For those of you who are familiar with my blog – you will know that I LOVE flip books. I use apraxia flip books all the time in therapy and love the versatility they provide. I recently put together a
Books are an awesome way to teach grammar concepts. The list of grammar books inside is meant to provide you with resources for different grammar topics!
As our reading tutor training continues, we’ve learned a lot of great new ideas about how to teach the basics of reading and phonics to students of all ages, especially students that are English language learners (ELL). One of the things that we’ve done some extensive work with is the vowel circle. The vowel circle is composed of five categories designed to help students recognize vowels patterns in their spelling and in their every day speech. It starts out with the first group that is the smilers. Smilers are vowels or vowel patterns that, when said, have your mouth form a smile-like shape, such as the “ee” in cheese or the “ay” in play. Next come the open vowels. When open vowels or vowel patterns are used the mouth usually ends in an open position, such as the “aw” in saw. The round vowels are ones that usually leave your mouth in a rounded position with your lips slightly puckered, such as the “o-e” in tune or the “oa” in coat. The crazy r’s are there to remind students that r’s make vowels do crazy things that they wouldn’t do around other consonants and that –er, -ir and –ur all sound the same in a word. The sliders are an interesting category because they make your mouth slide from one position (either open, round or smiler) to another, such as the “ou” in out when your mouth slides from open to smiler. The vowel circle is a great tool to use in many elementary grade levels. It really helps students to make associations with vowels and create connections in their brains where they might not have had them before. The vowel circle enables the students to connect vowel sounds to a visual (the pictures in the circle and the actual text of the vowel pattern) to a sound, to a feel in their mouths. Students that use the vowel circle correctly and constantly in class and small group have shown a marked improvement in both their spelling and their decoding skills. If you’re working in an elementary school or simply want to work on pronunciation at home, looking at the vowel circle is a good place to start. Happy Reading!
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein Isn’t it frustrating when you get that sense of deja vu in a conversation or argument, where it just seems... Read More
I LOVE saving figurative language until June - it's such a fun language unit ... and perfect for our "dreaming of summer brains". We finished up our EQAO testing mid week, and this onomatopoeia activity was the perfect break from testing. How fun is that??? Students chose two contrasting colours - one for the background and one for the word and border "bursting out of the page". They also needed newspaper (cut just a fraction smaller that the "bursting out of the page border" and glued the newspaper on top. They glued their word on top of that (we had brainstormed a lot of onomatopoeia words, but for some reason most of them chose SPLAT for their word). I also had them do a little shading under their letters for that little extra POP (see, I know some onomatopoeia words, too). ;) I had seen this awesome idea on Pinterest and followed it back to Artisan des Arts. Her examples are FANTASTIC!! We also wrote simile poems this week. I found a little template HERE for the students to use for their rough copies. When students were finished their templates, I had them write out their good copies, and illustrate a few lines with a small image. I hung these up, too ... LOVING our bulletin board switch up ... even this late in the school year!!! (I have two of these "smART class" bulletin boards side by side in the classroom. 15 more school days left ... I think I can ... I think I can ... Happy Friday!!!
My students strive to follow our school Code of Conduct but even on the best of days mistakes happen and someone is hurt by the actions of another. My goal is always to resolve relationship-damagin…
The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless exp…
This Finish the Drawing TV worksheet gets your child to think, imagine, and draw. Use this Finish the Drawing TV worksheet with your child.
Prepare with our MFT practice test questions. These questions will help you increase your MFT exam score. Learn more.
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A guide to Syncing with your Cycle Cycle Syncing is the practice of naturally balancing hormones by structuring our life around the four phases of our menstrual cycle. This includes the foods we eat, how we exercise, the way we work, socialize, and interact with the world. Cycling Syncing is tre
Continuing our epic journey towards Shakespeare's 400th death anniversary on Saturday, here is a handy-dandy board game that allows you to relive all the exciting ups and downs of this master playwright's eventful life!
It seems like every day there is an endless stream of students reporting behaviors or incidents that happen in the classroom. On one hand, we want to help our students feel heard and validated so they know we are a safe person for them to talk to. On the other hand, we certainly don't want to feed into the tattle machine. It's a fine line to walk. So how do we handle tattling in our classrooms?
You never know what you're gonna see. Life is a continuous event that has one surprise after another. Even if you plan it perfectly, you never know what you're gonna get in the next moment. And that is what makes life so much fun. However, sometimes this means you will get to see or hear
This FREE handout is a great activity for warm-ups or even early finishers. This handout was inspired by the book Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg. Here is the BLANK version. This is a good opti…
Check out these fun activities from Award Winning Author/Illustrator Jarett Lerner to do at home or in the classsroom. Includes comics, drawing, and more.
A blog about autism resources and support from a special ed teacher with first-hand experience.
I found this on ‘Women With PTSD: a safe place’ (*a great FB page to check out.) On bad days when I feel overwhelmingly low in energy I don’t push myself to do anything. (I’…
Book summary of The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer including 20 conscious themes and top quotes: liberation, witnessing, letting go, energy, & more
Anger is probably the #1 issue the kids I work with deal with. In this post you will find many great links, worksheets, and resources for addressing anger in children of all ages. One of my favorit…
The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless exp…
My articulation and language screener are quick tools to help determine if a student may need further assessment or where a teacher can begin interventions in the classroom.
Reviewing hero’s journey examples can simplify this concept and aid in understanding. Explore each step of the journey and clear examples.
The list below contains the books I have used over the years for teaching figurative language. Some of them are designed to teach about figurative language and some of them are books with figurative language woven naturally into the poem or story. Just recently, we shared how we used one of these books to do a text ... Read More about Books with Figurative Language
Song Index
