** DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated with Donors Choose in any way other than being a regular teacher who uses the site to get cool stuff for my classroom and this post contains information that I have gathered through research and expereince to be successful on the site. All opinions are my own. When I walked into my first classroom, there was lot of "stuff." Most of it was broken or inappropriate for my little ones with special needs. I was quickly told to make do because there was no money for "extras" in the budget. Then, I learned pretty much everything besides consumable art supplies was extra and even those were limited split between 5 Early Childhood classrooms. A lot of my grand first year teaching ideas went out the window. Overflowing, colorful sensory box...Gone. Kids learning through exciting and imaginative pretend play...Gone. While I was readjusting to ideas and dreams, my wonderful paraprofessional told me that the teacher before me had gotten some really cool supplies through Donor Choose. I did a Google search and over 30 funded projects later, I can truly say Donors Choose has helped me achieve some of my wildest teaching dreams. What is Donors Choose?
0 Comments
I was sent these books from the publisher MVPkids to review as part of Multicultural Children's Book Day 2018. All views and opinions expressed are my own. This is my 5th year teaching and one of the goals I set for myself is to really focus on being more intentional especially when it comes to the books that I am exposing my students to. In my first few years teaching, I thought that exposing my students to as many books as possible was best, but I wasn't always considering the other messages I was sending to my students beyond the skills I was hoping to teach. Early in the year, I joined the Diverse Reads for the Classroom Facebook group run by Vera from the Tutu Teacher. This group was such an eye opener for me to how big the world of books with diverse characters really is. Now that I teach in a small rural school, I realize it's not only important to provide my students with opportunities to see themselves and their families in books we are reading, but expose them to the world and its people in an appropriate and positive way. I jumped at the chance to be a part of Multicultural Children's Book Day so that I can not only be exposed to more authors, publishers, and series with diverse characters and experience, but help other teachers find such amazing books for their classrooms as well. MVPkids sent me 5 of the 12 board books in their Celebrate! Series, all by author Sophia day. The first thing I noticed about these books was how good the quality was. The pages were thick and the binding is strong. As teachers, we think about these things as much as the content because if it doesn't last, then our students won't see it. The next thing I noticed about the books as a whole is that not only are there diverse characters throughout these books, but the books are talking and exploring the characters everyday lives. This makes these great for daycares, Early Childhood classrooms, and special education lessons. My favorite books were Celebrate! Our Difference and Celebrate! The Way I'm Made. As a special education, both of these books were perfect from the images to the language used to describe everyone's differing abilities and cultures. I also really like how important messages in the text are highlighted with different colors or size font. My 2 year old LOVED Celebrate! Bedtime. It was a beautiful representation of different types of bedtime routines and included how to say "good night" in other languages. It offered lots of opportunities for my daughter and I to talk about her bedtime routine compared to the characters in the books. She also loves looking at books and identifying different people in family structure and this book gave her plenty of opportunities to see families that do not look exactly like hers. The last two books, Celebrate! Mommies and Daddies and Celebrate! Grandmas and Grandpas, both touch upon how families have their own special relationships and ways that they show each other they love one another. These books show many different cultures and family structures but again, don't make it seem different or special in any way. It's just families being families! Overall, the Celebrate! Series from MVPkids did not disappoint. They would be a great addition to any classroom or home library. This is not MVPkids only series either and I was also excited to see a series on social-emotional learning. Make sure to visit their website to check out all of their titles Follow this link to see all of the other great reviews for Multicultural Children's Book Day! #ReadYourWorld More About Multicultural Children's Book DayMulticultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/18) is in its 5th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators.
