MindWing Concepts Blog
Tech Tuesday: Play with Stories!
As we have previously discussed in this blog, play and narrative are inextricably linked (see our post about Braidy the StoryBraid® and overlappings with Social Thinking®’s Incredible Flexible You Program — now titled We Thinkers! and with a new 2nd volume)!
“Play Plans” within a group or individual session can emphasize social cognitive concepts that are important during play such as “sharing an imagination” but also narrative elements that are acted out or realized in the process of play. A great series that can be used to emphasize early storytelling and play skills can be found in the apps from Sago Mini. These apps comprise contextual “sandboxes” fostering exploration and experimentation as characters are moved around a setting, resulting in interactive events. Sago Mini’s line features apps that allow interaction with characters such as superheros and neighborhood friends, and settings such as space, a forest, a construction site, and a cafe.
Character & Setting Lesson: Make Your Own Page of a “Lift-the-Flap” Book
If you’re looking for a entertaining, summertime activity to do with preschoolers or kindergarten students, get a copy of the book Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill. This book was originally published in 1980 and was the first book in the Spot series. This engaging lift–the-flap book will bring you and your students on Sally’s journey to find her pup, Spot, in the house so that he will eat his supper. It’s the perfect book to reinforce the Descriptive Sequence and focus on the Character and Setting icons using Braidy the StoryBraid After reading (or viewing on YouTube) the book, make a list of characters (Sally, Spot, bear, snake, hippo, bird, lion, monkey, alligator, penguin, turtle) with the students...
Summer School Explorations with Google Earth
Setting is a key area of instruction for students on the autism spectrum not only because they tend not to observe the “expected behaviors” or script for a given setting, but also because they often leave out details about Setting when 
telling stories to others, thus resulting in loss of a point of reference and confusion on the part of their listener. Students in social thinking/skills groups or individual treatment would therefore benefit from building descriptive skills through the use of the Setting Map contained in It’s All About the Story and other SGM resources. Once again, as visual and kinesethetic learners, working with resources they can see and manipulate assists in building these skills...
Elephants Get the Hiccups?! Fun Lesson Teaching Kick-Offs and Compare/Contrast
Recently, I came across two books at my local library that both had the same Kick-Off: Hiccups for Elephant by James Preller and Clifford’s Hiccups adapted by Suzanne Weyn. In each, the main Character in the story has the hiccups. Maryellen Moreau has completed a workshop activity using the Preller book shown below. In the Hiccups for Elephant book, the hiccups that the elephant has is an Initiating Event (Kick-Off) for the animals in the forest who do not like being awakened by the hiccups, and each have a remedy to offer. The elephant, himself, is not seeking a remedy...
Tech Tuesday: Using the Pic Collage App with Complete Episode Narratives
Informational Text Focus for Middle Age Students
A recent question from a colleague on our Official Story Grammar Marker® Facebook Professional Learning Community:
What are your recommendations for working on listening comprehension and written language for middle age students? Thanks for your question, Sarah. In the twenty five years since the first Story Grammar Marker® was used in a classroom, we, at MindWing Concepts, Inc. have created multiple manuals and materials for tweens, and teens as they struggle with the text and how to communicate their responses to it. The academic focus gradually becomes the text of information, also called “expository text.” It is the text of science and social studies and the like...