Community in the Classroom

Another successful start to a school year is in the books!  This year, I had a brand new group of students (minus one) after wishing last year's group the best of luck as they headed to high school.  I fretted a large part of the summer, worried about the incoming group of students.  Their needs and skill levels were so different,  I was a bit overwhelmed.  Okay.  I lied.  I was a LOT overwhelmed!  I decided to start from square one: building community in the classroom, and it was the best decision I've made so far this year!

We started very general, talking about who is in our family, school, and town communities.  I love books, which is no secret, so of course, we incorporated a book in to this activity, On The Town - A Community Adventure by Judith Caseley.  We created our own community using free printable from Lakeshore and labeled the people who hold the community jobs to work on functional vocabulary.  

Next, we read the book The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig.  (I also used Screencast-o-matic to record myself reading the book and sent it to parents at the end of the week along with activities to reinforce their learning at home. If you haven't checked out this cool way to make screen recordings, check it out here. ) The students made a "Who Am I" flip book, giving information about themselves so other students could guess who they were.  We also explored skills and talents they have and how they have a positive impact in the community.  I can't wait to share this with parents at conferences!

Next, we read the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  We used Screencast-o-matic again so that the read aloud and activities could be sent home to parents.  The students learned about what makes a "sweet" friend and what makes a "sour" friends.  They used a graphic organizer to help learn more about "sweet" friends.  

We continued our learning with a community bingo game.  The students LOVED this activity as they showed good citizenship while coloring in squares to make a bingo!  I also sent an email out to the staff asking if there was help needed around the building so that the students could learn more about being a part of the community.  The students now have several tasks they do around the building on a weekly basis.  Not only do they take pride in doing these tasks, but they area able to interact with more staff, and other students appreciate it, too!

Building our classroom community has already made a difference in our classroom.  I have a few ideas up my sleeve for continuing to build our community throughout the year!  If you'd like to check out some of the activities listed above, you can check them out here.

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Our book of the week is a book that is excellent for the first few weeks of school. It touches on themes of friendship, self-confidence and bullying. It works well with incorporating citizenship or caring into your everyday class environment and helps young learners to evaluate the situations that Chrysanthemum encounters as most students are able to relate to being new, being embarrassed, being teased and wanting to fit in. 

Chrysanthemum loves her name. Her parents tell her its "absolutely perfect," just like her. Her love of her name turns to dislike when she goes to school. Her classmates tease her endlessly about her name (especially Victoria). Even with assurances from her parents, she still hates going to school. Luckily Chrysanthemum meets the wonderful music teacher, Delphinium Twinkle who teaches all the students that flower names are beautiful. Ms. Twinkle even goes on to name her own daughter after Chrysanthemum.  

Vocabulary

Wilted- To get weak or faint. 

Envious-Another word for Jealous

Dreadful- Unpleasant or unfun

Winsome- Having Charm or a great quality 

Perfect- The very best 

Nightmare- A bad dream  

Questions 

How does Chrysanthemum feel about her name in the middle of the book?  How do you know?  

How does Chrysanthemum feel about her name in the beginning?  How do you know?  

How does Chrysanthemum feel about her name in the ending?  How do you know? 

Chrysanthemum walks slowly to school everyday. Why?

What is a bully and what ways do they bully Chrysanthemum? 

How do her parents help her? Does it help the problem? 

Who else could help Chrysanthemum?

What is a nightmare? What makes Chrysanthemum's dream a nightmare?

What is special about your name? 

Is your name shorter than Chrysanthemum's? How do you know?

What is a wonder? Why do the kids think Ms. Twinkle is a wonder?

Please also check out our Chrysanthemum Freebie activity from our TPT store Click here.

Book Of The Week: Shelia Rae, The Brave

Sheila Rae, The Brave by Kevin Henkes

Summary:
Shelia Rae is not afraid of anything, or so she says.  She's not afraid of the dark, of monsters, or thunder and lightening.  She insists that her sister, Louise is a "scaredy-cat."  She boasts and brags until her bravery is tested.  Sheila Rae discovers what being brave is really about!

Vocabulary:
fearless - to not be scared of anything
attack - to hurt or destroy something
block - an area in a town with four streets around it; one of the sides is called a block
stray - lost or without a home
bare - to show something that is not usually seen
growl - to make a deep, grumbling noise to show anger
evil - to have very bad behavior
scaredy-cat - someone who is scared of almost everything
convince - to get someone to believe something
dash - to move fast

Comprehension Questions:
Who is Sheila Rae?  Name three words that describe her.
Who is Louise?  Name three words that describe her.
How are Sheila Rae and Louise the same?  How are they different?
Why does Sheila Rae think she is brave?  (Share three ideas.) Is she really brave? How do you know?
What happens to Sheila Rae?  How does she feel then?  How is this different than how she feels at the beginning of the story?
What were two things Sheila Rae did when she was lost that showed that she was scared.
How does Sheila Rate feel at the end of the story?
What lesson did Sheila Rae learn?

