January 10 is Bittersweet Chocolate Day so this week we are all about CHOCOLATE! Our sensory groups explored chocolate themed boxes. The fine motor groups painted some sweet art projects and the language group made a very tasty chocolate treat! The students are learning about properties of matter with their Unique Curriculum this month and this unit complemented it quite nicely.
SENSORY GROUP
Chocolate comes from the cocoa bean. We didn’t have any cocoa beans on hand, so we substituted with coffee beans—-they look pretty similar.
The students searched for letter C’s in the beans.
Science access point: recognize objects that are identical to each other.
Pompoms were sorted into either a cute heart shaped candy tin for the BROWN chocolate ones or a white “candy dish” for the WHITE chocolate ones.
Of course, sometimes it was fun just to grab a handful and enjoy the pompoms’ soft and squishy texture!
Science access point: identify objects by one observable property, such as color.
Math access point: recognize a common three-dimensional object.
Our chocolate scented play dough was pretty realistic looking AND smelling!
The adults definitely kept a close eye on things with this box 🙂 The students cut “chocolate donuts” or made their own candy creations.
There was also a pastry wheel that made some fun patterns in the play dough.
Science access point: recognize a change in the appearance of an object.
Chocolate cake mix made perfect cloud dough! It was fun to scoop, mold, or squeeze through fingers.
A little messy, but a really fun sensory experience that smelled good too! The students were really intrigued with this box!
Science access point: recognize and respond to different types of sensory stimuli.
We wanted to add a little bit of color to this unit, so we brought out our colorful candy colored rice. There were some “cocoa” beans to find as well as play food candy, chocolate, and two different sized cookies. This rice was really eye catching!
Underneath the rice were pictures of chocolate candy.
Science access point: recognize the larger of two objects.
A little cocoa powder added to oobleck made for a fun chocolate river.
This was really MESSY but really FUN 🙂
Science access point: apply a push to move an object.
There was a little teapot and water wheel in our water basin this week.
Once the first student rinsed their hands, our water play turned into a chocolate fountain!
Science access point: recognize water as a liquid.
We couldn’t find any chocolate scented lotion, so we used a chocolate scented LipSmacker to apply our signature scent to wrists or behind ears.
Science access point: recognize one or more external body parts.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Wednesday the students made candy apples using purchased craft foam apple shapes!
First, they identified the color of their apples.
Science access point: identify objects by one observable property, such as color.
We mixed a little glue with the brown paint and painted our apples. The popsicle stick already taped to the apple made it easy to hold.
Science access point: recognize that pushing and pulling an object makes it move.
Then, we added some confetti sprinkles (the glue in the paint helped make sure it stuck) and of course, we sang our glitter song 🙂
Math access point: indicate desire for more of an action or object.
TA—-yummy—-DA!
Candy apples………
……they look good enough to eat!
On Thursday the students made chocolate chip cookies using paper plates.
First, they identified the shape of paper plate.
Math access point: recognize an object with a two-dimensional shape.
Then, they painted their paper plates with brown paint.
Science access point: recognize a change in the appearance of an object.
Next, the students let us know how many chocolate chips they wanted on their cookie.
Math access point: associate quantities with number names.
The pre-cut chips were added and the glue we had added to the paint helped them stick.
Math access point: recognize when an object is added to a situation.
TA DA!
Time for cookies!!!
LANGUAGE GROUP
We got to make a nice and chocolatey treat this week for language group. This week we made chocolate mousse using this recipe: let_s make chocolate mousse
**Words in caps are the words targeted on their communication boards**
We started out by talking about how we were going to MAKE chocolate mousse.
The first thing we did was PUT a box of instant chocolate pudding mix into the BOWL. Whichever student WANTed to HELP had to raise their hand and indicate HELP on their board.
Next, we PUT 2 tbsp of cocoa powder into the BOWL. Each student had to identify the tablespoon when presented with a cup and a tablespoon. They were told that the tablespoon was the LITTLE one. We talked about how using the wrong kitchen tool could ruin the recipe.
Math access point: recognize differences in sizes of containers that hold liquids.
For the final ingredient (only 3 ingredients…yay!) we PUT some heavy cream into the BOWL. This time, the students were presented with a cup and a 1/2 cup.
They were told to identify the BIG one.
Math access point: recognize a half of an object as part of the whole object.
Each student got a chance to press the switch to make the mixer TURN. Our mousse formed really fast, so each student just got a little chance to press the switch.
Science access point: observe an recognize a predictable cause-effect relationship related to a science topic.
When it was ready, each student got a small amount of mousse and no spoon. They had to indicate that they needed a SPOON and that they wanted MORE.
We think we’d all like to do a chocolate theme each week 🙂
Join us again next time for more fun and learning——Group by Group!
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