"A Christmas Carol" Theme Unit

This blog entry is a work in progress, feel free to comment to contribute!

For the month of December (as there is not a full Unique Curriculum Unit and I am missing creating my own units) my class will be doing a unit on "A Christmas Carol".  We will be working from Pete's Sensory Story version and most of our activities will stem from that simple retelling.  Here are some of the resources we will use.

Pete's Sensory Stories - A Christmas Carol
This sensory story version is a slide show with sound effects and simple animations which is activated by switch.  Meanwhile the teacher reads from the script which comes with the slideshow while the teacher and aides expose the students to related sensory experiences, like touching a chain or smelling cinnamon.  I will also have large TOBI (true object based icons) of the characters which have textures added to them for the students.


Multi-Media
Audio Retellings
Our classroom iPod will also be loaded with a couple of audio versions of the story.

• Storynory "A Christmas Carol" free  
• Wired for Books "A Christmas Carol" free

Videos

• About.com's listing of A Christmas Carol videos
  

Academics

Math

• patterns of either real cranberries and popcorn in garland (note: this is a CHOKE HAZARD do not use if students may place items in mouth) or symbols/photos of popcorn and cranberries
• add and subtract sets to 5, 10 or 20 using chocolate gold coins (or symbols of them)
  

History

• learn about Charles Dickens in this animation
• learn about the 1800s (Victorian times)
  
• learn about Christmas in England

Life Skills

• using Victorian Paper Dolls practice dressing for the weather and compare and contrast clothes now vs. then
  

Arts and Crafts

• cranberry and popcorn garland (note: this is a CHOKE HAZARD do not use if students may place items in mouth) or make other dried fruit garland (in the Victorian era all sorts of dried fruit were used)
  
• make Christmas Crackers (video directions)
  

Sensory

• bin of cranberries and popcorn (note: this is a CHOKE HAZARD do not use if students may place items in mouth)
  

Vocational

• shop for and package hygiene items into kits to give to a homeless shelter (Dickens was the benefactor of a shelter for women)
  

Cooking

• Christmas Pudding
• Fig or Plum Pudding
• Roasted Chestnuts
• Marizpan
  

Community Based Instruction

• See a local production of A Christmas Carol
• See the movie version of A Christmas Carol
• Bring donations to a charity in the community

CC Bingo     

Sensitive Stories

While doing a bit of research today on interventions for decreasing sensory related behaviors I ran across a post on PMLD Scotland (a message board for intensive special needs teachers in Scotland) that mentioned Sensitive Stories. A few clicks later and I was learning about this exciting technique for teaching adaptive behavior skills to learners with significant or complex special needs. Sensitive Stories are to learners with severe, multiple disabilities what Social Stories are to those with Autism. They present difficult topics in a structured, multi-sensory story telling format. They are based on the work of Chris Fuller who started Bag Books. Bag Books are tactile books taken to the next level. They include not only a story text and textures, but also related objects and, often times, scents. For example a story about a camping trip includes "camp fire aroma / tape of camp fire song / tent flap, Velcro / tin mug, toothbrush /quilted material with zip / plastic frog /torch (flashlight) / metal spoon, frying pan / plastic ‘spaghetti’". There are about 25 titles, including selections for children, teens and adults. (I want the entire teen library for my class!) The stories run about 55 pounds (a little over $110 US) each. Int he UK some libraries carry some or all of the Bag Books.

Multi-Sensory Stories are a take off on the Bag Books concept. The University of Dundee and PAMIS (a Scottish charity for those with intensive special needs) created 50 Multi-Sensory stories that are similar in content to the Bag Book Stories.

From there researchers at PAMIS decided to create Sensitive Stories, Multi-Sensory Stories that address significant issues in the lives of those with complex special needs. They employ the concept of a multi-sensory story with the interventional design of the social story. Topics include sexuality, menstruation, epilepsy, toileting, respite, going to the dentist, transition and more.

I see no reason why special needs teachers outside of Scotland (where the pre-made stories can be taken out of the PAMIS library) cannot create these types of Sensitive Stories for their students.

Multi-Sensory Story Brochure PDF
Sensitive Story Brochure PDF