April ~ Day Eighteen

We have this super cool machine called Oscar. We feed him chopped up fruit and vegetables and he produces a lovely glass of healthy juice (minus the pulp). He has already made an appearance or two on this blog and because of his popularity I thought I would give him another shout out!

Nick often helps me make the juice. He has some experience with the preparation of the fruit and vegetables (needs further work) and is very competent at putting everything into Oscar. He has not yet figured out how to take Oscar apart. Time for an RDI framework, methinks!


My objective for this RDI activity is edge+1. I will start our activity using a familiar pattern and then introduce a new challenge.


Activity:

Make fruit and vegetable juice and then take the juice machine apart (for cleaning purposes)


Roles:

Note:  Prepare the ingredients before inviting Nick to join me.

Nick:  Nick to place the ingredients into Oscar.

Me:     I will use Oscar's plunger to push down the fruit and veg.

The Challenge

Me:    I will model how to remove a part and then step back.

Nick:  Nick will remove the part


Limits:


Turn off CD player. There are only five parts of Oscar that need to be removed from the motor, therefore the removal of the five parts will be our goal to reach.


Communication:

Help guide Nick with fruit and vegetable choices that need to be feed into Oscar. For example; chanting 'spinach, spinach, spinach'. Also use chanting when removing each part. For example: 'pull, pull, pull'.

Use declarative language and self talk when modeling how to remove each part.

Give Nick plenty of time to think for himself and plan what to do.


What happened:

Nick was happy to come and help feed the ingredients into Oscar. It was easy for him and I could see that he felt confident with his role. The introduction of the challenge caused him to show a tiny bit of stress (definitely his edge+1). I took my time and Nick watched me as I modeled what to do. My chanting really helped him focus and he took on board what I said.... for example, 'turning, turning'. He showed lovely resilience and it was wonderful to see him take up the challenge of trying something new. This is how we continue to move forward..... set up a familiar pattern so that Nick feels competent and then add in a tiny challenge.


What next:

I will continue to practice this activity with Nick and introduce further little challenges when I think the time is right.