Five Simple and Engaging Ideas for Teaching "The Group's Plan"

During the last two weeks in social skills, we learned about what it meant to "follow the groups' plan."  We used the book, "The Group Plan " from the We Thinkers! curriculum from Social Thinking© to start our learning.  Following the book, we used several other activities to extend our learning.

Follow a simple recipe.  We decided to make a fall-themed trail mix.  Since none of the students had allergies, picking a recipe was easy!  The students determined that the group's plan was to make the trail mix.  To make it, they each had to contribute by adding an ingredient to the mix.  The favorite part of the group's plan was to enjoy the snack!  (The speech-language pathologist in me couldn't resist creating few directions that included sequential and temporal directions 😉)

Watch For The Birds.  The students watched this video several times.  I wanted them to just enjoy it the first time without any demands.  After the first viewing, I asked the students to watch it again nd think about the groups' plan.  The students enjoyed this video because the group's plan did not go as planned!  This was a great opportunity for talking about why the plan didn't work and the birds' thoughts and feelings throughout the video.

Play a game.  The students played their favorite game Candyland (a group favorite).  The rule was changed so that the person on the left drew a card for the person on their right's turn.  It sounds complicated, but it was just a big enough change for them to work in improving their flexibility AND following the group's plan.

Watch MORE videos about the group's plan.  We watched a series of three short videos about following the groups' plan. 

Create a Not A Box.  This activity was by far the students favorite!  We started by watching an animated video that goes with the book Not A Box by Antoinette Portis. (The video is posted below.)  I split the students in to two groups, giving them a box that I grabbed from the cafeteria earlier that morning.  I gave the students tape, glue, markers, beads, scissors, popsicle sticks, construction paper, and other random supplies that I had in my room.  Their direction was to create a group plan to make the box not a box.  I was surprised at how well they worked together!  They were so creative and had so much fun!

A robot with a necklace!

A castle!

Book Of The Week: I Just Don't Like The Sound Of No!

I Just Don't Like The Sound Of No! by Julia Cook

This week, I had no difficulty picking out a book for this post!  It's definitely summer time, and by that, I mean more quality time with my kids.  I absolutely treasure this time: going to the zoo, the park, and on walks, but on some days, I am ready for a full day back in the classroom, especially when they do not accept "no" for an answer!  

I love this book, and so does my daughter, who seems to challenge me the most.  In fact, she knows when she has had a day full of "RJ challenges" and will often ask my husband or I to read this book to her before bed.  It's amazing how well she relates to RJ and how this book has helped her say "OK" instead of "NO!"

Summary:  RJ does not like the sound of "no!"  Instead, he asks for a "maybe" or a "later" at home, at school, and in the community.  It's not until he becomes a member of the "Say YES to NO Club" that he begins to learn how to accept "no" for an answer and add his name to the Star Board.

Vocabulary:

schedule - a list of times when things will happen

disagree - to have a different opinion

appropriately - to be right for a certain time or place 

"running the show" - to be in charge

official member - to be part of a group or club

"thumbs up" - to show approval or support 

to knock someone over with a feather - to surprise someone

to spoil your appetite - to make you eat less at the next meal

Questions:

What does the word "no" mean to you?

When was a time you were told "no?"  How did it make you feel?    What did you do about it?

What steps did RJ use to accept "no?"

How do you feel when you accepted "no" in an expected way?

Share a time when you accepted "no" in an expected way.

What steps did RJ use to disagree with someone?

How do you feel when you disagree in an expected way?

Share a time when you disagreed with someone in an expected way.
How did these skills help RJ become more successful at school?
How can these skills help you become more successful?

Extension Activities:
Boys Town Training or you can download our FREEBIE here!

Emotions Review

It's definitely February in my room.  You know, the time of year when the students are beginning to wear on each other just a bit, especially in a smaller-size classroom?  As one parent shared with me this week, "It seems like cabin fever is hitting your room."  I couldn't agree more, but with a Minnesota winter, one never knows if winter really ends in March or May!  With that looming thought, I decided it couldn't hurt to review emotions, which led me to this fun mood bear download.

