It has been a LONG time!!

Sorry for the delay! It has been a crazy few weeks...or months...haha...but while most teachers are preparing for the holiday season, my students went off track from Thanksgiving through New Years. The only good thing for you (and for me) is that I get to catch up on some of the things that we have done...and prepare for some of the things that we have coming up.

In the time since I have posted last (before Halloween, I believe), we were pretty busy! We celebrated Halloween with pumpkin activities. We celebrated Veteran's Day with some activities and a few veterans came to our school. We talked a little turkey talk before going on vacation! I will do a photo dump here of all of the different things that we did before we went off track...It will be fun to show in pictures!

So first...Halloween!

Here are some of the crafts that we did.

Our circle pumpkin. 

We did some fine motor activities.
We got to string beads and make a necklace!

Our pumpkin day activities...

We gutted a pumpkin...my students  LOVED the
feel of the insides of the pumpkin.

In learning about our pumpkin, we talked about the size,
the feel of the pumpkin, how tall and round it is (using string
and cubes to measure the pumpkin). 

Our carved pumpkin. Pretty generic face, but my students
enjoyed telling me the shapes for the parts of the face.

Some other activities we did on Halloween...

We did a spooky graphing page!

We practiced counting skills...putting pumpkin pompoms
on a vine...

 Our Thanksgiving turkey page...We used Q-tips to decorate the turkeys. I then cut them out and mounted them! Very cute!

For Veteran's Day...A cute poem, with their hand prints attached!

So, a busy few months! A lot of crafts and activity happening!

I know that I still need to review the other sections of the curriculum that I use...BASICS2...hopefully later in the week...

So...what is BASICS?

Working with students with moderate-severe disabilities can be a challenge....meeting their unique needs (a variety of them) each day can be difficult...but our district created a framework for our moderate to severe population...BASICS...in its second edition. Here is a picture of it...you can find the BASICS2 book at Lakeshore.

BASICS is broken into 5 domains: Functional Academics, Community, Recreation and Leisure, Vocational and Domestic. Each domain focuses on different aspects of functional living skills that our students need to learn to be successful. So I will spend the next couple of posts trying to describe the curriculum that I use, the programs that I incorporate, and some of the activities that my students work on each day...as well as how they fit into each domain. 

Incorporating BASICS into every task, every portion, of my day...has become easy. BASICS will guide my instruction...overall, I focus on two things in my day...progression of skills and independence...tow things that my students are working towards each day.

Enough about BASICS today...I will work out more tomorrow. 

Happy Halloween!

With Halloween right around the corner, we have been creating like crazy! And my kiddos have LOVED the art projects! They get even more excited when they see their work displayed around the room...Here are some of our work from the last few weeks....

On one side of my room, around my kitchen....is our spider web...with paper plate colorful spiders!

Here are some close ups of some of our spiders...I used colorful dots, pipe cleaners for the legs, and googlie eyes. Most of my students chose two eyes, but a few got a little carried away with eyes! I think it adds some interest to their spiders.

  

And as we all know, the most important aspect of art projects is the process. For me, the most important part of our art projects are the skills involved! With our spiders, it was all about Fine Motor...to get their fingers to peel off the dots and then stick them on the plate was a lot of work for some of my kiddos. Some added benefits: asking for help (a skill that can be difficult for my students), color recognition, and showing pride in their work!










This week, we made pumpkins! We laced them and hung them over the window in our classroom! Here they are...simple and GREAT!

And of course...some of the close ups of some of our pumpkins!

The best part about each pumpkin is that they are all very unique! All of the supplies that we used were bought from MICHAELS a few years ago! There was a large set of foam pumpkins, and then I found a set of foam jack-o-lantern pieces...students were allowed to mix and match all of the pieces that I had. Some used just foam...some added googlie eyes and feathers! 

And finally...we tried our first GAME! I found the game board on the internet...and had candy corn and extra dice hanging around. We only covered the numbers 1-6, which was a lot of work for my kiddos. After rolling the dice, counting the dots, they got to removed only the candy on that number. A hard concept for them! But it will definitely be something we practice. Playing games like this works on many skills: turn taking, counting, following directions, and asking for help, just to name a few!

What a busy few weeks we have had! And we are started conferences today...

Donors Choose and ELMER

I have shared that I am a big fan of Donors Choose (donorschoose.org). If you do not know who/what they do, I would love to tell you! A teacher can create a project of items that they need/want for their classroom...then, donors (family, friends and people you do not know) can donate to your project! When your project is funded, Donors Choose will place the order and ship it to you! Then, your final step is to take pictures, write an impact letter, and send thank you letters from your students! What a great idea!

My last project was titled "Read and Re-tell." I received a variety of books and manipulatives to make the stories come alive! Little did I know that we could do so much with the stories.

This week, we focused on the story Elmer. Here is the stuff that came with my project:

 

I purchased the book (this is the picture from Amazon) as well as the collection of Elephants from the story. The blue felt board that the elephants are on, I already had in my classroom. If you do not have one, you could purchase one, or you could make one...cheaper and easier! On a side note, I had never read the story of Elmer, but now that I have, I am completely in love with the message!

 Throughout the week, we read the story, both in large group and small group. Students use the elephant props to retell the story! They get to manipulate the pieces, create the elephants, and play with the elephants. In the above picture, one of my students is matching the decorated elephant to the body (working on matching sizes).

Since basic concepts are difficult for some of my students, we used the Elmer elephants to work on the concept BIG and small! This is one of my students working on big and small!

Now that we have spent a week on this book, students will have the opportunity to explore the Elmer elephants on their own! 

