Best Ever TpT Center Storage

Trial and error, trial and error! That's my middle name. I believe it has taught me more than any college program ever did! I'm always trying new things, and either they don't work, or they do! I'm always looking for ways to simplify my planning and organization and most of the time it takes much trial and error. I'm a seventh year SPED teacher and I'm still looking for the perfect method to teach and collect data on IEP goals, how to progress monitor effectively, how to develop the perfect multi-level lesson plan, and so on! Does that tell you anything? But through much trial and error I can finally say....I have finally found the perfect way to store my center activities. Problem solved! No more ziplocs! 

Don't get me wrong...I love ziplocs for everything, just not for my centers!!!

I was beyond excited for these to arrive a few days ago!

BEFORE.....

While this may look somewhat organized, it was a pain in the butt! Trying to keep task cards and little pieces in these open ended folders, or staple baggies to the inside, or much less trying to store required dice for an activity in these office folders.? It doesn't work very well! Believe me!

These zipper envelopes are just genius!!! They are 9x12, so they are perfect for storing full page centers and recording sheets. They easily and conveniently store small pieces as well as dice or counters that may be needed for each center! The clear pockets allow you to see what is in the pack or allow you to easily insert a cover page for each center! I just love them! Best investment ever!

Here are my centers now! All neatly tucked away in their own pocket! 

And while everything is always a work in progress for a teacher....now I'm looking at possible color coding as each package comes with 5 colors! The possibilities with these are endless...and there are SO many uses! While these are easy to flip through, you could also organize skills by color. For instance, all base ten activities could be blue, while all addition centers could be yellow. Holiday and seasonal themed centers could also be sorted by color.  

Personally, I try to stay away from too many seasonal/holiday themed centers for a few reasons. Through trial and error, I have learned that these skills are not usually what I need for my students at that time...and adjusting their centers for each holiday/season can cause a great deal of additional work for the teacher when you are working with multiple levels. 

I've already filled up 75 of these zippered envelopes....and just ordered 10 more packs! I don't want to chance them being discontinued as I accumulate more centers. They come 5 to a pack from "www.officesupply.com" and after searching the web, this is the best deal I have found!! You can check them out {here}, and shipping is free on orders that are $45 or more!  

Learn with Your Scrap Tissue Paper

Life Over C's is hosting an awesome linky party this month to show you ways to clean up your craft supplies or use your left over supplies as learning tools! Every day through the 28th teacher bloggers will be sharing their fabulous craft stash ideas with you. Each day a different craft item will be featured from pipe cleaners, to coffee filters, to pom poms to cardboard tubes.....and today, I'm featuring.....tissue paper!!! 

Do you have all of those baggies of cut up, scrap pieces of tissue paper lying around from previous holiday projects?? I know I do! Here are some ways you can turn those scraps into LEARNING!!

Use your scrap pieces of tissue paper from previous crafts and have students sort them. These are left over from a Christmas craft my class did 2 years ago and have been crammed in a baggie sitting in the back of a cupboard. 

 I love that the color options required this student to not only sort green, but to sort different shades of green! Give your students different shades of colors to reach a higher level of thinking. This can also easily be turned into a same or different activity.

Use tissue paper to make patterns!

 These scraps were already cut and left over from a President's Day activity we did!

 Fine Motor Skills

 A water bottle and some scrap tissue paper can be an excellent way to practice fine motor skills on a budget.

 After looking at all of the bags of cut and scrap tissue paper I still had, I got to thinking about how much my students love games, and how could I create a game using tissue paper? 

So I came up with a game, which I thought was a little silly at first, but my students LOVED it! And so did I! I made it rather late and quickly, and hate the name, so I have since changed the name from what you see in the picture.

 Students spin the spinner and then cover that color on their gameboard with a piece of scrap tissue paper. The first to cover all of their colors wins the game!! 

While I thought the game was a little silly at first as I started creating it, now I LOVE it! This game targets so many skills; fine motor, colors, matching, following directions, listening skills, taking turns, waiting, and partner play. You can get this tissue paper game for free below.

Other ways you could use your scrap tissue paper for learning is by doing big/small, same/different, adding/subtracting.....basically you can use it just like you use unifix cubes. For more ideas on using tissue paper for learning in the classroom, check out my "Tissue Paper" Pinterest Board and all of the other featured tissue paper posts today at Life Over C's!

Follow Traci's board Tissue Paper Activities on Pinterest.

Follow each day for other ways to "Learn With Your Craft Stash!!"

Do you have a unique way to use tissue paper??

Classroom Skype with Animated Characters

I am beyond excited about what my kiddos and I got to do today. We got to skype with the animated character, Maria, from Wondergrove Kids!!! That's right! How cool is that? Very Cool! Maria let all of the students introduce themselves, ask her questions, and talked to them about all sorts of things!! See the first minute and a half of it for yourself!  

It really was one of my most exciting classroom experiences! The live chat lasted 25 minutes. I actually thought I was taping the entire Skype session, to find out at the end that my storage was full and I had only taped the first 1:38. Urghh! And to think I actually held my phone for 25 minutes, thinking I was taping....LOL!!! But you get the jist of the video of how fun and personalized it was for each student! 

Several of you have asked how it happened?? 

Well first off, it happened thanks to Wondergrove Kids. 

It is $98 for a one-year subscription, but so worth it that I'll be renewing in September. Kids just can't get enough of it! You can read more about their site and my love for Wondergrove Kids in this previous {post}. 

