Folding 101

I try not to post everyday so that I can bank posts up in case I ever run out of things to say.  But, when a girls got something to share, A GIRLS GOT SOMETHING TO SHARE!  So, I have been thinking about putting together some folding activities for my classroom and slowly this year I have been buying things to add to it.  I FINALLY bought the last few items I needed and today in class I introduced it to the kids. Meet my folding activities!

 Socks~  I added some of my old socks that looked pretty new and bought some new ones to add as well. I bought 4 different styles of white ones to make it a bit more difficult.  After they matched we worked on folding them into themselves.

Towels~ I have 4 of each, bath towels, hand towels and washcloths. We pretty much folded in half, in half, in half.  The kids did great and some had to really concentrate to get them neat.







T-Shirts~  I bought 9 t-shirts from a local t-shirt store in our town.  I did 3 white, 3 grey and 3 black.  This way after folding they could group them by color.  We had 3 students at each table and rotated the baskets every 10 minutes.  

The month of waiting to get it all together was well worth the wait.  The kids were really engaged. Even my two autistic boys, who I usually have a hard time getting interested in activities, were folding right along with the others.  I love when something comes together as planned!

Preposition Books

I got this great book idea from Kara over at Sped-ventures.  http://spedventures.blogspot.com/  She has a couple cute ones that she has put together that I absolutely loved.  I decided to make a few of my own to use with my kids.  I tried to make them relevent to things we have been working on. We have one on personal hygiene, one on kitchen foods and another on clothing.  So far the kids love them!  Some of my kids breezed right through them and others really struggled. I put the velcro in more then one spot (3 on some) so the answer is not so obvious.

My co-worker has this neat machine that binds the books and she was kind enough to do that for me. (I think I will be using some of my teacher budget money to get myself one soon).  The options of making your own books are endless!  Kara has many on her blog that would work great with a variety of students.  I suggest you go check them out!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/3-Life-Skills-Preposition-Books-961760

Body Boundaries

I hope everyone had an exciting week!  We had a two hour late start on Tuesday so didn't get to have a community outing this week :-(  My class also changed our job site this week. We were working at a pizza place but are now working at the local city collage in the snack bar taking out trash and cleaning tables. Have I told you how much my kids love going to their job sites?  I have one students who is working at Subways with another teacher and he takes his job very seriously.  He gets to wear a Subways shirt and hat and is such a hard worker.  We also resumed our electives this Friday and it went very well.  Each teacher (sometimes 2) had to pick an elective to teach.  We ended up with some great ones, photography, cooking, sign language, leadership, fitness, and drawing among a few.  I love the fact that I get to get acquainted with other kids who I didn't know. We also worked on our body boundaries. Here is the worksheet we used.  I was going to do the boys and girls separate but ended up doing it together and they had their own gender page. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Body-Boundaries-937706

I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!!

Postcard Exchange

 I signed up to do a post card exchange back in August and have been so excited for it to get started.  There are 30 different classrooms in my group from all different parts of the United States.  I even have recruited some of my friends who live in other states to participate because I figure more is better, right?  We had until the end of October and it appears I am not the only one who waited till the last minute since I haven't received a single on yet!  Since my students are very basic writers we had the help of a couple aides and even the school psychologist stopped by to help us fill some out (the kids did the stamps).  I have had this area of my wall ready since before the kids started.  I want to tack the postcard on the wall than run a string to the map where it came from.  I will post again when the postcards all arrive!!

Doing Chores Slide Show

 I put together a cute little slide presentation to show my kids this week when we talk about chores.  There are 19 slides, each showing a different chore.  I added a couple "non chores" pictures just for fun.  I posted it in my store because frankly I don't know how else to get it to you!  Enjoy!

 
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Chore-Pictures-936753

Pedestrian Safety

It's been crazy busy at my work the last few weeks.  We started a new billing system that has been having issues from the get go, grades and benchmarks were due for the first quarter, and I finally finished the last two IEP's of all my incoming freshman.

Sooooo, to celebrate this amazing weekend we are about to have (it's going to be in the low 80's) I would like to give away this worksheet I put together last week for my class on pedestrian safety (I split it into two classes).  I hope it can be of some use to you.  

Have a great, RELAXING weekend. (I have plans to stay in my jammies the WHOLE time!)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pedestrian-Safety-932525

Giving Grades

It's that time of year again when I need to grade my students on their abilities while in my class.  I used to find this task somewhat difficult.  What kind of grade do you give to a student who still can't count to three at the age of 20 in math? A lot of my colleagues at work give straight A's down the board.  This just didn't seem right to me since not all kids try to do their best. In the past few years I have come up with a system that seems to works for me.  Here's how it goes:

A = If you try your best you get an "A".  How can I give any less if they are working to the highest of their ability?

B = If I know you can do better (because you have showed me) and don't because you would rather talk or play you get a "B". (symptoms of your disability will never lower your grade).

C = I rarely give C's and if I do it is in either in PE or work skills.  If you refuse to participate because you would rather be doing something else, or are being lazy (yes my kids can be lazy) than you get a "C".  

I have never given a "D" or an "F".  Frankly I think If I was having to do that I would have to re-evaluate myself and my teaching.  

We also evaluate their citizenship.  1, 2, or 3 for each grade.

So, I'm interested in knowing, how do you grade your students?    

Grocery Store Math

I put together this fun packet to fill in some of the community outing time we get each week.  Some of the worksheets are a bit higher than others to accommodate students at different levels.

 Students will have to look through each individual section or aisle of the grocery store to find the answers to each question. I hope this will be helpful to your kids!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Grocery-Store-Math-871412