tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36222942454772709732024-03-16T14:50:40.227-04:00Special Education Strategies And More...I have created this blog in an attempt to provide a place for teachers and parents of children with special needs to find positive strategies that promote academic, social and emotional growth. I believe in early intervention and in positively addressing both the challenges and strengths of students with disabilities.Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-91343957063761540432021-10-23T16:10:00.003-04:002021-10-23T16:13:43.260-04:00Pumpkin Patch<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYLO0LiQpqqZE6c_kLlDuir-nQv1idbKnWoFVelYqKA-Y5I_TWcwWerJkRFzbYJMPZYj2jWe5kwohFhPqra4HX2G9WM3RTt1kLg2ySVDLBnW4UMCJs01zb4uy816Okz8TZ6nvsngcRLYGo/s2048/pumpkin+patch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYLO0LiQpqqZE6c_kLlDuir-nQv1idbKnWoFVelYqKA-Y5I_TWcwWerJkRFzbYJMPZYj2jWe5kwohFhPqra4HX2G9WM3RTt1kLg2ySVDLBnW4UMCJs01zb4uy816Okz8TZ6nvsngcRLYGo/w362-h272/pumpkin+patch.jpg" width="362" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">My friend (a kindergarten teacher down the hall) and I both love to have our studens experience a pumpkin patch in the fall. It's a great opportunity to promote lessons that practice fall vocabulary, science concepts, math concepts.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This year and last year, we have not been able to take our annual field trip to the local pumpkin patch due to Covid restrictions, so we decided to create a mini-version on our playground with things that we had on hand. I had the plastic barn, pvc scarecrows, and wagons. She had the large pumpkins, hay bales and decorative pumpkins and signs. We asked the parents of our students to donate $3 so each child could pick a pumpkin to use for our math and science lessons and that pumpkin will go home with their child.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">While we didn't get to see the farm animals or take a hayride, the students DID get to have some of the experiences of the pumpkin patch and they will get to complete all of the lessons with their very own pumpkin. (We are using some of these activities from <a href="https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Preschool-Kindergarten-Pumpkin-Science-and-Math-Pack-1421308?st=af2de7b21698db44233dc64c10a25ae4" target="_blank">Oh Miss Jill on Teachers Pay Teachers.</a>)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(We've also moved our scarecrows to a new spot for next week and one of our literature selections is The Old Lady Who is Not Afraid of Anything. The children will use our classroom dress up clothes to dress and re-dress the scarecrows to their own liking! This is perfect for my class because many of them are working on labeling items and/or identifying items in a category. Next week our category will be clothing.)</div><br /> <p></p>Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-44023772957455022702021-08-13T17:47:00.003-04:002021-08-13T17:47:26.089-04:00Easy Interactive Books<p>My friend Bev came up with this brilliant idea years ago. I didn't need it for a number of years, but last year I had several students who benefitted from having more interaction during their story time.</p><p>We simply took an inexpensive paperback book and cut it apart. Next we ran the pages through the laminator. We then took a targeted vocabulary word from each page and created a Boardmaker document with a picture. Next we used the hole punch binding tool that we have in our teacher workroom to bind the book back together. Finally, we used velcro dots to make each page interactive.</p><p>This has been a great way for us to create inexpensive interactive books for circle time.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8GiA2X191BcRCQeoTIaKo6gQx9VKHtmc37kwBEBRnQ6HLExhbQHexvuDCkYc5zvSbDNqai-r7coOA71KYV8kGCyLD7oi98WpI2sYN__ptYJ__J9paE_VBU1mnvxL1xOznixdsfFA_PD0f/s2048/bev+farm+book.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8GiA2X191BcRCQeoTIaKo6gQx9VKHtmc37kwBEBRnQ6HLExhbQHexvuDCkYc5zvSbDNqai-r7coOA71KYV8kGCyLD7oi98WpI2sYN__ptYJ__J9paE_VBU1mnvxL1xOznixdsfFA_PD0f/s320/bev+farm+book.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExB0H_Jor5jouAQ-Z0U_2dCyHzuD75WY6OtOY8O8agnXA3Cj_ej_t3Mn8DoFn_9U2QPnTwU5R-TUPxg_PgIWM_nxI-KJdUDywhRR0AHhrihR98LTVqnzHFgy-Eu4AnP9GVQ3wW0BVdq-n/s2048/bev+farm+book+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExB0H_Jor5jouAQ-Z0U_2dCyHzuD75WY6OtOY8O8agnXA3Cj_ej_t3Mn8DoFn_9U2QPnTwU5R-TUPxg_PgIWM_nxI-KJdUDywhRR0AHhrihR98LTVqnzHFgy-Eu4AnP9GVQ3wW0BVdq-n/s320/bev+farm+book+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-80214534522446345812021-01-25T14:50:00.005-05:002021-01-25T14:50:47.278-05:00Temporary Quarantine <p>Our district has had a plan in place in case we had to have specific classes quarantine. I was hoping my class wouldn't have to do this, but alas, we had a direct exposure and we were moved to remote learning for our quarantine period.</p><p>I searched for social stories to help my students understand what was happening, but didn't find one that directly supported our situation. I adapted <a href="https://www.autismlittlelearners.com/2020/11/we-are-going-back-to-distance-learning.html" target="_blank">Going Back to Distance Learning</a> from <a href="https://www.autismlittlelearners.com/" target="_blank">Autism Little Learners</a> to create one that made sense for our situation.</p><p>I also made some simple visuals on our calendar to help the students see how many more days of zoom lessons we would have and when we would return to school. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ZhasRBFalSLDtlmT_MnjvesJSNJFZF4CZtyZ1HH59T_fo0YfPXIdZ1qnkysmIoxCpgeIv3AlP7kSXkToXwRF-kvEgR7LfOJnzslAozZ3CyyAi74_tNnMbdPHOVVb4TNDWhJ4cof6y6n8/s2048/january+calendar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1787" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ZhasRBFalSLDtlmT_MnjvesJSNJFZF4CZtyZ1HH59T_fo0YfPXIdZ1qnkysmIoxCpgeIv3AlP7kSXkToXwRF-kvEgR7LfOJnzslAozZ3CyyAi74_tNnMbdPHOVVb4TNDWhJ4cof6y6n8/s320/january+calendar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-86361528510173004462020-12-21T14:42:00.003-05:002020-12-21T14:42:49.266-05:00Holiday Gift <p> I like to have my preschoolers directly DOING something to particiapte in the gift we send to their parents in the holiday season. We always have a wide range of abilities and skill sets in my class, so I usually pick something simple that everyone can complete. This year I chose to have the kids glue pom poms to a frame and included a picture of them standing in the gingerbread house center we made. Cute right?</p><p>One student came to the table to complete his project and picked up the pom poms and said "What is this? A virus?"</p><p>There you go. Merry Christmas 2020....I guess I sent all of our families a virus frame.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqRGanmQCr2n6qBE8bn-oDIQyWqZN2OMf1N3pwKxeIQncHxaYWjumSYbFay5rtFc0L3imiynfyIvyh1ZBlc6OP9oWlPFPFfn8h89unmcH9xZJfxs8t5lQDKbcW_rNsLIhw90ocV4X-BEff/s2048/pom+pom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqRGanmQCr2n6qBE8bn-oDIQyWqZN2OMf1N3pwKxeIQncHxaYWjumSYbFay5rtFc0L3imiynfyIvyh1ZBlc6OP9oWlPFPFfn8h89unmcH9xZJfxs8t5lQDKbcW_rNsLIhw90ocV4X-BEff/s320/pom+pom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvk1lZFa9I1sCGwbTHmXzGkbSWIXlBHjXkTUOQEUHXkfCYxiFJNf7zOBAMXj6xEQV42RV3t3OwR-Nc1GANOR0hYDSory_ZQe4a6KZpqA_YiPPjwa1-ldRX0oE9QdebjLOa3hXplMC8ZpCb/s2048/pom+pom+frame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvk1lZFa9I1sCGwbTHmXzGkbSWIXlBHjXkTUOQEUHXkfCYxiFJNf7zOBAMXj6xEQV42RV3t3OwR-Nc1GANOR0hYDSory_ZQe4a6KZpqA_YiPPjwa1-ldRX0oE9QdebjLOa3hXplMC8ZpCb/s320/pom+pom+frame.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-44404068865074604192020-09-12T15:41:00.005-04:002020-09-12T15:41:51.793-04:00Covid19 Adjustments for Preschool Housekeeping Center<p> We have just finished our first two weeks of school with all of our new re-opening policies for safety, disinfecting, and social distancing. It's tough! Last year I started my preschool special needs class with 15 students and ended my year with 17. This year with all of our new policies, I am so thankful for lower numbers. We currently have 7 children in the classroom and 4 remote learners that I teach concurrently through zoom lessons for circle time, small groups and therapies.</p><p>My last post showed the adjustments we made for our<a href="http://michellespecialeducation.blogspot.com/2020/08/pandemic-adjusted-block-center.html" target="_blank"> block center</a>. This center worked great from day one! The reduced choices, the reduced visual "clutter" by removing the ABC rug, and simple visual supports from the painters tape and Lesson Pix symbols really helped this center to be successful.</p><p>Our housekeeping center is functioning well after two weeks of adult support. Remember, my district has a policy for limiting shared materials, disinfecting after each use, all students must wear masks, and we must attempt to social distance to the best of our ability. The housekeeping center isn't great for social distancing! The kids naturally want to play together and be in close proximity. Most years, this is exactly what we are hoping for, however, as we all know, this year is a bit different. I wanted the kids to continue to have opportunities for pretend play and natural conflict resolution, but I still have to adhere to my district policies.