Our Favorite Calming Apps

Testing, testing, testing.  It's such an anxiety-ridden time for students, and our testing window starts this week and continues through mid-May.  We've been trying to equip the students with a bag of tricks to help ease some of the anxiety.  A weeks ago, the students downloaded several calming apps on their iPads, and they've proven to be very popular!  I wanted to share the list with you in case you want to add a few tricks to your bag, too.  All of these apps are FREE, and who doesn't love that?
Settle Your Glitter

This app helps students practice mindful breathing.  Students select an emotion that they are feeling: mad, sad, silly, or worried.  They pick the level of emotion that they are feeling.  The students shake their iPads to stir up the glitter.  The little fish on the right-hand side increases and decreases in size to help students manage their breathing until the glitter is settled.

Falling Stars

This app is one of the students' favorites!  Students place plants by drawing lines.  They touch the stars which fall on the plants, creating songs.  Students can choose from a small selection of sounds and determine how fast the stars fall, creating an even more intriguing experience.

Sand Slides

This app is another of my students' favorites, in fact, it is the app of choice when they have earned choice time.  Students draw slides and buckets with their fingers to guide the sand into the correct colored chutes.  The challenge happens as the pace of the game continues to build.

Suspension

This app mimics particles floating in water.  Students are able to move the particles around with their fingers.  They can change the color of the particles and draw walls and propellers.  Students can be creative, drawing pictures using the draw walls, creating a barrier for the particles to travel around and disperse color.
Deep Relax

This app is perfect for stress relief or to use if your students do any type of yoga.  Students can create their own relaxing melodies from a selection of 12 free choices, ranging from beach to birds, and cavern to city.  (If you chose to purchase the app, your choices multiply.)  Students can select more than one sound at a time for the perfect mix of relaxation.
Dropophone

Dropophone is a simple app for students to use.  Students make songs by tapping on raindrops that play sound, looping every six seconds.  The drops sound like an orchestra of instruments, creating endless possibilities.  A metronome button is available to start a beat to help keep time.  Want to see how this can work?  Check out the video below. Colorfy

This app is perfect for students who love to draw and color and find relaxation by doing it!  Students simply need to chose a picture and tap to paint!
If you have any favorite calming apps to share, we would love to hear about them!

Building A Sensory Bin For Calming

After 12 years of speech and language therapy, I am jumping into the role of the ASD teacher for the middle school students who require substantial support (DSM-V).  I'm super excited but ridiculously nervous. I've been working with this fantastic group of students for the last three years, and I'm thrilled that I can continue working with them, but it's going to be a big transition.  Wait.  Let me try that again.  It's going to be a HUGE transition and a definite learning experience for me.  My mind races as night thinking about everything I could be doing to prepare for the fall, but then I remind myself that I need to enjoy my summer; the craziness of work will be here before I know it.

It's the little things that I can do to help alleviate some of my anxiety, so I started started putting together a  sensory bin for the calming area in my room. (Anything checked off my monstrous list of "things to do" is helpful!)  I have the staples: puffer balls, puzzles, stringing buttons, and and silly putty.  During my trip to Target last week, I found several items on clearance and decided to add them.  I'm excited about the BRAIN BUILDERS!  The students can choose from 40 different pictures and manipulate 20 sticks to look like the pictures.

I decided to trade in the smooth, glass stones for the real thing that you can find at any craft store.  I drew faces on them to create CALMING ROCKS.  I plan on letting the students chose their own.  It was so easy but added a more personalized touch.  I tried to draw each one with a particular student in mind, but we'll see how well I did when September rolls around.

I just ordered a JELIKU yesterday for $6.50.  I love that it's a small puzzle that students can manipulate to create whatever!  Check out the YouTube video below for a quick view of the possibilities of Jeliku.  There are several other videos that show how students create different animals, buildings, etc.  

BOINKS ($12.95 for a 6-pack) are small pieces of material, sealed on each end securing a marble that can be moved around for calming or focus.  They are small, approximately 3.5" long, and are machine washable!

WACKY TRACKS ($4.00) is something I own for myself!  They come in a variety of colors and can be added to.  Just bend, form, and move!

I haven't purchased any of the next few items yet, but they are on my "wish list," and here's why!

