To teach them how to purchase food items and make nutritious meals, our class of students in Autism need visual aids including a shopping CD-Rom, "Supermarket Bits: Shopping Skills for Real-World Success," a power point presentation, "Meal Planning Power Point®,", a model cash register, and starter cash packet of "pretend" money to simulate making purchases and budgeting.
We are working on developing a comprehensive community-based life skills program for students aged 15-21 with Autism. Our goal is to teach the students how to shop for and prepare healthy and appropriately budgeted meals. As their reading and math skills are low, they need the means, methods, and encouragement to complete tasks that are expected of young adults. The skills learned will assist them in situations when they reach adulthood.
We do not have the resources to purchase grocery items or age-appropriate training materials. We want our students to sustain themselves after they leave high school. Shopping and cooking are high priorities. Provided they have a salary, or even given an allowance by their parents or the state, our students should learn how to budget their money to include funds for purchasing food. These skills are best taught through using real money and making actual purchases, not just those simulated in the classroom.
We need appropriate curriculum materials to create our weekly units, and a modest weekly budget in order to purchase grocery items from local and community vendors, such as grocery stores. For example, our first unit will be about packing a lunch for school or work. We will need to purchase appropriate lunch items (for example,luncheon meat; cheese; lettuce)and train the students how to properly prepare this meal. Future units will include making nutritious snacks; cooking an inexpensive dinner; deciding which breakfast foods are best.
We feel that learning to shop, budget, and eat healthy meals will benefit our students for years to come. The point of our program is to teach skills that extend far beyond the classroom. Therefore, it is necessary that we give our students the opportunity to learn skills that will foster independence. It is important for our students to strive for as much independent functioning as possible. With that in mind, teaching how to shop for groceries is exactly the type of program we need to focus on.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Warshausky and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.