We just posted a book study and optional close reading activity pack that is on sale at our store for the next 24 hours.  Check it out here!

Creating A Calming Plan

This school year is going to be crazy.  It's going to be good.  It's going to be crazy good!  I know that I am going to learn so much as I transition from speech-language to a center-based ASD  program.  I'll be using every single tool I have in my tool box and relying on my fantastic colleagues.  I was becoming so overwhelmed with where to start, so I will be starting with this...

I want to start of the year being proactive.  I have an area in my room designated for relaxation and calming.  There is also a larger room right across the hallway for students to access at any time just for calming.  (I will get pictures posted in the next several weeks.  The other ASD teacher and I are working like crazy to get our new rooms set up!)  These areas will be marked by this sign:

Consistency is key!  We are asking the teachers to find a small area (a desk, a carpet square, whatever is available) to post this same sign.  We want the students to know that it is not a negative area but a place for them to self regulate and refocus.

What are they going to do when they are in their calming area?  Well, it depends on several factors including the antecedent and the level of escalation.  (The goal is ALWAYS to support students before the problem can't be resolved with a calming break. ) That being said, I am focusing on the problems or situations that can be supported with a calming plan.  It's simple, personalized, and so important!

During the first week of school, I will be demonstrating nine different calming strategies.  I have created a poster with 1-4 step directions on how to complete each one.  

The students will have the opportunity to try each strategy and rate it on a scale of 1-5.

Based on the students' rating, they will be able to select the strategies that work best for them including one breathing strategy, one pressure strategy, and an additional component.  Using small icons, they will place them on a small visual support with velcro, making sure that the visual support is not too distracting.

These supports are approximately 1/3 of an sheet of paper so that they are big enough for the students to manipulate but not too big to draw attention.  Some of the students who participated in my social skills class last year used several of the strategies, and they were very helpful.  With enough practice, they were able to use a visual support and use them when becoming agitated.  They sometimes needed a directive to take a calming break, which is why I will also be using calming cards:

I will be giving the classroom teachers these cards as well, again for consistency.

I am so excited to get this activity started with my students...AFTER I finish enjoying my last three weeks of summer break!  You can find it here at our TPT store.

If you would like to win a copy, please enter by leaving a comment below! (What calming strategy have you found to be the most helpful for your students?)

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What's In Your Cart Linky!

We are hooking up with Jenna at Speech Room News for her "Whats' In Your Cart" linky party!  School is still a month away for us, but we are already in our classrooms and starting to gather materials.  We have a lot of changes this year and are trying to be proactive...maybe a bit early, but who cares.  We LOVE sales!

Here's what we are most excited about in our store!

We have just posted several nursery rhyme theme activity packs.  So far, we have seven of the ten posted.  The others should be active in the next day or so.  Each activity pack includes activities focusing on language skills, letters, numbers, writing, and then a different "extra" in each!  Right now, our favorite "extra" is an identifying feelings activity

If you're not interested in the nursery rhyme pack, we also listed the Identifying Feelings activity separately.  It is designed for students who have difficulty identifying emotions in social situations.  It includes an emotion continuum and 18 feeling card scenarios.  Emotion words are not provided so students can begin/continue developing emotional vocabulary.

Another product that we have used a lot and will continue to use at the beginning and throughout the year is Conversation 101: Comments and Questions.  It helps to improve students' understanding and use of comments and questions.  It's scaffolded so that students first learn to identify comments and questions, practice using them in a structured social scenario, and then during conversation during preferred and non preferred topics of conversation.

Now what's in our cart???  Can't wait to share these awesome activities!

Snack-tivities Bundle by Speech2U!  This is a progressive bundle that includes a large range of speech and language activities that can be used with a wide range of ages!

Beginning of the Year Math: Figure Me Out by Amber Thomas.
This is a fun back-to-school activity that incorporates numbers and computation into a page about each student.

Happy TPT shopping!

End of Year Ice Cream and Language Activities

It was our last day of language groups, and we had a blast making ice cream in a bag!  (I hope the students' excitement was about the ice cream and not the last day of group!)  We used a video to introduce the process. Then went to work!

We used our "What's the Scoop?" Language Pack to help with sequencing and the recipe.

We had students follow the recipe to make ice cream in a bag. Once we were finished with following directions we sat down and had students answer reasoning/inferential questions and evaluation questions about the process.

Ready to Shake it !

Here we GO! Shake, Shake, Shake.........

 Ice Cream in a bag, now ready to eat. 

At the very end of the lesson we had students compare and contrast the recipe for ice cream in a bag with their favorite ice cream flavor from the store. It was great fun! 

