You'll Want This Teacher Resource

I can't believe I've been teaching for almost 11 years and just recently discovered education.com! Boy have I been missing out! This site is a teacher's paradise! Not only do they have over 20,000 worksheets available for download...check out every thing else they offer!

Over 350 Interactive Games

You can even download and print Workbooks!

The hands-on activity section is one of my favorites and with over 3,500 activities to choose from, there's sure to be something for everyone.

Over 1,300 Lesson Plans!

Nearly 400 exercise downloads to give your students additional practice!

And the songs...I LOVE the songs! Quickly pull up a song to help your students learn any concept.

There's even over 70 interactive stories! Can it get any better?!

Yes it can!!!! If you follow The Bender Bunch, then you know....WE LOVE SCIENCE! Just look at these Science experiments! Just this section alone is a Science teacher's paradise, with nearly 1,700 experiments to choose from!

There's also educational and parenting articles and navigating the site is super user-friendly. You'll need to create a free account to use Education.com and you can do that here. The free basic membership gives you unlimited access to the Science projects and educational articles, but limits your monthly access to the other resources. Every month your allowed downloads is reset though. So if you'll only be using the Science or needing just a couple activities a month, the basic membership will be perfect for you.

However, if you want unlimited access and want to get your hands on all of these fabulous resources any time you want, you can upgrade to a premium membership. 

Get all the worksheets, workbooks, interactive activities, lesson plans, exercises, songs, and stories you want and need, any time you need them, and in one place with the premium membership. It is sooooo worth it! 

I also like that if you're only interested in the workbooks, you can purchase the workbooks for $4.99 each without having to upgrade to a premium membership. So there's lots of great options to fit everyone's needs.

Education.com granted me permission to share a sample activity from the activity section on their site with you. I think I'm going to use it for our Multicultural Family Art Night at school this year. It would also be a great activity for teaching feelings and emotions. I love that for our special needs kiddos, there is no wrong or right when it comes to expressing yourself through art.

Sample Activity:

Create a Cubist Self-Portrait

Is your child a budding artist? Support his creative nature by helping him to learn about art styles, and work on art process explorations. The cubist movement began in the twentieth century with the creation of abstract, broken up works of art. Translate this into a fun activity for young students by encouraging cubism-inspired art made at home.

The cubist collage self-portrait activity will help your child to better observe, analyze, and reconstruct his own imaginative thoughts. Additionally, it reinforces basic math skills such as geometry. It promotes self-awareness, and can even help build aesthetic awareness. Moreover, he'll learn a little art history while he's at it!

What You Need:

• Construction paper (at least two pieces)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Crayons, oil pastels, or markers
• Mirror

What You Do:

1. Ask your child to take a look in the mirror. What does he see? How does the face change with each expression of emotion he makes?
2. Now it's time for your child to create a pencil drawn self-portrait. This can be a close up of just the face, neck, and shoulders or a full length portrait.
3. Have your child color in the pencil self-portrait with crayons or makers. For added fun, try oil pastels. Using these soft, crayons-like utencils is a great way to introduce your child to different artistic tools.
4. After the self-portrait is finished, have your child cut the drawing into pieces that form geometric shapes. Make sure that the pieces are not too small.
5. Have your child rearrange and reassemble the cut-out shapes of his portrait. Then, have him glue them down on a blank sheet of construction paper. He should rearrange them in a way that makes a completely new abstract portrait. Let his imagination run wild! There are no limits to the ways in which he styles his composition.
6. Enjoy your child’s abstract cubist collage!

Try extending this project by asking your child to create several self-portrait collages. Each work of art can be varied by altering the facial gestures, their arrangement, and even the colors used. Ask your child to choose colors that connect with the emotion in the drawing. For example, a sad picture may be blue while a happy portrait could be bright yellow.

Which resource categories are you most excited about? Check out all the categories on your education.com tour here. 

SPED NECESSITIES

So you're a brand new SPED teacher....what do you need for your classroom? What are the priorities? I asked some of my friends from "We Teach Sped" and this is what they had to say.

~Alyssa from "Simply Special Ed" can't live without SAND TIMERS & SPORTS TIMERS on Amazon. Find Sports timers on Amazon here.

~Kate from "Fun in ECSE" can't live without VELCRO. Definitely a must. Feiner Supply is the best place to purchase your Velcro. Go here to purchase.

~Nicole from "Learning Lab" can't live without a DESK CALENDAR. She uses it to write in important tasks since it's always right on her desk and too big to lose! She also writes notes to herself on it so she can see them first thing every morning. These can be found at Walmart, Target, or any office supply store.

~Jennipher from "Teach.Love.Autism." says the best investment you can make is a personal LAMINATOR. I must agree, I LOVE my laminator! You can find the one that I have here for only $20 and it's worked great for over two years now! I purchase my laminating sheets from SAMS; 200 for only $20, which is one of the best deals I have found. You can see the ones I use here. 

