A Blank Canvas

 I finally got to spend a little time in my new classroom yesterday.  Here are the before pictures!  It's funny, I had been to the room once before and in my mind of picturing what I was going to do, and where I was going to put things, I made the room much smaller in my head.  There is sooooo much empty areas, and so much empty wall space, I am not sure I will be able to fill it all!   I really want to have a little cooking/kitchen area, a small reading area and a craft area.   I spent 4 hours there yesterday.  I unpacked about 6 boxes, worked on the bulletin board and moved a few thing around.  This is going to be a longer process than I thought.  The desk you see will be gone today, I guess it belongs to another teacher and he wants it back.  I have asked for a few bookshelves, another cabinet, another filing cabinet and a desk.  I hope I won't have to wait until right before school starts to finish unpacking!  If you have any pointers or tips, I would LOVE to hear them, especially in filling in wall space. 

Calendar Bin Clock Bundle

I changed the backgrounds in the bundle I made for my classroom in case someone is interested in another color scheme.  Each packet includes 3 pages of bin labels (1-18), calendar days 1 - 31 + 15 holidays and 5 "no school" days, Months labels, minute hand times for the clock and a page of name labels.  Red Swirl pack includes two extra pages of bin labels w/ pics. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/RedPink-Swirl-Calendar-Bin-Bundle  - Red Swirl

Zebra - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Zebra-Print-Bin-s-Calendar-Months-Days-Clock-Minutes-Name-Cards

Cooking Terms

I am putting together a curriculum of cooking skills for next year.  I thought this would be a fun way to learn cookbook terms for the kids.  There are 28 words and pictures in all.  I am going to laminate mine so they will last a lot longer.  You could easily play memory with them too!   

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cooking-Terms-Word-Match




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My Polka Dot Theme

I have decided (again) that I am going to go with the polka dot, lime green and possibly blue theme for my room this year.  I have spend the weekend working on these to go along with the room.  7 more days until I can get into my room and start putting things up.  Hopefully I don't change my mind between now and than!!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Black-Polka-Dot-Theme-bin-labels-clock-minutes-months

Weekly Newsletter

Next year I plan to send home an information newsletter each Monday.  I really want to have a closer relationship with the parents, and I am hoping that this will help.  I had a student last year, who's mother told me, that everyday when she would ask him what he did at school he replied "nothing"!!!  I am hoping by informing the parents on what we are working on daily/weekly, I can prevent this from happening.  Here is an example layout I think I might use.  I found this at a website earlier and as soon as I remember where I found it I can give credit due.  I had to change some of her sections because my students don't have spelling lists.

Calendar Numbers

I decided to use lime green as my main accent color in my new all white classroom.  My clock numbers I bought 2 years ago are yellow, so I made some new ones to go with the new room.  I can get into my room in 2 weeks to start decorating!!   

 I am torn between two colors to use with the lime green.  Pink or tourquoise?  I will have, I believe, 9 boys vs 3 girls in my class this year which kind of makes me want to not use the pink.  But, than every year when I pass things out, it my boys who always want the pink!

I will post before pics when I can get in the room, and progress pics as we decorate!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lime-Green-Clock-Numbers

Geoboard Templates

I have had Geoboards in my classroom for the last  couple of years, but have only let the students just play with them during their free time.   They seem most appealing to my autistic kids.  I want to add them to an activity box this year, so I can hopefully get everyone enjoying them.  Here are six templates I plan to laminate for the students to recreate.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Geoboard-templates

My Plate Cut & Paste

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/My-Plate-Cut-and-Paste

FREE at TpT!

Food Pyramid Graph

Here is a fun graphing worksheet on the food pyramid.  I have quite a few different ones, but I like variety.  Now, the food pyramid states a range, for example 2-3 fruits.  When the students finish this assignment, I will also do a small lesson on the actual range the food pyramid states.  This is FREE at TpT!

