Cooking Eggs, 5 Ways!

I haven't done any real cooking with the kids due to the new rules laid out for us at the beginning of this year. Last week during a conversation about table manners and the importance of thanking the person that cooks for you, I noticed that even though I have had parents telling me their kids help cook at home, according to me kids, and what they know, they do not appear to at all. Another reason why I wish I could continue the cooking classes we used to have. 

So today I taught a cooking class. I didn't allow them to help, they sat in a semi-circle in front of me and we talked about what I was doing in each step. We would also pause to write the steps on the board. First we hard boiled, then fried, then scrambled, we made a cheese omelet, then made deviled eggs with the eggs we had hard boiled. You will have to forgive my omelet, I am totally out of practice and it probably could have used another egg for the size pan I had as there was NO flipping that thing!

We have been watching Youtube videos of people cooking all year when I find a good one that's appropriate. This was so much better as they were right up in there and we could talk about each step and they could ask questions.  Luckily no one even asked to try anything which made it a lot easier for me to not have to say no. Apparently eggs are not a hot ticket item with my kids. Oh, and my two female aides guessed 20 and 30 minutes on how long to boil an egg!!!! One said she was even going to go home tonight and do it for 3 minutes to see for herself, lol.

Now, I am going to ask this which I know is going to make me so jealous, but.... Do you do cooking classes with your kids at school? Do they/you have a favorite thing to cook?

FYI... I put a bulletin board up in the kids lunch room today that count's down the days left of school this year, and guess what?  We have 60 more days!!!!

Have a great week,

Life Skills - Planning A Party

We had a student in class last month that was planning a party for her birthday and wanted to invite her classmates. I had talked to her mom, who was pretty open about it, and I told her we would talk about it during class.  That night I decided to put together a little one page (which turned into two page) worksheet to help give her and any other of my kids who may plan a party someday some suggestions. The kids got really into this and were great in coming up with ideas. This also reminded me about a student I had a few years ago who had offered her home to another student to hold her birthday party at. They planned it and even sent out invitations to many other kids in our program before I caught wind of their plan. I called the mom who's home was hosting the party to make sure she was ok with this, and guess what? she didn't even know about it. We ended up having to inform all the invitees that the party was a no go and had a big lesson on asking permission!

You can pick yourself up a copy HERE

Dollar-Up Activity Book

 Here is a fun activity book that can be put together for the kids to practice the dollar-up method. My kids actually got pretty good with this last year. Since we work on money weekly, I always throw in a few minutes of dollar-up practice at the end. The majority of my kids really struggle with coins, and this method has proven to be very helpful for them. This activity book can be put together in about an hour. It has ten activity pages where the students will Velcro the correct dollar amount showing how much they would need to pay for each purchase.

You can find this product here

Sewing Activity

I was looking through my boxes today and realized that I hadn't shared this one yet. I have had this box for a little over a month(can't remember whose blog I saw it on sorry, give a shout out if it was you please) and so far it's a pretty good one for my kids. I bought needles with large eyes to make it easier for them (and myself). Some have needed help with threading the needle, but I have been pleasantly surprised at some who have been able to do it for themselves. Once I get them started I tell them that they must go in and out of each hole 2 times (for the 4 hole button) and 4 x for the two hole.  After the button is sewed on, I've been sitting down and helping them tie the knot on the underside. Another one of those boxes that requires a great deal of concentration which I love! Part of my plan this summer is to have each of my kids complete each activity box one time. Inside their morning folders is a check off sheet listing each of the 39 activities. As they finish a box they are to have it initialed and dated by a staff member that it has been completed. That is only two boxes a day which is doable for most of my kids to fit in. Some boxes can easily be done in 10 minutes while others like filling the salt and pepper shakers take far longer. 

