Sesnory and Autsim Book list

In my spare time I do presentations on Autism and  Sensory Processing Disorder. Here is a book list that  I give out for the books that I recommend. Feel free to print it and share it. These are  just some of my favorites, however there are a lot of great books out there.

Letter Center

So, the last week has been one of the most emotional weeks of my life. I had a student die from the classroom that I had student taught in since August and I started a new job. With all of that stress I ended up sick... But thats ok... I am a stronger person for making it through the last two weeks... any my house does not look awful ;) I started thinking tonight about my Saturday morning and decided to make something. This is just my own version of something that has been done many times (sorry, little creativity left this week) however this is free for you to print off. Just click on the pictures and save off of that. If you want the files email me and I would be happy to send them. I found the font at: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/lessonplans/ig/Free-Print---Cursive-Fonts/Print-Clearly-Dashed.htm. I think I will be using this font a lot from now on because it is a great kid font and what is a better price then free right?

Here is my partially done example

Baking Word Families

I made this activity for a great little kiddo that I get the privilege to work with one on one. We are working on word families as an aspect of learning words. She loves pretending to cook so I thought the theme of baking cookies fit with that. I figured I would share with the internet words because sharing is a nice things to do ans who wouldn't want to share a cookie. They are $1 on tpt (because I used clipart I purchased). If you want any other word families let me know and I can add it to the pack I am selling on tpt. The current word families are:
at,  ail, am, an, eat, eep, ell, ice, ay, ing, in, ip, it, oat, og, oil, ool, op, ot, uck, ug, unk

Each word family has a cookie tray page and four cookies to be matched to the correct tray.



teachers pay teachers

clip-art from: scapindoodles.com

New Job and new printable!

Today is an exciting day! I was hired on at a great childcare center last night and I am so excited to start next week!

However today I am spending time preparing for a kiddo that I spend time with on Saturday morning. She is a sweet little girl and I am excited to use some new things I have created with her. Something I created today in preparation for tomorrow is a letter and number match. It is a dollar on tpt. Have fun with the matching. I know I will be having fun with them tomorrow!!!

~Amanda


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valintines-letters-and-numbers

http://www.scrappindoodles.com/index.php?main_page=conditions

Games

I love games. They are a great way to slip in learning in a fun way. However I sometimes have a habit of changing the way a game is played. Here are some games I like and how I play them. They are all available on Amazon however I love getting games at little shops and on clearance isle. Goodwill and places like it are also really good for games and books.

Big Fish Lil' fish- I use this game for comparing numbers.  It has two digit numbers so it can be played for a long time. I use it like a war style game game were all players put their card down at one time. The person with the largest card gets all of the cards. The goal is to get the most cards. Ater we play for a while I start to have the children verbally tell be why a number on a card is bigger then the others ie "54 is larger then 34 because there is a five and a three in the tens place and 5 is bigger then three." This adds another level of complexity and helps with verbal skills.
note: If the player guesses then I get all of the cards or they go into a center pot that no one gets. 

Zingo- This is one of my favorite games because the children are able to play a game of bingo by themselves. The regular game is good for kiddos that are working on matching skills. If you want to add another level make cards up that are rhyming words to the Zingo cards. I have made a set for myself and will email them to you if you would like. Here is an example of what the cards look like:

Compound words

I loved teaching compound words to my 2nd graders when I was student teaching. The school that I was at followed the Comprehensive Literacy Model, so we would a mini lesson with the class and then have the children do a guided assignment that worked on the skill. This was one of the guided assessments that the kiddos did for compound words. Before the lesson I cut out the hexagons on page 2 and attached 1 to the center of the hexagon on the first page. (I used small scrap-booking brads to attach them)  The children then spun the center hexagon to make compound words. The kids thought it was a lot of fun and it was nice to do something a little different then a typical worksheet.

I have complied the two pages on tpt for free. teacherspayteachers.com


*I did see an idea like this online someplace one time and that is were the concept came from*

Brown and Pink letters

WOW! I love brown and pink. Our wedding was brown and pink, our house has a lot of brown and pink, and why not add some letters to my classroom that are brown and pink. They can be used during this time of sweet... or any day! These are great for matching and any other fun stuff you can think of with letter. I like to do an activity were I hide the lowercase letters around the room and I have the uppercase letters at circle time. I tell the kids that the grown up letters have lost their little letters and we need to be letter detective to find them. We then think of what the little letter looks like to help us find it in the room. Then a child goes on the hunt. If they are having troubles they can ask from clues. Clues include asking for a hit of what it is by, asking a friend to write it in the air, having the class make the letter's sound, or for it to be drawn on the board. I love to think out of the box of ways to bring in letters to the classroom. The number one goal is for kiddos to fall in love with letters and not to despise them because they are thrown at them all of the time.

I have the letters all made up for you at tpt. It is free because I made them on my own so I don't have to charge for them because I did not use any clip art. Hope you have fun with them. I would LOVE to hear how you used them in your classroom.

Cute little gingerbread men :)

There are so many things that can be done with these cute little guys :) This is an activity that incorporates numbers, ordering, positioning, writing, and drawing. This is a great Christmas time activity or anytime you want some cute little gingerbread to join your world. It is $1 on tpt. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Gingergread-Men-Orders

clip art from: http://www.scrappindoodles.com

Cupcake Patterns

Just in time for Valentines day and all the other sweet occasions in your life (I plan on using them for a bakery unit). This activity is full of different patterns made with cupcakes! YUM! There are mainly AB patters however there are a few ABB and ABC patterns too. There are cards at the end to be placed at the end of the pattern card to complete the pattern. For extra learning there are a set of cards that can be cut out and used to make your own pattern 

This patterns activity is available on TPT. All of the pictures are of cupcakes. It is currently $1.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cupcake-Patterns

The clip art is from http://www.scrappindoodles.com

touch points

I LOVE touch point math because it give a concrete meaning to something that is so abstract to most kids. I love it because it is a stepping stone the children use as long as they need to but are not dependent on it. It is also nice because for many children it is an adaptation that helps them to stay in the regular ed classroom without something that makes them look or act all that different. To help teach and reinforce touch points with a kiddo I made a die-cut set of numbers with construction paper. (I had to do a little work on the 4 so it looked like a kid 4) I then put the touch points on with sticky dots. (To create the dots you count twice I used a hole punch to cut out the center.) To help them last longer I laminated them. He thought they were really cool. I made a few different sets in different colors. (That is why the 8 below is blue, I am not sure where the orange 8 went...). I like these because there are so many different things that can be done with them. I am thinking about making another set that is a little bit smaller so they are able to be used in less space. Maybe a project for my cricut!