Current Sponsors: MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board.2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors HONORARY: Children’s Book Council, Junior Library Guild PLATINUM:Scholastic Book Clubs GOLD:Audrey Press, Candlewick Press, Loving Lion Books, Second Story Press, Star Bright Books, Worldwide Buddies SILVER:Capstone Publishing, Author Charlotte Riggle, Child’s Play USA, KidLit TV, Pack-n-Go Girls, Plum Street Press BRONZE: Barefoot Books, Carole P. Roman, Charlesbridge Publishing, Dr. Crystal Bowe, Gokul! World, Green Kids Club, Gwen Jackson, Jacqueline Woodson, Juan J. Guerra, Language Lizard, Lee & Low Books, RhymeTime Storybooks, Sanya Whittaker Gragg, TimTimTom Books, WaterBrook & Multnomah, Wisdom Tales Press 2018 Author Sponsors Honorary Author Sponsors: Author/Illustrator Aram Kim and Author/Illustrator Juana Medina Author Janet Balletta, Author Susan Bernardo, Author Carmen Bernier-Grand, Author Tasheba Berry-McLaren and Space2Launch, Bollywood Groove Books, Author Anne Broyles, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Eugenia Chu, Author Lesa Cline-Ransome, Author Medeia Cohan and Shade 7 Publishing, Desi Babies, Author Dani Dixon and Tumble Creek Press, Author Judy Dodge Cummings, Author D.G. Driver, Author Nicole Fenner and Sister Girl Publishing, Debbi Michiko Florence, Author Josh Funk, Author Maria Gianferrari, Author Daphnie Glenn, Globe Smart Kids, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Author Quentin Holmes, Author Esther Iverem, Jennifer Joseph: Alphabet Oddities, Author Kizzie Jones, Author Faith L Justice , Author P.J. LaRue and MysticPrincesses.com, Author Karen Leggett Abouraya, Author Sylvia Liu, Author Sherri Maret, Author Melissa Martin Ph.D., Author Lesli Mitchell, Pinky Mukhi and We Are One, Author Miranda Paul, Author Carlotta Penn, Real Dads Read, Greg Ransom, Author Sandra L. Richards, RealMVPKids Author Andrea Scott, Alva Sachs and Three Wishes Publishing, Shelly Bean the Sports Queen, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Gayle H. Swift Author Elsa Takaoka, Author Christine Taylor-Butler, Nicholette Thomas and MFL Publishing Author Andrea Y. Wang, Author Jane Whittingham Author Natasha Yim We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE. **I participate in the Brand Ambassador Program for Carson-Dellosa and have received this product for free to review. Task Boxes or work boxes are a staple in most Special Education classrooms. I had them in my early childhood special ed classroom and I still have them in my resource room. The problem I've had with my task boxes is that my students get too good at them or get bored doing the same skills over and over. That's where I came up with the idea to make simple, seasonal changes to my tasks boxes to keep them fresh & exciting all year. Not all of my task boxes get a make over, but I do try to freshen up several. For Fall, I am changing out materials in 4 boxes: the collating box, 2 sorting boxes, and tangrams. Here's how it will look: Collating Task BoxThe collating box will get the biggest face lift because not only am I changing out the picture cards, the task is also changing slightly. The basic box had my students just repeating paper clipping 3 different color cards together over and over. The new box has different picture combinations that they have to do. I received these Leaves & Acorns Colorful Cut-Out Accents in my Carson-Dellosa Brand Ambassador box this month. As soon as I saw them, I knew they would be prefect to update this box. Click the picture above to grab them off the Carson-Dellosa site. Next, I photographed different combinations, printed, laminated, and put the photos on a right. I added it all to the box and it was ready to go! Grab the photos below to create your own box! Sorting BoxesBullseye's Playground and the Dollar Tree make this one easy. I just swap out old materials with new mini erasers, seasonal vase filler, stickers and other small items I have found. For fall, I chose small plastic pumpkins and leaves that I found several years ago at Target and Halloween mini erasers. Once Halloween as passed, I will do a quick swap for something Thanksgiving. Pattern BlocksThis is another pretty easy one because the base of the box stays the same. You just swap out the pictures. You can also increase the difficulty by having black & white or smaller pictures that students have to free hand create instead of matching. If you don't have the plastic pieces, I have seen posts on how to make them out of felt, cardboard, and also laminated paper! Click the picture to check out my Pattern Blocks Pinterest board for great seasonal ideas.
