Wacky Wednesday! My Halloween Freebies!

Wacky doesn't even begin to cover it today! Every kid in class was in a total funk today! I swear it became contagious. Days like this make teaching special ed a real challenge. In a regular class, kids can keep going about their business if one kid is out of wack. My little guys need so much help that if one kid is having a tantrum and I get held up, the other kids get thrown off because they can't figure out what to do without specific instructions. I saw 3 sets of tears today (from different kids), several bursts of yelling, door slamming, and a large amount of "NO!" being said (by both them and me!). Did I mention today was Open House and random strangers were touring our school to see if they'd like to bring their kids to our school?! Thank goodness they came in between chaotic moments because of course they had lots of questions about how I run my program and I'm telling them how great it is.

(This is the point where I begin to babble about life as a SPED teacher, so if you don't want to laugh at the thought of me squishing a kid on purpose, you're welcome to skip down to the freebies at the bottom.)

At one point I was laying on a kid to help him calm down. He asked for it, I wasn't punishing him! Some of my kids have autism and crave sensory stimulation to calm down. After a full day of hitting, grabbing, and other inappropriate touching a boy finally asked "Can you squish me?" I about squealed with cheer that he figured out what would make him feel better and asked for it!! I can't do it unless he wants to, or it just makes him more upset. I've tried suggesting it in the past, but he refused. So for math today my little guy laid on the ground on his tummy with a weighted blanket on top of him. Then I laid across his back and he got a full 2 pages of math done without a fight! This was the ONLY completed work out of the entire day, and the only time he didn't touch other people. His mom told me the OT sat on a bean bag on top of him the other day and he liked it, and I could do it too if it would help anything. I'm going to make a reminder card for sensory stimulation so maybe tomorrow he'll ask for it a little sooner if he needs it. I'll post it when it's ready. If you are a SPED teacher and want a modified version of the choice list, just let me know. I realize we all have different equipment/gear in our classrooms.


I'm linking up with Think, Wonder, Teach for Halloween Freebies! I've made a few to share with you. They have become spread out in a few different posts, so now they are all in one! Just click the images!

If you like my Halloween materials, my Numbers to 10 set is only $2.50. I've used the materials in several ways for the last 2 weeks. Feel free to look at other posts to see how I've used them.

Manic Monday! Scarecrow Sight Words Freebie!

Who doesn't love a good freebie?! Grab my latest Freebie- Adorable Scarecrow Sight Words! There are 31 sight words, plus a few blanks so you can add some of your own words if they are missing. I based them on the Kindergarten sight words, but they are also great for beginning 1st graders.

I'm only 15 followers away from my 100 Follower Giveaway!! I already have 3 fellow bloggers donating products for the giveaway fun. If you'd like to join, please let me know through a comment or email me at teacherlisasclass@gmail.com

It's the first rainy day of the school year, and a Monday! I'm going to consider anything better than complete chaos to be a success!

Halloween Pocket Books and Counting Pumpkins

Happy Monday! My day went surprisingly well for a Monday (minus the kid whose parents were an hour and a half late!!!). I taught the kids a new sight word practice strategy, Kindergarten practiced their counting skills, and we started our newest theme pocket books. Have I mentioned how AWESOME Evan-Moor theme pockets are?! I am in no way paid or encouraged to promote these, but I'm OBSESSED with them!! They teach common core standards in fun hands-on ways. Read on to see why I think they are so amazing and totally adorable!

Kindergarten is starting to get pretty good at their sight words, so we practiced identifying them in print. I had the students use a different color for each sight word. We actually did 4 sight words, but I took the pics in the middle of the task. The kids really liked this, even more than I thought they would. My kid with more fine motor skills chose to trace each letter, and one of the boys with fine motor struggles just colored the whole word. I wasn't picky, I just want them to be able to read the words.
 

My Pumpkins, Bats, & Spiders! Oh My! Activities have been a huge hit!! The kids were fighting (more like seriously discussing) who was going to get to count the spiders first! LOVE it when they can't wait to learn! I also bought these perfect little counting pumpkins at Target (did I mention I have a serious Dollar Spot problem?!). They call them "table scatter," but I prefer "fun kindergarten counting stuff!"


 
Time to explain the oh so amazing theme pockets!! I use them all the time for theme units. Some are made up by me, but this week they are made by the wonderful publishers of Evan-Moor. The kindergarten Halloween pockets focus on fine motor and other basic school skills like cutting and gluing. The pockets are: monster puppet, costume popup book, mummy, pull-up Jack O'Lantern, candy corn craft with acrostic poem, and paper bag ghost and riddle activity. Today we focused on making the books and Haunted House cover page.



First/Second graders are doing the Night Creatures theme pocket. They will learn about nocturnal animals, and compare/contrast them. The 3 pockets are: bat, owl, and koala. We made the cover and page labels today, and we'll start the bats pocket tomorrow. The kids were soooo engaged in the activity that I barely heard anything other than the sound of pencils tracing or scissors cutting! Note: I cut the pages and folded/stapled the pockets ahead of time. Older kids can do this...little guys... not so much!

1st/2nd Night Creatures Cover

I alternated the page colors, these are the labels the kids cut and glued

Kinder Halloween Book Cover

The pockets that will be stapled behind the covers when they dry

Top 20 Sight Words PPT *freebie* Plus Linky!

Hey Bloggers!

Happy Monday. Is it just me, or are kids always out of wack on Mondays?! We had our school Hoedown Festival yesterday, so I was at work on a Sunday. The kids had a blast and it was great to happily have zero responsibility over my students and let their parents take care of them while I relaxed and ate yummy food! Sooo not loving the fact that I have to be at school 6 days in a row this week though!! At least their is a happy light at the end of the tunnel called a 3 day weekend!! Our school still gets Columbus Day off thankfully!

So my class LOVES the ABC powerpoint I got from Smedley's Smorgasboard (sorry, it's a general link, I can't find the powerpoint one easily right now). I decided my little guys also need a sight word PPT to go with it! It's pretty simple, but my guys love anything you put on a computer screen. I added a twinkling sound effect, but you are welcome to mute it! Click below to access through Google Docs. It should be editable (I've never put a powerpoint of GDocs before, so we'll see). You can also access this through my TPT store HERE

I'm also teaming up with Learning is Something to Treasure for her *first* linky! Join in and show her some love. After all, her name is Lisa just like me!! The link above is a newbie, but I have a bunch of Oldies but Goodies on my Freebies Link

Here is another great one!