Tower of Language: Word Families

Besides playing sigh word UNO, my students love playing Tower of Language. It's the same concept of Jenga, but you have to read a word on the block before the student gets to keep it. With my students I normally don't take it. I help them sound out the word. For some reason, the students love it when they knock over the tower, they bust out in giggles and then want to set it up again and play it again.

 

 

This one is the word families, but they also have a sight word one and a couple of others.

 

 

 

Hen te tower falls and they all start laughing. Brings music to my ears. Also, after all the moves have been done, you rebuild the tower and continue to play.

 

Happy Learning,

Shannon

 

Word Families

Sorry for not posting lately. I've been coaching track and soccer and it's been really busy. Along with all the Evaluation reports, IEP's and the referrals for the younger students that come in.

I found this activity awhile ago and I honestly don't remember if I got it off a blog or another site. The students love it and like running around the room looking for the lily pads that have the same ending of the card they have in their hand.

This activity has many different word endings, lily pads and frogs. There must be over a 100 word family cards. If I find it again, I will post the link on here.

I start out with handing the students a card and have them sound it out to me. Once they say the word they move on to finding the word around the room. I will lay the lily pads on the floor along with putting them in sneaky places for the older students. You might also have some of the younger students put them on the wrong lily pads, but you just have to correct them and make sure they understand that they need to look at the endings and talk about what words may go with the ending they put their card on the lily pad.

Here are some pictures of what the activity looks like.

 

 

 

 

Happy Learning

Shannon

 

Fine Motor--Nuts and Bolts

I have come across that kids can have different types of motor skills that they need to work on. This activity makings working on the pincer grasp really good. This requires your two fingers to work the nuts and bolts together. I set it up so the kids have to determine which sizes go together and then having to use the pincer grasp.

For the nuts and bolts, I went and asked our janitor at school for different size bolts. He was so willing to help me that he gave me quite a few. Have I mentioned how helpful and funny he is?!?!?!?! If you don't have the. Around your school the local hardware store will work too.

 

Here are some pictures of what it looks like and a student working on the activity.

 

Havin to determine which nut and bolt foes together.

 

 

Happy Learning

Shannon

 

Modified Puzzles

Puzzles can be hard for some students. This year, I have a lot of Autistic, Down Syndrome and Angelman's Syndrome and for these children, puzzles are a challenge. I took these puzzles from the dollar store and took pictures of the puzzles to make color copies of the puzzle. Then, I cut them out and pasted them inside the puzzle.

Here is what the puzzle looked like before I took it apart.

 

Then, after it printed the pictures out, I pasted them inside the puzzle. It's hard to tell that the puzzle pieces are not inside.

 

Once I got done, I let the students work on them. They had fun and it also taught them how to put a simple puzzle together.

 

 

Happy Learning,

Shannon

 

Week at a Glance April 14th - 17th

Here is what you will find we are doing in our classroom this week!  Remember there is NO SCHOOL April 18th and the 21st!!

The Most Important Thing Parents Need To Understand About Special Education

This is a great article and I thought I would share it with you!  

The Most Important Things Parents Need to Understand About Special Education

Happy Learning

Shannon

Crawling Caterpillars

I love all my games that I find. It seems like I seem to find more math games. This game came part of a pack and I just love it. It's so much fun to see the kids enjoy themselves and laugh. I do play sometimes, but I also like to take pictures. You might think all we do is play games, but we do our math lessons, grammar and reading. When we finish, that is when we play our games. Don't get me wrong, I do supplement learning games instead of completing a worksheet. My moto is more hands on is the more they learn.

 

 

 

 

 

Stop on over to the teacherspayteachers.com website and find a lot of the great games and learning materials. I also use Pinterest for ideas.

 

 

Happy Learning

Shannon