We set out to make these; it took waaaaay longer than I anticipated, but isn't that the way it always goes?  We had to make a few modifications to get them to stand upright, but the students were excited about them.  I think they turned out cute!

We used the mood bears with this Peanuts video:

I asked questions how the characters felt after a particular incident.  I also asked students to make predictions about how the characters might feel before a situation ended and how they might feel.  They nailed it!  I was so proud, but now I need to work on them understanding how they impact others' feelings.  Looks like our theme for February will be kindness!

Why Yell? Walk to Talk

In our school, like so many others, the 4th and 5th grade students are great talkers and at times enthusiastic yellers when walking down the hall. What started out as a voice-saving strategy for one student has turned into a helpful reminder for others: those who talk too loudly across a room or who have social language challenges and forget that joining a group is done before talking. We created this visual to help our students.  We've posted it here for you to download incase you want to give it a try.  It has definitely worked as gentle reminder for our students.

Get your copy here.

Social Skills and Videos: Making the Most of Your Videos

Last week we posted about five of our favorite series to use with students when teaching social skills. It's challenging  for us to find a good series with characters who use only nonverbal communication that are also student-friendly.  We often find the one-shot fabulous short film, but then we are left trying to find something else the next time.  (If you'd like to check out that post, you can find it here.)

So now that you've found your perfect video. What next?  

Decide how you are going to present it.

Will you be using a SmartBoard?  iPads?  Personally, we love to use Zaption, which is a video editing tool that allows you to create a "tour" with a video.  You can add captions, questions, other clips or pictures to create a tailored learning experience.  (If you'd like to learn more about Zaption, click here.)  

Decide which skill(s) you want to focus on.

This is HUGE for us.  If we do not stay focused, we become tangential because there is so much that can be done (and because we are a tad bit passionate about what we do).  We target a variety of skills, which often lend to Social Thinking® vocabulary and the Zones of Regulation®:

• predicting and inferencing
• "thinking with your eyes"
• identifying thoughts and feelings in multiple characters (perspective-taking)
• "me thinking" versus "thinking about others"
• identifying emotions through facial expressions
• identifying emotions using the Zones of Regulation®
• "following the groups' plan"
• "brain and body in the group"
• identifying problems
• discussing solutions, why they did/did not work, and generating alternative solutions

Brainstorm questions.

This may seem like common sense or a pain when you are in a hurry, but it really only takes a matter of minutes.  Getting a few questions down on paper will help you to start your lesson; you will begin to improvise very quickly.  It never hurts to have a simple guide because, as we all know, things never go as planned!

Make it a big deal.

Get excited.  If you're excited, your students be excited.  Our students become so eager when they know they get to watch videos.  Just saying the word YouTube with our students resonates enthusiasm.  Why? Because we make it a BIG deal!


Explain the skill.
Share the skill you will be working on and why it is important.  Let the students know what you expect them to know by the end of the session.

Encourage students to take the lead.

Our students LOVE when they get to play the role of "teacher;" they love to have a voice.  It really helps to involve all students, even those who are quieter.  We find students participation increases as they are able to build on ideas presented by others.  Their thoughts trigger other thoughts, and they begin to have a shared understanding of a certain skill or skills. (The hidden benefit to this is that you can informally asses students, too!)

Wrap it up.
Ask the students to make a connection whether it is a personal experience, a fictional scenario, or whatever it is they may have to share.  By doing this, you are making their learning experience authentic.

We hope you have found a helpful nugget of information.  Please share anything that you have found helpful, too.  We'd love to hear it!

Good luck with your video venturing!

Social Skills and Videos: Our Favorite Series

Videos and social skills go together like coffee and creamer, at least in my world!  They are fun, engaging, and a great way to teach social skills, which we already know, but how do you choose the right ones and use them effectively?  Over the the next few weeks, we will have a series of posts about how to do just that!

The first part of having a successful social skills lesson is having great videos.  I know it's not an "aha" moment, but it's important nonetheless.  When you're scrambling to pull together a lesson, it's not always easy to find what you're looking for, and when you do, it's often one video and then you're left scrambling again the next time.  We have a few favorite series that we'd like to share.

