Magnets Make the Day Perfect!

Being a special education teacher with 12 boys from kindergarten to second grade, gathering materials and making them can be a crazy task.  I have tried to find things that are for various abilities.  All of my students struggle with letters, sound and sight words!  So all day every period with every activity we are on a word hunt.  I have even begun to put words on my back as we walk the halls.

Recently I got a new student who refuses to work and also has a lot of behavior problems.  The second day of him being in the classroom, he become obsessed with magnets.  He was fascinated with them all the, shapes, colors, sizes. Every time he realized that the magnet would stick he yelled, "Perfect"   I thought and decided I was going to use this to my advantage.  I created these picture perfect c-v-c word board.  The students have to match the beginning and ending sound.  They can even try and sound out the whole word. I used sheet protectors and a expo marker for easy write on wipe off!

 

 

 

So when my 2nd graders saw him they wanted something too!  I am a fair teacher and I love my class of boys.  So they got this rhyming activity.  They get puzzles and matching.  I let them use magnets as a treat after they are done.

This resource has puzzles, memory cards and matching boards that can be self checked.  I also created blackline printables for them to do for homework or classwork. 

 

Lucky Day and Waiting for Spring!

I am sending luck your way today!  My entire TpT store is on sale.  St. Patrick's Day resources, Spring Literacy resources, Phonics Fun, and some Critical Thinking too. 

 

 

 

I have mentioned that I work in two different schools.  One of the schools uses Webb's DOK and the other school uses Bloom's Taxonomy.  I had created a DOK classroom set for one of the teachers and the school is considering making them a school wide resource for the next school year. 

 

 

 

I told a colleague at the other school that I wold make her visuals for her students using Bloom's Taxonomy.  So, I thought I would share them with you all and today they are on sale!    So whether your school prefers one over the other, I now offer both. 

 

The resource comes with classroom posters, mini individual posters for student reference, and 2 different bookmark versions.  I put the mini charts on a ring for the students I worked with.  They are easy to use and fun to have too.

 

ARE YOU READY FOR SPRING!?  I am  here is what my boys will be doing this week. (Hoping it doesn't snow!)

It's really challenging to explain to special education students why it's snowing when we are talking about spring and baby chicks.  Either way this Wednesday we WILL BE celebrating the first day of spring.   We will have chocolate bunnies, peeps and lots of jelly beans too.  Not to mention I am couting down the minutes until SPRING BREAK! :)

 

I am off to celebrate with my Mom and Grandma, their Irish heritage and drink green beer all while enjoying some corn beef and cabbage.  The Mr. will be home cleaning out the boiler room and eating homemade chili!. Sounds fair.  :)

 

What are your plans?  Are you on spring break?  You going away?

 

 

 

March Comes In Like a Herd of Lions!

Please tell me that today you felt as if your kiddos drained every ounce of life right out of you! I sure did.  Today I was not in my original program I covered for a teacher that was out of the building.  The sub never showed up, so I was two teachers today.  A class full of kindergartners (21 if them) and then my 12 special ed boys.  One of my 2nd grade students said today,  "Wow!  We have 32 students in here today!"  Although I was excited and thrilled that her figures that out.  I did not need a reminder of how many bodies and chairs were all around the room.  Oh man was it crazy. Needless to say kiddoes were out of their IEP compliance AND I was down one classroom para. Advil and Pepsi kept me going.  

 

Today was the first day of our Lion and Lamb calendar graphing and tallying so it worked out nice to have the kinders with us.  (The rest of the day was c-r-a-z-y!) 

 

 

Here is the Lion and Lamb little freebie.  Download it, shared it, pin it (I really wish I could figure out that whole, pin it button next to the picture thing) or  save it.  I will be making the calendar editable once I figure out all the steps on how to do it without font and graphics license issues.

Click the picture for a graphing activity and a shared reading too!

 

 

 

What happens when strawberries are on sale and you have left over Valentine's Day chocolate????

 

THIS IS WHAT YOU GET!!! Yummo. 

 

Now, I am going to enjoy these yummy treats and watch a whole lot of shows that I have DVR'd since mmmmmm the beginning of February.

 

Happy March, don't forget to hop over to freebielicious and check out other great freebies!!