  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Food-Pyramid-Graphing

Dollar Up Method

Now, this is a concept that is new to me.  I found out last week that a colleague of mine uses this method with her class of special ed kids.  I had a OMG moment, "why hadn't I thought of this?"!.  I looked online and couldn't find much, so I made some worksheets to start the year.  Not only will this make life so much easier for my kids who STRUGGLE  with the concept of change, but hopefully it will minimize the chance of them being ripped off someday.  Now, I know this will require a lot of one dollar bills, but I am hopeful that after a while of working with the basics, we will be able to move up to dollar change. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dollar-Up-Method

Menu Math Burger King

Last school year I did a menu math packet for McDonald's.  But, for some reason last year, my students preferred Burger King.  So, this year I want to start out the first week working with this menu.  There is nothing worse than standing in line with 7 or so students who have no idea what they want to order, and when they decide, they can't afford it!

 This way we can go over the menu back at school.  They students can decide what they want to order, and what they can afford BEFORE we leave the building.  Also, most of my students have a hard time with the concept of tax.  They think if they have three dollar, they can buy three things off the dollar menu.  At least once or twice every Friday I have to pitch in for tax, but since I know before we go, I can make them work for it!  I also added a worksheet for practice.  Enjoy!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Burger-King-Menu-Math

Labor Day Activity Worksheet

Labor Day activity worksheet.  Free at TpT!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Labor-Day-Activity-Sheet

Classroom Height

I like to add some sort of worksheet about measuring into the students monthly morning folders.  Here is one that I think they will really enjoy.  We will measure each student at the beginning of class and write the results on the board for my kids to copy.  This is free over at TpT if you want a copy. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Classroom-Height-Chart

Time Assessment

Here is the worksheet I plan to use to see where my kids are with their knowledge of time.  

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Time-Assessment-Worksheet

Language Arts Assessment

Like I have said before, my students come to me with a variety of academic levels.  I usually will have one or more students who can recognize most of the alphabet, and than others who can do basic reading.  This year our plan is to assess the students, hopefully in the first week or two in the basics - time, math, money, language arts and life skills.  If everything works out, we are planning to divide the student into levels for certain classes and team teach.  This will be new for me, but I think I am going to love it.  I also think the students will get so much more out of a lesson when it can be taught more on their level.  Here is the assessment worksheet I am using this year.e

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Language-Arts-Assessment
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Weekly Lunch Menu Food Groups

******  FREE ********

We do a lot of fun activities using the food pyramid and the food groups.  I thought this would be a fun way to see how many serving the students are getting of each food group per school week.  After they write in the menu we can use tally marks to count how many of each serving we will eat that week.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Weekly-Lunch-Menu

Movie Time

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Day-at-the-Theater


Here is some fun worksheets on movie times and taking a trip to the snack bar!

Monthly Calendar Skills 2012/2013

UPDATE: 2013/2014 school year available NOW!  Here is a 11 page packet on calendar skills. There is one for each month August - May of the 2013/2014 school year. I place one of these each month in my students morning folders. On the first of each month we do a calendar for that month, adding the days of the week, dates, birthdays, holidays and any outings. We than will do one of these sheets around the middle of the month as a refresher. Here is just an example of two of them. There are more thumbnails on TpT. 

Examples:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monthly-Calendar-Skills-20122013-School-Year

Thanksgiving Warm-Up

  Going to take a break from warm ups now!  Here is the last one I will post for a little while.  I think this will give me enough to get to the end of the first semester.  Now on to other things.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-worm-up-Worksheet

Halloween Warm-Up

Here is another warm up worksheet.  Since we do a LOT of work with money, hopefully by Halloween we will have at least partially mastered counting my 5's and 10's.  I decided to throw some ABC order into the warm ups this year as well.  Enjoy!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-Warm-Up

December Warm Up

Here is another warm up sheet for December.  Though I don't teach math, spelling or letter recognition, I also don't want the students to lose the knowledge they already have.  Now, most of my students will require help in at least one or more areas of this worksheet, but they do enjoy doing them.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/December-Warm-Up

Morning Warm-Ups (School & Fall)

 I like to use practice worksheets in my students monthly morning folders at least every other week.  Here are a couple I have ready for next year. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Back-to-School-Warm-Uphttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Warm-Up