So....since I am a star user, "they said", they emailed me two weeks ago and asked me if I'd be interested in letting one of their animated characters live skype with my students in my classroom!!! What??! I said yes of course...who could turn this down? They asked me to provide the names of my students and a little info on each one's interests. We set a time and it was that simple! 

How can you do it in your classroom?

I have contacted them to find that out for you! I am sure you would first have to be a subscriber. Once I find out more information, I will update this post with the info for you. 

**Update: Unfortunately, at this time, this was only offered to a handful of teachers that use Wondergrove Kids with fidelity on a regular basis. If you use Wondergrove in your classroom, leave me a comment below and they can check to see if you are eligible. 

Increase Play & Interaction in the Home

Here is one of the projects I was working on during the end of my Spring Break that I promised to share with you! 

I have a student with Autism that I am teaching play skills to. She is currently obsessed with technology. But she doesn't use it appropriately and stims to the extreme when she is on it. So we, the parents and I, have removed iPad and computer privileges from her school day and at home. In an effort to replace the technology and behavior, we are introducing her to many new age appropriate toys and teaching her appropriate play skills. 

Apparently at home, her interaction with her toys consists of lining her barbies and dolls up against a wall. So, we decided to set up a home program and a checkout system to where she could check out a classroom toy each day (that she has been introduced to and practiced using appropriately) to take home each day, every couple days, or each week....however long appropriate. 

In setting this up, I knew I needed not only a checkout system to keep track, but also something to guide the parents and hold them accountable for carrying out appropriate play opportunities at home. The parents also need a little push as they don't realize her capabilities and don't interact with her as much as they should due to her limited expressive communication skills. Well this is what I came up with and so far it is working out well. 

This will go home each Monday and be returned the following Monday. It is my hopes that this will initiate interaction between her and the parents, increase play opportunities, and decrease her self-stimulatory behaviors in the home. The parents will log the activity, who she played with, start/end time, and engagement. 

 Here is the checklist I made for checking out the toys/activities. 

This one is for an individual student and below is one for multiple students.

Click on any of the images to download for free. 

If you are working on play skills and/or interaction in the home, I hope these forms will be helpful for you! 

Also, if you haven't seen, my "Photo Classifying Cards" are free for the entire month of April in honor of National Autism Month!!! Regular $3.50 value! 

Take A Peek At My Day In SPED

Today is my last day of Spring Break (sigh). It's been fun, but VERY UNproductive. We spent the last half camping on the Colorado River...our favorite place to be...and the first half, well, I just don't know where it went!!! Nothing got done! Now, I'm trying to cram all of those school projects that came home in my bag and lesson  plans into this last day!!! Sound familiar?? 

We'll before I show what some of those last minute projects I've been working on in a crunch this evening, I must take a little break and link up with Angie and Ashley, as I did this same linky on my blog last year and only had 3 bloggers link up. :( You can see it here. I love this idea and love seeing everyone else's schedules. 

Here is what an average day looks like this year in the Bender Bunch Classroom.

Our morning procedures consist of jobs that are done in the morning such as watering our flowers and feeding our fish. We listen to the morning announcements and then do the pledge. Each student then begins the work provided in their "yellow" writing folder that they got out as soon as they entered the classroom and hung their backpacks up. Depending upon the student, this may consist of address/phone number practice, number/letter practice, name practice, sentence practice, or journaling for more advanced students. 

We actually stop our writing about 9:22 and do a Go Noodle song before beginning our rotations. 

Our rotations consist of 4 groups and 4 rotations for ELA and Math. You can read more about the set up of my rotations {here}. I have tweaked a few things since that post, but not much. Tweaks happen quite frequently in my classroom, as I'm always finding things that work better, things that don't work, or needing to differentiate more for a particular student. My room is forever changing! Each Friday, my "Teacher Table" center is replaced with iPad or computer...and this is when I assess for progress and IEP goals or work 1:1 with my students. This gives me 2 hours to do this. I just recently started doing this a couple months ago to reach a goal for the new teacher evaluation system and it is working well. 

Morning break is "recess." Then lunch and one of my aides reads to them following lunch while I come back from my lunch and do afternoon attendance. 

Board review is like our morning circle. It is our whole group instruction for the day where we review many concepts including calendar. With 4-5 levels included during this part of our day, student questions are differentiated and fast-paced. 

Our life skills block is open for health, social studies, science, or other developmental skills; and I change it up. We also practice listening and speaking skills during this time. 

Our last hour of the day before specials is jobs and social time. Students that have end of the day jobs complete those such as table washer, floor cleaner, and librarian. Work not completed during the day is placed in the "Missing Work" box and this is also completed at this time. Students that have no missing work and have completed their job, get free choice. One of my aides also goes around at this time and does assigned sight word lists with each student. 

Students go to specials at the end of the day, which is my favorite time to have specials. I've been lucky to have it at the end of the day for the last two years! However, I do choose when my students go to specials since I have multiple grade levels. Other than a couple that are mainstreamed, the rest go at the same time and with the group they have been traveling with since 1st grade, so they are currently going with 5th graders. 

Once they come back from specials, they grab their backpacks that were placed outside the room prior, and my aides and I walk them to the bus. 

Thank you Angie and Ashley for hosting this link up with the vision of "Together, We Are Better." Each month on the 2nd they will be hosting a linky to bring teachers closer together through collaboration. If you'd like to link up your schedule, click on either of their names above to link up. 

Stay tuned this evening for a post on my last minute projects I've been cramming in and a couple of freebies for home interaction, appropriate play skills, and a classroom checkout system.