Danger Signs Wheel

ESY starts tomorrow at my school.  Even though I teach the same subjects during ESY that I do during the regular school year, I try to make it a little more fun for the kids (and myself, who am I kidding). Here is a fun danger sign activity we are going to start the day off with tomorrow.  Since the majority of my kids are non-readers it's important to familiarize them with signs they may see that tell them there is a risk of danger. For better quality I suggest you print the pages onto card stock.  After cutting out the three circles, students can color the cover page and put the wheel together using a metal brad. If you interested in a copy, you can find it over in my TPT store!  
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Safety-Signs-Wheel-1262269

Monthly Calendar Skills *updated*

I have updated my Monthly Calendar Skills worksheets on TPT for the 2014/2015 school year. I left June on in case anyone still needs to download it. If you have already purchased them, head over and download your copies for next year!  I hope everyone has had an enjoyable/relaxing Memorial Day!

What Do You Mean We Can't Cook Anymore?

We got some bad news yesterday at work.  Because of food service guidelines we are no longer allowed to serve food to the kids that has not been prepared by our food service providers. This means no more potlucks, no more BBQ's, no more birthday cupcakes, and no more cooking in class (this one makes me the most sad). This will also include the restaurant food my students deliver every other Friday to help earn money for our program.  They have also closed down our student cafe, which sold healthy prepackaged snacks.  OH, and did I mention the popcorn and snow cone machines the students JUST purchased so they could sell these items in the quad on Fridays? Those are out too!

IMO teaching the kids to cook is a MAJOR part of teaching them how to be independent. I only have them for four years! My job is to make them as independent as I possibly can before they leave at age 22 to enter the adult day program where they will most likely spend the rest of their lives. Friday my aide was supposed to be teaching her annual homemade tortilla class with the kids.  Next Tuesday we were having a weenie roast at the park and the week after that we were going to make sandwiches and pack sack lunches to take to the zoo with us. It really makes me sick to think of all these great learning opportunities that ALL the kids in our program will be missing out on!

       COOKING IS AN INDEPENDENT LIVING SKILL!!!

I would love to know how your school handles this kind of thing.  Maybe this is a common practice and we were just behind the times. Please let me know how your school handles non food service food items. How do you teach the kids food prep without using food?  

Thanks for the vent :-(

Buying Gifts

Tuesdays we always work on money skills. Today I thought we would stray away from the counting coins/making change stuff we have been working on and do something a little more exciting. I put together this fun worksheet on buying gifts and gave the kids each a Walmart and a Target ad to use for cutting and pasting.  They really did a fantastic job!  Some of them were pretty funny.  We tried helping them along letting them know that maybe there was a better gift beside shampoo for your sister graduation. One of my young men even pasted a fruit platter on his page for a "neighbors housewarming". Another sweet girl cut out a 18 pack of bud light for "Your cousins wedding". Me and my aide were going over and over with her (she was adamant) asking if she really thought a case a beer was a good gift to take to a wedding which she responded "You didn't go to MY cousins wedding!" Guess you can't argue with that!   

You could do a price limit if you wanted, but since the pickings were kind of slim I decided against it for us. Here is a finished worksheet that one of my boys did.  From start to finish it took about 40 minutes for most of them. If you're interested in this worksheet, you can find a copy free over at my TPT store under "Buying Gifts"!

More Activity Boxes!

 I was looking through my activity boxes today making sure they were fully stocked and realized that I hadn't shown these three yet.  I found this first one here on Pinterest.  I went on Ebay and bought a "lot" of letters.  I think there was something like 500!  So far this is all I have done with them.  This box has pictures of everyday things that start with each letter of the alphabet.  It also has two of each letter, one upper and one lowercase, that go with each picture for the students to match. 

This box has the students practicing their cutting skills. The kids seem to really enjoy this one.  There are three pages stapled together. It starts off pretty easy with straight lines.  Then it moves on to curved line and lastly zig zag. The biggest problem with this is they try to go really fast which makes it really messy. It takes a bit of practice but I see them getting better already.