LIQUID MOTION BUBBLER ($4.99 each) can be used as a timer or relaxation and calming.  It is small in size, so it is mobile (2" X 5.75") and can easily be placed on a table, desk, or in a bin for storage.  I can see myself using this with some calming music!  

EMOTIONS PUTTY ($7.99 each) changes color.  It's also Gluten, Casein, Latex, and Soy free.  There are two different kinds: Calming Putty and Energizing Putty.  The Calming Putty changes color when it's being played with or cooled, while the Energizing Putty has a metallic sparkle.

I'm curious what you use in your room! 

Gearing Up For State Testing

The beginning of spring in MN can only mean one thing other than no more signs of snow and budding trees…state testing.  It's a stressful time for students, staff, and administration.  Perhaps stressful is an underestimation, but I know that everyone has worked hard to make the most of our learning time and opportunities.  Now it's time to let the students shine!

Last week, we went to the Minnesota Speech-Langauge and Hearing Association conference and were so lucky to have an afternoon session with Julia Cook.  She shared so much more than her books, and her comments about "spinning" resonated with us.  Instead of telling students they "have to" take the test, we can tell them, that they "get to" take the test.  They get to show their smarts.  They get to show off everything they've learned.  They get to make everyone proud

We decided to show this short video from Julia to talk a bit about test anxiety.  The kids loved it!



Next we read one of two books, "The Anti-Test Anxiety Society" and "Wilma Jean Worry Machine," depending on our groups and their needs.

We reviewed different calming strategies that we have used throughout the year, Lazy Eight and Six-Sided Breathing from the Zones of Regulation  by Leah Kuypers.  We reviewed other strategies that we have used, too.  We also made sure that the students had their calming apps on their iPads and reviewed how to use them.  While the students have different apps, most of them really like Pocket Pond, Breathe2Relax, Smiling Mind, Sand Magic, and Flow Free. 

And finally, we like to deliver mints to our students with a personalized note.  It seems to make a big difference!  

Supporting Emotional Awareness

We are big fans of The Zones of Regulation® by Leah Kuypers and have used her curriculum for the last several years.  We constantly find ourselves modifying the curriculum to meet the needs of the students in each of our groups.

Right now, I am introducing the Zones of Regulation® to the students in our school's Setting III ASD Program, and while the concept is fantastic, the activities do not hold their attention for this particular group of students.   So, I used two great books to introduce the zones, Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis and The Way I Feel by Janan Cain.

I gave each student colored popsicle sticks (the fabulous multi-purposeful and multi-colored ones from Michaels!) that correspond with the Zones.  It seemed to work great for all of five minutes until they realized that "cheating" (i.e. looking at others' sticks) was super easy!  (Egg on my face…how did I not see that coming?)  So I created these visual supports for them.  I told the students that there were more feelings in each Zone than what was shown, and that it was okay to share them.

We used the one on the left yesterday during our group, and it was a huge success!  The students were able to use them independently when paired with the Pixar: Monsters, Inc. Mike's New Car which can be found at the bottom of this post.    The video was a perfect fit for this activity.  I left several of these visual supports in the classroom for the students to use when they are having a difficult time sharing how they are feeling, especially when they are upset.  It will allow for them to begin to generalize this tool into other social situations. 

Both supports are easy to assemble.   Simply print, laminate, and cut out the parts.  The visual support pictured above and on the left requires you to punch a hole at the top and the bottom, add a pony bead to the piece of string, place the string through the two holes, and tie in the back.  Voila!  The visual support pictured on the right is even easier to assemble.  Join the color wheel and feelings wheel together using a brad (i.e. fasteners).  (FYI...I was razzed by my colleagues when I went looking for brads.  Apparently I dated myself in asking for one, so be careful what you ask for!)

We use these supports with our social skills groups to improve their own emotional awareness and to identify feelings in others.  They have been especially helpful when students become upset and cannot express how they are feeling.  We have also shared them with the OTs, DCD teacher, EBD teachers and school counselor in our building. Aside from social skills instruction, they can also be placed in "take a break" areas, used to improve expressive language, and when talking about character traits.  If you'd like to check them out, you can find them here at our TpT store.

As promised, here is the video that I used.The students love, love, love short cartoon films (and yes, this will be a future blog post!).  I hit the jackpot with this one!

The Zones of Regulation® curriculum (Kuypers 2011) is published by Think Social Publishing, Inc. and is available for purchase here.