Two Single Switch Games for Young Children

Mother Goose website has two jumping games played just with a switch set to space bar, "The Cow Jumps Over the Moon" and "Jack Be Nimble".  There are also a number of games great for a touch screen and others that work with multiple switches set to the arrow keys (perfect for those learning to use switches for powered mobility).

Three Visual Start Pages

Visual start pages seem to be all the rage right now, though I am waiting for one that allows at least step-scanning (tab to move through the choices and click or enter to select) to try in the classroom. (That would be because of the fact that I cannot install a touch screen onto the only internet connect computer due to admin privilidge issues.) Anyways, if you are lucky enough to have a touch screen or interactive whiteboard with internet you might want to check out these three options for visual start pages:

• Symbaloo - Symbaloo has many preset, pre-designed pages for those who use common applications like Gmail, Google, Box, Twitter, Remember the Milk, etc. However you can customize a start page for your classroom. I like that Symbaloo allows me to add my own images or symbols to the page, but I would have liked an integrated icon search engine like on MyClusta as well. I dislike the search bar always being in the middle, but I might be missing some vital step. Try my functioning sample or my screen shot below.
• MyClusta - Like Symbaloo, MyClusta allows you to create a visual start screen with icons for your most commonly used site. It has an integrated search for icons, but doesn't allow you to upload symbols. In general it seems to be simpler to use than Symbaloo, but I still seem to like the visual appeal of symbaloo better.
  
• Tizmos - Tizmos is another visual start page, but it uses thumbnails of pages instead of icons - saving a lot of time in the set up. My Tizmos page is here.

All told I have to say I would rank Tizmos as the easiest to put together, but least visually appealing and Symbaloo the toughest to put together and most visually appealling. MyClusta is in the middle of both in both areas. However, I am still holding out for one that scans. Pretty please?

Kneebouncers Switch Games for Little Kids

Barrie over at One Switch reminded me of Kneebouncers a website I have had listed on this site since I opened it. Kneebouncers has great single switch/cause and effect games for EI, pre-K and maybe K kiddos. Set your switch to "space bar".

Try one here:

Cool Timer and Online Dice

When I think of all the things we use a timer for in my class room (stander use, bathroom reminders, cooking and science activities and behavioral interventions to name a few) and the sheer number of timers I have purchased only to have them break in the past few years I could become quite overwhelmed.

Now it is Cool Timer to the rescue! Cool Timer is a free, downloadable program that runs on a computer (or computer based communication device?) and counts down time. What makes it cool is instead of a standard issue beeping you set it to play any .wav or MP3 on the computer. The minute I get to school on Monday I am downloading it.

Harmony Hollow, the makers of Cool Timer, offer three other teacher tools to check out as well. Outside of Cool Timer, I think The Hat is another useful program for the special needs classroom. The hat is a randomizer designed to make deciding things like who goes first easier. I bet you could load in other things you would like to randomize too, like numbers to make virtual dice (put the mouse cursor over the start or stop button and use a switch to activate to adapt).

Of course there is always the Arcess Online Switch Dice and Number Spinner, if you want easier virtual dice. If you have Opus Presenter you can download some switch dice. For $19 you can download a Powerpoint Dice Shaker or spinner, plus a randomizer code to install to make your own powerpoint dice and things (or download the watermaked demo), which works fine.