PrAACtically Reading with Karen Natoci: I Eat Thanksgiving Dinner

Here in the US, many are getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday. If you’re looking for a way to add a prAACtical dimension to your preparations, this post is for you. Thank you, Karen Natoci, for another fabulous PrAACtically Reading contribution!

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Book:  I Eat Thanksgiving Dinner by Karen Natoci; Published on Tarheel Reader here.

Core Vocabulary focus: LIKE, DON’T LIKE, Uh Oh!, I, MORE, IT,

COMMUNICATION Matrix Level:  I-VII

Literacy Framework:  Emergent

This month, we decided to practice eating Thanksgiving Dinner by “eating” our way through this book!  This has been uploaded to Tarheelreader and the powerpoint version is available there.  This is shared around a table set for a feast!  To prepare for this story, we were able to purchase a frozen thanksgiving dinner available at the grocery store.  We heated it up and separated it into serving dishes, individualized according to the diet of each of our readers. Some of the food items were accessible with a fork or spoon, while other students required a puree version of the food.  This story was short enough to have three read-throughs. First, we read the story straight through without interruption so that the students had a sense of FLOW. During the second read through, a bite of the food was shared for all! In the video, you can see how actually enjoying some mashed potatoes, with the core vocabulary available to communicate about it provided for some very nice interaction!

It was during the third read of the story we discussed who liked or did not like a certain food.  For example, after sampling carrots, students used their core vocabulary to give their opinion (like/not like).  In the photos, you can see that we were able to print the symbols spoken by the students and we taped them right onto the pages of their printed book.  We also used this information to create a chart summarizing who liked what!  We had lots of fun and boy, the room sure smelled great! This was also a great way to “practice” eating Thanksgiving Dinner and pre-teach the idea and use our AAC so that it might go smoothly at home.  The core words like MORE, FINISHED were encouraged for our beginning AAC users.

You can download the lesson plan here.