Cool Ali

Cool Ali, by Nancy Poydar,  is a story set in the city in the heat of the summer.  A girl who loves to draw goes outside to escape the heat in her apartment building.  There she begins to draw with her chalk on the sidewalk. She draws pictures that serve to distract the attention of all the neighbors from the heat of the day.  As she draws scenes of cooler seasons, everyone suddenly feels refreshed. 

It is a cute and clever story well suited to our current hot summer.  This book is fun for all of my speech therapy clients.  Here are some of my therapy ideas for this book:

Articulation:  Pull targets from the story and create carrier phrases. 

/k/ initial - Cool
/l/ medial - Ali
/l/ initial - "likes to draw"
/r/ blend - draw
"ch" - chalk
Any sound can be addressed as you and the client "draw" your own "chalk" (crayon, marker, map pencils) targets on cards or paper.  It would also be a fun activity to go outside and make chalk drawings on the sidewalk, if it is not too hot. Here in East Texas it is usually too hot.

Language & Processing: 

• Sentence Structure:  N-V-Obj: Ali draws an umbrella; cut apart sentences either word by word or in chunks (for lower functioning children) and have them reorganize the sentences.  For higher functioning clients, throw in some sentences that can be reordered in two ways; this way you can work out their mental flexibility skills as well.
• Verb tense: Ali is drawing... / Ali drew / Ali will draw / Ali has drawn; for younger clients you may only pick one tense to work on or the tense they have as a target; for the older kids you could have them work on changing sentences to reflect all of the tenses.
• Pronouns: She is drawing... Can also work on referent pronoun understanding: Ali drew an umbrella.  She colored it yellow and white. She=Ali / it= umbrella
• synonyms: hot, heat, sweltering; see how many words you can generate to replace a target word or ways to reword a sentence to convey the same idea.
• antonyms: hot / cold; Ali draws cool pics in the summer heat but she draws sunny pictures while it is raining.  This could lead to an "opposite day"...
• Predictions:  What will she draw?  How will it make the person fell? What do you think the person will do?
• Reasoning: Why did they feel cooler?  Were they really cooler? Were they pretending? Did they feel better in some way after Ali drew her pictures? Why/How?
• Figurative Language: mop their brow, chilled to the bone...

One of the applications that I really like about this book involves helping children with ASD or abstract reasoning problems process the ideas in the story.  It requires them to think beyond the surface structure of the pictures and words to realize that the "coolness" the people are feeling is a state of mind contrary to the reality of the heat.  Also, at the end of the story it begins to rain and Ali's wonderful pictures are washed away.  This event can serve as a model for helping the ASD child to process change and disappointment without becoming emotionally upset. At first Ali appears concerned about her drawings but then she enjoys the rainbow of colors streaming down the pavement and contentedly takes up her drawing on paper in her apartment while the rain cools off the heat of the summer; now she draws sunny pictures.

I have found several nice resources online:

The Teacher's Guide lists lots of online games, links, printouts to address vocabulary, matching, spelling, word searches, etc.

Harcourt for Second Grade Teachers  scroll down until you find Cool Ali

• Vocabulary PowerPoint - nice colorful powerpoint presentation
• Possessives & Vocabulary
• Grammar Test - How Many
• Vocabulary Test
• Study Guide for Story - Vocabulary and Comprehension

Cool Ali Jeopardy

Extension Activities

Julian Beever's 3-D Chalk Art - Truly amazing art that will "blow your mind".  Great for discussing perspective and illusion (helping kids to understand things are not always what they seem).  What is real in each picture?  How does the artist make the pics look 3-D? What are the people doing that add to the realism in the drawings?...

Great video that shows the artist at work creating his 3-D chalk art.

This video shows the ways spectators interact with the drawing after it is completed.

Extension activities to chalk art:  3-Dimensions, perspective in drawing.

Other extensions to the story itself:  temperature, weather, drawing.