</p><p>We decided to remove the small table and chair set that we typically would have in the housekeeping center. This created more floor space for distancing. We also removed many of the props including all of our dress up clothes. We decided to limit the center to 2 children (typically we would have 4 children playing here) and set up the center as a "store" for our first few weeks. We have two shopping carts, two cash registers, two sets of keys, and sets of food. We have enough these categories of toys to either disinfect quickly after each use or rotate toys with our rotation system.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBB1hily7_zUc-2kgIq2-AOWdR5sYu9kvQ1BLZbeGJwT1KMsLf6kG_FuF2GLcEUh51wvrHxCj6vocawJ3OYrEvApaVncMjfE9JbaC43yFwAL8kFjc2bTSd8oFSUz0l8-XcyjGNTr69QCA5/s2048/home+living+side+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBB1hily7_zUc-2kgIq2-AOWdR5sYu9kvQ1BLZbeGJwT1KMsLf6kG_FuF2GLcEUh51wvrHxCj6vocawJ3OYrEvApaVncMjfE9JbaC43yFwAL8kFjc2bTSd8oFSUz0l8-XcyjGNTr69QCA5/s320/home+living+side+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwjxdQtt6-d3GHWzGkQ7MqSmK0tL9xblTS0iSeNZ47Ya-LHa4KoznJk5RvYoG7kJE2Y5bpxdIMvvJyrPpgMlxqp0_DUlkIu2qfdqm_xkQvfh2-M19MHy-dDHwpCt70vs2avYBb6Qg6X7K/s2048/home+living+side+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwjxdQtt6-d3GHWzGkQ7MqSmK0tL9xblTS0iSeNZ47Ya-LHa4KoznJk5RvYoG7kJE2Y5bpxdIMvvJyrPpgMlxqp0_DUlkIu2qfdqm_xkQvfh2-M19MHy-dDHwpCt70vs2avYBb6Qg6X7K/s320/home+living+side+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-hIr-UAZpEQin4SKaMpTVa8jZ1_iVWDfTb1MZk2j4aEHtUxxSe19tpCdZWVWefmVoFZpk1mw9Rj23IKqDRsekVajrEWsmwZC6jXa10a6EGSV-eJZMDDOQow5h-vYVmjxFQd5IWvgG6xHo/s2048/home+living+visuals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-hIr-UAZpEQin4SKaMpTVa8jZ1_iVWDfTb1MZk2j4aEHtUxxSe19tpCdZWVWefmVoFZpk1mw9Rj23IKqDRsekVajrEWsmwZC6jXa10a6EGSV-eJZMDDOQow5h-vYVmjxFQd5IWvgG6xHo/s320/home+living+visuals.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbyjE4Ieqm2tdkUi_xyzWByxtnbzr_ynb9RYbDIfs0wqFofNNiN12bnIukt7-BaOBWIcwGJmnig7TZom9VEdCMILGPHbOiQg4anjZP03ET0P0f_11mkigcktZZATtf9-N_YUZuY8wPjXC/s2048/home+living+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1903" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbyjE4Ieqm2tdkUi_xyzWByxtnbzr_ynb9RYbDIfs0wqFofNNiN12bnIukt7-BaOBWIcwGJmnig7TZom9VEdCMILGPHbOiQg4anjZP03ET0P0f_11mkigcktZZATtf9-N_YUZuY8wPjXC/s320/home+living+crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>It took a LOT of support initially and I still don't love it. But at this point, I have not figured out a different way to provide the students with the play opportunities and adhere to the district guidance plan. So I can live with it. The students are playing, they are talking and solving problems through the "trade" solution, the "timer" solution, and the "wait and take turns" solution. Our "solution board" visuals can be found for free at <a href="http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/strategies.html#teachingskills" target="_blank">the CSEFEL site under their practical strategies section</a>. I'll show photos of this in another post! At this point in time, I feel like this option is at least allowing us to continue with developmentally appropriate play and natural opportunities to work on our social emotional goals.<br /></p>Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-60419876740850384442020-08-29T22:35:00.008-04:002020-08-30T10:06:52.289-04:00Covid19 Adjustments for Preschool Block Center <p> As I was setting up my classroom this year, I felt as if I were a beginning teacher. There were so many new issues to think about and plan for. One of the things that was central to my planning was figuring out a safe way for my young pre-k students to continue to have opportunities to play!</p><p>In my district, any child over the age of two must wear a mask when on a school campus. My students are all ages 3-5, so this includes my class. We also are required to meet social distancing requirements to the greatest extent possible. This was the biggest challenge in planning my center time this year.</p><p>I have referenced the TATS site, my district's guidance plan and of course my knowledge of the benefits of visual supports and the importance of developmentally appropriate practice. My students start Monday, so this is not kid tested yet! I may come back next week with a new plan.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJzXIqHNfNMBSURPsnSBtLt9YGjvbMg628O_yoWSsah0wAxiHviFTFYmNqM_XIgAQJrcBaH1D40QK9_0ItBPksrOwQrwcaVZzZiYMktRygSFxHIyAqsyhfv1yHxv0eaAPVXUwdNKvN9qUK/s2048/blocks+center.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJzXIqHNfNMBSURPsnSBtLt9YGjvbMg628O_yoWSsah0wAxiHviFTFYmNqM_XIgAQJrcBaH1D40QK9_0ItBPksrOwQrwcaVZzZiYMktRygSFxHIyAqsyhfv1yHxv0eaAPVXUwdNKvN9qUK/w400-h300/blocks+center.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAixOJvBy5BDF7vyF0pEcBZurPsc2mAeivfBqde45Zk1BEZtCZQVUAa1b2lRVGRclQwZF1A8FNm78Xm6DtOCqogZic6D-RFCjTMqhgt80UCIhA3qpuU30_IA6s-GlARqYbzSZelDRgcOo-/s2048/block+center+visual.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAixOJvBy5BDF7vyF0pEcBZurPsc2mAeivfBqde45Zk1BEZtCZQVUAa1b2lRVGRclQwZF1A8FNm78Xm6DtOCqogZic6D-RFCjTMqhgt80UCIhA3qpuU30_IA6s-GlARqYbzSZelDRgcOo-/w300-h400/block+center+visual.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiANpuhUD28sgckQcehRPyF-VdK-DIN_3hNCADdSb6KSQ8Qsu1nqtjYgLhOac0zxCllVl04fGQi6qdTpkBU-RUOeZ7_Z3wyol1La65wVOfyDoN2UZDnxbtHiv_tjtGTi1HTMoE_J8ZIMdY0/s2048/toy+rotation+mon+fri.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiANpuhUD28sgckQcehRPyF-VdK-DIN_3hNCADdSb6KSQ8Qsu1nqtjYgLhOac0zxCllVl04fGQi6qdTpkBU-RUOeZ7_Z3wyol1La65wVOfyDoN2UZDnxbtHiv_tjtGTi1HTMoE_J8ZIMdY0/w400-h300/toy+rotation+mon+fri.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In previous years, I had a colorful ABC carpet in this center and would typically have enough materials and space for 4 children to play productively. This year I rolled up the carpet and am storing it because I felt like it would be too visually distracting. We have reduced the amount of blocks and supplemental toys in the center and have reduced the center to two students. I want the students to learn a new procedure of entering the center, so I wanted the visuals and the painters tape to be prominently seen. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The materials in the center are two bins of lightweight foam blocks and some cars and trucks. One child will be able to play on one side of the painter's tape while another child can play on the other side. This is not supporting cooperative play, but at this moment, it was the best I could come up with and still meet the social distancing guidelines I must adhere to.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I chose the foam blocks over the unit blocks because I have a ton of them! I also chose them because our toy storage rotation system is on top of cabinets and it will be much easier to lift the lightweight foam blocks than the heavy wooden unit blocks. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My current plan is to only allow the two children who choose blocks to play with these toys. When they are finished, they will go in a laundry bin to be sprayed with our disinfectant and then sit out of the rotation for 3 days. If the student does not want to stay in blocks for the entire center time, he or she will be able to choose another available center, or chose a personal play bucket that we set up for each child.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I will post more pictures on the toy rotation system we are planning, other centers, and the individual play buckets later!</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-74501469002401733292020-08-26T18:37:00.005-04:002020-08-29T22:16:04.929-04:00It's Been A Long Time......<p><img alt="The R Family - 2" height="266" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/4117/4885882921_388eda7215_b.jpg" width="400" /></p><p>It's been a long time since I've posted here. There have been many changes over the years. My Mom got sick and passed away, my husband's Mom needed helping moving to an assisted living facility, and of course we have all been living the reality of our current pandemic adjusted world for the last 5 months.</p><p>I'm hoping to come back to this blog and share ideas again. I'm working on digital resources for my remote learners and setting up my special needs preschool classroom to support our current climate. Photos and ideas to come! In the meantime, check out the amazing resources at TATS. They have been a "go to" site for me for the last several weeks.</p><p><a href="https://tats.ucf.edu/links-to-topics-pages-of-resources-resources-information/">https://tats.ucf.edu/links-to-topics-pages-of-resources-resources-information/</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>photo:<a href="https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/photos/4cae8414-f754-4481-99e6-f2f304768b0a">https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/photos/4cae8414-f754-4481-99e6-f2f304768b0a</a></p><p><br /></p>Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-59921124897551556932016-08-01T21:07:00.000-04:002016-08-01T21:07:55.188-04:00Journals for Pre-KLast year I started looking for ideas on Pinterest about journaling with preschoolers. I came across a few pins that helped me get started:<br />
