Chewigem GIVEAWAY!!

Hello everyone!! I received an awesome oral sensory necklace from Chewigem. My student absolutely loves it. It is a sturdy rubber necklace that withstands the endless chewing by one of my students who wears it all day. I especially love the pouch it comes with to keep it clean.

Please read the full review on A Special Sparkle, but you can enter to win right here! One lucky winner will receive the bendable soft rubber dog tag style necklace in camouflage green! It would be great for any kids who loves to nibble or suck on something.

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Special Sparkle Giveaway!

Hey Guys! You can find me over at A Special Sparkle where I have a GIVEAWAY waiting for you!!

Today was picture day! My kids did really great, but picture day in special ed is a whole other experience! I taught general for 3 years and it was always the same routine. The kids go up to the stool, smile, photographer peeks at the screen, says "great!" and then you move on to the next kid. This does NOT happen in special ed!!

I love my kids! They are ADORABLE and do not look "special" by any means if you just glanced at them. The problem happens when you pull a camera out! They suddenly turn into aliens! Force kids who don't like eye contact to stare at a stranger with a camera and smile a real smile...easier said than done! You should have seen the goofy things my co-teacher and I were doing to make the kids laugh!

And this happened:
Teacher: You didn't dress up for picture day?
Kid: No, I just want to look natural for my picture!
(a few minutes later at picture time)
Me: Smile for the camera!
Kid: Why do I have to smile for a picture? I just want to look natural. My parents know what I look like when I smile.
Me: How about you smile and I give you instant prize box?
Kid: *Big cheesy grin* (that was eventually caught on camera 3 tries later)

And here's me on picture day! Cherish it, I actually have makeup on at work. It happens about twice a year! Obviously not the official photo as it was taken by our class aide as I was sitting on the kids' bean bag chair in the "calm corner." That thing is shockingly comfortable! I've been known to sit on it as I work on my laptop when the kids are gone after school!

Also, my support for autism continued into my weekend this week! I participated in a fundraiser workout to support kids with autism. The kid it was named after is the exact type of kids I've been working with for the last 5 years. 
LIFT UP LUKE
  

Successful Saturday~ Author Chat + Giveaway Winners!

It's time to focus on the successes of the week!

After a very rough start, we had a very successful Skype chat with Howard Binkow, author of Howard B Wigglebottom Learns to Listen. The kids loved it! He was the most patient man ever and I'm sooo grateful!! One little guy had his first meltdown in weeks in the first 2 minutes of the chat! Howard called a little early just as my kids were walking into class. I had them come early for this little and changes in routine are NOT an easy thing in the world of autism! I honestly had the kid screaming at the top of his lungs while on Skype! I wanted to cry! Howard was sooooo patient and didn't seem to be bothered in the least by this little snafu. Thank goodness!

After the kid calmed down Howard jumped right in with showing the kids all sorts of cool things on his website. The kids were entranced! He was so friendly the whole time. Then our internet connection was being it's usual temperamental self...let's remember I teach in a 100 year old cottage. Not exactly up to speed with Skype technology! He didn't mind at all when we had to call each other back two...or three...okay maybe 4 times. Hahaha.

Time to share the good stuff he showed us!

Free Animated Books!

Games!

The kids wrote questions for him this week and Howard Binkow answered them very nicely. We discovered there are actually two more books coming out this year! One is about who to trust, and the other is...oh gosh, I suddenly don't remember! Either way, I remember it sounding like a fabulous topic in the moment! He was so nice to talk to and very generous with his time. We chatted with him for about 30-45 minutes! Then in the afternoon the kids watched his animated books on the computers. I love that the books all teach an important lesson!

We also got to see the pilot episode of The Wiggle Tales!

If you are interested in an author visit, I believe there is a place to request one on the web page at http://wedolisten.org. I happened to get lucky and Howard Binkow found me and offered to do this for us.

Feel free to link up and share your success of the week!




Now what you've all been waiting for... THE GIVEAWAY WINNERS!!! I'm working on sending out the emails to the MANY fabulous contributors for this great giveaway. If you won, you'll be getting an email from me by the end of the day (Saturday) and you'll start getting your prizes in your email from the people who donated their products for your prize very soon :)

It's almost author chat time!

