Sensory-loaded Hot Chocolate Craft

Although our thermometers are working overtime, my OT colleague, Lisa, and I decided to do a hot chocolate sensory craft with our severely language delayed/nonverbal students.  I found the idea on Pinterest.  The idea originates from the Melissa and Doug blog.  Who knew they had a blog?!?!?!?  I will certainly be following that from now on!

We printed a mug for each student and mounted it on a fun, wintery blue colored piece of construction paper.  We didn’t want to cut out each mug because it would have taken too much time.  Also, the extra space around each mug made the excess hot chocolate and glitter easier to shake off.

We first poured the hot chocolate powder in a cup.  We held it under (not too close – some blew instead of smelled.  hysterical and adorable.) their noses so they could smell the chocolate.  It is surprisingly potent!

We used glue sticks for the “drink” portion.  It actually worked very well!  The chocolate powder adhered well and it dried quickly.  I’d definitely recommend that.  The students scooped the powder with a measuring cup.  Then, we used stick glue on the snowflakes (that are on these cups) and put glitter on them.  The students held the glitter container and shook it on.  The last step was the marshmallows.  We had cotton balls and had the students tear them apart.  We used the little pieces they tore as the marshmallows.  To stick these on, we used liquid glue.  The students helped squeeze the glue bottle.

We worked on receptively and expressively identifying “cup”, “chocolate”, “drink”, and “marshmallow”.  Here’s the finished products.  They really are super cute!