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Paige Nemec
19 April 2020
KINS 4303
Project
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The compass program at Jacob’s Ladder is designed for older students who are looking

for educational planning, vocational training, community enrichment, and home life readiness.

These students are typically diagnosed with developmental disorder, autism, genetic conditions,

cerebral palsy, or learning/language display. The day to day activities primarily focus on

vocational training, education, and community enrichment. Since I have been interning, there

have been few lessons on home life readiness. One of the lessons taught included going over

what type of clothing may be appropriate for certain events such as interviews or weddings.

Another lesson taught was Chloe, the compass teacher, brought in a few hygiene products from

and the students has to tell her what is was and how often they should use it. These home life

readiness activities are daily tasks that the students still struggle to be independent with. The goal

is for these students to be able to do tasks as independently as they can at home.

To improve their independence in home life readiness, I wanted to focus on this aspect.

For my project I planned to take my students to Target and have them go on a scavenger hunt to

find certain items. This way they could practice being independent while looking for their items.

This would promote problem solving by using the isle signs in the store to help them go where

they need to. If they were unable to find an item, they could also use communication skills to ask

for assistance from an employee or from Chloe and me. In order to prepare my students for this

scavenger hunt, we had some lessons planned to help them become familiar with the different

departments that Target has. The first lesson was to have pictures of a variety of items and have

them put the item under the department they think it would be under. For example, a toothbrush

would go under personal care, notebook paper would go under school/office, pillow would go

under bedding, etc. We needed to practice where these items would be so that they would be

familiar with the store for the scavenger hunt. I planned for us to go to Target on Tuesday, March
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31st. This Tuesday was the only day that nothing was planned for March, and it was also a day

that Chloe and I would each be with one student. There were going to be two handouts to fill out

while at Target. One was a list of items and they had to use the isle signs to locate their item.

Once they found the item on the list, they had to write down the price of the item next to it. The

second sheet was to locate an item that fit the description. For example, one of the item

descriptions were something you can drink. They would have to find the item, write down what

is it as well as the price. This way they would have to try to be creative and think of items that

correctly fit the description.

Due to COVID-19 we were not able to do the scavenger hunt at Target. Chloe and I had

planned to do the practice lessons two weeks prior to going to Target. I had all the materials

ready and just needed to get a permission form from the parents allowing us to go to Target. It

takes a lot of preparation for the students to be ready to do an activity like the scavenger hunt I

had planned. We were going to start the practice lessons the week of March 16th, but school was

cancelled until further notice, so we were not able to do the scavenger hunt. I was very

disappointed that we were not going to be able to go to Target and do the scavenger hunt because

I think that the students would have done well with this activity. I could have pushed them to be

more independent with daily tasks by using problem solving skills and communication. I think

the lesson to help prepare them for Target would have needed to be heavily prompted at first.

Since Chole and I would be able to be one on with the students at Target, I think that the student

she would have been with would have done great, but he would probably need an image of the

items instead to be more successful. He is more of a visual learner. I think that the student that I

would be with for this project would have done a great job if he were focused and heavily

prompted before we went into Target. Now evaluating my materials, I think that the second
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handout would have been a little more difficult for them to complete. I think that would have to

be heavily prompted as well. Depending on how the scavenger hunt went, I could have also told

them to bring some money to pay for a few items they may have needed at home in order to

practice money skills. Overall, I think that the scavenger hunt would have been a great

opportunity for the students to improve their independence in home readiness skills.