Heavy Work with a Vocational Twist

This starts the third week of school in my district. With that being said, my kiddos are already getting in the swing of their routines and daily expectations. In my classroom, I am always looking for ways to enhance and connect their learning to other aspects of their life. On Mondays I have created vocational/ functional life rotating centers. The centers include vocational heavy work, appropriate table manner social stories, learning how to set a table, and handwriting without tears weekly practice. The goal of these centers is to give students an opportunity to work on skills needed in their everyday life.
The goal of this post is to discuss my new classroom heavy work station. I am excited to see how my students increase their vocational skills and overall body awareness. Heavy work is great to give students a sense of space and ease their anxiety. The first component to this station is our classroom grocery store. Using recycled cereal boxes and bottles filled with sand and rice students are asked to restock our grocery store shelf. This activity gives students the input they need while working on matching environmental print symbols and the job skill of stocking. See the grocery store shelf pictured above.  I am excited to see how my students react to this activity on Monday. I think they will love it and give them just what they need.
A second component to this station is pushing weighted books from one end our classroom counter to the other. Heavy books are also great input for kids. Just use old textbooks and wrap them in duct tape. I have also embedded environmental print in this activity as well. At the start of the counter is the traffic light "go" symbol. At the end of the counter is a "stop" sign. This allows students to have continual practice with the environmental symbols they will see in their everyday life.

 I will share more heavy work systems soon and the success of each. See the Possible.

Have a great week teacher friends. Peace.


Until next time friends,

Dulce