Homemade Conversation Hearts

Ever thought about making homemade conversation hearts?

The recipe can be found at Make Monthly and a great photo version of the recipe is at About.com.  On day one prepare the dough using your switches with the mixer and our cooking communication pages.  This is a fun activity that reinforced requesting a turn, fine motor skills, following directions and switch use. Then let every student have a ball of dough on some parchment paper to knead. Once the dough is formed each student smells the bottles of extract (try lemon, orange, root beer, strawberry and mint) and chooses one to use.  Each student is responsible for making one flavor of dough, coloring it with food dye, rolling it out and cutting out the hearts with a cookie cutter.  What a wonderful multi-sensory experience with feeling the sugar and dough, see the colors, hearing the mixer and smelling the extracts!

Once the hearts are done set them out to dry.  The next morning give students were given a selection of 12 picture symbols showing messages that could be written by their adult partner on the candies (love, friends, sweetheart, you're icky, text me...).  Students also have a choice of five colored food dye markers to write their messages.  This portion of making conversation hearts is all about choice making!

Have fun!

Valentine's Fun

This year my class will be hosting a Valentine's Day Parent/Student Tea. My students will be giving their mom or dad a special gift (which I cannot reveal in case any moms or dads decide to catch up on the blog). In the event of low turn parent turn out we will join the class across the hall for a more traditional Valentine's Day party.

Here are some link's to some Valentine's Day crafts and activities to try out:

• Kaboose
• EdHelper (members section mostly)
• Enchanted Learning (members section mostly)
• ABC Teach (members section mostly)
  
• DLTK
  

Don't forget to check in at Adapted Learning (which appears to be down at this precise second, but when it is up I will post a Valentine's Feelings Book I just made) and The Intellitools Exchange.

Also I have changed how I have been adapting materials, especially comprehension materials, from sites like ABC Teach. Instead of cutting and pasting the essay or story into Boardmaker or Classroom Suite and then rewriting the questions and creating multiple choice questions with answers that can be marked using a bingo marker (I do this instead of electronic materials because it is easier for alternative assessment, because it is difficult for students to run AAC devices and a computer and because I don't have enough adapted computer stations to go around during a group) I just use the worksheet as printed and create "cut and paste" symbolated answer strips. I make one strip for each question and one "foil" (answer that doesn't match anything). The students can point, use a pointer, use their AAC device or use partner assisted scanning to make selections. This saves tremendous amounts of planning time and saves on ink and copying.

Tale of Triumph

There is a student in my class who has been with me since September of 2001. When he arrived he had very little understandable spoken language (in fact he was trialled on an AAC device then he was determined to have hearing loss, which was treated with hearing aides and intensive speech therapy). He also had no reading, writing or numeracy skills, and he had significant maladaptive behavior.

Today he is 20 years old and we went to the local bank for him to open an account. (We had parental permission for this and all of the needed items like money, ID, etc. We prepped for this for years.) He introduced himself saying, "I would like to open an account, please." He was able to answer all of the questions regarding address, telephone number, social security number, etc. He filled out the paperwork himself. He explained to the clerk the difference between checking and savings ("checking for everyday, like grocery; saving for big things, save up, like karaoke machine."). At one point he stopped the process and said, "Excuse me, may I use your bathroom?". (Such manners my student has!)

During the process the other student who was with us became very jealous, she wanted a bank account too, (she is a device user, only her device had lost its charge and she used adapted sign to tell us "mad" and "jealous"). The student opening the account excused himself again, turned around, and told his friend that it was okay, that he is much older than she is and that some day she would open an account too. The clerks had tears in their eyes.

I didn't well up myself until the entire 45 minute process was over. At the very end, when all of the forms were filled out and my student had an envelope of blank checks and a temporary ATM card, the clerk shook his hand and thanked him, asking him if he had any questions. He said, "Yes, I have a question."

My heart sank. My student has three perseverative questions he asks (all day long) including, "Am I getting tall?", "Am I buff?", and "Am I doing a good job?" I assumed one of these was about to come out of his mouth. I was wrong. Instead he asked, "I am responsible now?"

Tears filled my eyes. The clerk explained that, yes, he was responsible for keeping track of his money, not losing his card and making sure that no one tricks him out of his money.

Happy Valentine's Day to me. What a feeling!