Social Thinking: "Just Me" versus "Being Part of a Group"

Another concept taught in Michelle Winner's Social Thinking curriculum involves being a "Just Me" (borrowed from an old Munro Leaf book) versus a "Thinking of Others" type of person.  "Just Me" behavior revolves around only thinking of yourself and what you want.  "Just Me" behaviors include always wanting to be first, always wanting to play what you suggest instead of anything others might want to play, always wanting to be the winner in the games, only talking about topics of interest to you, not sharing, etc.Whereas "Thinking of Others" involves the opposite behaviors because you realize that others have feelings and desires too.  Relationships are "give and take", not "take and receive".  These lessons involve teaching children the art of compromise and learning to think, act, play as part of a group. 

This seemingly simple lesson is not-so-simple to learn.  I have had the experiences of completing this lesson, introducing a game, and being immediately met with "I will go first" or "I want to be the blue piece"... (sigh). 

Here are some links on activities or video clips that might be useful in teaching this idea.  I provide Youtube clip links to illustrate the ideas but as always (disclaimer) I suggest people purchase the actual videos of the movies referenced (you probably already own many of them) for actual use of the materials.  Another SLP and blogger, SpeechTechie, has made an excellent suggestion to subscribe to Netflix for access to materials.

* As usual, check back periodically since I add newfound ideas into the old posts to keep things more organized and concise (so I can find them again when I need to use them).

Being a "Just Me"
"Mine" Seagulls scene from Nemo. I did not link to it but there is one clip that loops this soundtrack repeatedly for 10 minutes... that should convey the annoyance of this behavior effectively!

Cooperative games

Youth Group games

From Cindy Meester's Blog

• Noodles - http://meesterc.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/noodle-activity-cm.pdf
• Maze Directions - http://meesterc.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/cooperation-maze-directions.pdf
• Maze - http://meesterc.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/cooperation-maze.pdf

Teamwork

Linj

• Musical (comical) example 
• Penguins and Whale 
• Pilobolus 
• Teamwork video with stills and captions 
• Crabs vs. Seagull   (Also see Ants & Fireflies)
• Coke commercial:  Bugs help each other steal the Coke                                                                                         

Social Skills: Perspective Taking

Information on Perspective-Taking:  What is it?  How does it work?

Perspective-taking is generally considered the ability to understand that not only do I have thoughts and opinions but that other people have their own thoughts and opinions about things.  Their views may be very different from mine.  Perspective taking is the ability to understand these concepts as well as the ability to put myself in the other person's shoes and view things with their perspective in mind.  All of us develop varying degrees of perspective-taking skills over the course of our lifetimes.  Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders have particular problems with this type of thinking, as do some individuals with various disorders such as ADHD, Social Pragmatic Disorder, and Learning Disabilities.  In working with social skills, it will be important to specifically address this area of pragmatic development.  The following links provide much more information on this skill area.

Michelle Winner on perspective-taking as it relates to social skills development:
4 steps of perspective taking: 
My Boardmaker handout of these steps PDF
36 page manual on her social communication profile: 

Other online resources:
Interesting article on perspective-taking among the general human population
Article on the developmental process of perspective-taking
Perspective skills by grade levels
Jill Kuzma  Nice website with lots of resources for Social Thinking activities

Activities and Exercises:

Perception as perspective exercise
Activities
Suggestions for parents of preschoolers
Archived book:  Lessons for Understanding: An Elementary School Curriculum on Perspective Taking by Terri Vandercook, et.al.
Exercise in seeing the world through different eyes


Videos:
Superheroes Social Skills - Perspective Taking (Short Takes 3) 
Perspective taking with R chi
ThinkBlocks:  I do not have or use them but it is an interesting concept.
The "False Beliefs" Test: Theory of Mind
Catalyst - Theory of Mind
Autism and the Brain's Theory of Mind - 58 minute video of Uta Frith lecture
Duck Rabbit

Other Activities:

Visual Perspective:  Activities in visual perspective may not seem to be true perspective-taking lessons at first glance (pun intended).    However, part of the problem of perspective taking involves rigidity in thought process, so these activities are good for teaching flexibility in thinking or processing, and are pretty cool at the same time.  Being able to see one picture one way and then to change our "perspective"and see the same picture in a different way helps us to process that there is more than one way to look at things.

Slide show on perspective with activities (in second part)