I am SUPER DUPER excited that we get to have an author chat (via Skype) with Howard Binkow tomorrow morning! He wrote the Howard B. Wigglebottom books that I made activities for earlier this year. He contacted me about a month ago and asked if he could Skype with my class and of course I said yes.

My kids are so excited about it that they are voluntarily coming to school a half hour early! We normally start at 8:25, but the kids are coming at 7:55 for our 8:00 Skype time. I promised them that when the rest of the kids have to go into their classes, we'll get to go play outside since they are missing their playtime before school. This made them feel extra special.


We chose his book Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen as the basis for our questions. It was a bit of a struggle to get my kids to create questions at first. If you aren't familiar with autism...It's actually really hard for them to generate questions spontaneously. It took the prompt of "questions usually start with who, what, when, where, why or how" because at first the kids said "You're books are really cool!" and I had to explain that that's a compliment, not a question. Then later in the day, Genius Boy came to school and I handed him a marker and told him to think of a couple more, so his are the last 4 on the list. He came up with really good ones all on his own.

1. Why did you make Howard a bunny?
2. Why doesn't he listen?
3. Why does the character have the same name as you?
4. How many books have you written?
5. Will there be more Howard B. Wigglebottom books?
6. Did you illustrate the books?
7. How did you write the books?
8. How long did it take you to write the books?
9. When did you start writing the books?

Oh I forgot to mention something... IT'S CRAZY HAIR DAY TOMORROW! So who knows what kind of crazy my kids will look like tomorrow! I sent Howard a message warning him my kids would look silly before we answer the Skype call looking like crazy people!

Oh, and I have a shadow student visiting my class tomorrow to see if he will be joining our school next year. So he'll probably think we're crazy too. I know nothing about this kid so I told the parents to bring him after the chat is over...just in case. He looks fabulous on paper but...sometimes shadow days = Lisa runs out the door to catch them!

Last but certainly not least... Don't forget to enter my GIGANTIC bloggy birthday giveaway! You only have 1 more day to enter! There are 5 Rafflecopters and 27 prizes! You can enter on my Facebook page for part of it or on by clicking the image below to get to the full list of prizes and raffles.

Busy busy spirit week!

This is going to be short and sweet... I am CRAZY busy trying to get things done in the last 3 weeks of school! Plus it's spirit week! I was teaching in my PJ's on Monday, and rocking my hot pink soccer socks and my uniform today for Sports Day. Tomorrow is Superhero day...not sure I have anything ready for that!

I'm scrambling to get all sorts of paperwork done this week before the chaos of the last week of school sets in. I've got social skills assessments, report cards, common core standards progress reports, class awards, a slide show, and who knows what else I'm forgetting. I know I need to have my whole classroom empty by the end of the school year since I won't be returning in the fall. I'm super excited about my new job, but it's going to be a very wacky couple of weeks until then!

Just in case you missed it, yesterday was my 1st Bloggy Birthday! Click the image below to go to yesterday's post and the FIVE Rafflecopters to win fabulous prizes!!

It's My 1st Bloggy Birthday!!

It is exactly one year ago today that I started this little blog! This has been the best adventure ever! I started this blog after reading so many great teacher blogs. I honestly never thought anyone would read my blog! Now here I am a year later and I'm at 230+ followers!

I THANK YOU for sharing your ideas, reading my venting posts, supporting my TPT store, and I am especially thankful for all of the new friends I've made thanks to this little blog! For the last 4 years I have been the only K-2 at my school, which means I've never had anyone to swap teaching ideas and materials with. It was something I took for granted at my old school, and greatly missed. Thanks to all of you, I know have people to share teaching ideas, lessons, and super amazing classroom materials. It's so fun to take a peek into other classrooms while you take a peek into mine!

Now it's time to celebrate!! Time to give away some awesome prizes! Feel free to enter in as many of the raffles as you want! I have them sorted into categories for you so you won't win things that have no use in your classroom, just the prizes you want for your class and needs!

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MY AMAZING CONTRIBUTORS!!