take the first number and walk to the corresponding task.  Then students velcro their number to the larger number posted at the task.  When students finish the task, they take their number back to the schedule and place it in the yellow "finished envelope" before taking the next number on their schedule.

As I said, this room is used for two classrooms, so here is our jumbo schedule for ALL of the kiddos.

This is where we store the schedule pictures (in Zip Loc Baggies velcroed to the wall).

This is what our data sheet looks like.  I have this on a clipboard velcroed to the wall.  It has space for the date, which student is being tracked, the tasks that are being assessed and the type of prompts required for the student to complete the task.  At the top of this data sheet (not pictured here), the different types of prompts are defined (I=Independent, no help needed; V=Verbal prompt, only needed to be spoken to less than 5 times to complete task; PP=Partial Physical, needed some physical guidance to complete the task; HOH=Hand over hand, needed physical guidance the entire time to complete the task).  

How it is scheduled:  Two of my students go to the life skills classroom every day for 30 minutes after lunch with an assistant.  My other students go once a week during our afternoon rotation.  We had 3 days where we didn't have anything scheduled during the last 30 minutes of the day, so I split my students into 3 groups.  One day they do science, one day they play games and work on social skills, and the other day they go to the life skills room (we have 3 adults in the classroom, we each are in charge of a station).