Five for Friday! February 20, 2015

My sweet wonderful amazing....Grandchildren are visiting today, so I am keeping this short! Here are my FIVE things for this week.

 

 

Since attending the Alaska Special Education Conference last week, I am giving more thought to playing games that provide more repetition and practice in our target skills. Here are some things we did this week without neglecting our regular direct instruction programs. Oh! by the way, we had a short week of school with the kids because the first two days were Parent conferences.

This page was added to our math flipchart (Promethean Board), it  gives the kids a visual of what is next, but also reminds ME not to forget!

I won't deny it is tricky to insert time for it, our math lesson takes up most of our allotted time, yesterday we didn't have time for it at math, but did later in the day!

 

 

This is slow going at first, but once they figured it out-- it started going faster! They were so excited about playing! It not only practices subtraction and addition facts, but also they had to remember their answer while the whole table played, and know who had the biggest numeral! It kept them focused as everyone played their card.

 

Also, a side note: When I got the cards out and shuffled the cards, their eyes got big and they said "wow! how do you know how to do that?!" I told them when I was a little kid (you were a little kid Mrs. H???)we didn't have computers, video games and not much to watch on TV. We played cards quite a bit.

Here are a couple of "games" to play for letter recognition and sounds. The Twist and Turn Word Builders also gave me a way to incorporate writing and blending words! The kids that played these said "I love games! Can we do this again?"

Of course!

oh yeah! These are both found at Lakeshore!

 

 

 

This project is our Occupational Therapist's project!

She comes in each Friday and does it with our group.

First

she brought in Bionicles, she asked them to sort the pieces by color and follow the picture directions to build their particular Bionicle

(each one of them are protectors of different kinds of places-fire, ice, earth, water)

 

Second

She had them make a diorama to act out a story with.

 

Third

Next week they will pose the Bionicles in their diorama and take pictures.

 

Last

they will write sentences with their pictures and present them to the group.

 

The kids are SUPER EXCITED to do it!

 

 

 

 

Here's a portion of the stage setting before the show began, once they begin we turn off our phones, sit back and relax.

 

Friday night was our GIRLS NIGHT OUT and we went to the Valley Performing Arts performance of

"Unnecessary Farce".

 

I haven't laughed so hard or so long in forever! This was "tears running down your face" hilarious!

A reminder to all of you who think living in a big city is the only way to be able to watch talented people show their skills---

NOT TRUE

VPA has shown how talented, creative people go about ordinary jobs and then put on a show that shows their extraordinary talents!

 

 

 

 

Friday Morning Sunrise!

 

 

Good Morning Alaska!

 

Our daylight minutes are increasing and we are so ready!

 

Later,

 

Paula

Five for Friday...Happy Valentines Day 2015

This has been an eventful week, lots to talk about! Today I'm going to give the short version, but I want to share more in depth later.

Check out the Linky Party at Doodle Bugs Teaching, it is a great teacher resource.

First of all, I went to the Alaska Special Ed. Conference!!! It was so, so, so.....awesome! (sorry I cannot come up with the right words) There was so much information that MEANT something to me (and many others I'm sure) that I am still sorting it all out. I plan on sharing more later, but there is sorting to do, I took lots of notes!

This is the cloth bag they gave us so we could keep the wonderful stuff together!

We stayed at the beautiful Hilton Hotel in Anchorage....

We were walking distance to all kinds of interesting places in Anchorage.

This place was almost hidden, just a little place, and very good!

The snow is almost gone, so sad. I am sorry for all of you on the east coast who are getting hit so hard and also...a little jealous!

We returned to our classrooms just in time for....Valentine's Day. One of my student's has this wonderful Aunt, she brought these houses for the kids to decorate. We were going to make gingerbread houses before Christmas, but that didn't happen, instead the kids decorated Valentine houses. Ha! I couldn't find any candy hearts in a store between my house and our school, that is why you won't actually see any hearts on our Valentine Houses. The funny thing is...not one kid asked about that!

The behind the scenes crew! We had lots of adults come and help us...the occupational therapist, teacher assistants or paraprofessionals as they are now titled.

The houses were ordered from The Candy Cottage.

I'm pretty sure she purchased us the party pack which I noticed is out of stock at the moment.

Our plan: Next week we are taking pictures of each student with their house and have them begin to work on a story about it. I'm reading them some books that center around houses:

Valentine's Day.

my husband is awesome!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Paula

Five for Friday!

I have been gone too long! I didn't know just how long until this minute. This is the best way to get back in the game....Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!



 

While the rest of the country has been having a harsh and snowy winter, ours has been slow to start. We finally started to see some winter, it is about time! There is serious talk of moving the Iditarod sled dog race start to Fairbanks (from Willow) and the snow lovers have been missing their snowmachines.

 

 

 



My 2nd grade group has been showing great progress this year and some of their parents ask for homework, so I put this together and keep my fingers crossed that they will make time for it.

I shared the Positive Pirate Reward system in September 2014.
It has been awhile since I've sent homework, but one or two parents ask about it and are willing to help their child  do it and send it back, so I have put more effort into it.
I have a Connecting Math group that is going well and there is a nice one page homework page that is easy to complete for the kids. We have a homework graph and a big plus sign is put on for each piece of homework. For my friends who have a difficult time but want the credit, they get opportunities to do the homework at school and get that plus.
On Fridays, we have a bit of a ceremony of counting the plus signs and putting that number of stars on the pirate cards. I just draw a star with a marker on the card, nothing fancy.

 

Our gas prices dropped, even here in Alaska!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a birthday...


Next week I am going to the Alaska Special Education Conference! I am so excited! It has been 12 years since the last time I attended.  I also will be going with a friend and co-worker, so it will be fun and informative all at the same time. Woooo!
I'll tell you all about next week!

Later!

Paula

 

Whew!!!! We Made it to Vacation!

I had my doubts...I really did! But the last day of school finally arrived and the kids loved saying "See you next year!" as they boarded the buses, and I loved getting extra hugs. It was a good day.

Here are some things we did the last 2 weeks.

Promethean board high frequency word game. Very motivating! Students take turns choose a word, reading it and moving it to the stocking. Sometimes there is a surprise under the word, like a present or a reindeer. they placed the surprise under the Christmas tree. They loved it!

I found these great Christmas tree Bingo pages in my Christmas box. They are from funfrugalmommy.blogspot.com. I'm pretty sure I got them last year and I haven't been able to locate the blog, it keeps taking me to fun frugal homeschool, perhaps they changed their name? Anyway, I like to give credit where it is due! The circles have a sight word on them. I would say a word, they find it and dot it with the paint. Again, so simple, but fun! We had 3 different pages. 

Here's an old favorite, they line up the strips starting at the bottom, then they glue, glitter and dot! 

I must show off my first BIG FAT CHECK! I finally tried using EBATES while ordering Christmas gifts and got some money back! and there will be more! 

That's it for now, I'll try to check in later this week before Christmas, but just in case...

Merry Christmas

I hope it is relaxing and enjoyable for all of you.

Paula