Fall Trees

It has been a few weeks! And what a busy few weeks it has been! Now that we have mastered our routine, the different activities are in full swing!

My favorite part of our schedule is Monday...partially because it is a half day-kiddos leave at 1:00...and partially because I call it MANIC MONDAY...which means everything is CRAZY! I use it for art...so each Monday, we work on an art project. It is a nice way to bring in each week...and it makes sure that I always have current work up on my walls.

2 weeks ago, we made fall trees! What a great way to bring in the fall! And who knows...maybe it worked! Our temperatures in Southern California will finally drop this week! Here are some of our pictures of our fall trees...

 We started with their hand print as the base of the tree! For my kids, this is an exercise in a few things, the least of which is sensory integration. So many of my students have a variety of sensory issues, that allowing me to take a paint brush, and paint their hand, and then put that on paper, was an exercise in control! Overall, they did pretty good with this part. One of my students told me that he "looked like a bear" and growled and howled while we made his tree trunk! A fun time in imaginary play!

 My kids had a variety of techniques to complete their trees. We, of course, had to add leaves. Because we were making fall trees, our leaves were red, yellow and orange (working on color recognition.) The above student used a full hand method to put her leaves on! The student to the right and below used a one finger method to put their leaves on their trees!

Overall, I think their trees turned out GREAT! I did trim some of the leaves, if they got a little carried away, and mounted them on construction paper.

What a fun way to get my students interested in fall! What do you do to help your students enjoy fall

Painting our Names and Go AWAY Big Green Monster!

We have been so busy! Sorry it has taken me a while to post again! <and for some reason blogger wasn't working>...But in all of this craziness...we have had some fun!

On Monday's in my class, we have a minimum day. My kids leave at 1:00...AND half of my class mainstreams into PE on Monday! Which means...I only have a short period to spend with my students. On Monday, I try to make their day a little bit of fun! We try to do an art project! Last Monday, our art project was pretty cool...and the kiddos had a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of this project!













Here are some pictures that I took of the finished projects! We started by taping of the first letter of their name. I used masking tape, but you could try it with painters tape (it might come off easier in the end). Then the students were given the direction to paint! Most of my kiddos started out by painting just on the tape...and took a lot of convincing to paint the paper. Others painted just around the outside of their letter...

My N to the left, took the direction "Paint the entire paper" to a whole new meaning...and made sure she left NO paper showing! I also love how she did not let her colors mix together!

I only gave them red, blue and yellow, so that if they wanted to mix colors, they could!

When the we were done painting, we had to let them dry! Perfect thing for lunch! When we got back from lunch, it was time to peel off the tape! The kids were so excited to see their letter! I added their full name to a nameplate...and the students LOVED finding their name with their letter!

I get at least one comment every day about their names!

 Also last week...I introduced our first book from Donors Choose...Go Away, Big Green Monster! Each day  of the week, we read and re-tell the story! The students seemed to really enjoy putting the story together on the hand puppet...

 

We use our puppet to work on proper face placement...the eyes go next to each other, not one on top of the other!

 Every one got to take turns putting the pieces on the puppet, and telling the story! Sometimes it was done as a group, other times students would ask to look at the book and put the pieces together alone! They have done a great job using the book to tell the story!

This week, I will introduce the book and pieces to Elmer, the second book we got from Donors Choose. I am excited to see if the students are as excited about this book as they were about Go Away, Big Green Monster!

Our first week back...

Welcome back to school! Being on a C-track year around school has its benefits...one is that we just went back on track...kids started back to school on Tuesday. This week has been spent reviewing rules, procedures...and we even had time to get to work!

 But...no need to worry...just because we were off for a month, I still spent some time in my classroom! I spent a day making some sensory bottles...I made a wide variety of them that I am introducing to my students a few at a time. They currently live in the Stress Free Monster Basket!

                                

Here are my 7 bottles. Most of them had settled at this point...the first one is water, melted glue and glitter...I dyed the water purple...the second and third bottles are corn syrup and glitter. The corn syrup is thicker, which then settles and flows to the bottom! The light blue bottle is vegetable oil and glitter dyed blue. The two blueish bottles on the right side are made with water and glycerin. These give a very cool swirling effect. The green bottle in the middle are water beads. I had actually started by filling it with water, and realized that you couldn't see anything. So I strained out the water, added green food coloring, and some glitter. This one is interesting because it moves around more.

I have only introduced my students to the purple bottle and the light blue bottle with glycerin...so far...they love them! I am working on teaching my students to use them when they feel anxious or stressed out! So far, it seems to be working. One of my students really likes the purple glitter bottle. I have also donated the red corn syrup bottle to a student next door...he rolls it on his desk and is beginning to use it to calm down!

                                      

Here is a picture of my Stress Free Monster Basket! It is a blue plastic basket that I picked up from the Dollar Store! Inside, I put some things that I also picked up from the Dollar Store or the dollar spot at Target. Inside the basket are two teddy bears, some squishy balls, and two of the calming bottles! I will introduce this to my students more this week...I want to start introducing them to ways to self-calm, since many of my students do not have those skills yet!

Some other fun things that happened this week:

I got my DonorsChoose project funded and most of it was delivered! I will post about the fun things that we use them for soon! My project was titled "Read and Re-Tell" and included a bunch of felt board items to retell books. The books that I included in the project are: Go Away, Big Green Monster, Elmer, It Looked Like Spilt Milk, Mouse Paint, and the tree from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I also received a felt board story set that my students can create...and I am waiting for a Poem of the Week book! I am very excited to begin using all of these in my classroom!

With that, it is  late! Time to get ready for bed!