Fall Finger Painting

We did a little painting this week to celebrate the coming of fall (even tho it's still in the mid 90's).  My aide, who is quite creative, drew the trees.  Everyone was fine with putting their fingers in the paint (I had qtips on hand just in case)!   The kids had a great time!  

Fall Cryptogram

My students never get sick of doing cryptograms.  I usually add one each month to their morning folders.  Here is the one that is going in Octobers folder.  It is a paragraph from a poem called "A Fall Song"  by Ellen Rubena Field.  The answer to the cryptogram is

"Good by sweet flowers through bright summer hours you have filled our hearts with cheer  We shall miss you so and yet you must go, for this is the fall of the year."

"http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Cryptogram

Columbus Day Activity Sheet

I have been working hard trying to get my October morning folders ready.  I love months where I can incorporate holidays in the activities, so this month is great!  Here is a worksheet to help celebrate Columbus Day on October 8th.  The answer to the cryptogram is "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue".  All the math answers are 1492.  This will be our morning activity in our morning folders on that day.  I will post some of my other activities within the week.  

Have a great weekend!


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

Birthday's

I was out of wall space to add a birthday chart, so we came up with this cute idea to take pictures of the kids holding a sign with their birth date on it.  We cut them out and added them to the top of the appropriate month on our timeline!!  They look really cute!

Personal Boundaries

Personal boundaries are a big deal when it comes to our group of students.  It is something we work on daily throughout the year.  In our program we are big on fist bumps and discourage hugging among the kids at all times.   

I have seen other boundary circle charts that have more groups listed, but as to not confuse my kids to much, I narrowed it down to just 4.  Here is a couple worksheets you can use with the circle chart.  I hope you can use them in your classroom.
Have a great week!

Karen

“If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Personal-Boundaries

Classroom Bingo

Love love love these bingo games from PCI Education!!  I was borrowing a co-workers games last year, but since I moved to a new school I had to get my own set.  I had planned to buy two of the four available (bathroom, kitchen, fruits and veggies and prepared foods) but I just couldn't decide!  I ended up ordering the box set and can't wait for them to arrive.  My students love playing bingo and these are fun AND educational.  Sometimes we play by just showing them the picture, describing it and letting them find it on their bingo cards. It is also fun to give clues and let the students guess what the next card will be.  This is a fruit.... It's big..... You can make a pie with it..... People carve them on Halloween etc.....  I attached the link below so you can check them out!

Enjoy,  Karen

http://www.pcieducation.com/store/item.aspx?ItemId=41559

Superstore Shopping

We are very fortunate at my work to have the opportunity to go into the community on a weekly basis.  I have posted a few worksheets (Grocery Store Hunt, Pharmacy Hunt) in the past.  This week we were taking a trip to our local Target, so I came up with this worksheet that the students could use while we were there.  They had just enough time (1 hour) to find all 14 items on their list.  We went over all their finds when we returned to class.  I think the kids really enjoy having an actual activity to do when we go out, than to just walk around the stores.  I hope you can use this activity with your students.  If you email me your email address, I will send you one for FREE!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Superstore-Shopping-Activity

Oriental Trading Co.

I LOVE Oriental Trading Company!!  Every year I use some of my teacher budget  to buy classroom activities for my students.  Here is what I am ordering this year.   I plan to have a "camp out" in the classroom later in the year (hence the campfire). There was a cute, make your own camp scene sticker activity I ordered and I think we will serve smores!!  I still have a sticker activity I didn't get a chance to use last year on voting, and a cycle wheel activity on recycling I still plan to use this year.

Monday Night Football Chart

 Monday Night Football Chart.   I put this together yesterday for my class, it's not the best of quality but it will work.  Oh, and its FREE!!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monday-Night-Football-Contest

Food Group Challenge

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Food-Group-Worksheet

This was our morning activity yesterday in our yellow folders.  We had talked about food groups a couple days before and did a sticker activity I bought from Oriental Trading Co.
http://www.orientaltrading.com/fabulous-food-groups-make-a-sticker-scenes-a2-9_1122-12-1.fltr?Ntt=food+groups

They did exceptionally well remembering what we had learned!