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<a href="http://www.teachpreschool.org/2013/04/ten-tips-for-keeping-a-journal-in-preschool/" target="_blank">Ten Tips for Keeping a Journal in Preschool</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.whatdowedoallday.com/2008/10/pre-school-journaling.html" target="_blank">Pre-School Journaling</a><br />
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<a href="https://preschool-daze.com/2010/08/14/j-is-for-journal/" target="_blank">J is for Journal</a><br />
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After reading about how others started, organized and maintained their journals; I started making the decisions about how I would use the journals in my classroom.<br />
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I chose to use simple black and white composition books for our journals. I used a name label sticker on the front of each child's journal and also made one for myself.<br />
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My class typically is most successful when I model expectations for them before they attempt a structured task like this. Before the kids ever used their journal, I had all of the journals prepped and in a basket and I modeled drawing a picture in my journal. Since most of the students in my class have language impairments, I wanted the focus of our journals based on increasing their communication skills. After I drew my picture, I talked about it. I labeled the picture, told the class a sentence about my picture. We did this a few times, using the word journal and modeling how to draw, turn pages, choose the next page, etc. The first time I passed out their journals at circle time, all we did was look at the journal and turn the blank pages.<br />
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We used our journals in a small group, structured center with adult support at first. After all of the students started to understand the purpose and became more proficient at drawing their pictures, I would also put them out for a table activity or "morning work" first thing in the morning in a large group.<br />
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Since my goal was to help increase communication, every time the students worked in their journal, they talked to an adult (me, my assistant, a volunteer) about it and we wrote their exact words on the paper. Through this, we also had ongoing documentation showing how their language skills improved over time. You can see the length of utterance increases, use of age appropriate vocabulary, use of pronouns and use of action words. This became a great way for me to show parents what language skill I might be working on with a child and how they could help.<br />
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I also found that our science center was a great inspiration spot for lots of writing and observation.<br />
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Here are some photos of some of our journal work:<br />
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And here are some from a different student:<br />
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<img src="webkit-fake-url://d47ec694-cec4-4bfb-aca6-29cae4b975c6/imagejpeg" />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-53973222355355706972015-07-14T23:16:00.000-04:002015-07-14T23:16:20.508-04:00Sensory Bin: Left Over Rice KrispiesOur local grocery store sucked me into buying two boxes of Rice Krispies when they were buy one get one free a few weeks ago. Two pans of Rice Krispy treats later, I swore I was not going to make any more that I would then eat!<br />
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I decided to turn the leftovers into a very simple sensory bin for my two year old nephews. I simply added the Rice Krispies, some sea life manipulatives from Lakeshore, and some left over small containers from individual applesauces. Cheap and easy!<br />
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Since they are two years old, I made one bin for each of them as sharing and turn taking can still be a bit of a challenge at times. They both started off in their own bins finding sea life, exploring the textures, and scooping the Rice Krispies with their hands into the applesauce containers. <br />
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Then something wonderful emerged! They gravitated towards each other and playing together in one bin. Scooping, pouring, filling, dumping, exploring and giggling.<br />
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<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-58400011767053531962015-07-14T23:04:00.000-04:002015-07-14T23:04:18.772-04:00Bubbles and Problem SolvingI have 2 year old twin nephews. They both love bubbles right now and have a lawn mower bubble maker as well as several no-spill bubble containers. We ran out of re-fill bubbles one day when I was watching them and one of the boys really wanted his lawn mower to have more bubbles. <br />
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He kept saying "more bubbles?" I had to tell him "bubbles all gone. no more." He cried (he is 2) and then was able to be redirected to his train for a bit and then went back to the bubbles. <br />
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The next thing I knew, he was attempting to fill his lawn mower with the no-spill container. He knew he had bubbles left in the no spill container and he was doing his best to get them where he wanted them. I thought that was pretty good thinking and problem solving for a 2 year old! (even if it didn't work.....I loved the process of his thinking.)<br />
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(The little guy in the picture has delays in the communication and social/personal domains. So fun to see his strengths clearly evident, too!)<br />
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<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-32676467251984497472015-06-11T18:34:00.000-04:002015-06-17T14:46:26.946-04:00Simple Visual for Change of ScheduleSometimes students just need to "see" how the changes of a schedule will affect them.<br />
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During our standardized testing window, specials and lunch changed school-wide, which prompted a change in my reading and math blocks. I had one student this year who mainstreamed for a large portion of the day, but she started her day with me to organize her schedule and any known changes, and then returned to me in the late afternoon. Under normal circumstances, she knew when she would have time to "hang out with her BFF." <br />
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Although she is very bright, she didn't "see" when she was going to be able to have time with her best friend within all of our schedule changes. This particular child is very high functioning on the autism spectrum and we have found that often writing things down helps her process information. She was quite anxious about the multiple schedule changes and started to move into her "whiny" voice. This is usually a pre-cursor for more intense behavior (throwing books, tipping chairs, yelling), so if we can catch her during the "whine," we can usually prevent the major meltdowns.<br />
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I loved this intervention because it was "quick and dirty." There is nothing pretty or fancy about it, but we completed it in about 3 minutes during our morning check in and it resolved her anxiety. When she started to whine about when she was going to have time with her friend, I simply asked her, "Would you like me to write down both afternoon schedules so you can see when you have time together?" She said yes and then added her comments on when they could "hang out."<br />
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Quick and simple but very effective!<br />
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<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-21402049877956139822015-05-30T13:44:00.000-04:002015-05-30T13:44:44.013-04:00Pre-K AgainAs this school year draws to a close, our principal has sent out our "most likely" assignments for next year. She calls them "most likely" because, as we all know, things can change over the summer. If the needs of our students change, then staff assignments sometimes have to change too.<br />
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My "most likely" assignment for next year is back with the pre-k special needs population. I'm ready for a change again, but I LOVE my school, so I didn't want to change that! One of our pre-k teachers retired this May, so an opening came up at our school. I love the language development and developmental play aspects of pre-k, so I"m excited.<br />
