Ms. Rice Special Tech Pirates 2014-2015
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New & Improved site here

The Unthinkables and the Thinkables
Two new set of cards for review and new learning!


The Thinkable Team
Strategy Cards

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Perspectives

A few good books...

 Perspective Taking
This is an ability to relate to others and notice that  another person's feelings , thoughts or motivations can be different from ours. Understanding our own feelings and knowing others have them as well  will also help build empathy, compassion and social connections. 

Hey, Little Ant
Two perspectives & some peer pressure
What would you do?

Q.H.                                                              D.P.

B.B.

F.B.

C.O.


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One Sided Sid is defeated by People FILES!
People files are individual 'files' of personal information about a friend you gather  by asking questions, watching and listening. These people files help you  talk about a variety of interesting topics you and your friend are interested in. The children have created their own and shared them with the class during Pirate Club.

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Topic Twister, One Sided Sid & his sister the UNwonderer 
How are they the same & different? 
Room 15 decides to compare. 
Wow they have 2  things in common- 
JUST Me Thinking & Talking!   
AND they work together! 
Uh oh- This is  going to be a tough trio to defeat and understand!
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Conversation Tree 
Maintaining  and staying on a topic preferred or unpreferred is a challenging task for  the students. Many skills are involved from active listening to responding by asking  & answering questions, making comments,  sharing in the group plan and staying on topic. The 'social fake' is taught. As the children attempted to stay on topic the teacher built the tree reflecting their communication attempts. The link game involved earning or losing links before the tree was built. 


Let's practice interrupting, staying on an unpreferred topic and listening. The Social Fake ( politely listening if not really interested ) is  a strategy many use.  Other strategies like walking away, changing subjects , taking turns etc. were explored.
Chatter Box Topics, Conversation Tree and an unpredictable story created numerous situations to explore, practice and discuss.

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How to stay on a topic you don't know much about… Many feelings came up. Great discussion.

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Is Interrupting Chicken a Topic Twister?
The children voted after listening  to us read the story. This led to an interesting discussion on why people topic twist, if interrupting is rude  and the 'Social Fake' .

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Ms. Pelham and I acting out the story Interrupting Chicken

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Just Me Mirror

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Switching Topics…Topic Twister is coming!  


Topic Twister gets the person to twist the topic around to what he wants to talk about and goes off on tangents when talking to others. He also makes us interrupt and not listen to others. 
This person may then go on and on about topics he wants to talk about, not realizing that others may be bored or disinterested in what he is talking about.

JUST ME THINKING!

Going to need listening, thinking about others , staying on topic & the 'Social Fake' to defeat this Unthinkable!

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Comic Kick offs, Perspective Taking, Inference & Fun...
Calvin & Hobbs

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Students add thought/talking bubbles as they look at clues and make inferences.

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In two Calvin & Hobb comics, the children were to determine if the character's mood was 'Ho Hum' or had shifted due to a kick off event. They indicated this by a red  or a green thought bubble. They also had to distinguish between a thought or talking bubble. Many were asked to provide the clues for their thinking  as well in the pre discussion. This was a multi layered project that required several iPad steps!
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Glassman Strategies on Shrinky Dinks 
&
A Wanted Poster Offers the Reward for Defeating this Unthinkable

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Body Scan, Breathing & Self Talk 
were the students' top strategies.

A Kick Off  is an unexpected event & is  how Glassman sneaks in….

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An Ice Cube in the Hand
Reactions VS Responding

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I gave each child a baggy containing an ice cube. We listed what they might expect to feel or notice as they held the ice cube.  We talked about the  difference between reacting VS responding  and  the strategies we use to pause and respond instead of  over reacting. We talked about noticing  anything that  came up  for them.  Just Notice.  After the drippy event , each child & adult shared what they noticed. A deeper understanding of big reactions to a minor sensation or problem deepened. Every child was able to hold onto the ice cube and let it drip. Some exchanged hands & used a variety of strategies to stay with the ice cube. This led to an interesting discussion on self control, pausing etc. 

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Introducing GLASSMAN
We begin our Glassman unit with a book and some sticky situations...

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Big Reactions to small problems!
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Rock Brain Unit has Ended

Rock Brain Moments Explained 
By room 15

Planning ….

Student Generated Strategies 

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Strategy Blaster & the end of this unit!
After completing the strategy poster below, the children picked their favorite strategy , wrote it on a card and blasted it at Rock Brain using the blaster.   Many taped their cards to their desks as reminders.
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Adults have Rock Brain too ;-) Students had some good ideas about  how  to help these three adults. 


 For more information on the unthinkables go HERE.
rockbrain_situations.pdf
File Size: 1101 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


Introducing Rock Brain
He causes us to be  rigid,  unflexible and keeps us  stuck on only what he wants to do or think. Rock Brain has a hard time listening to others or understanding their point of view.

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Comparing a rock to silly putty 
Rigid VS Flexible 

 The kids are learning to identify a rock brain moment.We started by  comparing a rock to silly putty and  brainstormed how the two were alike and different. We then compared this to our types of thinking & behaviors.We also talked about how sometimes having a rock brain is helpful. The kids decided  that Rock Brain opens the door to Glassman and those  big reactions/feelings we have when we don't get what we want. Great insight. 
Here is our 1st Padlet of the year. 
Notice all the stickiness around video games!  Did you have any  Rock Brain moments this week?

