Social Time

Social time is one of my students' favorite parts of our morning group.  Each week, we change our question.  The weekly question is written on a sheet of paper and each question has picture choices available to aid in responding.  There is also a place to record answers on each sheet.  The questions I ask range are mainly yes/no or multiple choice.  The questions cover a range of topics mostly focusing on physical attributes (hair color, eye color) and favorites (foods, seasons, holidays, sports, animals).   This week, our question is "Which season do you like best?"  For most students simply responding is the goal.  But for students with higher social skills, I like to throw in a "why" question here and there for  a little challenge.

 How it works:  I either pick a students or ask for a volunteer.  Then the student who is "in charge" is responsible for going up to each student and asking them the question (this is probably the only time throughout out the day where the whole class is together in a large group).  The kid who is in charge has to listen the other student's response and mark the correct answer on the chart (either tally, X, or check mark).  Each student who is being asked the question is working on listening and giving an an appropriate answer.  I love this activity because it addresses so many different goals at the same time!  It works on reciprocal language, answering questions, making choices, as well as counting and graphing.  

For the first month, I was "in charge" of asking the questions and modeled the appropriate way to do it.  Now, my students are great at running this activity!  My students even adapt this activity for students of differing abilities.  For instance for a student who is nonverbal, my kids will hold the question closer to the student so that he can point to the picture of the answer he chooses.  Also, my students who are nonverbal can be "in charge" of this activity as well.  I just walk with them and read the question for them as they point to the words.

I bought a whole packet of these questions/graphs from Lakeshore a couple years back.  When I went on Lakeshore's website to find the link for you guys, I saw that it was discontinued.  I did find this link to a few FREE samples of the charts however.  And, I have a packet of similar sheets for sale on my TPT store as well.  Below are some examples from my TPT packet.