Let's Talk About Weather

Everyday, as part of our morning group, we discuss the weather.  Weather is such an important topic and is very meaningful to my students. My students absolutely adore going to the playground every day for recess.  Even one of my pretty much nonverbal students (he says about 10 words) asks me probably 15 times a day "Swing?"
Many of them become really confused and sometimes upset on days when we can't go to the playground due to weather (i.e. too cold, rain, snow, etc.).  The most confusing thing is when it is hot in our classroom, sunny outside, but below zero outside.  We have had several students who ask us to change the weather.  One kids would say "Come on please.  Make it sunny." Haha.  So, we use this visual every day!

Liebster Award

Thanks to First Grade Carousel and Resource Room Rules for nominating me for a Liebster Award.  This award is given by other bloggers to new bloggers with less than 200 followers.  It is meant to help spread the word about new blogs ☺.  I started my blog in August and have been really enjoying posting about my classroom.  I especially love seeing other people's great ideas (and using them in my classroom!) and hearing back from readers who have benefitted from my posts/resources.  

This is kind of chain-letterish...but also kind of fun to learn more about other bloggers!

The rules are:
1.  Post 11 random things about yourself.
2.  Answer the questions the nominator set for you.
3.  Create 11 questions for your nominees.
4.  Choose 11 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers to nominate and link them to your post.
5.  Leave a comment on this post if you were nominated so I can learn more about you and see who you nominate.

Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

I don't know about you, but for my students talking about the past is very difficult!  The day after Halloween, I had some students who still had a few Halloween worksheets to finish and they refused (even though the worksheets had been a huge hit the entire week before!).  One kid said, "No.  It is November.  Time for Thanksgiving."  It was actually pretty funny.  But being able to understand and talk about the past is an important skill, so this month I decided I would make them do a Thanksgiving activity....AFTER Thanksgiving.  The activity involved students interviewing other students about their Thanksgiving celebration and then writing about their friend's Thanksgiving.  This was also very difficult for my students...after they asked the other student a question, they would try and answer it about themselves instead of listening to their friend and recording their answer.  But surprisingly, even though my students faced some challenges with this activity, it went extremely well.  Here is what the interview sheets looked like.

CYBER MONDAY SALE

Most of us are heading back to work today after a (hopefully) relaxing long weekend.  I didn't get to do any Black Friday shopping this year, since I was cruising on a ship.  But, I have told myself for the last couple weeks I was going to make up for it on Cyber Monday.  I have actually never participated in Cyber Monday before....hoping I find some good deals!  Any recommendations?? Anyway...to join in the holiday spirit...Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Cyber Monday Sale as well.

So, I am putting my entire store on sale for 20% off and then TPT will take an additional 10% off that (for a total of 28% off every item in my store).  Not too shabby when all the items are already priced below $6 :-).  This sale will last all day today (Monday) through Tuesday night.

The TPT promo code is CMT12

Great Game for Initial Letter Sounds!

The past two days, I showed you spelling activities for students working on short vowels (although they can be adapted to any level).  The game I am going to show you today is for beginning spellers/readers.  The game is called Alphabet Mystery Box and sells for $35 from Lakeshore (♥).  This game is great for students working on learning their letters and/or their initial word sounds!

Short Vowel Spelling Game

Over the last couple days, I have been on a real spelling kick.  Today, I will continue on that kick as I show you a spelling game my students like to play.  Part of the idea behind Words Their Way and the Bear Spelling Assessment is that people make sense of the world by sorting things into categories.  So, why not do that for spelling as well.  This actually makes a lot of sense for people with autism as well since they tend to be very rule governed and visual learners.  To make categories when working on short vowels, we do word sorts.  I don't have any pictures of my kids doing word sorts on my home computer, but this is kind of what they would look like.  For instance, for sorting "a" and "i" short vowels, one row of words could be (bat, sat, nap, tan) and the other row would be (bit, sip, win, rib).

Short Vowel Spelling Activity

So yesterday, I gave a detailed explanation of the Bear Spelling Assessment.  Once I figure out which area of spelling my students need to work on, I create spelling lists, have students complete word sorts, and create fun hands-on activities/games for them to play.

Currently,  I have a few students working at each level (initial/final sounds,  blends/digraphs, long vowel patterns, and short vowel patterns).  Having students at each level is always a challenge, but a variety of my activities can be adapted to fit all learning levels.