Reading Aloud

Yesterday was the end to another amazing year with my kids. I had two of my girls graduate this year, and two of my boys will be moving to other classrooms in the fall which leaves me with 4 incoming freshman in August (which I love). I have been thinking a lot about what worked this year and what I might just want to change. One of the things I would like to do is have a designated reading time. The majority of my kids are non-readers but every week when we are at the computer lab I will get a couple of them to sit with me on the couch and I will read books to them from our library. They really love listening to the stories. The books we have are very much for a small child and even though my kids love to hear them I would like to get some that have more substance but will still hold their attention. I came across these books the other day on Amazon. I am wondering if they would be engaging enough for my kids? I would love to know if anyone has read these book and frankly if the're any good. It seems there are a ton to choose from and it would be like getting a history lesson as well. Please send me your thoughts, and again thank you!

Face Masks

I bought these fun white face masks a few years ago from Oriental Trading Company. My original plan was to paint them for Halloween, but for some reason I find them hidden in the back of my cabinets every year around Thanksgiving time. When I stumbled upon them again a few weeks ago while packing up for ESY, I thought why not let the kids paint them this summer and end this vicious cycle. So, here they are! The kids had fun painting them and we even wore them to get our breakfast the next morning. You can find them here ($5.25 a dozen) if you're interested.

Where I Live

 A few weeks ago I picked my grand daughter up from school and she had this really cute activity with her. I have seen this and even have it pinned on Pinterest, but as soon as I saw it in person, I knew I wanted to do it with my kids this summer.  I pre-cut each of the pages but let the kids put them in order and we helped them with the stapling. We worked on this activity for 3 Thursdays (2 pages each day) and finally finished them this last week. For the first three pages we drew a picture of ourselves, one of our house (street) an one of the sign that brings you into our city along with what our city is known for (agriculture, oil etc).  I Googled coloring pages for state, country, continent, and planet for the kids to color in, cut and glue onto the colored paper.  They also wrote a brief explanation "I live in the state of California" etc. on each page. Even though they look totally grumpy in this picture they really did love making these!

I actually just noticed that he wrote "earth" instead of "planet" on the orange page. He's my boy that wants to finish as FAST as he can and because of that makes many mistakes!

Dollar-Up Activity Book

 Here is a fun activity book that can be put together for the kids to practice the dollar-up method. My kids actually got pretty good with this last year. Since we work on money weekly, I always throw in a few minutes of dollar-up practice at the end. The majority of my kids really struggle with coins, and this method has proven to be very helpful for them. This activity book can be put together in about an hour. It has ten activity pages where the students will Velcro the correct dollar amount showing how much they would need to pay for each purchase.

You can find this product here

Classroom Videos

I love using videos in the classroom. It's a nice break for me and I'm sure the kids like the change of getting to hear someone else talk for a while instead of me. Besides the "Mary Series" which I love, and spoke about HERE, I have had a hard time finding videos that are for one age appropriate and second affordable. I have seen 30 minutes videos for around $300.00! Where in a teachers budget is that kind of money supposed to come from? I recently found these videos on Amazon from Trevor Romain. His website doesn't appear to be working at the time but I did find them on amazon for cheaper than I paid.

His videos run anywhere from $2.00 + shipping up to $25.00. We watched both of these videos, bullies and taking care of your body during ESY. They are cartoons but trevor is not and interacts with the cartoon kids throughout the video. I did stop each of the videos a couple times during play to talk to the kids and ask them questions to make sure they were following along. Both of these videos really kept their attention and I think they were a great find especially considering the cost.

I purchased these Disney Videos a few years ago and they are really good for a 25 minute break. I mean you can't go wrong with Bill Nye the Science Guy! My kids got really into the fire one on Friday when we watched it. Fire is so fascinating and we got a lot of ooooooh's an aaaaaaah's from them. After the video we spent time also talking about the dangers of fire and how we should never play with it. He also has one on germs and your health that I hope to pick up next year. These videos can also be found on Amazon for around $10.00 each.

These are great and affordable video's from Attainment Company. I have had these for a couple years and for only $39.00 each they are a great addition to my library!   

