Tag Archives : special education


Read and Write and DIFFERENTIATE by printing – for Valentine’s Day!

Read and Write and DIFFERENTIATE by printing - for Valentine's Day!

A significant part of my support role to kindergarten and primary teachers in recent years has been to provide instruction and / or resources to differentiate instruction for little people in literacy.

Within one class, the range of abilities can span four grades. A little one’s tolerance to frustration towards a task that is too difficult, or another’s need for something to challenge his or her learning for just the right amount of time, can be a tough order to fill – especially at the same time – after gym and snack time and before recess, library and reading buddies.

I have designed my Read and Write and More packages to allow teachers to #DifferentiateByPrinting. There are always activities in each of these products to address a variety of needs.

Valentine Scrambled Sentences:

(Note: The colored sentence strips shown in the first example are provided in the Valentine’s Day Read and Write and More set. There are two different sentence options to choose from to photocopy onto each color paper, with six identical scrambled sentences on each strip).


Val sent sheet  Slide6 Slide7

Having the option to place and paste sentence strips, place and copy sentence strips, work without the strips on easier or more challenging sentences, means that many pre-writers, early writers and / or are independent writers have an accessible starting point.


Valentine Rhyme and Ending Sounds:

See it, hear it, read it? Assessment or  fun practice activities?
I use the following pages for fun small group review, then send them home for the fridge, where my wish is for the back-of-the-cereal box effect.

When I am doing the following rhyme activity with students, I am mindful of my data. Those who need more practice listening for rhyme and ending sounds and who automatically compare letter patterns at the ends of words will get the sheet without print. Proficient rhymers who need more practice with looking closely at print will get the copy with the words. And, of course, other days there will be other activities for those who do not fit neatly into those categories. 


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Check out these fantastic ideas and resources on our Rhyme Time board below:
Follow That Fun Reading Teacher’s board Rhyme Time! on Pinterest.


Valentine’s Day Read and Write and More contains a number of other fun literacy activities, including:


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Graphic Organizers, Writing Paper,

B & W Cards to color with insert ->

Valentine Graphic Organizers and Cards

And for another day…

…activities for the 100th day of school!

 


The Read and Write and More sets always contain three-part graphic organizers, thematic writing paper, and fun, literacy activities with an explanation page, ideas and options to help make activities accessible to a wide range of kindergarten to grade 2 students.

We all remember our little students on Valentine’s Day. Check out the freebies below to be sure no one is missed!

2015 TpT Store Prof pic circle Happy Valentine’s Week, my friends!  


Th1 Valentine Th Staffroom Valentine Cards cover 400 Th1 Reading Buddies V

Save with Bundles!


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Back to School and Fall Graphic Organizers: Kindergarten and Primary – and a SURPRISE ONE DAY SALE!

 


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Hello my friends. Are you fans of graphic organizers? Since I have started teaching Special Education, I have become one, particularly of repeating the three-frame format regularly to encourage sequential thinking and organization in our youngest students. It helps them understand, make predictions and retell the stories they hear and read, and plan out those they create.

I say create, and not write, because some of our students do not write, in a conventional way. When focusing on beginning, middle and end; first, next, finally; list creation or anything else that a three-frame organizer can accommodate (and really, the possibilities are wide open, which you will see in the post I wrote here demonstrating some options for the free Earth Day 3-frame graphic organizer).

Regardless of age, motor skills, or writing ability, this format allows space for drawing, stamping, pasting pictures, using stickers, and large invented spelling with the teacher’s translation below!

I have created a bundle of over 20 3-frame graphic organizers for Back-to-School and Fall. The following are the pages contained within it:


Th1 Fall BTS org cover

Available at TpT

Th 3 Summer Memories Th 6 1st day of school

Th2 All About Me Th 5 Best Things About School Th 8 Goals

Th 4 BTS Th 7 blank starting school Th 9 Apples Frame

Th 11 Fall animals Th 12 Fall Th 13 Pumpkins

Th 10 Leaves border Th4 I am thankful for Th 16 Thanksgiving for my family

Th 19 Halloween Th 17 My Halloween Costume Th3 Halloween Night

Th 20 Remembrance Day Th 21 Veteran's Day Lesson & freebie!Earth day freebie.png

I also wanted to let you know that TpT has just announced a one-day surprise Site-wide sale for Wednesday August 19th! I have marked everything in my store down by 20%, and with TpT’s discount (use PROMO code MORE15), that’s 28% savings! I am bundling more items for even more value to you!


Related:


Kind 1st gr Lit Bundle Sq Th1 TFRT BTS & F Special Cover original-1994028-1

Th Dos & don'ts of motivating young children to write Follow That Fun Reading Teacher’s board Graphic Organizers on Pinterest.

