Simple art projects from a pattern/template are great for students with disabilities. It provides them with a product that they can be proud of and it gives them practice in fine motor skills: tracing, coloring, cutting and following directions. This duck project supports the vocabulary and content you are teaching as part of the early intervention/primary self contained unit on the farm.
Using Templates
There are some compelling reasons to use a card stock template instead of printing directly on the paper. When the student places the template on their construction paper, they hold it in place with their non-writing hand. It requires that they cross their right hand over their left, or vice versa, to finish tracing the shape. This supports vestibular motor control, a gross motor skill, which is delayed or a challenged in many students with disabilities. It also adds an addition step to the project, which builds skills in following directions.
Materials
- White construction paper
- The free printable pattern, either to copy on the construction paper, or copied on card stock and cut out as templates.
- Scissors
- Glue or a glue stick.
- Crayons
Directions
- Either run the free printable on card stock, and cut them out as templates, or on white construction paper that your students can color and cut directly.
- Create a model for your students to look at as they make their own ducks.
- Have students color and cut their pieces, or create a hybrid, cutting the beak and feet tracing a card stock template.
- Have students trace right and left hands for the wings, and cut them out.
- Have students assemble their duck, using the model as their pattern.
- Options: You may want to substitute googlie eyes for the eyes that are included on the free printable template. You may either mount the ducks on paper, include them on a farm bulletin board, or hand them from the ceiling.