If you are not familiar with Adaptive Tasks activities on TPT you need to be.  I recently bought this one and another one on making pizza (I haven't found time to laminate those).  The kids love this box!  First they need to put the sandwiches together according to the chart (bread, mayo, cheese, meat, lettuce onion etc).  Once all the sandwiches are made they need to pack the lunches.  I added bags to the box for them to put the completed lunches in (sandwich, cookies, drink, chips etc). I am not doing this activity justice so I suggest you check it out for yourself. Here is the link.  
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Packing-Lunches-Life-Skills-750597

Salt & Pepper Filling Activity Box

 We added this new activity box to our classroom a few weeks ago.  We have had students in the past who have done job site training at a pizza place.  Part of their job was to be responsible for filling the salt and pepper shakers.  I bought the these shakers at the Dollar Tree (2 for a dollar).  

The large salt container will fill 9 shakers so that is the amount we went for.  I have been sitting with the kids the first time they do this activity so we can be very clear about the directions and the "fill line".  It's actually kind of cute to watch them try to remove the funnel when they over fill it.  They just know it's going to go all over, lol.  Hence why we pour over a plate.  After the shakers have been filled and the lids tightened, the students have to pour the ingredients back into the original containers. 

I have the worksheet available in my store free of charge if you are interesting in making a box for your classroom.  I keep this sheet laminated inside the activity box. Here is the link:  
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Box-Salt-Pepper-Filling-1060249

Using Visual Recipes

As you can probably tell from some of my previous posts, I absolutely love cooking with my kids!  We don't get to do in near as often as I would like since we have to finance it with our own money and it can get quite pricey. We still are trying to do it at least once or twice a month, and my aide are great about helping out with ingredients!

Every time we get ready to try a new recipe I like to have a visual to go with it. This way we can go over the recipe step by step before we head into the kitchen to do the actual cooking. We always send a copy home (in hopes that their folks let them try to make it there) and we put one in their binders that they take home when they graduate. As you can see they go from pretty basic recipes to a little more challenging as to try to find things that all my kids will be able to make independently.

You can find the recipe book here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Follow-Along-Recipes-989267

Life Skills - School Safety/Being Sick

I was a busy bee this weekend putting together some worksheets I have had on my mind lately. With cold and flu season fast approaching I thought it was important to go over this with the kids.  As you can see I added the symptom "diarrhea" as to get the giggling over with as soon as possible so we can move on.  Funny, when I taught higher kids it was the word "ball".  Didn't matter what kind of balls I was referring to or the context it was in, it was the funniest word EVER!

Here is another worksheet on what we can and can't bring to school.  My kids were able to tell about each one and there was a lot of good conversation that came out of this. We have had some interesting items brought to school in the last couple years (some illegal) so this lesson is very important with my group of students.  My sister in law told me a kid brought a kitten to school last year in his backpack!  What are some of the strangest things your kids have brought to school?
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Being-Sick-968534
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/School-Safety-970008

Doing Chores Slide Show

 I put together a cute little slide presentation to show my kids this week when we talk about chores.  There are 19 slides, each showing a different chore.  I added a couple "non chores" pictures just for fun.  I posted it in my store because frankly I don't know how else to get it to you!  Enjoy!

 
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Chore-Pictures-936753

Something About Mary

I purchased this Mary on the Move series about 5 years ago after borrowing one of the videos from a co-worker. There's something about Mary that is so captivating to the students who watch it. The videos follow Mary, who is a young down syndrome girl living on her own. The videos are both serious and funny as Mary and her friends tackle everyday tasks like cleaning house, getting to where you need to be on time, and planning a dinner party for friends. I would highly recommend this series to your video library.

