Crazy Corn Prints!

With us talking about Sometimes Food and Anytime food on Mr. Mike TV, and with Thanksgiving just around the corner, it seems like the perfect time to talk about corn. Thanks to firstpalette.com, we can! In fact, we can do more than just talk about corn - we can paint with it! Find out the details and have a blast!

Corn Print Craft

MODIFICATIONS: When you take a look at this craft, you may notice that it has quite a few steps. First, you need to peel the husk off of the corn, then trace the corn, then cover it in paint, roll it onto the paper, then use the corn husks to paint, then cut, and so on and so on. That doesn't mean it's not a great craft - not by far! It also doesn't mean that it's just too difficult for children with shorter attention for remaining seated and focused on any one given task to do. What you can do to help kiddos get through it all, is to go over the steps that will need to be taken. The above website has pictures of the craft that will take the child through the activity step-by-step. Go ahead and print them out. They're even already stacked from top to bottom for you (this presents a really clear way for children to view a sequence of events). Before beginning the craft, run down that list of pictures with your child, pointing to each one as you describe each step with no more than 1 sentence. If it seems like too many steps, draw your own picture, about halfway though, that would represent some kind of break for your child. Heck, you can add as many breaks throughout as you would like. You can even do a few steps one day and then the rest the following day. It's up to you as to what you think will work best for your child. And, don't worry about how the picture looks - even a silly stick figure is fine because, when you point to it, you'll describe it in that 1 sentence. To add a break, of course, you'll need to cut out those original steps and re-glue them to a new page, so that you can make space for your additional picture.

Now that you've gotten the craft underway, don't forget to continually point to each of those steps, maybe even crossing out the completed ones with a big ol' "X," as you finish each one and move onto the next one. This is a great way to help build on attention span for these types of activities.

Remember, more often than not, modifications are not about working to correct a problem, they're about teaching a child to develop the skill set that they already have to be able to interpret the world around them.

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Mr. Mike is a licensed Special Education Teacher, specializing in working with children from Birth-2nd Grade. He has spent the most time working with 3-5 year-olds with special needs of all sorts including Autism, Aspergers, PDD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Downs Syndrome, just to name a few. Having taught a full class of preschoolers as well as worked one-on-one with children in their schools and in their homes, he has also developed many different tips and tricks to help children develop a love of learning and, most important, of themselves! If you've got something on your mind or you would like some thoughts, tips, or tricks, don't hesitate to get in touch - mike@mrmiketv.com