Sensing Seasons Success! Wigglebottom Update!

Today I started teaching the kids about the seasons and our sense at the same time. It was a TOTAL SUCCESS!! I had every single kid engaged! I'm not sure you understand how big of a miracle this is in my classroom!

Before I forget:Go download the update for the Wigglebottom Response Activities if you bought it. Thanks to Stacy I discovered a typo and corrected it!

Back to my lesson... 

Mix multiple kids with autism, and 3 grade levels and you get a lot of distracted kids who really don't need to learn the same things. It's rare that I can actually do whole group teaching because the academic range is ginormous (BTW apparently that's a real word according to spell check!). Anyway... my kids were loving this lesson!

First, I reminded them about the seasons. (I used them as a writing prompt earlier in the day to get them thinking. Each kid had to pick a season and write about it as much as they could). Then I had the kids brainstorm the senses. I started with touch, they came up with the other 4.

I almost died of shock when my most severely autistic boy actually engaged and gave completely on topic answers! He gave us the last 2 senses when the younger boys got stuck! This is a miracle in itself. This little guy has NEVER answered a whole group question when I am standing at the front of the room instead of my chair in the middle of  the U-Table. I literally squealed and jumped up and down! The kids laughed at me. I gave him a double high-5 and told him how proud I am that he was "keeping his brain in the group." That's a prompt from... Social Thinking (I think).

So they all came up with the 5 senses. Then we started at the top of the list and said things we could sense. So first were things we could touch, then we all went around the group again and said something we could see, then continued until we got all 5 senses.

Next it was time to mix our seasons and senses together. The kids laughed as I swirled my arms around to mix them up. Next, I talked about how we sense different things during different season. Today's season was winter and they all worked on their winter senses. Go grab this freebie. It's fun. Plus there are super cute illustrations inspired by this. Kid work is below for your pleasure.

See: Snow, Snoman ~ Hear: Sled, Fire

Hot Chocolate and Cookies

Random... I have one kid who is a little jealous about the 3 boys who have Focused Fred since they have started getting more prizes. I'd normally give him the same thing, but he's actually pretty great at staying focused on his work when he's in a good mood. His struggle is whining and asking for help when he can often figure it out on his own. He has a huge tendency to whine, ask for help he doesn't need, and compare himself to others. I'm working on a critter for him. I'm thinking "Independent Ivan" who is great at trying his best before asking for help, not whining, and only worry about himself, not what others are doing. Now it's time to find a cute image... And maybe another "I" name because I'm not sure I love Ivan. Then tomorrow my little guy will get rewards for acting like Independent Ivan (or other cute Letter I name).