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!