Readers I do not know if it’s the gray weather, the constant snow here on the East coast or lack of sunshine, but I am SO excited for February activities. Give me all the hearts, strawberry milkshakes, February bingo, and cupcakes that you can!  Here is a little roundup of a sweet little friend of mine having some fun with The Autism Helper February activities!

Sorting Activities

What is it about sorting cupcakes and sparkly hearts that makes this skill so much fun?  I took an activity from the Cupcakes File Folder series and used it for two different types of sorting activities.  First, we sorted large and small cupcakes.  If this is a skill that your student has not yet practiced, model model model! Emphasize the big (or large) and small vocabulary and model it on a core language board or a student’s dedicated device.  After a few models, hand your student one of the cupcakes and give them wait time (3-6 seconds at least).  If they put the cupcake in the incorrect column, model where it goes and why by pointing to a big a little visual.  You could even add in visual prompt by taping or gluing one cupcake in each column and use that as a reference.  We also use this same sorting board with some sparkly hearts that I got from the Dollar Tree!  You could make a few of your own with plain construction paper.  My friend even took this activity a step further and made an AB pattern from the hearts!

February Bingo

We had SO much fun playing The Autism Helper February Bingo that you can find here.  I grabbed some of the conversation heart candies as our place markers, but you can use whatever you like!  We used the level one version with the picture and word cards however there is an additional level that describes the picture!  This would be so much fun in a small group of 2-3 and you could even use it 1:1 if you’re just starting out with this skill.  These boards have a field of 16 blocks so keep this in mind if you have a student having difficulty.  They may need some extra assistance scanning and matching the cards to the pictures.  Above all, have fun with it! This is an excellent matching game!   

Shakes & Hearts

The last few activities we made were the Valentine’s Shakes (oh so yummy) and this fun daub and peel heart activity.  If you are not allowed to make food in school, you could always send this recipe home to families and have them send pictures of them making the shakes or other Valentine’s Day treats! I love the amount of language that is produced (non-verbal and verbal) when I use recipes.  I like to have all the ingredients out and then go through the list together. Always make sure to have a core language board out and the student’s personal device if they have one.  If you are new to core language boards, you can find some here!  For the daub and peel heart activity, you will need a piece of cardstock, a cut out heart and a bingo dauber.  You can work on requesting different color daubers, core language words like “on, more, go, and stop”, and completing a task!  I find that these Bingo daubers are easy to use even for the smallest of hands.  If you find that your student is putting the paint end into their mouth, gently redirect verbally and physically if needed that the paint goes on the paper. I like to use action words such as “dab dab dab” as we use the daubers.  Once you go around the heart and all over the paper, I like to count to 3 and then have my student peel off the paper heart and reveal the shape underneath!  If you wanted to gift this to parents, add a Dollar Tree frame!  Happy February!