You can get the Language Pack here and the recipe/question freebie here. 

Book of the Week: Hop on Pop

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

This book has been H-O-T in my house this week.  My daughter loves this book because she is "reading," AKA rocking the rhyming words!  I love that she loves books.  I love that she loves to rhyme.  I love that she loves to "read."  The speech-language pathologist nerd in me is shrieking with phonological awareness glee!  (Phonological awareness are skills that develop in later preschool years; it includes the awareness of rhymes, awareness that sentences can be broken down into words, syllables, and sounds, as well as the ability to manipulate sounds.  It is an important predictor of spelling, reading, and writing skills.)

This week I struggled with generating meaningful vocabulary and comprehension questions because I was so focused on the rhyming piece.  So this week, the book of the week is a little different; I created a Dr. Seuss-inspired rhyming game.  

Included is a game board, 72 receptive and expressive game cards, and two rhyming certificates.  The game cards were created for students who are different stages in their rhyming abilities: students who are working on discriminating whether or not two words rhyme and others who are working on generating rhyming words. 

I am so excited to use this more during the summer with my daughter.  I hope you find it useful, too!

We are offering it for FREE for the next 48 hours.  You can grab it here at our TPT store.  It's also a small thank you to our now 200 followers!

Teachers Appreciation and Sale!

My teaching friends, many people this week will tell you that you are great at what you do and that you are appreciated. You actually probably feel tired and go to work early and come home late. You also probably lay in bed thinking about what you can do for all your students to learn. We also know you probably feel that there is never enough time to make your own activities so you are always checking out Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers to make each lesson perfect. We want you to know we appreciate you! Our entire store is 20% off unless you enter the Coupon Code THANKYOU and you will get 30% off your entire purchase on Tuesday, May 5th and Wednesday, May 6th. Click the picture below to link to our store.

 Thank you for all you do! 

Book Of The Week: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin

Summary: 
Pete the Cat is wearing his favorite shirt with the grooviest four buttons.  Oops!  Pete's buttons begin to pop off, but does he cry?  Goodness no!  Pete's calm and care-free attitude is a perfect segue into summer break!

Questions:
Who is the story about?
What happened to Pete the Cat?
What did he do after he lost each button?
Where was Pete when he lost his buttons?
How many buttons did Pete have at the beginning of the story?  At the end of the story?
What color were the buttons?
Why didn't Pete become upset when he lost his buttons?
Have you ever lost something?  What was it?  How did you feel?
Would you want to be friends with Pete?  Why or why not?

The video can be viewed here (and is very entertaining)!

Hoppy Easter: Inferencing and Directions

Our students are very motivated with holiday-realted activities.  It's hard not to get excited for St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and all of the other spring-related holidays.  To curb our spring "itch" and capture the student's excitement, we planned a few Easter-themed activities.  We will be decorating eggs WITHOUT paint or dye but with crayons.  Whew!

This easy Easter egg glyph incorporates two and three-step directions with embedded concepts.  We will need to modify the directions given the varying needs of students, but we know they're going to love it!

We also will be using simple clues to for inferencing for this Easter Egg Hunt. Assembly is minimal, but will be so worth it!  Simply print out the cards, cut and fold. Put each task cad in a plastic egg. Place the eggs throughout the school in places like the principal's office (surprise!) and library using the cards as your guide. Whoever guesses the correct place gets to keep the egg.  We plan to add candy for some Easter fun!

Grab a copy of the glyph freebie here and inferencing freebie here!

Fairytale Inferencing

This trimester my reading students will be expected to read grade level text and determining inferences. For my students who are challenged by the reading process, it can be a struggle to motivate them to try targeted skills like inferencing about a story. I thought a wonderful way to introduce the skill of inferencing would be to practice with some classic fairytales to ramp up the enthusiasm.

 First we laid out pictures and objects to get the students inferring:

After the students were done looking at pictures and/or objects, they wrote down what each story was and then justified why they thought their answer was correct.

It was a hit. The students loved moving through stations and getting to explain their answers. You can get the picture posters and answer sheet at our TPT store here. 

Tone of Voice: Valentine Edition

Last year, our social skills group talked about the importance of using an expected tone of voice.  I created a quick and basic activity to introduce the idea, which you can find here at our TPT store.  This year, we expanded on this idea, and just in time for Valentine's Day.  In anticipation that the students may receive a Valentine that says "I love you" or "Be mine," they would have some practice to use a tone that was more cheerful or grateful instead of annoyed or embarrassed.

Today, we used this activity, and it was a big success!  The students were each given a heart phrase card and an emotion word card.

They were asked say their phrase using the given emotion word.  (We also related the words to the Zones of Regulation® as extra review from previously learned skills.)  They were a hoot!  I laughed.  They laughed, and we all had a great time.  This was a great Valentine's Day activity minus the candy!

