Day 11 Part A: Dollar Store presentations

Each of the pairs presented their low tech Dollar Store projects today to complete the requirements for Assignment 3. Bev Anthony and I worked toether on this assignment, and we presented these AT devices to the class. (If you want to view the Powerpoint Presentation we used, click here to go to Google docs, then click Open to start the show in Powerpoint.)

Task A:

Our student is a 10 year old girl in a wheelchair who wants to make play dough/cookies from the recipe her teacher has given to the class. In considering her personality, she enjoys baking with her mother, but needs assistance from an adult to boil water and pour. The task at hand is to make cookies/play dough, but that the mixing utensils/ cookie cutters are hard for her to manipulate easily, as she has a simple grasp and limited mobility with one arm.

Using the MPTTT model, Bev and I searched the shelves of the Dollar Store in New Minas and found a bulb planter to repurpose as a cookie/play dough cutter, as well as a garden trowel to repurpose as a large mixing spoon.




With the home kitchen as her milieu, she and her mother can use a portion of their leisure time to mix the ingredients for homemade KoolAid play-dough with minimal assistance. She can use her large garden trowel as a mixing spoon, and the garden seed planter as a cookie cutter. She can create her cookies/play dough in about the same amount of time as her peers at home with their parents.

Task B:

Again using the MPTTT model, we found that our 10 year old girl in the wheelchair wanted to socialize with her friends in her own back yard. It is the summertime, school is out, and her friends have chosen water play for some backyard fun. Our student wishes to join in, but she does not have the dexterity to operate a normal dollar store water gun. As our student has a simple grasp, we wanted her to be able to participate in the leisure activity with her peers, from her wheelchair.

At the dollar store we found a large water gun, garden kneeling pad, sponge, and long reusable velcro straps. The ribbon loop and a neoprene bottle holder permitted our non-verbal student to keep her iTouch close.

We used the colorful garden rubber kneeling pad as a comfortable support frame for her arm. The sponge was folded to angle for the water gun for better range and targeting. The waterproof neoprene bottle holder was attached by ribbon to the kneeling pad so she could keep her iTouch close by -- but safe from the water. The reusable Velcro straps are elastic, and firmly attach the kneeling pad to the wheelchair. Once adapted by her mother, the time it takes her to use the water gun would be the same as her peers.

With this combination AT invention, our student could easily participate with good aim in the water fun with her friends.


Overall Comments about the Morning Groups' Presentations:

What an amazingly creative group we are in this class! There were devices to roll dice, add numbers, organize locker supplies, create sensory boards, provide choice for classroom activities, and on and on goes the list! It just goes to show that given the opportunity (even with just a few dollars in the budget) and the motivation to help a student, there's no limit to the creativity of teachers!

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.”

Alan Alda