New Santa Interactive Book and Sale

Is your cart full yet?  I know mine is.  My whole store will be 20% off and if you use the promo code, you can get another 10% off.

My new Santa interactive book is up and ready for the big sale.  Of course, it will be 50% off until Wednesday.  You can grab it by clicking on the picture below.

Special Education Blog Hop and Sale

I'm so excited to be part of a special education blog hop.  I've teamed up with a few of my Special Education friends to bring you some tips and freebies this Thanksgiving.

This is my tip for you.  Use Velcro.  I love, love, love, Velcro.  I use it for everything but one of my favorite applications is for math manipulatives.  For children with poor fine motor control, Velcro is perfect for keeping pieces in place.

Now for your freebie.  

Get an early start on Christmas with this cute little counting game for numbers 1 to 5.  Click on the picture below to grab it.

I'm also having a sale.  Click on the button below to head on over to my store for some great deals.  My whole store is 20% off.

And 4 of my bundles are 35% off.  You can find them in my featured section.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you were able to use my tip.  For more freebies and tips, continue the trip through the blog hop by checking out Mrs. H's Resource Room...just click the button below.

New Snowman Interactive Readers

I saw the cutest graphics the other day and just knew that I had to update my Snowman Interactive Readers.  Remember, I've you have bought them already, you can download the new ones for free.  If you haven't got them already, they will be 1/2 price until the middle of the week.

Turkey Interactive Easy Readers

I just love my new Build a Turkey Interactive books. They come with flash cards and mini take home books for the kids to fill in and colour. They are 1/2 price until Wednesday.

Christmas Freebie

It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas. I'm going through all my old files and updating them.

Here's my first one. It's a little freebie for you. I updated the numbers so they are easier to read.

Click on the picture below to grab it.

Squirrel math update and a freebie

 My squirrel math activities has been updated to include numbers to 20.  If you have already bought it, don't forget to go back and download the update for free.  You can grab it by clicking on the first picture.  Go to the end of the post to grab the freebie.

Here is your freebie.  It's the first activities for numbers 1 to 5.  Click on the picture to grab it.

The Book Whisperer - Chapter 7

This week is Chapter 7, the last chapter, of our book study on "The Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller. 

If you don't have the book already,  you can grab it here.  It's not too late to grab the book and read back through the wonderful posts from everyone.

This chapter is called "Letting Go". 

The one thing that stuck out to me in this chapter was this line, "I have been told many times, both to my face and through comments on my blog, that I am not preparing my students for the "real world" by letting them read whatever they want" p166.  

This rang so true to me.  We (my EA's and I) have throughout the years not been supported (at times) in our views on reading instruction.  

Does a child need to know the whole alphabet in order to learn how to read?

  If a child is not "getting" certain letters do you drill, drill, drill until they do?  

Because part of our mandate is to take children who have just had surgery. I have had older students come to me for a short time.  Often, they have been unable to read even level one books (and hating it) and having not mastered the alphabet yet (I'm talking grade 3 or 4).  

Each year on their IEP is "knows 15 letters working on the rest",  then the following year "knows 17 letters working on the rest" etc. You get the picture. They would be in high school before they knew the whole alphabet.

  Do we start teaching them how to read then?  

In the 8 weeks of reading instruction in my class these children often jump to level 4 or above and are actually asking to choose books and to read to me. 

 Unfortunately I only have these students for a short time  after surgery before they return to their home schools. 

I know the endless drills are not working.  Does that mean that I don't work on the alphabet or phonics? No, but I work on them in the context of activities and books and real time practice.   We read, read, and read the sight words we have practiced in real books.

Each of my students have the opportunity to choose a book they want to read and then read it to me everyday. They then take it home and read it to parents.  This takes up a huge amount of my time and I've often wondered if I should stop and just have the children take the book home or maybe even pick the book for them and send it home to save on time.

 I now realize that I can't do that.  That the time they spend reading in my class has an impact on their reading levels and their motivation.   I know that the children argue about who comes to read to me first.  I hope this means I'm doing something right.

I hope you have enjoyed our reflections on the book.  Here are more links to chapter 7.

Last one:

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanksgiving Work Stations

Even though Thanksgiving has come and gone here in Canada, I've been working on some Thanksgiving work stations for my American friends.

Here are nine turkey work stations in both literacy and math.

 Click on the first picture to grab it.