For my end of the year celebration with some of my classes the special education teachers and I are having our students make Ice Cream Sundaes. I know it is not the healthiest but it is the end of the school year and my students deserve a little treat (you could always use frozen yogurt instead)! I did this at the end of last year with my upper grade class because we wanted to have an 8th grade graduation party for those students going on to high school. It was so much fun and the students loved being able to choose all the different toppings that I wanted to do it again this year with other classes as well.
My students still have a couple more weeks of school but I know some of you are almost done so I wanted to share this recipe now in case anyone else wants to use it for their end of the year party/celebrations. I created both a visual and written recipe depending on your students’ skill level. I just picked different topping which are easy to get and most students will like something with all the different choices.
This is a perfect time to use communication books and devices to request each item because of all the different choices! Lot and lots of requesting! I created smaller pictures I use with my students who have PECS books. My students with AAC devices can just use their devices to request the item.
To make the ice cream sundaes, I just created an assembling line in the classroom. First, the students need to request a bowl and ice cream from the first adult. If they are using a device to request they can just find the item to request such as “ice cream” or work on expanding their utterances such as “want ice cream” or “I want ice cream”.
Then they move to the next teacher or paraprofessional and request either chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, or nothing to put on their ice cream. I added in the “nothing” because I often have students who still request things even if they don’t want them just because it is on the recipe. Some of my students would think they needed to have both the chocolate and strawberry syrup if it is on there so I want to work on that “no” concept. They can say “no chocolate” “no strawberry” or “nothing” at that station.
The best part for my students is they get to choose the toppings to add onto the sundae! Again, I have the student request the different toppings but I let the student put on the toppings for their sundae. I just limit it to usually 1-2 scoops from a spoon so they don’t have too much. They can request each topping they want individually or trying to make a longer utterance “I want sprinkles and M & M’s.” They don’t get to put on toppings without requesting the item so it makes it very motivating!
Finally they get to request whipped cream, a cherry, or nothing to finish off their sundaes. I have all the students make their sundaes before anyone gets to eat it. This is something I worked on all year when we do cooking activities. We look around to make sure everyone has their food before anyone can start eating…just trying to work on some of those social skills. Then when everyone is ready and has their food we say “enjoy” or this time we might say “happy graduation” or “summer break” to indicate we are ready to eat.
When you are finished enjoying the ice cream sundaes you can have the students complete either the visual or written follow-up questions.
If you are interested in a copy of the recipe you can click the link – Ice Cream Sundae
Hope everyone is having a good end of the school year!!!!
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4 Responses
Fun end of year celebration with great visuals! I especially LOVE the question page!
Thank you
Fun end of year activity with GREAT visuals! I LOVE the question page!
Thank you
love this
this is great