You may have noticed that several of the Animated
Step-by-Step recipes include a clock animation. You probably have also noticed
and possibly wondered why there are no hands on that analog clock?
Although Animated Step-by-Steps are now being used on the
iPad (using the Microsoft PowerPoint app), they were originally designed for
use on an interactive whiteboard
where several colored pen tools were
available to embellish the clock providing a ‘teachable moment’ relative to
time concepts.
In the Animated recipe, Brownies,
for example, we are instructed to ‘Bake
the brownie batter in the hot oven for 25 minutes” The presence of a star at the end of this
text indicates the need for an animation … that animation brings in a clock
without hands.
If the class is quite young it is sometimes sufficient to
just establish the idea that we will be using a clock to mark time while we
wait for our brownies to bake. For the class functioning at a somewhat higher
level, the Facilitator may wish to reinforce the distinction between the shorter
hour hand and the longer minute hand. The interactive whiteboard
pen tools can be used to draw in the hour hand and the minute hand. “Heh clocks
are suppose to have hands. Let’s use our
blue pen to draw the short hour hand and a red pen to draw the longer minute hand.”
At a more advanced level the hands are drawn to reflect the
current time and the colored pen tool is used to count off 25 minutes (using
red to reinforce the link between the minute marks and the red minute hand). “When the minute hand moves to this point
(indicated with a black arrow) it will be time to check on our brownies. I need
two volunteers to be clock watchers … and just in case let’s set our timer ….. Now
we have two ways to be sure we don’t burn our brownies!”
With a still more advanced class, the Facilitator might be
marking off the minutes in groups of 5 providing a functional use for skip
counting by 5’s.
The previous examples highlight the continuum of ways that a
Facilitator might wish to provide some incidental learning re: time concepts when using the Animated Step-by-Step Recipes. None
of these steps should encumber the food preparation process. Rather, given the availability of time, the
Facilitator may or may not opt to include a ‘teachable moment’ re: time concepts.
It is hoped that across recipes, across time, difficult time concepts may just
start to make sense for children who experience difficulty learning.
…’til the next post
© 2015 Carol Goossens', Ph.D.
Augmentative Communication Specialist
Speech-Language Pathologist
Special Educator
http://animatedstepbysteps.blogspot.com
http://teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Bloom