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Planning their Rock Brain iMovie.

 A Rock Brain Padlet
A  Padlet is a community board a teacher creates where those invited may post comments, pictures , links etc on the given topic. 

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 Good bye Braineater ( AKA Mr. Distractor) 
We now have some Strategies to defeat you!

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Student strategies!
Braineater Strategy Movies
 Using a strategy or  two from the student's strategy G.O. chart,

the students made a Puppet Pals movie  on how  they would  defeat Braineater! 

A.N.

D.P.

Making the Brain Eater Video Rubric 

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E.H.



Who is Braineater?
He is the master Distractor

The Strategy Blaster!

Brain Eater can be defeated with many strategies learned in class.  
  Each child wrote his preferred method on a card and said it loudly as he stomped on the blaster!

Brain Eater can distract us two ways! OTBD and ITBDs.. ask your child - he KNOWS!

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OTBDs/ITBDs that distract us!
Student Ideas

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Introducing Braineater

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 We will begin this year  with the strongest and most powerful  unthinkable - BRAINEATER.  During all activities , we will be focussing on keeping our brains and bodies in the group, positive peer interactions, talking in turn, listening and defeating unthinkables as they try to sneak in.   Be on the lookout for Braineater in your home especially during HOMEWORK. The children brainstormed  & voted . They all agreed he appears during homework time  because they are easily distracted by noise, TV, video games etc.



The pages below are  examples of how we will be thinking & working with to outsmart   Braineater!

Oh,  and  NED is back ;-)





 Strategies                                               Brain Science                        Identifying Behaviors

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NED

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 The Strategy  BLASTER!!!!

Pirate Club started outside this year


The children played two popular recess games  with a specific focus- to learn how to play four square &  wall ball, practice teamwork, keep their  body & brain in the group and follow the group plan. We had a lot to talk about after each game ;-) 

Got Problems? 
The children worked together in partner teams  and sorted pre written problems into  the three problem categories. Some of  these problems are posted on our Got Problems? poster  near Maroon Island. See more below for previous years posters and further explanation!

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Problem Sorting

What causes others to have  Red, Green and Yellow thoughts?

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Stop, say it or think it?
 A Strategy

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Sticky Words
Words can give people red or green thoughts. We learned that negative words are more like post its and after awhile stick to a person who may not want to play with us & have  red thoughts about us.

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We start every day with positive thought and how we are feeling. 

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We begin each day with a check in  routine that starts with each person sharing a  positive thought or memory from the last 24 hours. This is followed by a feeling statement about how  we each  feel at the moment.  A visual with the sentence  prompt is visible for those who need it. We toss a bean bag to the  person raising their hand and mindfully listen without commenting when they speak. Once each person has shared we  then pass a  clapping sequence with gestures to get us up and moving. It is a fun way to start the day and sets a positive tone for the rest of the day. It also helps us listen to each other. Even the teacher cannot comment and must  mindfully listen! It is a wonderful way to learn about each other. The things they say are sometimes priceless!

Got Problems?

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Above Maroon Island is the  yearly class created Got Problems?  poster.  We  do many activities & then sort common problem situations with a partner into the three categories. These are discussed their rankings and solutions and  then placed on the poster as a reminder about the size go our problem and our reactions to them. ( Another  series of lessons called KICK OFFS!)  We do this every year and refer to it often as needed. Once we sort problem solve the work with the Unthinkables and Superflex begins! The students  learn how to defeat them using multiple strategies.  This is a life long goal for this population.
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A Group Plan IS Teamwork

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How to work together for a common goal or purpose 
will be  an ongoing focus all year. 
But we start it with this simple book and several team building acivities.

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 We each held onto a long piece of  thread and talked about how we are all part of a team in room 15 . We talked about ways we   can  help  and support each other succeed. The thread was then cut into 12 pieces which  they tied  onto each other. Thanks for the idea Mindful Schools!


The 1st Teamwork Task of the Year


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Saving Fred is room 15's first teamwork task. Have your child explain the pictures and video below  for this fun team building activity.
The Story- Fred , the gummy worm , has been spending his time sailing around the world. He has survived many perils.  He never learned to swim so needs to wear his life preserver to stay afloat. The worst has finally happened. His boat capsized and he is stuck without his life preserver which is floating away! Can you get his life preserver and put it on Fred?
The Problem- How can you and your partner save Fred using only paper clips. You may not touch Fred, the boat or the life preserver with your hands. You can touch the paper clips.

The  story  of Fred the Worm
Can we save him? See below….

Partners working together to Save  Fred!!!


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Superflex and the Unthinkables 


Superflex helps students learn about their own inner  superheroic, flexible social thinking skills  using  strategies  defeat various social challenges, represented by Unthinkable characters, such as Glassman, Brain Eater, Rock Brain, Worry Wall, Body Snatcher,  One-Sided Sid, Mean Jean, and others. Stayed Tuned! We will be focussing on a few this year.

Here are two students from last year explaining Pirate Club and the Unthinkables. 

It's All in the Game!
Home and School Connection Idea


Social skills take a long time to develop. Children with Autism  require more time ,  direct explicit instruction &   many opportunities for social interactions and practice  in multiple settings with a variety of  opportunities.   This includes structured facilitated situations to safely practice social skills. We provide this  but it is a life long focus and we are but one opportunity for your children.