Task boxes don't need to be boring or the same old, same old every day. They are so easy to spice up and make fresh & engaging each season or month.
****All links are in this posted are affiliated. I do not own the rights to the products and have not tried all of the products personally.
Prime Day is coming!! I love Prime Day. I currently live in a rural area that doesn't even have a Target. Amazon has replaced my shopping and Prime Day feels like finding amazing deals in Bullseye's Playground. I have not only gotten amazing deals for my classroom but my personal life as well. Yes, I am that person who Christmas shops in July so Prime Day is like Black Friday. Here are some things that I am watching in hopes of scoring an amazing deal.
Classroom Activities
I've had my eye on these resources for a couple of years. The Eureka Tubs come in different animals, themes, and tiles. Great for sorting, matching, counting, categorizing, & words. I already have some of the Learning Journey puzzles and adding another to my collection would be amazing. Finally, the color sorting pie would be an amazing addition to my basic skills activities as well as a vocabulary builder for my students working on life skills.
Books
I have a confession. I do not own any Elephant & Piggy books. I know crazy right! I'm hoping after Prime Day that will change. There are tons of the series already listed in the deals and more could be added. There were too many great books to link but I love "Too Much Glue" for the beginning of the year and "Fill a Bucket" for social emotional work.
Sensory
I love sensory activities and toys, but it can be very expensive to try out all the awesome new materials. I've been hearing about Mad Matter a lot and can't wait to try it out. Water beads have been so fun in my classroom and a big tub would last all year. Finally, you can never have enough play dough tools!
Teacher Supplies & Organization
All of these supplies have been on my wish list for next year. I am desperate for a new pencil sharpener that can sharpen the variety of pencils that I have in my room and as a special education teacher, I can never have enough Velcro. Sharpies and Flair pens are a must have for any teacher even if you already have tons. Finally, the hanging file folder is part of my new plan to get and stay organized this year.
These are just a few of the deals I have found so far. I know more will be posted through out Prime Day and I will be watching. Check back for deals to be added!
*DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free for the purposes of testing it and reviewing it. I was not compensated in any other way for this review. All opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own. Teaching and modifying behavior is a huge part of being a special education teacher. I used to tell parents in IEP meetings that a huge part of school is just learning to "do" school. That means be able to sit, work quietly, follow along, get along with others and so on. The sad this is these skills are rarely explicitly taught beyond kindergarten. We expect students to do what we ask and do it well just because they should, but this doesn't work for everyone. My students with special needs often need more incentive or reminders about their behaviors. I was so excited to try out the Yoyoboko Reward Chart for Students that was sent to me that I put it up the day it arrived. My behavior chart could not have arrived at a better time. I had a student who was really struggling with his behavior and decided to use the chart for him. I could see the chart being used for individual students, but also possibly as a whole class incentive. What is all included: - A single chart that has spots to write in times or subjects, 4 target behavior magnet spots, 4 reward magnet spots. and a place to write in a target number. - 16 picture supported target behavior magnets and 4 blank behavior magnets to add your own - 8 picture supported reward magnets and 4 blank to write in your own - 168 red and blue star magnets - A pad of weekly behavior monitoring sheets with a space for parents to sign - Plastic storage bag for magnets and small magnetic dry erase markers. Positives & Praises The first thing I noticed about the chart when I opened it was the picture support. I don't care if students are good readers, having picture support is always a plus in my book. When a student is frustrated or upset, they can just glance at a visual for a reminder instead of trying to focus on reading. I also loved the variety in the behavior and reward magnets. There was "something for everyone" and the blank cards made it easy to add my own rewards for special school events for the student to work towards. The chart was also very motivating for my student. He was constantly asking if he got his stars and loved putting the stars up himself. The color coding of the lines also made it easy for me to compare behaviors like "Look you been doing really well in purple today but lets make more of an effort to get more stars in green!" Kept everything very positive and goal oriented. The board was well made and the magnets are strong. It fell several times from its hanging place and never lost a magnet. The only change I had to make was writing on it with a wet erase marker instead of the included dry erase because I kept smudging it. Concerns & Cautions Most of my concerns about the chart stem from larger, individual needs of programs. Because the chart is individual focused, if you had students with a wide variety of behaviors or really severe behaviors, it might be hard to manage many charts at a time. While the chart was motivating for my student, it didn't really allow for me to keep number data in terms of his behavior on it so I had to have another chart to do that. The look of the chart is also very nice, but very young. The colors are very soft pastels and the idea of a hanging behavior chart might not appeal to all students. I felt the visuals on the magnets were appropriate for all ages though. On the other hand, the chart is not a huge size so it is easy to keep it in a spot that could not be as obvious and do private conferences with the student using it. Overall, I plan to continue to use the chart for the rest of the year and into next. I think like any behavior plan or support, you need to make sure that the chart will work for you and your student to meet the ultimate end goals. It worked well with my student and I did see an improvement in behavior especially in school survival behaviors like raising your hand for attention and staying focused on the teachers. The chart might make a great addition to an inclusive setting as well do to its ability to blend in to the classroom environment so well.
