Friday, February 10, 2017

Food Themed Independent Work Tasks

I don't know about you, but my students always loved doing activities related to food.  They loved cooking, google-imaging (I know it's not a word, but it should be) pictures of food, going on community trips to eat, etc.

Many of us also have students who don't like to complete academic work.  You know, you put a worksheet in front of your student and they tear it up? or throw it at you?  Maybe, I'm just having that kind of week?!  But regardless, we all know that all behaviors are really our students trying to COMMUNICATE their needs.  What I assume my students are trying to let me know when they refuse work is either "this is too hard," "where's my motivation to complete the work?", or "this is boring!"

One way to keep your students engaged in work and decrease work refusal is to incorporate preferred topics into their work.  Have handwriting be writing their favorite movie character names, let them do a research project about their preferred topic, make social stories or behavior charts using their favorite video games or apps, etc.

This philosophy combined with having so many students that loved food, has probably been one of the main reasons I have created so many work tasks that have to do with food.  I have collected pictures of some of my favorite food themed work tasks to share with you.  I would love to hear about your favorite food themed tasks as well!