Last Chance Special Education resource bundle

 There are only a few hours left in Mega Black Friday Special Education Deal.  Along with this amazing deal you also get a resource(s) (up to $10) of your choice from my store.  Click on any of the pictures below to grab this fabulous deal and send me your pick(s) from my store to aspecialkindofclass@gmail.com.  Don't delay!

3 Days left for the Black Friday Deal

 

Black Friday Special Education Bundle

This deal is only on until Friday.  You get over $500 worth of resources for only $24.  Click on any picture for more information and the link to buy.  And as an extra bonus, anyone who purchases the bundle can pick a bonus product from my store (valued up to $10) for absolutely free.  Just email me at aspecialkindofclass@gmail.com and let me know you have purchased the bundle and which product you would like for free.  Happy Shopping!

Black Friday Bundle Sale

 Hello everyone,

Grab this deal before it runs out on Friday.

Tracing Alphabet Book

 Even though summer holidays have just started here, I am always in teacher mode.  Every year I tell myself that "this year" I'm going to be more organized so that the fall is less stressful.

With that in mind I am beginning to prep some of my alphabet resources.  My alphabet tracing book is the perfect way to start the year.  

All of my students will be new to me, so I have no idea where they are with their alphabet knowledge.  This is fun and quick book to see how many letters and sounds they know and to see where their fine motor skills are at.

I plan on making the colored posters into a tracing center by putting them in erasable sleeves.  This will save me so much laminating.

I also plan to putting up a color wall chart and printing small black and white charts for each of the children to color in themselves.  This will be perfect for when we start writing!

Last but not least, I'm going to put up the alphabet in large format on the wall.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to put up the color version or let each of the children color one letter each and put up that version.

If you are interested in any of this alphabet package, you can find it by clicking on the picture below.

Christmas Visual Discrimination Freebie

I'm so excited to back.  It's been such a long time since I've written a post but I'm happy to be back blogging with my brand new redesigned blog.

In order to celebrate my grand re-do, I've made a new Christmas freebie.

My students this year are very young.  Where I live, students can enter kindergarten at 3 years old.  Combine that with attention difficulties, vision issues and lack of exposure, we have a lot of work to do on visual discrimination.  Visual discrimination is really important for reading.  Being able to tell the difference between b and d,  e and c or t and l are essential for beginning readers.  

We are starting with being able to tell the difference between pictures as well as working on the concepts of  "same" and "different".  Using simple Christmas pictures, we played a game of Concentration. 

We placed the pictures face down on the table, which when getting the children to help me, was a learning experience in itself.

The children took turns turning over two cards and seeing if they matched.  We emphasized the words "same" and "different".  Are these two pictures the same? Yes? Then you get to keep the pair.  Are the two pictures different? Yes? Then you need to turn them back over and the next person gets a turn.

This game is also great for practicing turn taking and following the rules of a game.

You can grab this free Christmas Matching Game by clicking on the picture below.

Start to Summer - Giveaway

I have four days left of school before my summer starts. 

4 DAYS!  

So how do I celebrate? 

 With a Giveaway.

Enter the rafflecopter below for your chance to win a $25 TpT gift card and start your back to school shopping now.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Polar Bear - Day One

"Polar Bear, Polar Bear" is another one of my favorite books by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle.  Like "Brown Bear" it has predictable text that makes it perfect for beginning readers.  Using this book I like to work on the names of the animals, the sight words "I", "a" and "hear" and sentence structure.

When I do this book I usually spend an entire week on it, concentrating on something different each day, while building on the knowledge gained from the day before.  On day one, we use the "I hear a...." board and a copy of the book.

We start by reading the story several times, taking note of the animals and the sounds they make.  Most of the children have heard this story before and are familiar with it but they may be unfamiliar with the sounds of some of the animals.  We often go to the internet to hear the real animals.

Once I'm sure that the children are comfortable with the story,  I have them make the sentence "I hear a ......." as I read each page.   At first I model the sentence along with them and then as they become more confident, they can do it by themselves. For children that cannot pick up the pieces, I hold them up and have them use eye gaze to make a choice.

Even at this early stage we work on punctuation. 

To finish up on the first day, I have the children make a little book to take home or I send it home for homework if we run out of time.  I have a couple of different versions depending on the abilities of my students.  One, they just need to color, the second is a "fill in the blank" and in the last one the children need to trace the animal word.  Sometimes we mix and match the pages.  I have each student complete a page and we make a class book.