~Pam from "Mrs. P's Specialities" encourages a ROLLING DRY ERASE BOARD that is magnetic. She says you can use it for directions, in the writing center, in the magnetic center, for small group instruction, and more. I love this idea! I found a few on Amazon, but a little pricey. I'm going to shop around a little more for this item.

~Erin from "You-Aut-A-Know" recommends DRY ERASE MARKERS galore! She uses them to write on the tables in her classroom. Yes, you can definitely never have enough dry erase markers. Students also just love being allowed to use these to write on their tables/desks. They're a little pricey, so when you catch a sale, STOCK UP!!

~Brie from "Breezy Special Ed" suggests MINI DRY ERASE BOARDS. She says their perfect for on the go first/then boards, token boards, and a place to write reminders of social stories!

~Now my turn....here are some of my most used purchases in my classroom that I truly could not live without! 

This timer is the greatest! I have timers going all over the place in my classroom and kids on reinforcement timers continuously throughout the day. With this timer you can set it for up to four students at a time. It is available on Amazon here.

Another timer I could not live without! This is the "Time Timer" from Lakeshore and it comes in 3 different sizes. I use this timer for center rotations and I love it because it allows me to monitor when the rotation is coming to an end and whether or not I have time to start a new activity or not. It's also great for those students that need predictable time and/or warnings of an activity ending. Now while I mentioned these are available at Lakeshore, check with your Assistive Technology Department first! I was able to get mine for free from my AT Dept. 

If you are going to be using a PECS program with any of your students, I highly recommend this purchase for new teachers or teachers just starting PECS. You will have just about every symbol you could imagine right at your fingertips without the stress of having to create symbols you find you need as you go or without worrying about what program you will need to create them. This set has been a major time and lifesaver for me and is available here. It is worth every penny!

One other thing I highly recommend is a pair of Titanium non-stick scissors. These will be your best friend for cutting Velcro. 

And lastly, be sure to have plenty of token boards on hand and plenty of reinforcers. 

I hope this post has been helpful! I wish you the best of luck!

Look at My Oriental Trading Finds

I just love Oriental Trading and especially their "Teacher Supply" Section. So when they gave me the opportunity to do another product review, of course I said "Yes!" 

Here is what I picked out and I love it all! Everything is going to be so useful for next year!

Dry Erase Number Bond Task Cards
The set includes 50 cards, erases nicely, and I like that they are very thick and durable.
Check them out here.

Place Value Mats
I love these! They are very large, 14 x 18, and are very durable and laminated.
See them here.

Number Bond Pizza Wheels
So cute and fun, what child would not want to do these? It's hard to see, but these are wheels that children can spin around to reveal a new number. They are a little flimsier than I was expecting, but are laminated and also dry erase.
Check them out here.

Context Clues Puzzles
One of my faves! Context Clues are difficult to teach to students with intellectual disabilities. This will be a great place to start, allow me to target this skill, and will be easy enough for most of my students to do. I also like that the puzzle pieces are the same, so my students can't just try to match up pieces.
Find them here.

What Am I Game?
We actually played this on the last day of school and my kids loved it! Lots of fun and a great time filler when you need something quick.
Check it out here. 

Nuts 4 Contractions
This will be super fun and engaging for practicing contractions next year. The box and cards are thick and very sturdy. Include 50 contractions, 100 puzzle pieces in all. The only thing I would change for this resource, is a lid for the box. Since there is not a lid, it is more difficult to store and stack.
See it here.

You can read another OT review I did here on resources that I still use in my classroom.

BIG NEWS! Oriental Trading has also recently updated their site to provide a new and improved, explicit webpage just for teachers allowing a more pleasant shopping experience, called "Learn 365." Teachers can now shop by grade level and/or subject.

If you haven't shopped the OT Teacher Supply Section, you should check it out! They have lots of good stuff and it's ALL VERY reasonably priced!

Need Resources? No Budget? Get What You Need!

Need supplies for your classroom? Have a limited budget? Have you heard of Donors Choose?

I often assume that all teachers know about Donors Choose, but recently discovered that many teachers out there have never heard of it! Especially newer teachers!

Well let me just tell you...you want to know about this fabulous organization! Donors Choose is a place where teachers can post their classroom projects and supply requests and donors can choose to fund your request. While not every project gets funded, I have posted 4 projects/requests on Donors Choose, and 3 of the 4 have been fully funded! According to Donors Choose, 70% of projects are fully funded! So that's a pretty high chance!

And project funding just keeps growing!

Here are the projects I have had funded!

Donors Choose is completely free and works on a point system. The more points you earn, the more options you'll have and the more funding you can request. You can even request funds for a field trip and a class visitor, once you've earned enough points, or even seek funding for professional development for yourself such as curriculum guides, books, workshops, seminars, and even courses!