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I've started culling through some of my old pre-k files and rediscovered a blog from a pre-k teacher, <a href="http://varner.typepad.com/seward/" target="_blank">Christi Seward in Cobb County.</a><br />
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She hasn't posted in a few years, so perhaps her teaching assignment changed or something else in her life changed, but she has a WONDERFUL collection of picture books with essential vocabulary and comprehension questions that she discusses. She also has created many power points to support her lessons.<br />
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One of the books she highlights is "Bear Wants More" by Karma Wilson.<br />
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In addition to Christi's resources, there is also a YouTube read aloud with the book, too. (This version is really sweet. A boy received this as a birthday present and his family recorded him reading it out loud for the person who gave him the book.)</div>
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This has been a busy year and I haven't completed too many posts, but hopefully that will change this next year coming up!</div>
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<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-81928117021406738882015-05-30T12:51:00.000-04:002015-05-30T12:52:56.547-04:00Interrupting Chicken: A Social Skills LessonLast week one of our social skills lessons started with a read aloud of "Interrupting Chicken" by David Ezra Stein.<br />
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This is a great book to help children learn about controlling those impulsive moments of wanting to interrupt or blurt out during our whole group time.<br />
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We completed our read aloud, had a class discussion and then also completed some activities similar to those found at <a href="http://happyteacherhappykids.com/interrupting-chicken/" target="_blank">Happy Teacher, Happy Kids.</a></div>
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I can also be a little bit goofy and I want our social skills lessons to be fun, so the kids can really practice the skills and enjoy the results of prosocial behaviors. Not just dread one more lesson with a bunch of rules that are hard for them to follow. So as a result of my Pinterest addiction, I found a link to <a href="http://www.tillysnest.com/2013/11/what-is-your-chicken-name.html" target="_blank">"Chicken Names" from Tilly's Nest</a> and thought it would be fun to pair with this book.</div>
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The rules of the activity were pretty simple. We were going to practice NOT being interrupting chickens. If we could work on that, we could make a list of everyone's chicken name. (I'm Yolko Scrambledore, by the way.) It was fun. One of the little girls in my class has the same birthday month as my assistant so she dubbed my assistant as her "Chicken Cousin."</div>
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There is also a YouTube video that has a read aloud. I like to use the videos in addition to my read aloud because it gives my students one more way to access the text.</div>
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With a simple Google search, you can find many, many online resources and ideas that support this book. These were just a few of the ones we used.</div>
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<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-3440525679207437772015-05-06T19:56:00.000-04:002015-05-06T20:27:41.004-04:00Rainforest Riddles...So Fun!My class has been working on a unit that revolved around a Rainforest theme. I chose this particular theme at this time because:<br />
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a) Students are usually very interested in the Rainforest theme and can be easily encouraged to read and write.<br />
b) We have an expository text on the Rainforest in our reading series and I am required to base lessons off of our core curriculum materials. (So I would have to do this anyway.)<br />
c) There are hundreds of free resources and extensions available online.<br />
d) Our school was in the middle of FSA testing. Although I don't have any students testing this year, the resource teacher next to me is testing every day which means my class needs to be close to silent for the entire morning block. Brutal (for the kids and me.....so I held out the carrot....if we were super quiet in the morning then we could do some fun, noisy rainforest activities in the afternoon.)<br />
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One of my favorite things we did with the unit was to write our own Rainforest Riddles. I found a free pdf from <a href="https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rain-Forest-Riddlesa-freebie-580079" target="_blank">First Grade Hip Hip Hooray</a> on Teachers Pay Teachers. The set gives several rainforest riddles already written that the students have to solve. It has a nice set of graphics for a simple read, then cut and paste activity. Finally, it also includes graphic organizers to help students write their own riddles. <br />
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My class really loved writing their riddles "in secret" and creating their animal from pieces from our arts and crafts scraps/materials. We then combined all of our animal creations to make a rainforest bulletin board.<br />
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Here's our bulletin board. Sorry! The picture is a bit fuzzy and I still need to add "forest floor" to our layers.<br />
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Below are some close up examples of the writing samples they did. You can see the different levels within the writing samples, but this was an activity that all of my students could participate in. I like these types of projects because it brings our class together as "a whole."</div>
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<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-68985425952179184162015-02-05T16:41:00.001-05:002015-02-05T16:41:33.170-05:00Telling TimeMy class is currently working on telling time to the hour, half hour, fifteen minute interval and five minute interval in math. We always need lots of different ways to practice a skill. Below are a few of the resources we're using in addition to the materials that came with the unit in our district's math series:<br />
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Touch Math Time (I looked for this on google. It used to be part of the Upper Grades set, but I can't find it anymore. I really like it because it's visuals are clean and simple with a lot of white space. It also integrates time before and time after within each interval.)<br />
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Clocks from two paper plates from <a href="http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com/2012/05/time-teller-cheat-and-peek.html" target="_blank">E Is for Explore</a><br />
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Simple morning work worksheets from <a href="http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com/2012/05/time-teller-cheat-and-peek.html" target="_blank">Math Fact Cafe</a>. This site has a worksheet generator that shuffles the problems and you can also set the parameters for what skills you want on the worksheet. Love that! Again, the visuals are clean and there's a lot of white space so it's not really busy and overwhelming.</div>
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I also have quite a few file folder games that I have made and collected over the years. Those are coming out too.<br />
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<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-17062867016450739702015-01-04T21:30:00.000-05:002015-01-04T21:30:08.461-05:00You won't believe it.....When we have problems with technology in our classrooms, we submit a help ticket to our central office and then based on the filters, it is sent to the tech that can best help us resolve the problem. I recently had one that our tech said she was going to frame.....she had never seen this request before:<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Additional Info: Have you ever had this one??? A student had a nosebleed at the computer and there is blood in between and underneath the control key and the key next to it. I've unplugged the keyboard from the computer and set it on the gray counter.</span><br style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Categories: CompDev : Other</span><br />
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I knew the keys needed to be popped off and the keyboard sanitized, but I didn't know what was safe to use to get rid of the blood and what was safe that would not ruin the keyboard. She gave me a new keyboard for the time being......she didn't know either!<br />
