A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that visual are simply for schedules and classroom management, but that is FAR from the truth! Visuals are great for prompting kids with a variety of academic skills. The most frequent visual prompts I use during academic activities are: color coding, pictures, and letters/ numbers. Check them out!
Color coding:
Color coding is an amazing way to prompt kiddos. Here are a few ways you can use color coding to prompt students during sorting and matching activities.
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| Categories and cards are color coded so students are prompted about what category the cards go in. |
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| Puzzles are color coded (using Sharpies) to prompt kiddos with matching the letters. |
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| Numbers are color coded to make matching numbers easier. |
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| Numbers on clothes pins are color coded to match the corresponding section. |
Pictures:
Pictures are fabulous visuals!! It's common to see pictures used in schedules and for classroom management, but I love to use them during literacy and math activities!
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Small picture is paired with letter on clothes pin to prompt student when matching letter to initial sound.
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| Picture is paired with letter to prompt student when placing the initial letter sound in the blank. |
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| The dots are a visual to match the Micky mouse heads to prompt students. |
Numbers/ letters:
It's easy to use letters and numbers to prompt students during beginning consonant sound and math activities.
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| Letter is written in the blank to prompt student about what letter goes there. |
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| The correct answer is written in the box to prompt the student. |
It's important to remember that you should take data consistently and
fade prompts over time to ensure that the student is mastering the task/ goal. Below is an example of 1 way you could fade color coding visual prompts. Note: Some students might need fading to happen in smaller steps.
Happy prompting ;)
