Have you seen book companions on tpt or the simply special ed store? I know a lot of these materials seem amazing, but if you’re like me you may think “How can I use these with my students?” and “If I adapt it, will I be essentially remaking the resource?” Too often adapting ends up as remaking the entire resource over again. But, using the book companions has been a totally different experience! Let’s talk about using book companions in the multi classroom.
Present the book in a group lesson!
I didn’t really have to change much at all. I use my ipad to project the story and activities on the smartboard, so my students can see it, and use the activity cards included to quiz my students after we read the story. We read ‘Hair Love’ and ‘Lola Plants a Garden’. In my classroom these lessons work best as group lessons. I use a recordable button to help students communicate their answer.
Laminate the Activities!
Instead of using activities as one page paper activities I laminated them. This way I can re-use them with each student one-on-one later on. That way each student has a chance to sequence the story or match and identify vocabulary terms. I project the activity on the smartboard and we complete it together before my aids and I break the kids into groups for more one-on-one work. It works great! Only usually have to laminate three copies of each activity for students to complete in groups.
Great For Tasks
I find these activities are awesome for tasks! I can slide the sequences and story book into a students IEP bin easily. Several of my students have goals about identifying what happens in a story. This was a great way to change up the material and work on the same goal. Once each student has worked on it we get to do the best part, the craft! I love the craft that comes with these stories. The student works on motor skills, communication, preferences, object identification and more! I love anything that lets me target more than one area at a time.
We had a lot of fun using the book companions and ended up making a bulletin board to display all of our artwork that went with our stories. I highly recommended using book companions in the multi classroom. Prep was a minimum and the stories and activities are diverse and interesting for all learners. How would you use book companions in the multi classroom?
You can grab book companions for the special education classroom here.