Wallace and Gromit
We were first introduced to these British clay animation characters from a colleague who was introduced to them years ago by Michelle Garcia Winner.  Wallace is an absent-minded inventor whose dog and best friend, Gromit, often exceeds his intelligence.  Gromit is a kind-hearted dog with a bit more sense than Wallace.  Gromit does not talk, but he uses an abundance of facial expressions and body language to communicate.

Shaun the Sheep
This animated series features a Shaun, a mischievous and confident sheep who often gets himself and others into a series of conundrums but manages to find ways out of trouble.  This series does not include dialogue, so similar to Gromit, Shaun's use of facial expressions and body language, paired with his vocalizations and diagrams help him to communicate.  This series was a spin-off of Wallace and Gromit, so if you like that series, you're sure to like this one, too!

Masha and the Bear
I came across this series as I was watching Netflix on a rainy afternoon this summer with my daughter.  Within the first few minutes, I knew this was a great series to use for my social skills groups!  It is based on a Russian folk tale with relatable characters.  Masha is a sweet, happy, and curious girl.  Bear, a retired circus performer, tries feverishly to keep Masha out of trouble.  Masha, her father, and her cousin are the only characters who talk.  Bear and his other friends use great facial expressions and gestures to communicate.

Zig and Sharko

This French animated series includes a number of characters, none of whom speak.  There are four main characters: Zig, a hyena, who tries to capture Marina; Sharko, agreat white shark, protects Marina from Zig; Marina, a mermaid, is naive and unaware that Zig is after her; and Bernie, a hermit crab, is Zig's best friend.  I have not spent much time watching or using these videos, but I plan to this year!  The crazy chaos of who is after who sounds absolutely comical.

Mr. Bean
Yes, Mr. Bean.  His over-exaggerated facial expressions are great for students to interpret.  Mr. Bean often finds himself in lots of trouble, trying to solve every day problems.  This series is great for problem-solving and understanding others' perspectives.

There they are: five of our most favorite short series.  If you find one you like, you're in luck because there are more!  Our students get so excited when they know that we are watching a social skills video, and their learning is amazing!  As always, please be sure to view the video before showing it.  You never know what may pop up!  Please check back to read our upcoming post about how to use the videos during social skills.

Inside Out Movie: Emotional Learning

Inside out is the newest of the Disney/Pixar Films. The premise is that we all have emotions inside us, causing us to react to our environment. You get to see the inside of Riley’s brain and the brains of her parents. What are her emotions are like? Here is the trailer so you can see for your self:

This week it was also our inspiration for our social skills lesson. Here is one clip, we will use called Disgust and Anger:

 Here is another clip we will be using called, You Ruined the Pizza:

We also created some great freebie worksheets to go with these great clips. 

 You can get your copy here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Inside-Out-Emotion-QR-Clips-1918240

Conversation Pie

I'm sure many of you have heard of Joel Shaul.  His blog, Autism Teaching Strategies is a common source of therapy ideas for us.  Recently he spoke to a group of autism teachers in surrounding districts.  Of course, he gave a great presentation -the kind that are rejuvenating.  He provided many ideas and resources, some of which are located on his website.

After working hard throughout the year on foundational skills for conversation such as whole body listening, joining a conversation group, eye-contact, understanding different types of questions and comments, and generating "friend files,"we finally found the direction we needed to go, thanks to Joel.  Conversation pie charts.  Genious!

This activity was perfect for our social skills groups.  It seems that most of our groups are compromised of several different types of students: the one who talks (all the time), the passive one, the inattentive one, the off-topic one, the one-upper, etc. On many occasions, the students serve multiple roles!

We started the first session of the week by having an unstructured conversation in which the students were able to talk about whatever they wanted - a preferred topic.  The ASD teacher and myself took data, tallying each speaking turn each student took.  Next, we showed them the conversation pie charts on Joel's website, which you can find here.  We discussed that the pie represents a conversation and that everyone should have a similar-size piece, or talking turns.

Next, we showed them this visual, agin from Autism Teaching Strategies.  We asked the students to share how each person might feel (using the Zones of Regulation).

We explained to the students that we had taken data at the beginning of the session and would graph it for the next session.  Before they left, we asked them to make a prediction about the size of their piece of pie.  