Click the picture below to head to the Yoyoboko website to get more information on the Reward Chart for Students and cool products.
Teaching writing is hard. To be able to write, you have to be able to accomplish multiple tasks at a time including motor skills, planning, modifying thoughts on the fly, and applying a lot of learned skills. This can be challenging for typically developing students but I find that most of my students with special needs are very resistive to writing, especially at any length.
My love for teaching writing has grown each year. When I was teaching Early Childhood Special Education, I made it my mission to catch kids early and help them see the joy of writing and creating their own little masterpiece with words. I started with my students as young as 3 years old to build that confidence mostly through guided writing of names and colors. Moving from tracing to copying to free writing. The progress was amazing and made my teacher heart so happy. Now that I teacher a wider range of students including upper elementary, it is much more of challenge to create that positive experience. I have 3 keys to writing success in my resource room.
The biggest hurdle to successful writing for students with special needs can be believing that they can write and write well. I start small and try to show my students they can be good writers. This involves constant positive reinforcement for making correct letters or writing longer sentences. This also includes a lot of writing practice. I use cut and paste activities a lot in my classroom to be able to check for student understanding, but I always make sure that they follow that up with an opportunity to write the answers as well. This can also be giving my students a chance to practice a task as well before they do the "real deal." This can build their confidence and ensure that they know what is expected of them.
A big piece to the writing instruction in my classroom is planning. This can include a quick review and writing about the sequence of a topic and brainstorming, reviewing words to add detail or that might just be needed to complete the topic, and making sure their thoughts are organized and make sense to others. This is all done a planning sheet that the students can reference while completing their main writing page. The planning time is also a great time for pep talks. Encouraging my students that their ideas are good and way to expand them and make their writing better is a huge part of this process. So many of my students with special needs think writing is a "right or wrong" process and I'm trying to change that mindset that your ideas aren't wrong but you may need to work on the structure of the writing.
Not all of my students are ready to take on long or detailed writing tasks. This may be because of cognitive levels or writing difficulties. This is when I get creative! Some of my students use adapted journals where they match the picture and then either match, trace, or copy words from a model. Another great strategy to increase writing confidence and proficiency in writing about a topic is having students build sentences and then write them in their journal. I have a target sentence idea in my mind, but make sure their are plenty of words that the student can use if their idea is different. Lastly, I give my students opportunities to eliminate the physical act of putting pencil to paper. Some of the ways I do this is through using a computer, stamps, stickers or a scribe. The stress of not having to make letters physically can really improve a students production in creating sentences and written pieces.
Writing truly is one of my favorite subjects to teach these days. This summer I hope to read "The Writing Strategies Book" by Jennifer Serravallo to further increase my knowledge and give me more ideas on how to better support the students in my resource room! Head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking the link below to check out all of my writing resources.
Today I'm linking up with some other Special Education Bloggers. Make sure to check out everyones posts!