Seat Belt Safety

I have been having a few problems this year with students not wanting to wear their seat belts while on the bus.  Sooooo, I made this up over the weekend and plan to use it tomorrow in class.  I'll let you know how it goes!


Karen




http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Seat-Belt-Safety

Curriculum

Personal Hygiene?  what's that got to do with me?  

From Amazon ------>  This book is a curriculum developed book for students with autism, Asperger's Syndrome, learning and developmental disabilities, designed to help them understand how others perceive their appearance and the social implications of neglecting personal hygiene.

We use this book every Monday afternoon.  I love this book!  I have used it for years.  It is funny, on their level and each chapter comes with printable activities!


Dude, That's Rude!  (Get Some Manners)

From Amazon ------->  Kids today need manners more than ever, and Dude, That’s Rude! makes it fun and easy to get some. Full-color cartoons and kid-friendly text teach the basics of polite behavior in all kinds of situations—at home, at school, in the bathroom, on the phone, at the mall, and more. Kids learn Power Words to use and P.U. Words to avoid, why their family deserves their best manners, and the essentials of e-tiquette (politeness online). It seems like light reading, but it’s serious stuff: Manners are major social skills, and this book gives kids a great start.  

This is the book we use on Wednesday afternoons.  Again, another very funny book with great pictures.  I do not use all chapters, as some do not apply to my kids.  Overall a wonderful book for my level of students.  

We will use these books during the first quarter of the school year.  Please share if you have any great books you have used in your classroom!

Thanks, 

Karen

Bird Seed Feeders

 Yesterday we made these cute bird seed feeders in class.  The students did a great job with all the measuring, stirring and packing them into the molds!  We let them dry overnight and today we threaded twine through the holes we made. They were so proud of them!!  

Ingredients:

4 cups bird seed
1/2 cup water
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup flour
3 T corn syrup

Here is the link:  http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/birdseed-wedding-favor-hearts-easy-and-inexpensive-diy/

New Classroom

 I am still not completely done working on my new room, but I thought I would add some pictures of what we have going on so far.  I have the worlds worst camera so you will have to bear with my blurry pictures. This pictures is showing my desk and kitchen area.

This room has sooooo much pinterest in it!!  I love all the ideas I got from other great room!

 The tree on the wall will be more permanent soon.  My friend is going to make me one a little wider and probably a bit more whimsical in vinyl (my aide threw this one up with construction paper so we could give her an idea).  I have hung framed pics of each of my kids in the tree, and we plan to decorate it for each holiday!

 Here is a view of the front of the room and my library area.  I still need another book shelf of two but I am waiting for budget money to get in.  Oh, and my same aide tacked those curtains up for me too!

Here is my front door.  I have added a news bulletin board and a timeline that I CAN'T wait to start filling in!!  When I can find a better camera to borrow I will post more close up pics of certain areas.  This has really been a lot of fun working on, but I am glad it's almost done!!

If you scroll down you can see what the room looked like just 1 month ago!

More Bin Labels

I am in a bin label mode for some reason.  I promise to be done soon.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Yellow-Polka-Dot-Labels

Hamburger Helper visual Recipe

I love using these visual recipes with my students.  My students are totally capable of preparing something like this with a little bit of help.  I really want to do a lot more cooking in my classroom this year.   They all LOVE to cook!  I am always surprised and saddened on how many of my students don't get the opportunity at home to cook.  Here is a basic recipe for hamburger helper.   This will not work for all varieties  and I did not put amounts of each ingredient, as each box was a little different.  Do you cook with your students?  What kinds of thigs are fun and easy to cook in the classroom?  I will give away this recipe card to the first 5 people who comment below.  Be sure to leave your email address!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Hamburger-Helper-Recipe-with-Visuals

Bin Labels 2

 I was getting my classroom organized last week and decided I was in need of additional bin labels.  So, here is another label sheet to add to  the two I posted a couple of months ago.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bin-Labels-for-the-Classroom

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




Example ------------------------->

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.