Gardening

Our garden is an outside classroom. A place of experiences to look, touch, smell and enjoy fresh air, warm breezes and the occasional sharp shower. It is a place for getting hands dirty, and the satisfaction of planting a tiny seed and seeing it grow to a wonderful plant.
We use it to give vocational experience,for enrichment and to deliver Edexcel units such as Producing a Product ,Working Together ,Health and Safety.

A college garden is not an easy place to manage.
The initial costs for an accessible garden can be high The paths must reach high standards so that everyone can access it and providing these is expensive . As the garden develops greenhouses and sheds are built and surrounded by fences with expensive locks

The most important thing is that someone e.g. a lecturer has to take overall charge of the provision, preferably with some remission in teaching hours for this job. Like a workshop or a catering kitchen the garden will need technician support. Not every job can be done by the student. The garden must be nurtured through the summer holidays and coldest months of winter.
A budget for the garden is a must. The lawn mower needs maintaining and plants/seeds purchased.Of course there is always the chance that as soon as you have it up and running your Senior Management team will take it away for a new building!

Places to look for ideas for your garden:

Sensory Garden from Sensory Uk ltd has lists of plants for the senses and a good definition of a sensory garden.

The Butterfly garden An independent organisation working with schools and adults with learning disabilities. The site has lots of pictures on their project which should inspire you Including:

Tarmac paths

A portable garden for wheel chair users £395 from C.Lewis Fabrications.

See the portable garden being used in this picture

For buying seeds:
Chiltern Seeds

For information about what plants to grow and how Growability

has a link page under Horticulture

I like their link to Crocus.co.uk.

The Plants page has lots of picture links and well presented information about plant size

From the library look at :The Ultimate Garden Designer Tim Newbury. It has a page showing a garden designed for People with a Learning Difficulty and a garden for the Blind or partially sighted. Both feature a design and a list of suggested plants for the garden.

Funding
The Growing Zone a new allotment project for school students and people with learning difficulties. Its Contributors page and Link page show where their funding comes from and may give you some ideas.

Gardening Symbol from Imagine Symbols

More Money Bingo

Maths worksheet wizard has money bingo in three currencies: British,U.S. and Euros. Its very quick and easy to use.The worksheet generator makes a different worksheet when Make Worksheet is clicked.
The same coins appears in each worksheet but they are in a different order and one of the coins is repeated twice.
This means that when you play this bingo remember to have the rule of crossing off one coin at a time otherwise everyone wins at the same time!
See other money related resources at my money label

In the News

I shall be looking at the news this week with my Life Skills Entry 1 group.Here are some links from My Sqworl.

Free Time

Here are our SQWORL links for free time in our computer lesson tomorrow: (Entry 1 - M8/7)

Music on You Tube

Reading at Tar Heel Reader

Games and other Activities

Making Computers Easier To Use.

Making your teaching inclusive from The Open University site has a wealth of resources on accessibility and is a good place to start if you want to find out about equipment that could help your students use the computers independently.

The Assistive technologies section has information on:

Braille and tactile technologies
Calculators, time and measurement equipment
Communication devices
Electronic note takers 
Ergonomics
Keyboard and mouse options
Listening devices and loop systems
Magnification aids 
Reading technologies 
Recording devices 
Reference software: Dictionary and thesaurus 
Scanning and reading devices 
Writing aids   

The information is not specific to students with a learning disability but there is some useful information
for example:

Keyboard and Mouse options has a video on:

 selecting the right keyboard ( top of the page ) 

 mouse options (end of the page) 

The videos just show you the options with no explanation but the text has links that explain the equipment in further detail.        
for example: 

the word  trackballs takes you to a site http://www.emptech.info 

where more information about trackball products can be found.