Now that you have your file folder games all printed and assembled, what do you do with them? I will admit I have talked to plenty of people who really don't like file folder games. They're too basic, they only work on matching. File folder games really do have a good purpose for a lot of different skills. They add variety, independence, and structure to tasks. They help with generalization and yes, sometimes just help kids work on complete multiple easier tasks. To be able to provide that variety, you really need a large collection. My collection has gotten quite large and I don't even have all of my copies prepped yet.
As a resource teacher, I have file folders that range from everything from basic skills to behavior to multiplication and division. When I was teaching Early Childhood Special Education, I managed my collection through cardboard magazine holders. I would label them by skill and sort my games that way. This worked out well in that environment because I could grab my ABC or colors box when we were working on those skills and go. I had a teaching friend who used a similar system but color coded her boxes and folders to match to make it easier for her students to put them away themselves. Now that I teach a much broader age group, I had to rethink how I would store and use my file folder games.
When I moved schools this year, my classroom does not have a lot of storage, but did have two large file cabinets. I designated one of them to hold my file folder games. Each drawer has a different broader area like basic skills, literacy, and math. Originally, I tried to use hanging file folders to sort and store my games. This didn't work well because the sizing was off and they ended up just sitting in the bottom of the drawer. Not practical at all!
When this became a hassle and I realized I wasn't using my games as much, I started to look for a new solution. I found these IRIS Large Desktop File Holders on Amazon and they are perfect! They fit great in my file cabinets and hold my games upright so I can see the names and the pieces don't fall out if they come loose. I have two holders right now in each drawer. The front holder keeps games by skill and the second holds seasonal games. I think a third holder would fit if my collection grows to that size (which it probably will).
I organize within each holder by skill and am currently working on labels for each of the skills to use inside the holders. Click on the picture below to head to my TpT store to grab your own set of labels FREE! At the beginning of the day or a work session (depending on how I'm managing my time), I go, find the right category, and grab what I need.
I'm linking up with other Special Education Bloggers today! Make sure to check out all the amazing posts.
I was first introduced to file folder games when working at a residential school for kids with special needs in La Crosse, WI. File folders were EVERYWHERE! I was instantly hooked. We had books we copied out of, pulled pictures out of magazines, scoured the Internet for free or cheap printables, and used Boardmaker to design and plan our own. I found coloring, cutting, and assembling these activities therapeutic. This was before I discovered Teachers Pay Teachers so I can only imagine how deep my obsession would have been if I known about the site then.
As you can imagine with an obsession so deep, I have accumulated quite the collection of file folder games and it grows every year. There are two steps to managing your file folders. First is managing the hard copies and assembling. Teachers Pay Teachers makes this almost fool proof because you can store you files and just print if your missing a piece or need to remake. I am a sucker for nostalgia and have been collecting the original books that exposed me to file folder games all those years ago. They are created and illustrated by Karen Finch and are titled "File Folder Games." They are organized by skills and grades as well as a couple of seasonal books.
These books are great but do take significantly more work. You need to copy, color, and assemble the games yourself. The pieces are also not always the easiest to cut but when they are finished, they are amazing! I used to make color copies of my finished sheets and store them in a binder, but that quickly got out of control as my collection of sheets and books grew beyond one large binder. I recently had an idea that I would use the scan to computer function on my schools copier to store the pages digitally. It has been a game changer. Here are the steps I use:
File folder games are a labor of love because most are not just print and go. You need to take the time to assemble, cut all the cute little pieces out, and then make sure everything is put together before your students can use them. This system makes it easy for me to quickly replace or adjust as needed. Next time, I will post about how I use my file folders and how I manage my collection without it getting to be a huge mess.
