Food for thought

Food doesn't always have to be for eating.....

Children, at least the students I have, absolutely love to find "hidden" objects. My idea to hide puzzle pieces and Easter eggs in my room went over so well last year that I wanted to make the activity more accessible year-round. The solution is a bean box. It's easy to transfer to the inclusion class and it's more confined to reduce the loss of pieces.

To make my bean box, I bought 3lbs of black beans (cheapest type I could find at Lowe's grocery store) and a shoe-box sized clear container from the Dollar Tree. You could also use plastic pellets, rice, etc to fill the bin. I decided to hide kindergarten/preschool type objects in my box for the moment. It's also a great way to hide plastic animals used for articulation or categorization (check out Party City for those). 

You can use it for labeling, making a comment, predicting what's next, and articulation drills.