Pete the cat and his peppermint buttons

It's that gingerbread time of year!  I do get tired of doing the same old thing, so I decided to use one of the kid's favorite book characters and make "Ginger Cats".  I think Pete the Cat would think it was groovy!

Our first activity of the day was to read a short adaptive book about Pete's adventures helping a friend who is sick.  

The next task was to decorate our "Ginger Cats".  This activity includes a lot of opportunity for students who use AAC to request, negate, comment, and give attributes.   Examples are: I want dot whiskers. I want striped whiskers. I want two buttons. I like that. I don't like that. He is sick.  You would be amazed at the amount of language this groovy cat generates.   

Here are some examples of our finished product.

The kids enjoyed this activity. Hope your student's enjoy it as much as we did!

The First Thanksgiving with the help of Grid Player

A few years ago, I ran across this little poem from SavvysecondGraders.blogspot. com that incorporated colors and the story of The first Thanksgiving.

I thought this poem would be a great tool to teach our students with Autism because using the colors is such a visual tool.  To complete this project, I went to Wal-Mart and purchased this large container of beads.  

You will also need pipe cleaners to make the bracelets.  To incorporate AAC into the activity, you can use a variety of methods to make requests of beads.  My choice for today is The Grid Player.  It is a free app from Apple. You can get a basic board to use with your iPad.  Here is a look at the color page.

Our core word of the month is "turn" for November.  You can certainly incorporate the word turn into this activity as well.  I am using a big mac switch for students to request their turn.  

You can share this short poem with your students, and as you come to a color word have them request it for their bracelet.  I like to send the bracelet home with the student and a copy of the poem.  

Teaching the core word "turn"

Here is a simple idea to help teach the core word "turn" to your students.  Put together a box of  wind up toys.  The students will be able to request turn, combine words, and comment with this activity. 

 The kids are super fascinated with these "turn" toys.  Have fun and enjoy learning a new core word!

Sensory Turkeys and Run Turkey Run

Some of my favorite books to use with students are books geared towards this time of year.  One of those books is Run Turkey Run.  It always amazes me how the students like to get in on the action and tell the turkey to run as we read the story.  After reading the story we completed a craft by making sensory turkeys.

 I picked up several different items that I felt would be good for feathers and made a static board for choice making.  The items included:  pom poms, stickers, glitter, noodles, gems, feathers, and tissue paper. The students also used communication books and switches to request turns, colors of the feathers, and requesting help.   This was a great activity that increased both verbal and augmentative communication.  

Using AAC with Core Vocabulary

Here are a few quick ways to incorporate AAC into your lessons using core vocabulary.  Our core word for the month of November is "turn".  There are many ways we can use core words and incorporate them into our language lessons.  In our group today, we used the big mac and  go talk 4 to enhance choice making for the kids during their small group motor, craft, and play activities.  For the language activity, we had four choices of  items that used the core word turn.  We had an iPad that we could "turn" on, a ghost that had lights that "turned", a mouse whose tail "turned", and wind up chatter teeth that we had to "turn" to get them to work.  Can you guess what the favorite item was??

We also used the big mac to request my turn during turn taking activities at all of the stations. These are so simple to use during a session.

One final idea, is to use a swifty (USB switch interface) to attach a switch to your computer/smartboard.  The kids can use the switch to "turn" on the music and dance.  

These are just a few ways to use AAC with core vocabulary.  Let me know how you use AAC to enhance your lessons.