It's been forever since I posted, but adjusting to my new school has been all consuming lately. I truly underestimated what it would take to get a handle on more grade, a wider range of skills, and adjust to my new materials and supplies on a daily basis. In my old classroom, I had an awesome routine and two aides that helped me keep everything running smoothly day in and day out. Now, it's just me and much more coming and going from my students. I've been really focusing on keeping my thoughts positive in all aspects of my life lately so here are two of the awesome things so far this year that really make me proud: 1) My students are getting used to my style and I am understanding their needs and learning style more and more each day! The gains I'm seeing show that all of our hard work is paying off too. 2) I am taking and analyzing more data than ever before. This is huge for me because this has always been a struggle. I've even started graphing data. Click on the picture to get my graphs for FREE. Every year I try to make it priority but have never really been successful until now. I hope I can keep it up into the new year! While being reflective is awesome, I am starting to look into next year and make goals for my classroom and store: 1) Post more on my blog! I'm hoping to post at least once a month. 2) Be more organized across my whole life. I need to do a better job of keeping my teacher, mommy, personal, and student (I am taking courses to expand my license) lives balanced and organzied. 3) Keep building my store. One of the awesome things about making a change in my career is that I have lots of new and exciting ideas like the cut and paste journals I've been tweaking the last month or so. Now to just find the time to get them all finished! I hope you all have an amazing holiday season and are looking forward to 2017 as much as I am! I'm super excited to have my first post on my new blog be all about my new classroom. I recently moved from Milwaukee to a small, rural school district on the other side of Wisconsin. It has been a huge change. I loved my school in Milwaukee and loved my classroom, so I was so nervous to start over. I have been working hard to make the space my own and as usual don't know if I'll ever be done moving, changing, and sprucing. I'm going from teaching EC (K3-K5) Special Ed to K-5th Special Ed, so I had to keep myself in check that the room wasn't too little kid. So far it seems to be working well but I guess only time will tell. I wish I had thought more ahead and took some before pictures as well. The room had a large L-shaped patrician that cut the room into 3 smaller areas. I decided to go more open concept and am happy with the results. Here's a peek at some of the areas in my room: This is the area my groups do most of their seat work and direct instruction. I love teaching at a U-table and love that I can have kids at different levels working on different things while I monitor it all. Behind the table under the window is all our supplies for working like pencils, stamps, clothespins, bingo dauber, dice, letter magnets, scissors, and glue to name a few. The rainbow cart hold different activities like rhyming mats, play dough mats, writing cards, and other support materials like number lines, alphabet charts, and visuals. Also behind the table on the white board is our Focus Skill area, I'm still developing this in my classroom and will post about it later. I had a large green chalkboard in my classroom but no true bulletins board, so I got innovative and made display boards out of my chalk board. The first one holds my basic skills assessment rings, important charts, and other papers I may need often. The rest is my calendar and 10 frame days in school counting. Under that is our classroom library and adapted books. The shelf is where we keep our clip card activities, extra adapted books and other materials for through out the year. The boards on the wall are for magnet activities. Right now, gears are available during free time but soon it will turn into a number and sight word activities. The gray file cabinet holds file folder games and other activities. The brown file cabinet has all of the materials OT uses. My student cubbies hold all of their workbooks. I spiral bind copies of journals, Explode the Code workbooks, and other activities. The table is our OT area. Our OT's are only in the building on Monday, so the rest of the week the table might be used for sensory activities, activities prep stations, or general dumping ground for materials and supplies I'm too busy to put away after were done. This is our classroom word wall. Each letter has a sign language magnet for the letter along with a picture. This year, I am using themed by month vocabulary on the word wall to try to increase conversation skills. We review the words a couple times a week and I will try to generate conversation based on these words too. I have one student who is primarily with me through out the day. This is his area. On top of his desk is his daily schedule, his reinforcement card, and his traceable name tag. He does independent work twice a day and I asked the high school shop class to make me this divider for his desk so I can put the activities and folders in to provide him structure.
Thanks for taking a peak at my classroom. I'm sure it will look different by May but so far I'm very happy with it. Check back soon for closer looks at our day and activities! |
About MeHi! My name is Kelsey & I am a Special Education Teacher in WI. I love what I do & love sharing new ideas & awesome materials. When I'm not teaching, I'm enjoying being a Mommy, cooking, & being outdoors. Archives
March 2018
Categories
All
|