Wednesday, October 17, 2012

I've been Boo'd!

  I've been Boo'd by Allison over at Miss Allison's Class!  How fun! Thanks Allison for Boo'ing me and for always sharing your great ideas on your blog!


Here are the rules:
Cynthia at 2nd Grade Pad is hosting this BOO'D linky.  

1. Choose a fellow blogger that has MORE followers.
2. A blogger that has about the SAME number of followers .
3. Someone that has LESS followers.
4. Highlight their blogs with links to encourage others to check them out.
5. Don't forget to let your fellow bloggers know that you shared about them. 
 6. Lastly, leave them some love by offering them a goody from your store as their "treat." (Unfortunately, I don't have a store yet so I don't have a freebie to offer-sorry!)


 More Followers: Sasha over at The Autism Helper.  I love all the videos she shares and I am envious of how organized she is.  I get a lot of great ideas by reading her blog and look forward to getting many more!

Same Followers: This one is hard to find because I don't have many followers yet and most people have more than me.  So, I'm going with Kate at Fun in ECSE 
(who also has more followers than me but I tried to find someone who was close).  She is not only a fellow Special Ed teacher but she also teaches in Michigan like me!  She does a lot of great lessons and activities with her students that she shares on her blog.


Less Followers: Hailey over at The Autism Tank is a newer blogger like me.  She has lots of great ideas for tasks and she includes Freebies!


I promise to have a real update soon.  I keep bringing my camera to work and forgetting to take pictures!


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Adapted Listening Center

I recently revamped my listening center.  I felt like some of my students would just sit at it without much focus on the book they were listening to.  Some would even sit for a while after the story was over, lost in their own thoughts.  I wanted my Listening Center to be more structured and also last for one switch of our reading centers.  (Next year my goal is to make question sheets for the books that a majority of my students would be able to do independently.) So here's what I came up with:


I numbered 4 bins (I don't think I'd ever need more than 4 stories to fill a 10 or 15 minute rotation.)  I uploaded all of my Books on CD to my computer.  I copied 3 or 4 books to a CD (depending on the length of the stories).  Then the students don't have to switch CD's between stories!!  I also put numbers on each bin and made a pull off card for the students to keep themselves on the correct book.  1/2 of my students can follow along with the right book fairly independently but I'm wishing I had put a little clip on each CD that says, "now pick up the next book."  I'm sure the prompt could be faded but it would help the students who struggle with when to go on to the next book.  It's really helping though.  I've also added visual "rules" to the center to help them follow the routine or for a visual reminder if someone is off task.  
When I started this center I had one of my aides sitting with each student to practice the routine.  The amount of days someone sat with them depended on how independent they were able to be.  When I was able to fade my aide, I added an additional center that will not be independent.  

This is our first year doing reading centers in this way and I'm finding this as a successful way to teach my students the centers that will be independent before adding all of the "manned" centers.  


Here's a quick pic of my Read to Self center.  4 of my 6 students are able to at least look at books independently and 2 of them need to be read to.  I practiced reading independently with each of my 4 independent students so that this could be independent as well.  These are the bins from Lakeshore that I spent a ton of money on a few years ago but find that I'm not so good at keeping organized.  Therefore, I've re-purposed them as reading bins.  

Does anyone have any other tips for making Listening center and Read to Self independent?

Sunday, October 7, 2012

October Currently & Monday Made It

Happy October Everyone!  I can't believe it's here already.  My class is finally getting into the groove of our routines and the weather has been perfect lately.  

Realized after I had already saved this as an image (and didn't save it any other way) that the book was supposed to be my favorite October Season book!  Whoops- the answer to that would be "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed some Leaves."  The books in this series are good for engaging my students in literacy and also for sequencing activities.


I bought a bunch of stuff at Target the other day for Fall and Halloween.  Here are some of my goodies and the activities I made to go with them:


Apple, pumpkin, ghost & leaf foam cut outs for something I haven't thought of yet- any ideas?
Halloween, turkey, leaf stickers for patterning and counting.
Pine cones-I think I'd like to do a sorting activity with these if I can find another size.
Skeleton erasers for counting activites.
The foam stickers are sea/ocean themed but were on clearance so I grabbed them.
Mini clothespins- they were just so cute!

My Monday Made Its:

I also bought a pack of each of these table scatters.  I made this sorting activity.

 And this sorting activity for my kids who can read to work on vocabulary.
And I hot glued a bunch to clothespins for patterning activities that will also work on fine motor!

Don't forget to link up for October Currently with Farley and check out Monday Made It over at 4th grade Frolics!






Tuesday, October 2, 2012

How our stations work

The last time I made a post I showed you our schedules.  Today I thought I would show you how I help my kids complete the tasks as independently as possible.  We use number matching 4 of 6 students.  There are numbers that correspond to the number of activities to be completed at each station.  The kids match the number to the number on the shelf or drawer.  We consistently use TEACCH methods to set up tasks and work systems.  This means that we work from Left to Right and Up to Down.  


The following are examples of what their  independent work stations look like.  These have been decided based on the furniture I have and which students would work best at each spot.  The large connected desks are great.  Plenty of space and the shelf helps fit more work tasks.  There is a finished basket by each independent station for students to put each task in as they finish.  We mostly incorporate folder tasks and paperwork at independent work.  However, we sometimes put puzzles or other similar tasks as well.  
I needed a 5th independent work spot this year and I was really trying to avoid taking up more valuable space so I bought a folder storage pocket chart and hung it next to my most flexible student's desk.  It works great!  

One of my students uses a color matching system instead.  He is most successful with matching colors so it works better for him.  He still needs prompts to use it correctly, he often wants to match all of them to their partner before completing any of the work:) His work tasks are mostly tasks that we have made to fit his needs and academic abilities.  

         

Here is our choice area.  This was not set up last year.  There was more structure needed for my new students so I made pull-offs (Velcro pictures that can be pulled off)  for each choice activity the students can pick from.  They are able to match the pull-off to the desired task. Once they clean up one task they can make another choice.  

  I also took a picture of how we organize the pictures visuals we need each day.  They are alphabetized so they can be found quickly.  I believe this was an old calendar pocket chart and it works perfectly!



Also, What Happened in First is having a 100 Follower giveaway! Check it out here: