Little Chocolate Bunnies

Oh man, is it a lot of work to make pink-eared chocolate bunnies!

First, you have to gather all your materials--different colors of chocolate for melting, chocolate molds, microwave-able cup and some extra cups, spoons, "lollipop" sticks and a paintbrush or other item for highlighting.

The chocolate is heated at half power in the microwave, in 30-second  bursts.  That takes--
f  o   r   e   v   e   r ....  If you heat it too fast, too high, too long and don't stir it in-between heatings you risk making a glob of stinky, burnt chocolate.

The SLP had students say whole sentences about which color chocolate they wished to use, made them ask for the lollipop sticks and other materials/tools.  I was watching their hand control and motor planning during spoon dipping and pouring plus their ability to use a hot pad to retrieve the measuring cups from the microwave.



Painting in the pink bunny ears before spooning in the white or dark chocolate.

 

This task was easy, fine motor control-wise, for several students.  They seemed familiar with the idea of not over-filling the spoon and accurately hovering over the mold opening while carefully pouring the chocolate.  For other students there was a little more clean-up to do; what we call a "learning experience" in the schools. 

These students, in a class for high schoolers with autism, spend many hours each week working on cooking tasks with their teachers, as part of their pre-vocational training and self-help practice.  Some students are very adept in their basic cooking skills!

Many thanks to the PTSO (Parent-Teacher-Student-Organization) at Midlo High for generously giving us a gift card to use for funding these activities!