Here are three new videos I have purchased over the last few months. We haven't had a chance to view them yet, but I am hoping they fit well into my curriculum. So, that's it for my video library. If anyone else has some good affordable videos they would like to share I would love to hear about them too!

Ice Cream in a Baggie

It's that time of year again when we get to make ice cream in a baggie!! We did it assembly line style this year, and they added each ingredient as they walked past it on the table. I did help a couple with the vanilla because they couldn't seem to hold the measuring spoon level, but other than that they did it ALL BY THEMSELVES! I didn't even have to help out with any of the shaking this year! It took a few minutes for a couple of my boys to be talked into trying it. We finally just left them alone and after minutes of funny faces and continuously smelling their bags, they gave it a try and were hooked!

*TIP - Place baggie inside a plastic cup while measuring (and eating). This will keep the ingredients from spilling and give the kids two hands to do their measuring with!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ice-Cream-Recipe-with-Visuals-680057

Making Plaster Molds

2 years ago I bought a 100 lb bag of white molding plaster from a local home improvement shop for around 20 bucks.  Since then we have made numerous items with it. Beautiful butterflies, Easter bunnies, Christmas ornaments and these cute little ice cream magnets to name a few. Even though when I make them, I always make plenty for other classes to enjoy, we have barely made a dent in the bag of plaster! I purchased a few of my molds online from plastercrafters.com but you can also find them around town at places like Michaels or Hobby Lobby (candy molds work great too). They are very economical and easy to make.  Just add water, stir, and pour into molds. They are ready to be unmolded within about 15 minutes, longer if it has narrow parts. After we paint them and let them dry we brush a coat of Mod Podge on them to give them a shiny coat. This was a Mod Podge with sparkles in it. This has been a great investment for my classroom and I see many more years of fun activities to come! 

Comb Binding A Book

I finally  have all the tools I need to bind my own books for my kids! I love making these books and coming up with fun educational activities for them to do. I know it's not rocket science but here's how it works :-) 

After printing each page in your book. Laminate and trim them to about 1/8 inch. I bought this laminator at Costco a few years ago for about 20 some bucks and it has worked like a charm for me.

 Once all your pages have been cut, its time to put the book together. I purchased this binding machine last week from webofficemart.com for 45.00.  It's not the best of quality but for what I will be using it for it's fine. You simply place each sheet inside the slot and pull the handle down to make the cuts.
 Here is how each sheet will look when cut. 

 Once each sheet has been punched it's time to put the binding on the book. These plastic bindings are 5/8" and work well for a 11 page book (card stock + laminated), tho smaller ones would work fine too. Slide the plastic piece onto the metal combs that are placed along the bottom of the machine. 

Pull down the lever on the side of the machine and the plastic bindings will open. Simply slip the open comb into the holes you punched on the pages. Pull the lever up to close the comb. Your book is now complete!

 This is a fun matching book I put together where the students have to find the ingredients from the store shelves for the recipe on each page. There are 9 recipe cards, each recipe with 4 ingredients, and 36 food grocery items that will be velcroed onto the pages. 

There are two grocery store shelf pages.  One has the food items on it and one doesn't which will allow the students to put the food back wherever they want. I prefer to use the one with the items and I use see-through velco. This way it is as much of a lesson putting the items back on the shelves as it was removing them. Here is a copy of this particular book if you're interested.  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Grocery-Store-Recipe-Match-1277964

Sewing Activity

I was looking through my boxes today and realized that I hadn't shared this one yet. I have had this box for a little over a month(can't remember whose blog I saw it on sorry, give a shout out if it was you please) and so far it's a pretty good one for my kids. I bought needles with large eyes to make it easier for them (and myself). Some have needed help with threading the needle, but I have been pleasantly surprised at some who have been able to do it for themselves. Once I get them started I tell them that they must go in and out of each hole 2 times (for the 4 hole button) and 4 x for the two hole.  After the button is sewed on, I've been sitting down and helping them tie the knot on the underside. Another one of those boxes that requires a great deal of concentration which I love! Part of my plan this summer is to have each of my kids complete each activity box one time. Inside their morning folders is a check off sheet listing each of the 39 activities. As they finish a box they are to have it initialed and dated by a staff member that it has been completed. That is only two boxes a day which is doable for most of my kids to fit in. Some boxes can easily be done in 10 minutes while others like filling the salt and pepper shakers take far longer. 

