Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Good Things Come in 3's!

I just finished the latest unit I am using in my classroom, People Make a Difference!  It's just in time for February for those who celebrate Black History Month.  I created 3 mini books, Rosa Parks, MLK, and Ruby Bridges with reading skills.  It also has 3 literacy workstations and 3 math workstations.  And best of all, it's FREE for the next 24 hours!  So hop over and download it while you can!


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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Shadow Puppets and Poetry

I LOVE teaching at an arts integrated school!  Our kids have the most amazing opportunities! This week, we had a visiting artist teaching workshops to all of the classes.  We ended the week with an amazing puppet show.  Matt Sandbank taught each class about poetry and how he uses poetry to bring his puppets to life.  The kids, and adults, were in awe of Mr. Matt and his work.  He showed my class how he makes his shadow puppets and made a very special puppet for each child.  He had them act out a scene with their puppet for the rest of the class.  The kids had so much fun and have begged to do puppet shows all week.  Mr. Matt has transformed our school.  While in bus duty this week, I saw several kids writing their own poetry.  I saw kids writing poetry during their lunch.  I can't believe how one class with Mr. Matt turned our kids into writers!

Here are a few pics from the puppet show Mr. Matt did for us.  Stop by his website and checkout some of his work.  Maybe you can get him to come to your school.  You won't be sorry!!

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Arctic Landscapes


I teach in an arts integrated school and since we started integrating the arts into all core subjects, student achievement has dramatically improved, even in my special ed classroom.  We are learning about Antarctica.  This week we created amazing landscapes that were inspired from Dali's Moustache.  We added in the Southern lights and discussed so many art and science vocabulary.  We learned about tints, foreground, middle ground, background, perspective, habitats, Southern lights, and Antarctic animals.  We ran out of time, but I wanted to add in fingerprint penguins, but maybe next year.


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Monday, January 9, 2012

Such a wonderful surprise....


I came home to a wonderful surprise this evening!  I found a super-sweet comment from Kara at Sped-venture! (Don't you just love the name of her blog?!)  I found out I received the Versatile Blogger Award! I feel so honored to be a part of this awesome community of teacher-bloggers! Make sure you check her blog out!

The rules for the award go like this:

-Thank the person who gave you the award:
Thank you so much Kara from Sped-Ventures!  I love meeting other special education teachers!

-Tell seven random things about yourself:

1.  I am married to a wonderful man, who is also a teacher and we have two amazing daughters. They are 4 and just turned 6.  They keep us very busy and entertained.  I can't imagine my life without them!
2.  I want to get my masters from Full Sail Education Media Design & Technology.  How cool would it be to learn how to create your own education apps to review/practice the standards you are teaching in your class?  Kids are such tech junkies and would love to spend time on the ipod/ipad.  

3. I love to read blogs.  I get sucked in and an hour magically disappears!
4.  I am also addicted to Pinterest.  (Again, I sit down and an hour disappears.)
5.  I wish I could teach in house shoes everyday.  I hate shoes.
6.  I love chocolate and mountain dew!  The more stressed I am, the more I consume.  Not a good example for the kids.
7.  I have been teaching for 13 years, and I still love it.  I love the kids.  They make me smile.   I love it when they make connections to learning and "get it".


-And then, give the award to some newly discovered blogs! Check out these great blogs!  They always have a ton of freebies to share!




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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Happy New Year! Happy New Freebie!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!  I have a new freebie for everyone!  It's creative writing/journaling papers for the months of January and February.  Topics include playing in the snow, Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, and snow.  Each graphic is has both primary and half inch lines for students to use.  I hope you all enjoy this and are able to use it in your classroom.  Here's to a great 2012 to everyone!


Classroom Freebies Manic Monday

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