<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-49453877714982703842014-12-04T17:31:00.000-05:002014-12-04T17:31:14.645-05:00Satin Hands and an Intervention....Strange Combination<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I never used to need lotion for my hands. However, ten years ago, I started teaching my varying exceptionalities pre-k class and I found myself washing my hands 100 times a day. And let's face it....school soap is not gentle on your hands.<br />
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About that time, I discovered Satin Hands from Mary Kay and could probably have been their poster child. (I'm not a Mary Kay consultant, I just happen to really like this product.) The ladies that I work with found out how much I like it, and it is now a frequent gift for me during the holidays and at my birthday. So now, I actually have a set a home and at school.<br />
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Little did I know that my Satin Hands would become an intervention this year!<br />
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I have a little girl in my class who tends to scratch her arms when she perceives work as being too difficult. It can be pretty bad on occasion and she has picked scabs and opened old scratches. Bleeding in the classroom is not a good thing! Interrupting reading groups or math groups 3-4x every week to deal with bleeding is also not a good thing.<br />
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One day, I was using the lotion while she was at my table and she asked me what it was. I told her it was lotion and asked her if she wanted a little squirt. She said yes and "mmm, smells good." Then I got my bright idea. If she likes the smell and the feel of the lotion, maybe we could replace her scratching behavior by asking for some lotion. I asked her if she would like to do that and of course she said yes. So I told her she could use the lotion but she was not allowed to scratch.<br />
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I now have a tube of lotion at my reading table. She still sometimes starts to scratch in moments of academic frustration, but with a simple verbal prompt of "Mary, do you want some lotion?" She will stop and gently rub her arms. We haven't had a bleeding episode since we started. It is MUCH easier and less distracting to give her a quick squirt of lotion than it is to deal with washing, drying and band-aiding arms when she scratches and draws blood.Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-24518188217520142852014-11-06T22:09:00.000-05:002014-11-06T22:09:32.341-05:00Funny is FunnyI've worked with the paraprofessional I am assigned with for the last four years. She is amazing. Every year within one of our social skills lessons we talk about things we like and don't like. This leads us into how different people have different opinions. Which in turn leads us to lessons on respect, caring and tolerance.<br />
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Every year, my para tells the kids how she does not like frogs. We live in Florida. Once during the rainy season, she was laying on her couch reading her book and a frog that got into her house jumped on her face. She tells the story and the kids laugh but for the most part understand why she doesn't like frogs anymore.<br />
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This year I have a little girl who is very bright and on the autism spectrum. She and I do a lot of social stories to help her learn new skills. Her mom sent me this link because Mrs. B. (my para) has to watch this video. According to our student "we can teach her to like frogs again. They're not bad. They can be our friends." <br />
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We cracked up laughing when we watched the link.<br />
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<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-81701375691204755642014-09-04T22:45:00.000-04:002014-09-04T22:45:34.849-04:00Accountable TalkAs my reading instruction continues to evolve over the years, I keep adding new strategies to my "bag of tricks." It's funny how I get ideas. (Honestly, I very rarely have a completely original thought when I start to figure out a new strategy or a lesson I haven't implemented before.) I recently told a first year teacher that one of the greatest gifts a teacher can have is to be a good synthesizer. If she can learn to take all of this overload of information we are bombarded with and somehow synthesize it together and use it when it's appropriate and useful; then she will be able to continually add to her bag of tricks.<br />
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I'm adding to my bag of tricks. <br />
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For the past few years my 1st-3rd grade students have loved having "Nacho Karaoke" day once a month. On the day the cafeteria serves nachos, I let them all eat in the classroom and we sing karaoke to songs with lyrics that I have saved from YouTube.<br />
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I'm reviewing my list of songs before this year's first Nacho Karaoke and was re-introduced to the song "Brave" by Sara Barielles.<br />
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As I paid attention to the lyrics, I really noticed the refrain this time: "Say what you wanna say. I wanna see you be brave!"<br />
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I thought this would be a great way to introduce "Accountable Talk" to my students! For the past few years, it's been challenging to teach children how to agree or disagree with a peer based on text evidence. It can be hard to raise your hand and speak up during a group, especially if you are disagreeing with a friend. However, when students DO engage in accountable talk, I have found that they truly start to engage with each other and the text in a purposeful and meaningful way.<br />
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My class has already set our essential agreements (rules) including one that states "We will be kind to each other." With that as a foundation and also practice of the roles of "speaker" and "listener," I think we can use this song to talk about how important it is to speak up and "say what you wanna say" during an accountable talk discussion time.Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-2698820661927989942014-08-31T09:16:00.000-04:002014-08-31T09:16:35.723-04:00Fair vs. the SameThis summer, I came across this visual on Pinterest. To me, this shows why we assess and plan for individual differences for our students. <br />
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What is FAIR is not always the SAME thing for everyone. At the beginning of the school year, my class has a meeting and we generate our class rules. We call these "agreements" (and sometimes for little kids I call them "promises.") The students agree to follow the rules we generate. Then my assistant and I make agreements with the class too. One of our most important agreements is to help make things fair. <br />
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I find the concept of fairness to be one that even my youngest three year olds could understand. When the adults promise to be fair, it sets the stage nicely for differentiating your lessons according to your data. When someone asks me why something is different for one person or one group, I simply reply "Because I promised you all that I would help make things fair; and you have what you need right now, and so do your friends."<br />
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Clearly the boy who is tall doesn't need a box to stand on (even if he wants one) and clearly the child who is the shortest needs 2 boxes if he is going to be able to see the game. What is fair, is not always the same thing for everyone.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">My Pinterest link led me back to </span><a href="http://businessrus.blog.com/2013/05/04/equality-vs-justice/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">this post by Phil Artman</span></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">. He found it on Facebook and could not determine the original writer. If it belongs to you and you do not have a "noncomercial share alike" aspect to it, please leave a comment and I will remove the post.</span></div>
Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-1944620566317961692014-08-04T22:51:00.001-04:002014-08-04T22:51:25.717-04:00Chapter Book Read Alouds 2nd and 3rd GradeMy class loves to listen to me read to them. Since my students are 2nd and 3rd graders now, I like to try to expose them to chapter books as read alouds. The following is a list of some of the books we read this past year with some brief comments about each.<br />
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1) Boxcar Children #1<br />