You can find the activity here.  It will be FREE until 7:00 pm tonight!  If you download, please leave a comment and let us know what you think!  

Making The Most Of Liking Each Other On Valentine's Day

It's almost Valentine's Day, and there are always mixed reviews among students at our school. They have this idea that it's all about love, so we try to reinforce that it's more about liking each other and showing others that we care about them. This week, I plan to ask students to brainstorm ways that they can show their parents/caregivers they love them and then ways they can show their friends they care about them. The students will use that information to complete a Valentine's Venn Diagram  which you can find here at our TPT store.

Over the last two years, the students in my my "Significantly Challenged Social Communicator" social skills group have shown that they learn best through videos. (Check out Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke, and Stephanie Madrigal's 2011 Social Communication Profile found here which further explains categories of social functioning.)  With that in mind, I found two Peanuts videos that show how quickly feelings can change, and how our feelings can change the feelings of others around us.  I love using the Peanuts videos because the characters' emotions are exaggerated and somewhat over-the-top, but it's exactly what this group of students need.



This video is perfect for showing how quickly feelings can change.  (Sometimes in moments of complete stress, I find myself having the same range of emotions!)  I plan to ask the group the following questions:

• How do Charlie Brown's emotions change throughout the video?  What are some of the emotions that he felt?
• What does Charlie Brown mean when he says, "I'd be crushed?"
• Why did Charlie Brown decide to open the mailbox?  How did he feel?
• What happened when he opened the mailbox?  How did he feel then?
• How does Schroeder feel about the girls giving Charlie Brown a used Valentine?  How do you know that?
• Why do you think Charlie Brown decided to take the Valentine?

The second video is great for inferring.



Again, here are the questions I plan to ask the group:

• What does "Valentine's Crush" mean?
• Why did Linus wait to draw Lucy's mouth?  Why did he draw her mouth so big?  What words can you use to describe her?  Why do you think his hand was shaking?
• How did Charlie Brown feel when the little red-haired girl did not give him a Valentine?  What did he really mean when he said, "Happy Valentine's Day?"
• What did Lucy mean when she told Charlie Brown that he wasn't not the little red-haired girl's kind?
• Was Lucy really patient?  What word means the opposite or something very different than patient?
• Why do you think Charlie Brown didn't get any Valentines?  How would that make you feel?

We hope that you can find these videos as useful as we hope to!

Problem Sizing

"Hot dogs?  I HATE hot dogs!" (Student yells and refuses to join his peers for lunch.)

"But it's pink pants Monday, mom.  I can't wear gray pants!"  (Child refuses to get dressed and lays in her bed throwing a tantrum.)

"This is the worst day ever!  I'm going to fail fourth grade!"  (Student manages to mumble through sobs because he forgot to finish his science homework.)

These scenarios and countless others are regular occurrences when problem solving with our students.  For some students, many problems are catastrophic for them, causing anxiety and worry.  For other students,
significant problems, especially others' problems, are sometimes shrugged off as "no big deal."  It's not out of spite or malicious intent.  It's completely innocent.

So I needed an activity to help them practice the skill of identifying the size of a problem.  I needed to have lots of practice problems.  I needed some type of manipulative.  I needed something that they all could relate to.  Then it hit me.  French fries.  Yes, you got it.  French fries.

All of the students in my group love French fries.  The minute I took the activity out, they began to talk about French fry particulars: where they like to eat them, whose mom makes the best fries, and who eats the most.  (It was only 9:15, but I was already craving fries.)  I presented three separate French fry cartons, labeled "small," "medium," and "large."

A social problem was written on each fry.  I began the activity, and it didn't taken long for me to realize it was bombing.  The students could not identify the size of a problem even when given the easiest of scenarios and a crazy amount of prompting.  Then my colleague said, "Can you make a visual to help them identify the problem?"  Of course!

I went to what I knew: Michelle Garcia Winner.  She makes the concept of identifying the size of the problem very concrete through her Superflex® curriculum, and Jill Kuzma has fantastic visuals (found here) for identifying the size of a problem using a five-point continuum.  I love using Jill's visuals, and they have worked with nearly all of my groups until this year.  I needed something simpler, a three-point continuum.

After a short explanation of the continuum, the students slowly began to label the size of the problems.  Of course, there was some prompting, but they were getting it!  As more problems were presented, they began to independently reference the size of the problem continuum AND label the size of the problems.  Woot!

I really love this activity, and so do the students.  They are so motivated by the French fries and placing them in to the correct size carton.  We are planning to tape the size of the problem continuum visual to the top of their desks so that they can start to reference it when problems arise outside of social skills to support generalization.

Our next step, which will be must later, will be to match the size of the reaction to the size of the problem and relate it to the Zones of Regulation® by Leah Kuypers.  

If you'd like to grab a copy of this activity, you can find it here at our TpT store.