!!!!Spirit Club!!!!!

Where we were once a program spread out over 5 sites throughout our large city, this year we will all come together at one site! We will now be what I consider a "school" and I'm super excited about it! Since my school is not attached to a high school we do miss out on a lot of fun school spirit building activities like sporting events, assemblies, and fun crazy days that the kids enjoy. This coming year each teacher in my program has been asked to put together and help on a committee of some sort. Our program is growing so fast that it is more than our office staff can handle on their own anymore. Since I didn't want to be put, asked, or arm twisted on to a committee not of my choosing, I decided to start my own. So, here's to the newly formed SPIRIT CLUB COMMITTEE! I would like to get another teacher and hopefully a few aides involved as well. My plan so far is for us, along with any students who want to join our club, to meet every two weeks to talk about and plan the following activities.

• Dances, Speakers and Events
• Last Friday of the month student award assemblies
• Spirit Days (crazy hat, sports day, pajama day etc...)
• Fundraisers 
• Canned Food Drive
• School T-Shirt Days

I have been searching the internet for ideas and boy are there some great ones out there! Are there any really fun things your school does that you could share? I would LOVE and appreciate anything you have!!

My ESY Schedule!

Well the school year is over and we have slid right into ESY! Here is the schedule I have set up for my kids. The boxes in yellow indicate times that two of my colleagues and I will be having all (28) kids together for activities. We have so much fun stuff going on I can hardly stand it!  Today we did a fun cut and paste food activity, worked on how to send letters through the mail (we mailed the worksheets home for fun) and did a News2You activity with the other classes! I Hope everyone else who's lucky enough to get to work summer school is having a great time too!

 
 

Danger Signs Wheel

ESY starts tomorrow at my school.  Even though I teach the same subjects during ESY that I do during the regular school year, I try to make it a little more fun for the kids (and myself, who am I kidding). Here is a fun danger sign activity we are going to start the day off with tomorrow.  Since the majority of my kids are non-readers it's important to familiarize them with signs they may see that tell them there is a risk of danger. For better quality I suggest you print the pages onto card stock.  After cutting out the three circles, students can color the cover page and put the wheel together using a metal brad. If you interested in a copy, you can find it over in my TPT store!  
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Safety-Signs-Wheel-1262269

Goals At A Glance

I would love to put a bulletin board up in my classroom next year that looks similar to the one here. Not just to remind myself, but also to help my aides, subs and fill-ins know what each students is working towards. Last year I wrote their goals, in few terms like here, on each of their notebooks where they write their morning message.  It was there to remind the aide at their table what we need to be working on.  I saw kids getting their books, writing in them, and putting them back without the goals ever being looked at all year.  I am hoping with this chart on the wall it will help to remind us where we need to continue giving support on a daily basis.  Has anyone else tried something like this?  Maybe I am hoping it will make my support staff more accountable in what they do for and with the kids. If it's on the wall where it can be seen everyday will it help remind them that Daniel needs to grab his own lunch? Will they remember that Thomas needs to practice saying "I want to use the bathroom" instead of "bathroom"? When Carly finishes her work early will they look up and see she needs to practice her Dollar Up Strategy and practice that with her? Am I grasping at straws? Am I being realistic? I don't know.  I had a lot of frustration this past year with this, and I am trying to find a solution that may work for us.  I would love your input.

P.S. I did get permission to do this from my boss, as I wanted to make sure I wasn't crossing any boundaries regarding confidentiality. 

Note* all students used in this scenario are fictitious.

Thank you,

Monthly Calendar Skills *updated*

I have updated my Monthly Calendar Skills worksheets on TPT for the 2014/2015 school year. I left June on in case anyone still needs to download it. If you have already purchased them, head over and download your copies for next year!  I hope everyone has had an enjoyable/relaxing Memorial Day!

