Children who are developmentally delayed are behind other children in some significant areas. These may include fine motor skills, language, gross motor or problem-solving skills. The following activity teaches some scientific concepts such as melting. It allows ALL of the children to make an art project (this is what we mean by universal design). Also, it is very inexpensive. You need some crayons, glue, paper and muffin liners. The first three you should have in your classroom anyway. Muffin cups are less than $5 a box and that will give you enough for three or four classrooms.
"Talk about melting and melt some crayons in the oven. Use aluminum muffin liners in a muffin pan. The resulting crayons are much easier to manipulate for crayon rubbing activities. Make rubbing backgrounds by squeezing glue in the form of a picture on a piece of cardboard and allowing it to dry for a couple of days. We sent home a "muffin crayon" and a piece of cardboard with a candle design on it with every child for the holidays. It was the first time my preschool special education students were successfull with a crayon rubbing activity since the crayons are so much easier to hold."
FIVE MINUTE ASSIGNMENT (okay, it might take you ten but we liked the name. )
We found this activity on the preschool zone, a site for early childhood special educators. We highly recommend checking out this site. As the author says, "Don't reinvent the wheel." Your assignment is to read some of the ideas sorted by theme here and send us a short description and recommendation of the one you like the best for children with special needs. Hint: The Ideas by Theme are great. Many of the "links to other resources" at the bottom of the page don't work and the ones that do bring up about 20 annoying pop-up windows. I wouldn't click on them if I were you.
