Summer Student Gifts

So I saw this great idea of a summer gift on Pinterest.  You fill a beach bucket with goodies for your students for the summer. I took off to the good ol' dollar store near me and found these cute beach pails. So what did I include in my version of the summer beach pail present you ask? Here is my list.

• Sight word flashcards of current sight words on colored paper (found here)
• Math Flashcards: counting, adding, shapes depending on the student ( found at Dollar Tree) 
• Bubbles: because who doesn't want to have a little fun over the summer (found at Dollar Tree)
• Cute Pencils, one in each bucket 
• Fun Erasers, one in each bucket 
• A Leveled Reader text (found at Readingatoz.com, you must be a member to access) 
• Classroom Photo Collage titled "School Memories 2011-2012"

I'm hoping my kids like them! 

Let's Hit the Beach!

Summer vacation is almost here! 6 days left to be exact. I was in the dollar store and this fabulous idea crossed my mind to liven up our phonics lessons. I bought a cheap beach ball, and with a dry erase maker,  wrote one word on each color. I toss the ball to the students and they call out the word that is in front of them. Its a great way for us to practice our words of the week! Enjoy!

Daily Centers

I have tried several different methods to organize centers over the years. I am finally using one that works for me AND my kids.  It took a little while to set it all up, but I have to say I no longer dread daily centers.

My system is simple. Each student gets a "centers menu". I designed it so that any child in my classroom with any level of language and cognitive ability could use it. It has a green side and a red side. Simply, the green is "to do" and the red is "all done". Each student has 3 centers each day.  On my SMARTboard, I have up a picture that says "centers" and then under that a chime which I ring about every 12-15 minutes. We practiced a lot but my students know now that they stay at their center until the chime rings. When the chime rings, they clean up and move on to the next.

I printed out TONS of little icons for my centers. This way there is no confusion about what the next center is. I pre made all these so I can switch centers all the time without anyone getting bored.

I have kids in and out of my room every two minutes.  Since I am a sub separate room my kids are on all different levels. This system has made it so easy for me to have flexible grouping and meet 1:1 with my students each day.

I hope this helps you!

My centers menu- one per student

I keep all the icons in the top drawer ready to go

My (messy) shelf of centers games and activities

Sight Word Soup

Sight words, sight words, sight words. Say what you may, but I firmly believe that sight word recognition really helps a struggling reader get rolling.  Of course, sight words are only one piece of the reading puzzle, but the more you know the further you go. In my school district, we use the Dolch Sight Word lists as base lists for data. The kids practice words from the list all the time. My kids were so sick of flashcards but I really needed them to practice.  Well who doesn't like a little game to help.

I created this game probably two years ago. When I changed schools, my game was lost in transit :(. I just try to tell myself that some kid somewhere is playing this game and having a blast everyday! And then I decided since it had been such a great centers activity, I'd make it again. So, it's really simple and with a little free time on your hands, you can make it too. What I did was I took a few boxes of ziti and a Sharpie marker. I wrote (very carefully and tediously) one word per each piece of pasta. Then I picked up a pot at the local Christmas Tree Shop and a serving spoon. I also got some cheap bowls at the dollar store.  To play, simply have the students scoop out some soup. I have them read the words one by one and place the each piece of pasta they can read in their bowl. If they can't read a word, they throw it back in the pot. After their scoop is done, they pass the spoon to the next person and take turns.  They play until their bowl is full. They can then count and see how many pieces they got when they are done.

It's a simple game, but its a great way to practice those tricky words. I teach all the words in isolation throughout the school year so this is really a review game. I have a box of pasta for each level of sight words and I rotate them throughout the year.

Just one word of advice-- Don't loose all the pasta that you spent hours writing sight words on, or you will have to be like me and recruit someone to help you rewrite all those words :)

Post Office Writing Center

Here it is. My handmade post office writing center! Well its a little rough around the edges but my kids loved it!

All year I have been struggling with getting my students to write. I mean write anything. Even asking them to draw a picture can bring on a rainstorm of tears.  I'm sure many of us special education teachers face this each day due to the challenge of fine motor skills. However, I thought, if I can make it fun and interesting enough, maybe I can get them to start writing.

Sure I had tried all of the cool prompts. We have writer's workshop notebooks where they literally can draw or write anything they want, but I still felt like we were getting nowhere. Until the other day, where they wanted to write a letter to a classmate who has been out sick. Genius- I thought. I'll run with that idea. So over April vacation I crafted this center that they thought would be a game and I would see it as a perfect way to work on our writing skills.

Dave was nice enough to fashion this cardboard box into a mailbox in little under 20 minutes. I took it to school the next day and painted it. (Note to self, paint doesn't stick well to clear plastic tape.) I created a handful of letter writing templates on my Mac along with some fake stamps. My dad (a true mailman) donated an old letter carrier shit and hat to my center too.

I introduced it today, and it was a hit. Immediately my first and second graders took to the task of creating postcards for their friends and family. I accommodated the kindergarteners by getting them to draw the picture first and then having cut out icons from Boardmaker of family members that they could mail their postcard to. When they finished a postcard, I made them come to me to "buy" a stamp. This way I could check their writing and make sure it was complete.  After that, they went right over and put it in the mailbox.

(Click to download) 

Towards the end, it started getting a little chaotic as all new toys or games become. Everyone was shouting "Postman, how do you spell ____?" Then our tent ( which is a jeep) was moved over by some students to pick up the mail.  We ended it for the day, but I plan on using it twice a week for now.

A success I think!

My New Love: My Library Card

You may find it ironic, that as a teacher (a special education teacher at that) I was never much of a reader as a kid. I mean, I could read- I just was never that interested in reading. Now that life has totally changed, I'm  always trying to get my students excited about reading. After all, it is one of the many keys to success in life. My challenge is this- reading is so challenging for so many of my students that they get so frustrated they just want to give up.  So on any given day during my reading lessons, you will probably find me putting on some type of circus show (yes with costumes and all) just so I can grab their attention.

Recently however, I keep having the same problem. I pull out an old beloved book and they shout out "We  read that already!".  And truth is, they are right. As teachers we tend to read the same books year after year to our classes. Another one of my problems- I teach the same cohort of students for 2 to 3 years.  Luckily- I came up with the great idea of a library. (How did I not think of this before!) So desperate to find a book that they haven't seen, I trotted off to the local library. I actually was so surprised by some fun titles I found and hadn't heard of so I thought I'd share them here.

Enjoy!

(Note:There is not really one theme here to this collection of books. We were working on "Reading is thinking" and making predictions and connections to text. )

  

  

A shout out to Lively Letters

Today I'm posting about my favorite phonics program, Lively Letters or Reading with TLC. (find more info here http://www.readingwithtlc.com/) For any special ed teacher out there, this is a great and easy program that will get your students motivated!


A few years ago, I bought myself the teachers manual and a starter letter kit for myself as a resource. I had three students who just weren't latching on to our school phonics and reading program.  At first I was nervous. But honestly within days, some students who had tried several other approaches to reading were finally starting to learn their letters! I was amazed. It is a multi-sensory approach to reading. It has several levels of cueing so that students make connections to letters and their sounds. I do so much with this program everyday in school. My students have loved it time after time. They especially love the CD of letter songs that goes with the program. I still use it - yes even in my sub-seperate classroom. I really think that every student can learn how to read.


I'm not normally online writing reviews, but I had to share a great product that has helped me and so many kids in so many ways. If you are getting stuck with teaching phonics and reading, check it out!