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It’s summer but it won’t be long before it’s time to buy school supplies and meet new teachers! As a second year teacher, I’m busy getting ready for a new year, planning curriculum and lessons, and also working on ways to teach my students functional skills. I work in special education and part of what we teach include life skills like washing hands, interacting with peers, and wiping noses correctly. So when it comes to school supplies, my classroom needs include more than just pencils and notebooks. I need something like Tory Story 4 Kleenex® Facial Tissue and Viva® Paper Towels Multi-Surface Cloth to keep on hand at all times for all the messes that come with kids!
In order to keep our learning the best that it can be, it requires the best supplies to be on hand. No School list is complete without Kleenex®, America’s #1 facial tissue brand. And right now, they have partnered with Toy Story 4 and have limited edition packaging available at Target. They know that back-to-school is a fresh start but than can bring anxieties for students (I know my students and my kids always are). After all, it means new teachers, new faces, new friends, new goals, new curriculum… Through this partnership Kleenex® and Toy Story 4 are providing parents and kids with familiar and comforting antidotes to navigate the fun and changes of a new school year.
I know as a teacher, I need something reliable to help clean up the messes of every day and Kleenex® wants to be that partner to help teachers not just survive, but thrive. I always have Kleenex® in arm’s reach so that the marks of living don’t distract from living fully in the moment.
In addition to having Kleenex®, I also need something strong to help clean up my classroom. Whether it’s wiping down counters, cleaning up water spills while doing watercolors, or wiping down the white board, I turn to Viva Towels. They are better when wet and work amazing with cleaning spray.
You can stock up on both at Target while shopping for your school supplies. You can check out all the options here on their Back-to-School essentials page here or visit the back-to-school aisles.
While working on my plans, I decided that my students needed something to get them motivated to keep their noses clean. It’s a skill that they often fight or just don’t do correctly so why not make it fun? I created a rewards chart, with some Toy Story charm to celebrate the limited edition boxes, and a social story to help teach them the steps to do it right and allow them to get a reward after they wipe their nose correctly four times in a row. It’s adaptable so you could do less and put a picture of the reward in the last square (or write it).
I also included Toy Story character pictures that can be used to attach to the chart. I like to print mine off, laminate them, and then use Velcro so the chart can be reused. You could also use stickers, small tokens, or whatever your students like best. There is a line for them to write their reward.
In our classroom, we use a variety of rewards, depending on the student. Sometimes their motivation changes daily, if not hourly, so we always have options. It could be something as simple as a small treat, five minutes of free time, or a small prize.
The social story is a good way to share with kids the exact steps they need to take in order to perform a task. In this case, that task is wiping their nose. With visual pictures, it breaks it down simply to make the task easier to understand. Social stories are used by special education teachers, including myself, constantly but they can be used by any teacher with a student who needs help understanding how to do do something. I like to print out my social stories and laminate them to keep them more sturdy for kids to handle. I have them easily accessible in my files so I can pull them out and use them as needed.
The rewards chart and social story are also great for homeschool families or to use in your own home with your family.
How do you teach functional skills in your home or school? Let me know in the comments because I love to hear new ideas. And don’t forget to visit Target to pick up your own packs of Kleenex Toy Story 4 packs and Viva Towels with your school supplies this year.
*among national brands of like variant
