A is for Alligator

 

We have a new letter of the week, weeks really because it takes uswo weeks to allow for some level of retention and repetition (two important R words in the world of teaching Autism). We are now focusing on letter A - Awesome! It really couldn't have come sooner, X allows for some cute crafts but it is really difficult to come up with words that start with X and even harder to explain that it sometimes sounds like Z.



Yesterday, A was for Alligator and the kids made this really cute A shaped craft. This particular one came with some very sad, and very adorable crocodile (which is kind of like an Alligator, no?) tears because he didn't have time to put the bottom teeth on before going home. As a side note to the craft, it's refreshing to have moments like this at STA, ones where the kids are genuinely sad (or happy, excited, angry, whatever) about something that it's appropriate to feel that way about. This little guy just needed some friendly re-assurance and he was ok again. It gave us all a little opportunity to reflect on how far these kids have all come since September. They're truly amazing.

But I digress, the craft let's the kids work on counting when we look at how many teeth are on the top and bottom, not all were even. They can do some colour and shape recognition and requesting of supplies from their peers - we never seem to have enough glue to go around.

We've also - finally - got our SMART board working again. Sometimes I question how smart it really is...? Yesterday we left a letter game open on it where the kids can select a letter, learn a little bit about upper case and lower case as well as sounds, and then watch a cool video. A was by far the most popular letter and had the kiddos sorting apples with big As and little As and then watching an astronaut dance around on the moon.