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I chose this book because it was one of the extended complex texts that was recommended to go with our first unit with our reading curriculum, Wonders. The students liked it and enjoyed the adventure of the children living in the train boxcar.</div>
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2) Stuart Little</div>
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"Stuart Little" was our next read aloud because of a play we were scheduled to see. My district is very fortunate to have a lot of support for education for children within the arts. Part of that is experience at our local theater for live performances. "Stuart Little" was actually a very difficult book to read to my students. The language and vocabulary that is used actually puts it much higher than a second or third grade level (I think it's more like 5th or 6th grade.) However, my students loved the story. We went through this book pretty slowly and stopped to explain a lot of the words or phrases in the book. By the time we got to the play, my class loved that they could "see" parts of the story they already knew and we had great discussions about the parts that were different.</div>
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3) Horrible Harry and the Drop of Doom</div>
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Horrible Harry has a great series of introductory chapter books. I read this book to my class to introduce Harry and Song Lee to my students. I have found that once students are familiar with some of the characters they are more likely to make the transition between picture books to chapter books.</div>
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4) Santa Clause Doesn't Mop Floors</div>
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We read this book as a purely enjoyable read at the holidays. As we progressed through the story, we had some great conversations for our social skills lessons.</div>
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5) The One and Only Ivan</div>
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Oh! How I loved this book. The story is told from Ivan's point of view. Ivan is a gorilla that was once wild and is now kept in captivity in a shopping mall. My class loved hearing about Ivan's thoughts and feelings and solutions. They also loved learning that the story was based on a real gorilla. This gave us the chance to talk about what they phrase "based on a true story" means (how often the main idea and the theme of the story stay true but frequently the author changes some of the details to make the plot of the story work.) **This was my favorite read aloud this year.</div>
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6) Little Dog Lost</div>
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We all enjoyed this story too. It is written in the style of a poem, even though it is also presented as a chapter book. This was the first time my class had seen a free verse poem this long. That was a great way to show them there are many different ways a writer can share their thoughts and ideas with the reader.</div>
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7) How to Eat Fried Worms</div>
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If you have read any my <a href="http://michellespecialeducation.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-eat-fried-worms.html" target="_blank">previous post</a> about "How to Eat Fried Worms," you will know I love this book. I first was introduced to it when MY second grade teacher read it out loud to my class. I remember simultaneously loving it and being grossed out by it!</div>
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8) Charlotte's Web</div>
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My students loved this book...well except for the one who hated it and the one that it stressed out (but she still loved it!)....For more information on this <a href="http://michellespecialeducation.blogspot.com/2014/06/charlottes-web.html" target="_blank">read here.</a> Overall though, the class really did like this classic! This was a novel that we had plenty of copies of throughout our school. I was able to get a copy for every student in my room and the liked tracking our progress in their own book as I read it to them. We ended our school year with an "old school" thematic until based on this novel. My class loved that kind of structure to our day. I wish we could do more of it.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credits:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.amazon.com/The-Boxcar-Children-No-Mysteries/dp/0807508527</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.amazon.com/Stuart-Little-E-B-White/dp/0064400565/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407204457&sr=1-1&keywords=stuart+little</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=horrible%20harry%20and%20the%20drop%20of%20doom&sprefix=horrible+harry+and+the+d%2Cstripbooks&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Ahorrible%20harry%20and%20the%20drop%20of%20doom</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Doesnt-Floors-Bailey-School/dp/0590444778/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407205160&sr=1-1&keywords=santa+clause+doesn%27t+mop+floors</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_14?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=one%20and%20only%20ivan&sprefix=one+and+only+i%2Cstripbooks%2C167&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Aone%20and%20only%20ivan</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_22?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=how+to+eat+fried+worms&sprefix=how+to+eat+fried+worms%2Cstripbooks%2C259&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Ahow+to+eat+fried+worms</span></div>
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Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-9324383955907554542014-07-08T17:55:00.001-04:002014-07-08T18:01:33.218-04:00Doll House and Choice TimeAt the end of the day this past year, my class enjoyed "Choice Time." <br />
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If you were to walk in my classroom, "choice time" looks remarkably similar to "free time." I don't call it "free time" however, because the children are not "free" to do whatever they want...they have to make a choice from the leisure activities we have available and then stay productively engaged, unless they have asked permission to make a different choice. <br />
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Unproductive wandering throughout the classroom is one of my "teacher pet peeves." It drives me crazy and I have found that unproductive wandering leads to lots of management or behavior issues. Hence, we have "choice time" and not "free time."<br />
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One of my older third grade girls wanted me to buy a Barbie doll house for them to play with during choice time. I explained that Barbie houses cost a lot of money and we didn't have enough to buy one. She accepted this and went on to play with something else.<br />
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A few days later while browsing on Pinterest, I came across this pin that uses a 3 ring binder to make a Barbie doll house from <a href="http://southerndisposition.blogspot.com/2011/12/diy-three-ring-binder-barbie-dollhouse.html" target="_blank">Southern Disposition.</a> Take a look. Kendra includes lots of ideas and instructions.<br />
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How serendipitous!<br />
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When we got to choice time the following day, I asked that little girl if she would be interested in looking at a possible solution to our Barbie doll house problem. We looked through the website and directions. She was hooked!<br />
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I happen to have lots of scrapbook paper at home that I don't use anymore because I now do most of my photo albums digitally. I also have a scrap craft bucket of ribbon, lace, beads, etc that I keep for projects at school. I purchased some scraps of cheap fabric from the scrap bin at Jo-Ann's.<br />
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I also happened to know that our bookkeeper has A LOT of old binders that no one wants to use because they aren't perfect. They were "perfect" for us because they were free!<br />
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So for about $8 for fabric scraps and some Stitch Witchery (no sew tape that fuses fabric together), we were in business!<br />
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Two girls wanted to make doll houses but they didn't really know where to start. We talked about how sometimes people use an "inspiration room." I asked them what colors they wanted their rooms to be. One chose blue and the other chose pink. We googled images of girls bedrooms.<br />
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One girl choose this blue room from <a href="http://amecdes.com/exotic-ambiance-in-the-blue-teen-girl-bedroom/amazing-design-ideas-with-blue-teenage-girl-room-and-bedroom-decorating-interior-and-curtain-design-room-and-white-rug-decorating/" target="_blank">Amecde</a>s as her inspiration.<br />