After you create an account and create your project, you'll shop and select the resources you need from their online vendors and if and when your project is fully funded, Donors Choose automatically ships the resources directly to you! Choose from many popular vendors that you know and love like Scholastic, Lakeshore, School Specialty, Amazon, Nasco, Kaplan, Best Buy, just to name a few!

Here's how easy it is! Select your project type.

Then tell a little about your students.

Next, choose your vendor and start shopping.

Summarize what's in your cart and continue.

Give your project a title and explain how your project will impact your students.

And that's it! Submit and Donors Choose will review your submission within 5 days and either approve it or provide you with suggestions or corrections that need to be made to help you have the greatest chances of being funded. 

Once it's approved and posted, sit back and wait for it to be funded! Sometimes your project will receive multiple donors, as donors can choose to partially fund your project or simply donate a few dollars. Each time a donor gives to your project, you will receive an email notification. 

You'll also receive a custom URL to share your project with others and if you start a project for submission and don't have time to finish, it will be saved to your drafts to return back to later.

Projects do have an expiration date and only remain on the site for a few months...unless it has changed, it was 4 months. If your project is not fully funded, your points used will be returned to you and any donors that donated will be credited. 

The only requirement Donors Choose has is a mandatory thank you package if your project is funded. You must upload an impact letter and pictures of the resources in action to Donors Choose within a certain timeline that will be forwarded on to your donor(s). They respect student privacy, don't allow last names or uniform logos to show and provide photo releases for parents to sign. 

It doesn't get much easier than that! Donors Choose has allowed me to obtain resources for my students that I otherwise would not have been able to provide for my students. They are making a difference and impacting the lives of so many children! Allow them to make a difference in the lives of your students and submit your project TODAY! :)

Pin or share with others!

THANKFUL GIVEAWAY!!!

I am sooooo grateful for all of you ALL YEAR LONG!!! But since November is a month of THANKS, I wanted to reach out and show my THANKS even more.

I know how much teachers love and need Starbucks, so I'm giving away a $50 Starbucks gift card to one lucky winner...and for you non-coffee drinkers, you get a chance to enter a separate giveaway to win a flashdrive bracelet pre-loaded with 11 resources of your choice from my TpT Store! Love coffee and The Bender Bunch resources?? Enter both giveaways!

Giveaway will run through the 18th, and one winner for each giveaway will be announced on November 20th. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy time with family and be sure to express your THANKS to someone you are thankful for! 

Phenomonal SmartBoard Website

Do you have a SmartBoard or other interactive whiteboard in your classroom?? Then you need to know about Smartboardingschool.com. Smart Boarding School is a website that I use in my classroom nearly every single day! It's a website that has over a thousand primary educational resources for use on interactive whiteboards. And it's free! 

Resources are divided into 4 subject areas and by age level, so you can easily choose appropriate activities for your students.

Once you choose a subject from here, you'll be taken to a page to choose what skill in that subject you want your student(s) to practice. 

This particular skill page for numbers has over 40 activities alone! As you can see you can also choose to have your students practice addition, subtraction, money, place value, patterns, and so much more!

Here's a peek at the Literacy and the Science categories for 6-8 year olds. 

Just click and play! It also allows students the opportunity for choice if you want to allow your students the flexibility of choosing what they practice. It's super easy to use. I love that everything is right there and I don't have to scroll through my flashdrive SmartBoard file looking for SB activities for each group as they rotate to the SB center. 

I LOVE using the SmartBoard in my classroom and this is the best online SB resource I have found! If you're not using your SB, get over to Smart Boarding School and start! Your students will love you for it! :)

Happy Smartboarding, 

Win a POST-IT NOTE TREASURE CHEST!

I am just drooling over here! I mean what teacher wouldn't want to win a POST-IT NOTE TREASURE CHEST!?! This is literally ten pounds of post-its!!! Well fortunately, it could be your lucky day. Thanks to my fellow bloggers below, one of you will receive this in your mailbox! :)

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: Post-It Note Treasure Chest

Giveaway Organized by:  Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:  An Apple for the Teacher, Mrs Roltgen, The Literacy Garden, Tried and True Teaching Tools,  The Chocolate Teacher, Mrs Humphries Class, MM Bilingual, Samson's Shoppe,

Powerpoint Gaming, Mrs Irvins Toolbox, Momma with a Teaching Mission on TpT, and The Bender Bunch.

It's super easy! Just enter the rafflecopter below! And even better, it's open worldwide!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also Teachers Pay Teachers is having it's store-wide BTS sale today and tomorrow! It's a great time to clear out those wishlists and shop for back to school while you can save up to 28% off! My entire store is on sale! Be sure to enter the promo code, BESTYEAR for the additional savings!

I'm so excited to see who will win all of these post-it notes! Enjoy the sale!