Best wishes to you for the rest of your summer, and to those of you returning to school already!


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An important lesson from my Reading Recovery days: Begin at the very beginning

Begin at the very beginning

I taught for a decade before I started my Reading Recovery training, beginning with kindergarten in a school where half of my students understood only Portuguese when they arrived. In those first ten years I moved between kindergarten, primary special education and grade one. My grade one students who struggled the most were lucky enough to have the Reading Recovery program in place, and I was astounded at the changes I saw in them in such a short time. Those teachers had some kind of magic and I was thrilled when I was able to take the position at my school. There was a mystery that surrounded what really happened in that little room.

Wait a minute – the kid learns nothing new and the teacher does everything for them?

I began my Reading Recovery training like my fellow trainees, enthusiastic, and in a hurry to get my students reading and writing! I was impatient with the ‘Roaming around the Known’ period: ‘Roaming’ being delicately consolidating (with ABSOLUTELY no teaching) around what the child already knows (the ‘known’), perhaps discovering more about what is known or stumbling upon areas of difficulty somehow missed in the testing process. It was a ten lessons, two week complete, no-stress, the-child-does-all-he’s-capable-of-and-you-do-everything-else period of (what felt like) non-structured, laziness. It drove us all nuts – at first.

But here’s what actually happened.

We had LOADS of fun. The kids, who at the beginning of grade one already knew they were ‘the worst readers in the class’ and had already been refusing to take risks and try anything new, gained confidence and trust in us, the process and themselves and started to try. They were excited to come to Reading Recovery every day, before we even started lessons.

What did we do?

  1. We read familiar books over, and over, and over again.
  2. We made our own story books, sharing the marker; the child writing the words s/he knew, the teacher writing the rest.
  3. We played games with the words and letters the child already knew. We painted (with water) on the walls of the school and the playground, in sand trays, and shaving cream.
  4. We practiced moving from left to right…and I could go on (and will in a future post)…

My point is, we learned that there is nothing wrong with EASY, especially when dealing with a child whose confidence needs a boost.

Most of the children I have worked with in recent years are these very children. For many of them, the little things are giant in their minds. Anticipation of a task can be more difficult to manage than the task itself. We need to start with success and build up one baby step at a time. You do remember Baby Steps, don’t you?


[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JPa2mvSQ4] Dr Leo Marvin TFRT

And, of course, humor keeps us all going when the going gets tough!

Here are a few links to help anyone who is starting at the very beginning of the literacy journey this year. Best wishes to you!


Fam Read Fun Th Dos & don'ts of motivating young children to write Th1 Reading Logs - rejigged!

flipbook post pic ben-of-alpha-book.png-150x150 Alpha book 350 x 350

PreEmergent Sight-Word-Stages Readers (two words per page, also available in bundles):

Th School Things half page cover Fall Things Thanksgiving Things half page cover Hall Things half p cover

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Collaboration & Cooperative Learning ~ Bring Students Together

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Engage Math Students in a Read, Write, & Research project that they Debate!

The “Read, Write, Math Project Lesson” incorporates all of these tasks!

 

This lesson brings Language Arts, Collaboration, and Math together.

Engaging students in collaboration assists them in team work, cooperative learning, and more that they will utilize throughout their life!  Bring it all together with this unit!

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This assignment is completely {editable} to suit your class and how you have students turn in the assignment.

This lesson may take 3 days of class or more – a day to research and review the lesson with students, a day for students to collaborate, then a day to debate.

Note ~ I allowed 2 weeks for students to complete this project.

Learn more about this lesson by clicking here…  “Read, Write, Math Project Lesson” .

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PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FOLLOW, SHARE, PIN, TWEET, ……

 

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Best Wishes, Mary Moore

Certified K-6, 6-9 math, and 6-9 science

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Math Bundle of Engaging Activities to Start your Units

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250+ Pages of My Collection of Math Activities

Graphic Organizers ~ Activities ~ Assessments ~ Projects ~ Cooperative Learning ~

GREAT for Any Pre-Algebra Class or Reteaching/Review in 9th Grade!

Additional {Editable} Lesson Plans and more now included!!!

 Engage your students with excellent visual tasks and stations!  A Great way to start your math units this year in 8th Grade with the ULTIMATE Math Pack of Activities!!!  Perfect for Interactive Notebooks, Stations, and More.
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INCLUDES

• Pythagorean Theorem Bundle with Real World Word Problems
• Pythagorean Theorem Poster
• Pythagorean Theorem PowerPoint
• Pythagorean Theorem Lesson Plans
• Real Number System Bundle of Activities
• Real Number System Poster
• Real Number System Lesson Plans
• Geometry Vocabulary Activities
• Geometry Lesson Plans
• Time to Get Ready Statistics and Probability Lesson
• Read, Write, Debate, Math Lesson (meets 11 ELA standards with math vocabulary)

Skill Builders and Additional Files Included
• Properties of Addition & Multiplication Tasks
• Properties of Addition & Multiplication Lesson Plans
• Fraction, Decimal, Percent Challenge
• Multiplication Dice Game
• Rules of Decimal Graphic Organizer
• Fun Testing Signs for test days
• The ULTIMATE sub binder.

