Teacher's Notebook Moore Relief Effort Bundle

Teacher's Notebook has created a bundle with over $500 worth of products donated by teachers. Scratch that, it is now over $1,000.   100% of the proceeds from the sale of this bundle will go to the Moore Relief Efforts. You may purchase the bundle for as little as $25.  Please consider purchasing this bundle. You will not only be helping to raise funds for this devastated area, but you will also be gaining an arsenal of teaching products.  This bundle will only be available for a few days.  So far I have donated my beginning sounds pack' but I am thinking at going back and also donating my Shipwrecked pack. I will be purchasing this pack tomorrow and I hope some of my readers will join me. Please leave me a comment if you do or if you know of any other ways we can help.

work box: Flower Power

 This is my newest work box for my students.  This box may need to be more teacher directed depending on the student level.  The original intent was a beginning sounds activity, but then when I was putting it together I realized that there is so much more I can do with it.  This is what I came up with:  

Ask the student to find the picture of the...

Have the student pick out a flower and identify the object

Have the student pick out a flower and verbally identify the beginning sound

Ask the student to find a flower that begins with a ...

If you are interested, you can purchase this activity at my Teacher's Pay Teacher's store or my Teacher's Notebook store.

puzzles

We do a lot of puzzles in my classroom. Puzzles work on fine motor skills, orientation, and also social skills. Sometimes I will have the kids all work on one big puzzle together. However a few days ago they each were working on their own. This provided the opportunity to ask each other for help (I am sure if you read the post about making lemonade then you now have realized that we are working on asking peers for help instead of adults). I keep a lot of different puzzles in my room so that there is variety and a puzzle that everyone can be successful at.

 

International MPS Awareness Day

Until I started teaching in my current district 5 years ago I had never heard of MPS. Now, I have been given the privilege of teaching another student diagnosed with disease. Last year I did a post about MPS to give some basic information regarding the disease  Since then I have learned new information and found some new sites that can share great information. 

• MPS stands for Mucopolysaccharidoses. 

• MPS is a genetic lysosomal storage disease (LSD) caused by the body's inability to produce specific enzymes.(From the MPS Society Website)

• Affected individuals may have mental retardation, cloudy corneas, short stature, stiff joints, incontinence, speech and hearing impairment, chronic runny nose, hernia, heart disease, hyperactivity, depression, pain and a dramatically shortened life span.(From the MPS Society Website)

• MPS and related diseases are hereditary. (From the MPS Society Website)

• There is currently no cure for MPS or related diseases, research is making great strides. (From the MPS Society Website)

 

Making Lemonade

 Sometimes the simplest activities can be the most fun!  This past week for our cooking activity (life skills, measurement  reading) we made lemonade and then delivered it around the building (social skills & communication) and the kids loved it! It was so easy, but we got so much out of it.

We started with gathering the items we would need.

Next the kids tried to open the container of lemonade mix.  This was difficult and I had them ask each other for help before they could ask me. 

We read the directions and decided how much mix we would need.  Then each person took turns pouring the mix into the pitcher. 

Next we read to find out how much water we needed.  We then took turns filling up the measuring cup and pouring the water in. 

Then it was time to mix.

Finally, we were ready to drink up!!

Question of the week

Each week on Tuesday my students do a "Question of the week". They each have a sheet with a question on a clipboard. We walk around the school (usually to the front office, cafeteria, nurses office, etc.) and ask our question of various people. Some students do this verbally while others use a communication device. This activity allows us to practice social skills by giving students the opportunity to start a conversation with someone by asking a question. Some students record the answers themselves, while others will ask the person to record the answer.

I have the sheets printed out and in a folder all ready to go a few weeks ahead of time.  I have found a lot of great questions on Make Learning Fun (if you have not checked out this website, I love it!  Lots of great ideas on lots of topics).  There is section called Question of the Day. The questions cover all types of content and I often am able to find one that fits in with our current theme.

I have received a lot of positive feed back from our question of the week as it allows others to get to know my students more and allows my students to become more comfortable talking to various people in the school building.


** Just in case you are not a Facebook fan, tomorrow I am going to post at least one flash freebie.  It will be announced on Facebook, so if you are not a fan come and join the fun so that you do not miss out!!**

My parent wish list

I have had some really great parents this year and I have been thinking about things I wish parents of my students did all the time. Being a parent myself I think it is important that parents are active members of the IEP team. So here is my wish list....

 1. Make suggestions: As a parent, you are your child's first teacher. You know your child best. If you have an idea or suggestion, please share it.

2. Communicate: I love open lines of communication. Please call me, email me, write me a note, stop in and visit. I want to hear from you. Your child's life at home impacts his/her life at school.

3. At the IEP meeting (or anytime), question me or any team member: If something is not correct, if you don't understand, or you think it is a horrible idea, speak up! We all look at things differently and I want to know how you see it.

4.  Be involved:  Please know what is going on at school.  If you can come in and eat lunch with your child, they will love it.  Come on field trips, read a story to the class, send in pictures of your child's weekend activities etc.

If you are a teacher, is there something you wish your parents did/knew?  If you are a parent, is there something you wish your child's teacher did/knew?   I would love to hear what others think on this topic as I feel we all always have room to grow.