Teaching Disability Awareness

Last week I spend three days at a special education conference in San Francisco and came away with so many ideas for new worksheets and techniques to try with my kids.  One of the speakers talked about teaching the kids about disability awareness.  So, this weekend I put together a worksheet I thought would be good to do with my kids. When I showed it to a fellow co-worker today (who's opinion I trust) she stated that she would never do this worksheet with her kids, and that if she did she thinks some of her parents would be upset. So, my question is.... Would you do this worksheet with your kids? Shouldn't the kids know about their disabilities? I am totally confused now and am even questioning if I should do it.  I would love your opinions.  Let me know if you want it too and I can send it over.  empoweredbythem@aol.com

Activity Boxes, Does It Ever End?

 I think I might possibly be addicted to creating activity boxes.  I am currently up to 36, I know I need to stop but each skill is so important! Here is some pictures of some new ones I have added.  This is another money element.  There are 24 laminated cards each with a dollar denomination up to $1.00.  The kids just need to set the right amount of money on the card matching the amount owed.

Here is a duplicate of the PAES box I used to have access to at my old site.  The kids first have to sort the utensils than take one of each and fold and roll them into the napkins. I was able to find the napkins from a restaurant supply company.

Here is a wrapping present activity.  I have been sitting with the kids while they do this activity as it seems very difficult for them.  I am hoping with time they get better and may be able to do it independently. If anyone has any tips, I would love them!

I found these cute shape links on ebay and bought three sets for about $9 which included shipping.  It took almost a month to get them as I didn't realize I was ordering from Taiwan! I glued one shape in the bottom of each cup.  They can either sort by color or shape.



Here is an activity I purchased from Autism Educators on TPT.  Basically, the students have to match the dvd to the correct dvd case. First you will need to print, laminate, and cut out all the pieces. Then bind your book (not necessary) and add Velcro dots to the pages so they can stick the cd's and the covers to the page.  There are 18 matching pages in total.  I have only had two kids from other classes work on it and they did a great job!  I am absolutely loving this activity!! You can find her activity here - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-for-Special-Education-DVD-Work-Task-Sort-Autism-1014051 

What Do You Mean We Can't Cook Anymore?

We got some bad news yesterday at work.  Because of food service guidelines we are no longer allowed to serve food to the kids that has not been prepared by our food service providers. This means no more potlucks, no more BBQ's, no more birthday cupcakes, and no more cooking in class (this one makes me the most sad). This will also include the restaurant food my students deliver every other Friday to help earn money for our program.  They have also closed down our student cafe, which sold healthy prepackaged snacks.  OH, and did I mention the popcorn and snow cone machines the students JUST purchased so they could sell these items in the quad on Fridays? Those are out too!

IMO teaching the kids to cook is a MAJOR part of teaching them how to be independent. I only have them for four years! My job is to make them as independent as I possibly can before they leave at age 22 to enter the adult day program where they will most likely spend the rest of their lives. Friday my aide was supposed to be teaching her annual homemade tortilla class with the kids.  Next Tuesday we were having a weenie roast at the park and the week after that we were going to make sandwiches and pack sack lunches to take to the zoo with us. It really makes me sick to think of all these great learning opportunities that ALL the kids in our program will be missing out on!

       COOKING IS AN INDEPENDENT LIVING SKILL!!!

I would love to know how your school handles this kind of thing.  Maybe this is a common practice and we were just behind the times. Please let me know how your school handles non food service food items. How do you teach the kids food prep without using food?  

Thanks for the vent :-(

Live Butterfly Garden

A few weeks ago we took a field trip with the kids to the Insect Lore Bug Museum in Shafter, Ca.  It's a great outing and the kids always have a good time.  It's one large room but has all kinds of bugs that the kids can see!  The tour guide even takes many of them out of the cages for the students to "pet" and look at more closely. This year I decided to buy a butterfly garden so the kids could see the butterfly life cycle.  For about 30 bucks we got this cool meshed container and 10 little tiny baby caterpillars. My kids really haven't seemed to have much interest in them during their caterpillar or chrysalis stage but yesterday they started hatching!  

