Registration | Log In

Search Grants | Fulfilled Grants | More About Find It, Fund It, Florida       Gift Cards

0% Funded

 

Only $1,462.00 Needed

 

Fund this Project

Share

Please share this page to help in fulfilling this grant.

Goal(s)

The purpose of this project is to support the development of essential life skills for students at Autism Collier Charter School by integrating therapeutic goals across multiple disciplines. Through a collaborative approach involving the Speech-Language Pathologist and Occupational Therapist, students work on improving self-help skills, language development, and fine motor abilities related to activities of daily living.

Given that many students at the school experience language delays, fine motor challenges, and sensory integration needs, cooking activities are used as a dynamic and engaging method to address these areas. Cooking allows students to practice communication goals such as turn-taking, requesting, and following directions, while also enhancing motor coordination and utensil use. This interdisciplinary project promotes measurable progress in students’ individualized education plan (IEP) goals, particularly in language acquisition, self-regulation, and motor skill development. Additionally, it fosters independence, social interaction, and functional academic learning in a practical, real-world context. 

 

Category

Other -  

 

Project Description

This project uses cooking utensils, ingredients, and appliances to engage students in hands-on cooking activities that are directly tied to academic themes and topics across grade levels. At Autism Collier Charter School, where we support students from Kindergarten through 12th grade, cooking is used as a functional and meaningful way to build essential life and academic skills.

Older students work on reading recipes, creating shopping lists, and participating in grocery shopping—critical skills that promote independence and real-world application of literacy and math. For younger or nonverbal students, the activity incorporates the use of communication devices, visual supports such as language boards and picture symbols, allowing them to participate fully and meaningfully in the process.

Throughout the cooking activities, students also strengthen fine motor skills by performing tasks such as stirring, pouring, measuring, and using utensils. These skills contribute to greater independence in activities of daily living. This multidisciplinary cooking project not only supports IEP goals across communication, motor, and life skills domains, but also empowers students with autism by making learning functional, engaging, and accessible.


 

 

Expected Outcomes

As a result of this cooking project, students are expected to show improvement in key areas such as language development, fine motor coordination, and overall independence in daily living skills. Through consistent engagement in cooking activities, students will develop stronger communication abilities—both verbal and through augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)—as well as improved fine motor skills required for tasks like utensil use, measuring, and food preparation. Progress will be measured by observing increased levels of independence during cooking tasks and tracking growth in expressive and receptive language skills, as well as fine motor performance, aligned with each student’s individualized education plan (IEP) goals. 

 

Purpose of Funding

The requested funds of $1500 will be used to set up a well-equipped classroom kitchen that supports weekly cooking projects for students with autism at Autism Collier Charter School. Specifically, the funds will be allocated toward purchasing essential items such as age-appropriate and adaptive cooking utensils, mixing bowls, measuring tools, small appliances (e.g., toaster oven, blender, hot plate), and storage containers. A portion of the funds will also be dedicated to purchasing ingredients for weekly cooking lessons. 

 

Items