When the students arrived for the next session, they were anxious to see the conversation pie. We just used our data and plugged it in to the pie chart found on Word or PowerPoint.  (It honestly took less than five minutes.)  We even added the students' pictures to their piece of pie, which they thought was a hoot!

Most of the students were surprised at the size of their piece of pie, and a few were not.  We talked about ways that they could try to balance the size of the pieces, including asking others' questions to bring them in to the conversation or even making supportive comments to show an interest in what others say.  At the end of the session, the students were given a few minutes to have another conversation, and again, we took data.  Although the concept was fresh in their minds, they had shown marked improvement in their ability to gauge the amount of talking they were doing, notice who wasn't involved in the conversation, and include others.  We know that the students are expecting us to take data at this point, so our plan is to do it intermittently to give them feedback.  Thanks for the fantastic idea, Joel!

Holiday Perspective Taking

This week in social skills and language groups we had our students think about what it would be like to be their teacher and generate a holiday wish list from their perspective or view point. We tweaked the idea for each group using different teachers in our building. Students had to work in partners and agree on items they wanted to add. They also then had to explain why they thought each gift was appropriate. It helped our students to think of another's perspective.

We have modified this activity to be a freebie on our TPT Store. Download here! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. 

Our Top 5 Seasonal Clips for Social Language

It is that time of year again-Elf on the Shelf, Reindeer, Stockings and Trees. This week in social skills our students are continuing their social detective work, by identifying if a character leaves a "thumbs-up" impression or a "thumbs-down" impression. We thought we would tie our social learning to the season with some great Winter and Christmas themed videos. As we go through these clips, we will ask our students to take the detective work one step farther, by inferring information about the situation and thinking about how the character can change other's thoughts and feelings. Please note that we use YouTube as our source for the videos and while we have previewed the videos, PLEASE BE CAREFUL WITH LETTING STUDENTS WATCH THE ADVERTISEMENTS AND PICTURES THAT LOAD AT THE END. Here are our top picks:

1.) Buddy the Elf -Discovers New York



Questions to ask the students as you watch the video:

-Why does buddy think the man in red is Santa?
-Buddy is waving to a man, what is the man actually doing? What kind of impression is buddy making?
-Why does buddy run into the coffee shop and yell congratulations?
-What is the woman thinking when she sees buddy running in the revolving door? What will he do next? What impression is he making?
-What can he do to change the weird thoughts about him?

2.) Elf-  Talking about Santa

 

 Questions to ask the students as you watch the video:

-Buddy is arguing about the North Pole and Snow? What impression does this leave?
-How does the boss feel about him arguing? How can you tell?
-How does the boss feel about Buddy smiling? Why?
-What impression is buddy making about smiling with nothing funny going on?
-Why is Buddy screaming? What impression does he make?
-Buddy is only thinking about Santa? Would you want to still be his friend?
-How can he change the boss's weird thoughts?


3.) The Grinch- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppWrbYC3WwQ

Questions to ask the students as you watch the video:

-During this clip does the Grinch think about himself or others? How can you tell?
-The grinch's heart is two sizes too small? Does that affect his feelings?
-What is your impression of the grinch? How could he change it by what he says and does?
-Do you think the Grinch is lonely? Why or Why not?


4.) Frozen- Olaf, Anna, Sven-First Impressions

 

Questions to ask the students as you watch the video:

-Olaf does not remember Anna and says,"Hi I'm Olaf, I love warm hugs?" Is that a good first impression? What could he say instead? 

-Anna introduces herself is this expected or unexpected? What are the clues you notice? 

-Sven tries to eat Olaf's nose? Is that expected or unexpected behavior for a Elk or Reindeer? 

-What is Olaf's reaction? 

-Is it ok to get mad or feel frustrated when someone is in your space like that? 

5. ) Peanuts- Christmas Play Practice

 

Questions to ask the students as you watch the video:

-What is Snoopy doing that is unexpected? What is your impression? 

-What is Lucy doing that is unexpected? What is your impression?

-Would you want to be in Lucy's play if she is the director why or why not? 

-How can she change her words and actions to be a "thumbs-up" impression? 

-Thanks for reading, please share any clips you use for seasonal social language or let us know your opinion on our picks!~