Monday, December 15, 2014

Pajama Day for Special Needs Learners

I'm sure this may vary with your student group from year to year, just as it has with mine, but the idea of pajama day isn't always easy for some of our special needs learners. Particularly those with autism. Trying to understand the concept behind wearing pajamas to school when they've always been told they have to get dressed in the morning and wear clothes to school can be quite challenging for some.



This year, along with our letter about pajama day, I have decided to send home some additional resources to families for pajama day.

I've included some tips and tricks for preparing your child for pajama day, as well as a one page social story for families to review with their child before pajama day.


If you are interested in this pack you'll get the items mentioned above, plus a letter to families and a reminder to send home the day before pajama day. All of this for {free}!

In my classroom, on pajama day, we also show a movie, have hot chocolate and cookies. We keep our daily routine as close to the same as possible. We turn on the movie during free center play so the students have the option to watch or play with toys. At such a young age, for a lot of students, sitting still through a whole movie isn't always realistic.

Do you have any tips for a smooth pajama day in the classroom??


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Sunday, December 14, 2014

Cookie Tray Tips!

Do you use my cookie tray activities in your classroom? I wanted to share some tips with you for prepping these activities. It is a little time consuming for me in the beginning, all of the printing, cutting, laminating, and applying the magnets, but you only have to do it once right?

I print all of the pages that go ON the cookie tray, on standard printer paper. Then I print all of the pieces that require magnets to apply to the trays on card stock paper. To help go through the file and know what needs to be printed on standard paper and on card stock, there's a formatting trick! (Maybe you've picked up on this by now!)



I buy my magnets at Walmart. In the craft isle you can buy a back with 18 strips inside. They are adhesive on the back and I cut the strips into smaller pieces to fit the size of the item I am using it on. The best part-- each back is .97 cents!  I usually open up a pack and cut it all at once and store it in a container so that when it's time to prep that step is done and it's quick to apply the magnets. The large magnetic buttons I purchased just in case I ever needed them. I applied these to back of some foam geo-blocks, since those are larger and heavier than paper. It worked great!


AND if you follow me on instagram you picked up on this trick already! I print the cover to each cookie tray packet and laminate it onto a large envelope. Then I store everything inside. The pieces simply go into a baggy by activity and all the pages slide right in. Perfect organization!


I currently have 3 different themed cookie tray packs in my TpT store. Click on the images below to find them in my TpT store!

Fall Cookie Tray ActivitiesHalloween Cookie Tray ActivitiesHolly Jolly Cookie Tray ActivitiesHTML Map


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Saturday, December 06, 2014

December Count the Room

I'm late on posting this (as usual I know). The December addition to my Write the Room Bundle is added and the whole bundle is FINALLY completed! Selling an unfinished bundle comes with A LOT of pressure let me tell you. Thankfully you guys rock and never bullied me when I was late on getting a month posted.


And a huge thanks to a lovely Facebook fan for the suggestion for this month's game. Counting tally marks! As soon as I read her comment, the idea of how to set it up came to my mind immediately. See-- you better be a Facebook fan! That's where I go when I'm stumped. If you're not, just click the tab to the right over there.

For December's count the room you're going to hide cards around the classroom with tallies on them. You'll want to hide cards that match up with the recording sheet that you are using. Different recording sheets have different numbers on them.


When a student finds a card with tallies on it, they count them, then look for an ornament on the tree of their recording sheet with that number, and color it in. When the student has found all of the cards around the room each of the ornaments on their tree should be colored in. Each recording sheet has 10 ornaments on it.


I wish I had some sample photos for you, but when my MAC pretty much forced me into updating -- if I wanted to use my new iPhone 6 (which I did), it didn't re-install the technical stuff for my printer. And since I've had my printer since my freshman year of college (yes it still works) I have lost the CDs to install the technical stuff, and therefore am currently printer-less at home. We are in the market for a printer, for obvious reasons, so I'll gladly take any suggestion you have!

If you're interest in this, clicke {here} to go to my TpT store!


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Monday, December 01, 2014

Currently...{December}

So I filled this in last night. After I finished and posted my Holly Jolly Cookie Trays. You know, when I should have been in bed, but slept in too late Sunday morning so I wasn't tired. AND I was adamant about watching The Walking Dead.


Now that I got this posted, time to go fill up my TpT cart with the items from my wishlist! AND maybe finish and item or two to add to my store before the sale ends tomorrow!

Head over to Oh Boy Fourth Grade to join the link up too, or see who else has linked up!




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