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Click to Get the 8th Grade Math Bundle or

visit my TpT Store for more Engaging Products!!

 

 

 

Best Wishes, M Moore 

Certified K-6, 6-9 math, and 6-9 science

TpT Store ~ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Moore-Resources

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©2015 M Moore, Moore Resources.  You may share, like and repin!

 


Writing Behavior and Learning Goals Reflections

I Met My Goal!

I Met My Goal!

Do you ever need a quick and easy graphic organizer for behavior and / or learning goals?  It is important for students of all ages to be able to reflect upon the goals that they have met, the strategies they used and their plans for the future.    This set includes variations of graphic organizers which can be used to help learners reflect upon their goals met for the year, quarter, week, etc.  Includes space for a self-portrait or to color a picture of a girl or boy.   This was useful for Marzano; however can be adapted for other teacher evaluations.

 

 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/End-of-Year-Learning-Goals-Reflection-1822453

 

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Technology Across The Curriculum Blog Hop

Sharing is Caring

 

This week’s topic is all about utilizing technology with students. These awesome teachers have some pretty great ideas to share!

Technology Across the Curriculum

by Deann Marin

I can remember the first computer that I used in my classroom, it was the original Apple. We had no internet access, or power-point programs. You could play simple games like Pacman and make worksheets for the kids. I thought the computer was so cool, just to be able to type and erase, without the hassle of whiteout, was a huge improvement.

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Technology + Special Education = Freedom and Independence

By Nikki Heiman

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Therapeutic use of an iPad for
 Occupational Therapy

By Thia Triggs

This is an AWESOME post about different apps to use for OT skills. Very informative and comprehensive list!

 

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s post about Technology in the classroom!

 

 


The Dealing-With-Feelings Series: The ‘how-to manage tricky feelings’ stories for kids

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The Dealing-With-Feelings Series by That Fun Reading Teacher #DWF

Let me start by thanking those of you who have made these stories so popular over the past six months. This post is dedicated to you in gratitude. You have buoyed my confidence to continue along this path.

This is how this series came to be.

For the past few years, I have been a Special Education teacher to young children. Just a few years ago, while using social stories in integrated kindergarten classrooms with my students with autism, I noticed that their classmates were benefiting from them, too! The  social stories I was using were written specifically for the child they were being used with, and parts of these stories had little relevance to their classmates. They seemed to be very interested in, and to find comfort in other parts of them.
It occurred to me that many children could benefit from stories that were like social stories, but meant for more of a general audience of young children: Characters role-modeling the how-to’s of dealing with tricky feelings. (We all know how motivated we are when someone TELLS us how to handle something!)Even in kindergarten, some children were already uncomfortable about discussing feelings. Research, parenting, teaching and talking to each other tells us that natural conversation only comes from a willing participant, especially one who initiates it.

AAF thQ: Where can one find kids who can naturally name and discuss a variety of feelings, involve other kids in the conversation without alienating them?

A: In a picture books. All About Feelings is the foundation story for the Dealing-With-Feelings Series. Child narrators introduce kids to a range of emotions by showing them examples of kids feeling them in various situations.

Below are the stories with characters  figuring out how to identify and options they have for dealing with specific tricky feelings:

When I Feel Sad girl full version angry girl th frustr girl
Sad boy th angry boy th frustr boy
 SAVE WITH BUNDLES!
Sad bundle th angry bundle th frustr bundle
 BEST DEAL
girls 3 boys 3 7 Book Col

I find myself turning to these stories more often recently.

In September, there were a few sad little people who found comfort in reading about another boy or girl who was sad to say good-bye in the morning, too.

When big kids kicked down snow forts and others were ‘stealing’ snowballs in January, reading about how kids dealt with anger was received a lot better than some of the strategies I’ve used in the past.

Who knew that the phrase ‘use your words’ could result in an airborne chair?

When the temperatures took a dive resulting in clusters of indoor recesses, well, let’s just say that it wasn’t only students benefiting from the When I Feel Frustrated books.


Sad girl th 1.png

 

What feelings would you like to see dealt with in upcoming books? What are some strategies that you think should be included?

Watch for new titles Summer 2015…

Thank you to Rebekah Brock, whose clip art brought these stories alive!

Best~

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DWF 7 pck long pin