Summer is in full swing and I have been enjoying the flexibility in my day with my kids! I have been taking my son to swim team practice, organizing the house, catching up with friends and taking siestas when my 2 year old passes out in the afternoon. In between all the fun, I have been preparing for a presentation with one of my RSP besties teaching about executive functioning! I found this awesome book about our brains (amazon affiliate link included) that really helped me understand how our brain works in everyday people terms.
So many of my speech kids have deficits with executive functioning, especially my students on the Autism spectrum and students with ADD/ADHD, that it is important to know WHAT executive functioning is and tips/tricks to help improve it in the classroom!
I found some really awesome youtube videos that break down what executive functioning is in the classroom and why it is so important for students to develop these skills. This was my favorite video and inspired my freebie activity that I made!
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
This activity is a fun warm up to help children work on impulse control and flexibility. This activity is based on Brain Rules and used to help with improving executive functioning.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I made visuals for the night/day activity as well as a summer/winter version of the activity. The Pleasantest Thing shares a similar activity using animals and body parts from magazine pictures.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Explain to the student when you show them the “sun”, they need to say “night” or “evening”. When shown the “night” picture, they need to say “morning” or “day”. If the student is struggling with accurately answering, you can use the visual poster and sing or say “Think about the answer, don’t tell me”. Grab the templates for this activity on my TPT store! Follow my Executive Functioning Pinterest Board for more amazing information on executive functioning! (761)
