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New Product :: Social Superstar Game

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If you’re anything like me, you want to like a lot of the social skills games on the market, but you just can’t. Either the kids hate it, it’s way too deep and “therapy-y,” the board game looks like something out of the 70’s, or there’s no possible way you can finish it within 30 minutes, etc. etc. Yeah, you know those games. In fact, I have an entire office full of them that I never use!

On the other hand, social skills games could be really awesome! They don’t take a whole lot of planning, and the kids could have fun WHILE learning skills they need! Win-win, right?

Which is why I can’t tell you how unbelievably excited I am to finish this project!  I’ve been working on it for the last several weeks and am SO happy with how it turned out! First of all, it’s not made by some educational company who “thinks” they know our kids. I made it (and tested it with my kids), so I know they’ll enjoy it!

The music-themed (no singing required-don’t worry) game contains 150 cards (including some blank ones and decorative card backs) of the following types to teach social and pragmatic language skills in students with Autism, Cognitive Impairments, or other social skill deficits:

– Home Social Skills Questions

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– School Social Skills QuestionsScreen Shot 2013-04-13 at 9.55.57 AMScreen Shot 2013-04-13 at 9.56.13 AM

– Community Social Skills Questions

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– Communication Skills Questions

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– Conversation Acting Topic Cards

The game also includes a cute printable board game in color or black and white, 8 colored “record scorecards” for each player, and reward stars for the student’s scorecard. You can even download a preview before to see if it’ll work for your needs!

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It’s normally $9 at my TpT store, but for this week, it’ll be on sale! Grab it while you can 🙂

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Feeling Generous? I Need Some Help!

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Happy Saturday, everyone! I don’t usually post things like this, but I currently have a project listed at Donors Choose that expires in just a few days and I’d love any help I can get! The project is around halfway funded and if it expires before getting the rest of the way there, the money just goes back to the donors and can’t help my kids!

Many of the students I work with have Autism or other social deficits. Many of the things you and I take for granted, such as understanding social cues, dealing with stress, or having friendships, are extremely difficult for my students. And on top of that, most of my students do not learn information through their ears; they have to use pictures or other visual cues instead. By using an iPad, I can teach social skills lessons in the ways my students learn. There are so many amazing social skills and communication apps that have been developed, but I can’t use any of with them without an iPad. Everything from communicating effectively, to identifying emotions, to learning how to cope with stress and frustration can be taught with only one device. And now that Apple has developed the iPad Mini, my kids can have all of that for a much lower price. This is where we need your help!

If you’re not able to financially donate, you can still share my project with other people you know who might be interested! That would be a huge help in getting me to my goal.

Right now, you can also use the matching code “HoraceMann12” to double your donation. Anything will help and all donations are tax deductible! Thanks 🙂
Update: My project got funded!! Thank you all for helping to spread the word 🙂 My kids are SO excited!

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Pinterest Find :: Free Movie Clips

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Ever been in that moment when you’ve got a super visually-oriented or antsy group? (I know….NEVER, right?) I don’t know about you, but I just don’t have the time or memory to scale youtube or my own personal movie stash looking for a clip to demonstrate what I’m teaching.

Which is why I was very excited when I came across this movie clips website recently on Pinterest! You can sort by traditional movie topics such as editor, genre, actor, or my personal favorite….THEME!

From there, they have topics such as:

– Character
– Aggression
– Grief
– Betrayal
– Compromise
– Distrust
– Equality
– Listening

and TONS more.

Now, I do have a disclaimer: not all clips are appropriate for all ages (obviously – this is Hollywood, people!), so make sure to preview anything you play for your students and/or obtain appropriate parent permission if necessary.

I’ve already used tons of clips and my students have loved them!

Hopefully this will help put a little spark in your lessons 🙂

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