Tomato and Vegetables with Pasta or Baked Potato

My Milestone 4-8 Cookery class prepared Vegetables with Pasta or baked potato . You can download the ingredients and equipment sheet at My 4 shared.
This week the ingredients list ran over 3 pages as I wanted to make sure the pictures were clear and accessible for all the students. Having too many bits of paper didn't turn out to be a problem but let me know what you think.
This week the students first had to make a choice between baked potato and pasta and circle their choice.The students then chose the vegetables they wanted from the sheets. This allowed us to name and identify and taste.
I don't use exact measurements.We put all the ingredients on the table and students took a small piece or a bowlful as required.
Having the picture sheets has allowed the students to independently collect all their ingredients and equipment.
Some aims (depending on ability):
Make a choice between two ingredients
Name and identify 4 vegetables used in the cooking class

Identify 4 of the pictures on your recipe sheet.

Use pictures /symbols to find 4 ingredients without help.
Use a symbol/picture list to collect all ingredients with minimum support.
Use a symbol/picture list to collect all equipment .
Use a recipe to cook a dish with minimum support.

Identify one thing you have done well in the session.

Using a Cash Machine

I found one of these at a Red Cross Sale. Its a wonderful extra for Managing Money classes and gives students an experience of using a cash machine.The machine is 25cm(h)x23cm (w)x 8cm (depth) .To use the ATM you input a card and use a 4 digit pin . It accepts both coins and notes (you don't have to use real notes) and calculates your total enabling you to check the balance.The machine cleverly recognises the coins and displays the coin value as it is entered. The ATM is available from The Science Museum Store but I have also seen some available for less on Amazon and EBay. Also try the Interactive ATM machine NO LONGEWR AVAILABLE  at Moneymatterstome

Tuff Cams in action

We were lucky enough to have some Tuff Cams via the Molenet project .
You can watch a short video here about how the Tuff Cam works.


I've been using them for a few weeks and I have finally worked out how to use them at their best.(It now seems so obvious!)


They work very well for the student to record their own work :
The student holds the camera preferably close to the subject they are filming and at the same time speaks and comments on their own work.
The short films can then be viewed immediately on the whiteboard .
We have also used them for recording short messages to camera (close up)


Why does it work best like this:

• The microphone on the Tuff Cam is on the screen side, so picks up the voice of the person using the camera
• The quality of the camera makes it best for close up work or for filming that is not intended for high quality presentation.
• The cameras are designed to be used by the student. They are simple in design and are durable.

A lesson on Tally

Being able to make a simple tally is useful for my students. They can use the skill to make a drinks list or keep a record of sales in an enterprise project .We used these resources to improve our tally skills for our Edexcel Enterprise sale which was a Valentine sweets sale.

For my Tally Lesson I used two powerpoints from Primary Resources .

Look in the Maths Section, then through to :Handling data :Tally and bar chart .
I used:
Cars Tally (Rachel Wood) PDF
Cars Tally (Judy Valentine) DOC ( a recording sheet to use with the Car tally powerpoint )
Tally Charts (Rebecca James) Zipped - People who help us tally (very good for citizenship work)
People Who Help Us Tally (Judy Valentine) DOC (a recording sheet to use with the People who help us tally powerpoint).

I have also made a drinks tally

which is available to download at My 4 Share and a recording sheet
Before we used the tally powerpoint I started with some small group work to practise counting accurately and some work to practise making simple tally marks .(I wouldn't introduce the five bar gate for entry 1.)

The numeracy core curriculum says:

At entry 1 students have to
construct simple representations or diagrams, using knowledge of numbers,
understand that the purpose of representations is to communicate information

this could include using a simple tally system to record and represent information

At Entry 2 collect simple numerical information and represent information so that it makes sense to others (e.g. in lists, tables and diagrams)

This skill will eventually be fully developed at Entry 3
At E3 the student has to make observations and record numerical information using a tally and understand how to use a frequency table.

Data Handling E2

This interactive activity from BBC Bitesize covers tally, bar chart and pictograms . As you can see it can also be embedded in your own blog or website.