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The other girl chose this pink and green and cream room from <a href="http://www.bess.net/charming-little-girls-bedroom-ideas-showcasing-conceptualized-interior/" target="_blank">Bess.Net </a>as her inspiration.</div>
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Our choice time lasts for 15 or 20 minutes at the end of each day. For about three weeks, the girls spent their choice time creating, figuring things out, problem solving and adding details to their doll house.<br />
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Here's one girl making a mirror out of a file folder, aluminum foil, and lace ribbon she cut apart.<br />
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Here's her room after she covered up a granola bar box for her bed.<br />
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And here is her final product. The curtain rod is a pipe cleaner with some blue beads we had in our craft bucket (I think they were table scatter beads from the Dollar Tree.) The curtains are just lengths of lace ribbon she cut and then threaded onto the pipe cleaner. The rug is a scrap of felt. We printed an image of a dresser off of another Google image search and she glued it to the wall. The bedspread is a scrap of fabric that she cut. I helped her make the pillows and the column of fabric that covers the 3 rings with an iron and the Stitch Witchery. (Hot irons and young children are not a good combination!)<br />
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Here is the other girl after she finished her mural and began working on her window.<br />
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And here is her final room. She decided to make her bed a daybed. We used a Girl Scout cookie box for this and scraps of fabric that she cut. Her curtain rod is a pipe cleaner with some of a pearl strand that she twisted together (the pearls were is my scrap bucket.) The curtain ties are more of the pearl strand. The rug is a scrap of felt. She also cut some mat board to frame her butterfly mural. Again, I helped with the iron and Stitch Witchery of the column of fabric in the middle and the pillows. </div>
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The two rooms together looked like this (sorry the photo is a little fuzzy!):<br />
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The girls had so much fun making their own doll house bedrooms. They also had a lot of fun playing with them during choice time once they were completed. <br />
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I know I can't prove that they practiced their social skills or their problem solving skills and I certainly don't have any data to justify letting them spend 15 or 20 minutes every day making a doll house. However, these little doll houses have been one of my favorite memories from the year. To me it shows:<br />
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1) Willingness to accept and handle disappointment and the word "no" (We didn't buy their doll house that they wanted.)<br />
2) Willingness to accept a compromise and take responsibility to follow through on the compromise<br />
3) Ability to think in a problem solving process (Watching the one girl work for 2 days to get her mirror to stand up by itself was awesome!)<br />
4) Ability to persist at a long term task (relatively speaking)<br />
5) Thinking creatively<br />
6) Using materials for another purpose other than its intended use<br />
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****One little girl is in my class for help with an emotional and behavioral disorder (EBD) and the other is in my room for help with a severe learning disability. I'm pretty happy with all of the skills they practiced in an authentic and personally meaningful way.<br />
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Many, many thanks to <a href="http://southerndisposition.blogspot.com/2011/12/diy-three-ring-binder-barbie-dollhouse.html" target="_blank">Kendra at Southern Disposition</a> for her great idea!Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-68250950877043031832014-07-01T21:15:00.000-04:002014-07-04T12:18:06.581-04:00Book Talk TuesdaySince the summer has been in full swing, I have done a lot of blog hopping and reading links on Twitter streams.<br />
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I just found Gladys's blog over at<a href="http://teachinginhighheels.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> Teaching in High Heels.</a> She and I have several things in common: like Gladys, I could spend large amounts of time and money investing in children's literature. And I also agree everything LOOKS better in high heels, but I have to admit, I always have a pair of sparkly flip flops under my desk for when my feet hurt!<br />
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At any rate, I'd like to piggyback on Chelsea's "Book Talk Tuesday." Lulu is new to me and I love finding new books. I can't wait to take a look at her series.<br />
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A series that my class has throughly enjoyed this year is Skippyjon Jones.<br />
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Skippyjon Jones is a Siamese cat who imagines spectacular adventures for himself as a chihuahua.<br />
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There is a whole series of books telling of Skippy's adventures. They always include a warning from Mama Junebug, Skippy entering his closet as the cue that his imaginative adventures are beginning and poems that get the kiddos in my class clapping their hands and begging for me to repeat it "one more time."<br />
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I love to hear kids interacting with books, laughing and enjoying the experience. I hope its one more step on the path for life long readers.<br />
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<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-71316214705296076482014-06-27T12:55:00.000-04:002014-06-27T12:55:37.345-04:00Math HomeworkWithin my self-contained varying exceptionalities class, I typically have quite a few students with language impairments. These students usually need extra support when completing math word problems and multiple step math problems. They also most frequently need extra time to practice skills and concepts.<br />
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I like to have the students practice math skills, but the homework component that is part of the series my district has adopted just didn't work for us this year. The homework pages were "busy" which made it difficult for the students and families to discern the most important information. They also moved at a pace and changed skills so quickly, that my students didn't have enough time to truly master some of the computation skills or concepts, let alone apply those to word problems.<br />
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I ended up using a combination of resources to make sure each student had math homework that they could independently complete. Here were some of my most frequently used:<br />
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<a href="http://www.kidzone.ws/math/" target="_blank">KidZone Free Math Worksheets</a> This site offers several different computation skills and at different levels of difficulty. The printed pages are "clean" and not visually busy so they were ideal for homework. (And it's free!)<br />
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<a href="http://www.worksheetworks.com/math/geometry/measuring-figures/perimeter-area.html" target="_blank">Calculating Area and Perimeter</a> This site offers a worksheet generator that allows the parent or teacher to pick whether the child will work on simple or complex shapes; metric or English units of measure; or various combinations.<br />
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<a href="https://www.touchmath.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rtiuppergrades.products&Pid=81" target="_blank">Touch Math</a> This is a program that includes blackline reproducibles that our principal purchased for our special education department. It is an investment up front, but well worth it. My school has the Upper Grades program.<br />
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Since I'm sharing resources that I use for homework, I will also share my homework philosophy. I believe that what I send home for homework should be work that the students in my class can complete independently (or with very minimal support.)<br />
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I believe this because, I don't want the child going home and practicing a skill incorrectly 2 or 3 nights every week! I also know that the parents of the children in my class have differing levels of the support they can provide for their children with homework.<br />