Omg is was sooooo exciting.  I will admit, me and my aides were much more excited than the kids (still) and I could have sat and watched them all day.  I swear I had a proud mommy moment every time one of them broke out of their shell.  So, now we have 10 amazing Painted Lady butterflies who are raring to get out and explore the world!  Tomorrow we are going to take a short walk and let our little friends go.  I read their life cycle is only 2 weeks, so I want them to have as much time as possible exploring the world.  Here is the link to the bug museum.  They actually ship the tiny little caterpillars all over the country.
https://www.insectlore.com/

Student Portfolios - Transition Special Education

I have been thinking about putting together portfolios for all my kids since I transferred to this job 5 years ago.  Every now and then I will mess with it and add a page or two, but have never been in a big hurry to get it done.  Starting next school year, my boss wants every student in our program to have a portfolio. We have many reasons for wanting the portfolios.  One is so we can bring it to the students IEP so the parents can see what the students have been working on.  It will also follow them through our program if they were to get a new teacher. When they complete our program at the end of 4 years, the portfolio will go home with the students to use as a resource and hopefully shown to their new adult day placement. It's taken me a couple weeks but I think we are finally complete!  Here's what it will include:  

Page 1 - Cover Sheet (you can see it there above)
Page 2 - Personal info sheet (this includes all student and parent info. Is the student conserved? Medical info and diagnosis.
Page 3 & 4 - Parent/Guardian assessment (what does the student do at home? with friends? with the family?  What areas do you want them working on?  What does their future look like to you?
Page 7 - Current IEP cover (I will show them all below)

Page 8 will show what each of the students goals are, what we will be doing at school regarding the goal and what the parents will be working on at home.  It will also be used to mark off whether the goal is met each quarter.  Page 9 will list what the parents transition goals are for their child each of the four years they are with us.  Each year the new goals will be listed.  Employment goal, educational goal, and independent living goal.  This page will stay in all four years. All these questions are also on our new IEP's.
Page 10 - Student Transcripts
Page 11 - Community Awareness.  This sheet has a list of all of the community based outings students need to attend (pharmacy, DMV, airport, Laundromat etc).  There is also a box to write the date that the students attended.
Page 12 - Resources.  We will add to this over the years.
Page 13 - Here I have added a 39 cent plastic 3 ring business card holder.  I had these in my portfolios years ago and the kids loved adding cards to them.  They need to include and resources the student may need (regional center, Dr., Dentist, independent living center, pharmacy the use etc).
Page 14 - Certificates of Achievement (perfect attendance, Student of the month, most improved, citizenship etc).
Page 15 - Job Training Log.  This will keep track of the job sites and dates that the student worked there.

Page 16 is where the students will write their own evaluation of a job site they have completed.  We change job sites every quarter so their will be multiple of these pages inside their portfolios.  This page has room for a picture of the student working, their job duties, what they liked and didn't like about the job.

Page 17 is a job site evaluation form.  This will be completed most likely by the aide who accompanied the student each day to their job site.  It will only take a couple minutes to complete this form each quarter.  
Page 18 & 19 is a sample job application the students can fill out to use as a reference if they were to need to fill out a real one for a job.
Page 20 - Resume insert
Page 21 - Letters of recommendation insert
Page 22 - A worksheet to write down any references they may have.  Name, address, phone number and relationship.
Page 23 - Yearly assessments insert

After the insert is the area where you can put any assessments you have done with the kids.  I add my "I can" pages - not included (you can find those on my blog). ***** NEWLY ADDED are the 4 assessments I do with all my kids (language arts, math, personal info and time/calendar).  The portfolio also included two vocational interest assessments you can see on your left, and one page where the students can choose the type of environment they want to work in.

Pages 24 - 27 are insert pages to sort the classwork you want to keep in the portfolio to show during an IEP (social,vocational, independent living and functional academics.  Here is a picture of all the inserts that are included. We will be including in ours 3 clear plastic 3 ring insert pages that hold pictures.  We figure the students are more apt to hold onto the portfolio after graduation if it contains pictures of them.  I am selling this in PowerPoint so that you can make any changes you need. I think it would be great for high schools too, it may just need a little adapting. You can also add your school logo to all of the insert pages.  To see a preview of each page, check it out on TPT.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Student-Portfolio-Special-Education-1173108