Freebie Friday - Bubble Gum Numbers

It's freebie Friday again and here is your freebie!

Match the numbered gumballs with the correct gumball machine.

It includes the number 1 to 5.

Enjoy.

Wonderful Idea Wednesday

Today is Wonderful Idea Wednesday and I wanted to share a tip that just figured out in PowerPoint.  Did you know you can remove the background of your pictures so they look like this?

My original picture looked like this.  But I didn't like the background of the table.

My old version of PowerPoint didn't have the removal feature so I was so excited when I discovered that the new one did.

Here's how you do it. When you click on your picture, go to FORMAT.  On the far left hand side, click on REMOVE BACKGROUND.

A box will appear and everything in purple will be gone when you click save changes.  Move the box around to highlight what you want removed and click save.

Your background will be removed and your picture will look like this.  I wish I had this option in the past.

Don't forget to head on over to Freebielicious to see some more great ideas from some wonderful bloggers.

Work Station Wednesday - Calendar Book

Today is work station Wednesday and I'm so excited about my calendar book.

I have just finished updating it and it's bigger and better.

This calendar book is perfect who have fine motor issues and can't do the regular pencil and paper tasks of most calendar books.  It's also great for children with poor or no speech as you can hold up a lot of the choices for eye gaze users.

The new version includes cover pages.  I've included both girl and boy covers as well as black and white versions that the children can colour.

I used my binding machine to bind this book but you can also put it in a 3 ring binder.

This is the day of the week page.  There are 3 different versions.  This one includes yesterday and tomorrow but there is also one that just says "Today is".  I usually start with that one and as the children get good at that, I switch to this one.

We count the days in school and this board is intended to do just that.  The squares are Velcroed on and we remove one each day.

The number showing the number of days we've been in school.

There are several weather pages.  This one allows the children to place a weather card under each day of the week.  Make several copies of the weather cards if you need doubles.

This board allows the children to make a sentence about the weather. 

Once the children are finished I hand them a microphone and they read their sentence to the class.

This is our weather graph.  The children add a square to the column that corresponds to the chosen weather of the day.

 

These are my favorite pages.  Each day, the children select the season and then dress the child in the weather.  So, for example, if it's raining that day, they can dress their child in a raincoat.  There are boy and girl options.

We start off with easy patterns at the beginning of the year and then progress to more difficult ones as the year progresses.

The 10 frame is new.  Each day I will pick a number and have the children put the corresponding dots on the frame.  Frames are also included for 20 and 30.

The domino page is perfect for working on adding.  I pick a domino and the children make a representation of it on the top left side and make the equivalent equation on the right.  The add up the dots to get the total.

You can use these pages together or separately to work on individual skills.

My calendar book will be on sale for 1/2 price until the weekend.  It's also in a bundle (which is also on sale) with my calendar tracing pages and printables.

Tell us about you - Tuesday

Welcome back for day 2 of the Freebielicious blog hop.

Today it's all about ME!  Aren't you excited? LOL.

This is me and the family.  I've been married 15 years this year and as people know, it's not been easy the past few years.  We continue to put one foot in front of the other with a smile on our faces and do the best we can.

This is my youngest (he's 11) with the newest member of our family, Billy.  After I killed a mouse with hubby's shoe the other week, we figured we needed a better mouse trap.  Mice, you say?  I'll talk about why we have mice a little later.

This is my oldest.  He's 14 and such a big help around the house.  With his Dad being so sick, he's stepped up to the plate and does some of the "manly" things around the house, like cut the grass and fix squeaky doors.

Both boys are goalies.  Oh my goodness, it is stressful being a goalie parent.  The youngest plays on a rep team and the oldest plays house league and does time keeping for extra money.

We have a drag racing car that we took out this year for the first time in 3 years.  I literally cried on the start line because I never thought that hubby would be well enough to drive it again.  I don't know if we will be able to take it out again this year, but it was wonderful to see him in it again.

Now this is the reason we have mice.  Our house was the original one room schoolhouse of our small community.  It was  SS#1 Archer's School and was built in the 1800's.

Of course it doesn't like that now.  The people before us had done some renovations.  We have lived in the house for about 7 years now and have been slowly updating it.  This is what it looks like now.  We still have a lot to do and there are still ways that mice are getting in that we need to fix.  It's a work in progress.

Thanks for visiting and seeing a piece of my life.

Don't forget to hop on over to Freebielicious to see more posts from other bloggers.

Must Have Monday

This week I'll be taking a little break from my regularly scheduled posts to bring you some fun linkys from Freebielicious.

Today is "Must Have" Monday and I thought I would highlight some things that I think are "must haves" for the special education class.

"Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four-Blocks Way" is an awesome book for teachers that have children with disabilities in the regular classroom.  If you have a child with severe disabilities in your class, this book is for you.  It offers real ideas for Working with Words, Guided Reading, Writing and Self-Selected Reading.

Velcro.  I swear I need to buy this by the truck load.  I use Velcro to keep interactive pieces in place in my math and literacy work stations.

Loop Scissors are a must for children with poor fine motor skills or a weak grasp.  They work right or left handed and children can use all their fingers to help.

Adapted toys and switches are important for children with very little fine motor control.  The switch can be placed anywhere (by a foot, a knee, the child's head) and pushing it makes the toy work.  Children with severe disabilities often can't "play" with much independently.  Toys like the one above give them a sense of control over their environment.

Since adapted toys can be quite expensive, we often use one of the adapters pictured below.  You put the little circle piece in between the battery and connector of any motorized toy, and plug a switch like the blue one pictured, into the other end.  Instant switch toy.  You can move the connector to any toy you want.

I hope I've given you a few ideas for the special education class.  

Head on over to Freebielicious to see more "must haves" from other amazing bloggers.