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I also believe that it is important for children to learn how to become responsible for their own actions. Completion of homework assignments is one of the criteria for the students in my class to earn their "choice time" at the end of the day. I don't think it would be fair to assign a student to do homework that he/she cannot complete on their own and then also tie their choice time to the completion. If I know they can independently complete the homework, then I feel comfortable setting the expectation that you must have completed homework before you go to choice time. <br />
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This criteria and philosophy has worked for the classes that I have had for the past several years. It's always possible that I may get a group of students in the future that need a different plan; or an individual within a group that needs something different. Since I have a full time special education classroom, I also believe it's my responsibility to be willing to change my homework expectations when the children's needs warrant a change.<br />
<br />Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3622294245477270973.post-10087674179402569082014-06-06T10:29:00.000-04:002014-06-06T10:29:03.680-04:00Charlotte's WebWe ended our school year with a novel study. Two of the general education teachers and I pulled together a unit on Charlotte's Web for the students. I'm so glad we did! After so much emphasis on our standardized testing this quarter, it was refreshing and rejuvenating to go back to great literature and helping children understand and enjoy it.<br />
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Here are a few of the lessons we completed:<br />
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1) Every student had a novel and was expected to follow along. I hadn't typically done this in the past when there was such a difference in my students' reading skills and the level of difficulty of the text. This sounds silly, but it was almost an "A-ha" moment for me. The brailled book that we had was in contracted braille and Gabby is still reading uncontracted braille. This book was too hard for her, but she was able to explore the book and track through some of the chapters when she had 1:1 support. I have 2 students who are also still reading at a beginning first grade level. When they were given a simple verbal prompt on when to move to the next page, they could inconsistently track with us too. <br />
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2) We completed a "following directions" lesson based on the passages in the text to map out and create the barn scene. We added more details as we learned them throughout the book. (The white circle is just blocking out all of the kids names.)<br />
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3) When Charlotte was finally introduced in the book, the students all picked a spider to research. They made a spider body and were responsible for finding 8 facts about their spider. Then they read their planning sheet and facts to me; and I helped them type it into a word document so they could cut out the facts and glue them to the spiders legs. We started them with 3 facts: all spiders are arachnids, all spiders have 2 body parts, all spiders have 8 legs.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFFmhJc0qCacvyZtLziAqiO7EaPEDh9CokASJUcmelc2aTEbp1NeH0NwOliwx-F8Mxtr8X3sdvSjKzY6McS0p5wHqaUsi6J7vo57oV9u6j_G2oTEmq_S8MszD3BqTih6bnhA0wIY8DUBG3/s1600/spider+research.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFFmhJc0qCacvyZtLziAqiO7EaPEDh9CokASJUcmelc2aTEbp1NeH0NwOliwx-F8Mxtr8X3sdvSjKzY6McS0p5wHqaUsi6J7vo57oV9u6j_G2oTEmq_S8MszD3BqTih6bnhA0wIY8DUBG3/s1600/spider+research.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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4) The classroom staff also made a web (tulle and yarn) for Charlotte and surprised the kids each morning with the words that she wrote in her web for Wilbur.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFaC4KbdkQKJHhPAgoifVTr61L2gm07pHK7m6F4xi2-SC7xSI-dZXsWXpd436xQTUmluKuS93r4pJNlTEXFU1Xodm5B2mVaZwdSMrIXNeprm8ZzMd7BiXYC7DLrz30du4NcrrO-jESChn/s1600/some+pig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFaC4KbdkQKJHhPAgoifVTr61L2gm07pHK7m6F4xi2-SC7xSI-dZXsWXpd436xQTUmluKuS93r4pJNlTEXFU1Xodm5B2mVaZwdSMrIXNeprm8ZzMd7BiXYC7DLrz30du4NcrrO-jESChn/s1600/some+pig.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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5) In addition to these "crafty" classroom projects, we also completed several Type 1 writing pieces about what students know about a farm, what they know about a County Fair, what they think will happen to Wilbur, why Fern wasn't paying much attention to Wilbur at the fair etc. (Our school uses the Collins writing program. To see more about a <a href="http://www.collinsed.com/5types.htm" target="_blank">Type 1, click here</a>.)</div>
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6) Two social skills lessons emerged from this novel study that I wasn't expecting. One boy had already seen the movie so he knew what the story was all about. One day he went home and cried. (Talk about making me feel terrible!) His mom sent me an e-mail to let me know what was happening. We talked about 2 options for him: 1) Finding alternative assignments for him so he wouldn't go home crying every day. 2) Watch him closely during lessons and prompt him to take a break if he needed one. He has very quiet but consistent clues that tell you when he is getting upset. His cheeks get red and he starts to fidgit. Watch for these clues and ask him if he is "ok or if he needs a break." If he chooses a break he could go to the computer and put the headphones on and go on Tumblebooks so he didn't have to hear us. </div>
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We decided to try the second option and mom said she would let me know if he comes home crying anymore. If he continued to be upset at home, then I would find alternative assignments for him. On one occasion he chose to take a break but out of the 3 or 4 other times I asked him, he chose to stay with the group. I think giving him some control over whether or not he had to listen to something upsetting made it more manageable for him.</div>
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Another little girl, who can be very loud and a bit dramatic, but is also very young and sensitive to sad situations also had a few moments when the story was upsetting. Her plan was a bit different. Throughout the year we have had a "safe space" set up for her so that she could manage her own behavior and de-escalate herself. She also processes information better when she is prepared for it and it is not a surprise. (We're working on handing unexpected situations, but for this novel with the themes of friendship and life cycles and death, I thought she still needed to be prepped.) For her, I would warn her when a sad part was coming up and let her choose her safe space or holding my assistant's hand while we read that part. Interestingly, most of the time in the year when she was upset, she liked to be alone and choose her safe space. Each time within this story she chose to hold my assistant's hand. </div>
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For these two students, I spoke with their parents about the novel and how it was affecting them emotionally. My goals in the novel study started with the literacy goals of character traits, how characters change throughout a story, remembering details, researching information, etc. For them, my focused shifted and I really wanted the social skills practice more than I wanted them to gain the literacy skills. However, in getting at this social skills practice, I didn't want to push them so hard that they were crying or emotionally distraught at school or home. It was a fine line...thank goodness they both have very actively involved parents who let me know how they were doing at home too! </div>
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I wanted the boy to learn to speak up and request a break when he felt like he was getting to the "overload" point. While he only took the break once and he needed prompting, this novel gave me some good information to share with his teacher next year so she can continue with this.</div>
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For the little girl, I wanted her to remember that she had solutions and choices that she could use to help her manage her emotions. I also wanted her to be able to attempt to do this without yelling and disrupting the whole group.</div>
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The novel study of Charlotte's Web was a great way to end the year. It gave the students a great piece of literature to read, fun activities that still had an academic focus, and kept them interested and engaged at the end of the year!</div>
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Michelle_special_ed_teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356359512023601865noreply@blogger.com0