Triple Blends Game

I have been a busy girl. I took three days off from school (what was I thinking?) to fly to Disneyland for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. I'm pretty sure I would love to move to Cali. Whose with me?

The sunshine alone was worth the trip, but it's soooo muuuuch woooork to take off. I feel so behind now. And upon my return I received a new student. Let me just say,  nothing changes your classroom like an overstimulated screaming five year old with autism! He really is a sweet boy, and I know things will settle down when he acclimates to his. Somehow this week I managed to create a game for one of my first grade reading groups. We are learning to read words with triple consonant blends, and this group is finding it very tricky.  I uploaded it to google Docs to share with you. Hope you guys enjoy.

Have a great weekend!

Heather

Fact Family Cookies Freebie

Unfortunately this was totally me this week. My kiddos were cuh-ray-zee. Were your students as off the wall as mine? What I need is an Adderall air freshener way make my kids engage and focus for the next two weeks, so I am pulling out all of the stops.

 This week we will be doing Grinch themed activities and next week will be our Polar Express unit. Most of my activities will be hands on centers, and I am trying to pick leveled books that will catch their interest for literacy. We are even working toward having a gingerbread man party. I draw a gingerbread man body on the board. I made a list of everything that the gingerbread man needs. Every time we do an exceptional job of following procedures I will add another piece of the gingerbread man. When he gets filled out all the way we will have a gingerbread man making party.

Last year I found these at Kmart. They were $10, but I got them on sale for $7. Two boxes was enough for my class (remember I am resource), and it had everything we needed. This year I have not been able to find them. I am going to look at two others nearby Kmarts. Wish me luck. You may be asking yourself why I'm going to all of this trouble. Why not just bake some gingerbread men? Well kids, I am challenged in the kitchen. When I say challenged I mean that kids say things like, "Oh no! Mom cooked dinner tonight!" or "Dad's out of town. Are we having Subway or Mexican?" I could share some of my kitchen foibles with you guys, but I would like to keep my self esteem intact today. Moving on.

Last week I made this Christmas cookie fact family activity for my kiddos. I haven't used it, but I think it will go off like the Walmart alarm the week before Christmas. Click below to get yours.

So what do you do to keep your kids on track in the weeks before Christmas? Help a girl out.  I would really like to know!

Heather

Back to the Drawing Board (and a Gingerbread freebie)

Oooooh, math. Why do you hate me so?

 Things in my first grade math group were moving along just fine (or so I thought.) We completed our addition and subtraction  units in our math curriculum. The students in my small group of learning and cognitively disabled students passed both unit tests and could add, subtract, and solve simple word problems utilizing Touchpoints. We were not at mastery,  but we were making getting there. We were ready to move into related facts and fact families, and THAT'S when everything fell apart.

While working with my students last week I asked them, "What does it mean to add?". "Minus," one girl shouted. "Equals," another boy proudly stated. The third little girl stared blankly at me and offered no reply. Houston, we have a problem.

What I was doing clearly was not working. The textbook curriculum had failed them. I knew that I was going to have to rogue on this one. So I dedicated the next three weeks of math instruction to remedy their confusion.

Last Friday I made addition and subtraction anchor charts with them. I may take pictures and upload them next week for you guys if time allows. Tomorrow we start part-part-whole instruction. I made up an addition song up to help support their learning.

 (to the tune of When We All Get Together)
When you add
put groups together, together, together
when you add put groups together
This is how you add

I also have one for subtraction that I made up last year.

(to the tune of the Muffin Man)
When I see the minus sign
the minus sign, the minus sign,
When I see the minus sign,
I know I take away

I spent a good part of yesterday gathering resources to support this, but I wanted a few more activities. This morning I made a gingerbread domino par- part-whole activity. (This upcoming week is also gingerbread week in my room.) I have uploaded it to Google docs. Just click on the image below to grab your copy.

Wish me luck. I think I'm going to need it.

Heather

I Love My Red Shoes

My students have been VERY into Pete the Cat lately. I have to say, I love him as well. In fact, I just ordered a Pete from Amazon for my classroom. There are SO MANY great resources available to go with the Pete, but I couldn't find exactly the center that I was looking for. Said center was a 1-20 ten frame Pete the Cat clip activity. So while vegging on the couch nursing a Black Friday hangover (whose with me?) and watching  endless episodes of The Cosby Show,  I whipped this bad boy up.

Enjoy what remains of this holiday weekend.

Heather

Fall Leaves Word Sort

As I headed out with Hubs for an 11 mile training run this morning (in preparation for the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon on November 3) something really strange happened: I.could.not.run. I mean, at all. There was no gas in the tank. I wanted to lay down in a big colorful pile of leaves and take a nap. Sooooo, my 11 mile run turned into a 5 mile walk. I started to beat myself up about it, but then decided to enjoy the beautiful scenery and some alone time to hubby instead.




This morning's pitiful display change in plans gave me a chance to update my blog and share a fall leaves short e word sort center that I made last week. It includes a recording sheet.  Happy fall!

Writing Process

Because I teach primary special education I have always shied away from formally teaching the writing process fearing that it would be too difficult for my students to understand. This year I decided to give it a shot and created these posters (written in kid language) to assist my kiddos. I have been pleasantly surprised that several of them have quickly grasped the concept, so I decided to share them with you. Enjoy!

Race Report and a Freebie

My blogging break is officially over! Much of my recent time has been devoted to preparing for my first mini-marathon that I ran in February. Talk about tough! I have never been a runner (even in my super-active high school days) so I was extremely proud of this accomplishment. I started with the Couch to 5k, and I ran my first 5k in September. My sweet hubby wanted me to continue running and bribed me with a February trip to Disney World to run the Princess Half Marathon. Apparently, I can be easily bought!  The race was February 26th. It started at Epcot and went through the Magic Kingdom and back to Epcot. The most I ran before the mini was 10 miles, so let's just say it was a challenge for me. But I am so glad I did it.

Here I am picking up my race packet at Disney's Wide World of Sports.

Here I am at mile 6. They had characters set up along the race route. I stopped for one picture along the race route with Princess Tiana because she is my favorite princess. 

Now that my race is over I still plan on running, but I will have more time to devote to other pleasures (like blogging!) This week a made a sweet little freebie for you guys. It is a cookies and milk theme noun, verb and adjective sort complete with two recording sheets for differentiation. I think you are gonna like it! Please note, when you go to Google Docs is does something funny to the clip art. Click Download Original to resolve the issue.

Okay, guys. I hope you have a great weekend. Gotta run!

Heather