You can read more about it here.
http://www.attainmentfamily.com/MOTM

The Fire Drill

We have been back in school for exactly 2 weeks and I am exhausted! I think we have ironed out most of the glitches our main one being getting 175 kids on 22 buses at two different loading zones at the end of the day! Thursday our office staff color coded each route and we made tags for each students to wear showing their color, name, and route number.  Yesterday was only our second day trying the color coding and I actually think it went pretty smooth.  Now all we need to do is get the teachers to REMEMBER to send the kids down to the cafeteria with their color tags!  Here is a worksheet we will be using in the next couple weeks about fire drills.  Let's hope that goes smoothly as well.  

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Th-Fire-Drill-853515 

Hope everyone is enjoying the new year!

Cooking Classes

 I have taught ESY (extended school year) for the last 10 years and absolutely love it!  While sticking to my usual topics I teach, I try to make ESY a little more hands-on, interesting and fun. This year we are doing "electives" two days a week, and I signed up to do a cooking class!  Today we did fruit kabobs!!!

The concentration on their faces when they were cutting and skewering was priceless! 

The cutting boards I found at the 99 cent store and the lettuce knives I ordered online from Casa.com for about 4 dollars a piece. The kids picked their own fruit, cut it into bite size pieces and threaded them onto their skewers.  They did an amazing job and were so proud of their creations (which they promptly ate!)

Here is what else we are making this summer:  Rice Krispy Treats, Dirt Cups (complete with gummy worms) and Hamburger Cookies!  I can't wait!

Child Care

Sometimes I just draw a blank when it comes to deciding what kind of worksheets I want to do.  A lot of my ideas come from fellow workers who have a particular situation that they need help with or maybe I am at a conference and someone describes a problem and "bing" my light bulb goes off.  A lot of my worksheets are written with a particular student in mind.  If Johnny has a hard time keeping his hands to himself than waa laa we get a worksheet out on how to keep our hands to ourselves!  If Brook is getting ready to open a bank account and will need to know how to use an ATM machine, we get on that right away!  (actually working on that one right now) 

I got this idea here from a teacher who asked me on TPT if I had a worksheet on Child Care.  I did not at the time, BUT... wait...wait.... NOW WE DO!  This will be a great lesson to use in my classroom too.  I can't wait!  

The suggestions are greatly appreciated, so keep them coming!            http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Child-Care-701479

Banking Your Money

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Banking-Your-Money

Here is a fun little packet on basic banking skills.  I talk a little bit about using an ATM but would highly recommend this web site here http://www.gcflearnfree.org/everydaylife/atm,  This web site has great tutorials featuring basic life skills.

Seat Belt Safety

I have been having a few problems this year with students not wanting to wear their seat belts while on the bus.  Sooooo, I made this up over the weekend and plan to use it tomorrow in class.  I'll let you know how it goes!


Karen




http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Seat-Belt-Safety

Curriculum

Personal Hygiene?  what's that got to do with me?  

From Amazon ------>  This book is a curriculum developed book for students with autism, Asperger's Syndrome, learning and developmental disabilities, designed to help them understand how others perceive their appearance and the social implications of neglecting personal hygiene.

We use this book every Monday afternoon.  I love this book!  I have used it for years.  It is funny, on their level and each chapter comes with printable activities!


Dude, That's Rude!  (Get Some Manners)

From Amazon ------->  Kids today need manners more than ever, and Dude, That’s Rude! makes it fun and easy to get some. Full-color cartoons and kid-friendly text teach the basics of polite behavior in all kinds of situations—at home, at school, in the bathroom, on the phone, at the mall, and more. Kids learn Power Words to use and P.U. Words to avoid, why their family deserves their best manners, and the essentials of e-tiquette (politeness online). It seems like light reading, but it’s serious stuff: Manners are major social skills, and this book gives kids a great start.  

This is the book we use on Wednesday afternoons.  Again, another very funny book with great pictures.  I do not use all chapters, as some do not apply to my kids.  Overall a wonderful book for my level of students.  

We will use these books during the first quarter of the school year.  Please share if you have any great books you have used in your classroom!

Thanks, 

Karen