Penguin Literacy Pack

We just finished up a unit on penguins last week & I had several activities that I created along the way so I decided to combine them into a little pack for my TPT shop. It has 9 pages of literacy printables that can be used with If You Were a Penguin by Florence & Wendell Minor. Most pages have an adapted version for students who cannot write but can use a bingo marker to select the answer. Get yours here for just $1!

Great resource for GAA & Instruction

Happy MLK Day Y'all! I wanted to share a new resource that I just began using & am super excited about. A fellow teacher has been telling me about the Sounding Board app that she uses on her IPad with her kiddos (Thanks Rachel!). I finally decided to check it out last week & LOVE it! It is great to use after reading a text and asking student if they liked the text, why they liked it, and about their favorite part by allowing them to select pictures. This would align perfectly with the CCGPS standard: ELACC4W1- Write opinion piece on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons (a. Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer's purpose.)

I loved using the Sounding Board app because I could quickly create the tasks just a few minutes before actually implementing it. This is great for someone like me who feels like they never have enough time. All I had to do was open up the app on the IPad, take a few quick pictures of scenes in the book and of some opinion pictures that I already had printed, record a few prompts,  and that was it. Easy Peasy! I have so many plans to use this app during instructional times so that my students with severe communication needs can express themselves. If you haven't heard of it yet, you should definitely check it out!

Have a great week!

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."
MLK

100th Day of School FREEBIE & Complete Pack

I can't believe that the 100th day of school is right around the corner. I created this fun math + literacy pack to use on that day with all of my students. It consists of 38 pages- including a letter to parents discussing the celebration, a crown craft, and many other printables. It has bingo dot pages, coloring, tracing, and simple number identification pages for my lower learners and hundreds chart fill-ins, beginning multiplication activities, and cloze reading pages for my higher kids. I also have included a 14-page emergent reader in both color and black & white along with ideas for lessons to be planned using them. Many of the activities are re-created two or three times to include accommodations for the various learning styles or ability levels of my kiddos. That way we can all work as a group on the same concepts but it is developmentally appropriate for each individual student. I can't wait to try these out with my class! Feel free to head over to my TPT store and pick up this pack for just $2. Or you can download the 8-page FREEBIE sample here. I hope you have a Happy 100th Day of School!

Alternative Assessment

Tomorrow will be our first day back after Christmas holidays and will mark the beginning of the second collection period for the Georgia Alternative Assessment. I was able to find premade items for most of the activities used during the first collection but am now in need of more similar items to be used in the second collection period.

This Penguin Number Match activity was designed to be used with the CCGPS standard MCC4.NBT.2: Read and write multi-digit whole numbers using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form. Adaptations can be made for the student to physically match the numeral and number name cards and with the use of the numbers 0-9.

Head on over to my TPT store to pick up this freebie!

Standards, Data, Assessments...Oh My!

After a two-year break from the classroom, I have struggled this year with the many demands that come from teaching a self-contained special education classroom filled with three grade levels of extremely diverse kiddos. I'm juggling teaching the common core standards across three grades, designing activities that can be used with students of various abilities, collecting data on their many IEP goals, and administering the Georgia Alternative Assessment, on top of everything else! I have found many products online that have been helpful for use with one or two of my students but becuase I have such a diverse crowd, it takes a great deal of planning time. I'm starting this blog to organize and store all of the products that I find and create and also to share resources with any other teachers that are in my situation. Please feel free to post resources that you feel that I may find helpful. Thanks a bunch!