SPED Tricks & Treats Blog Hop!!!

Are you ready for some great tricks and treats? It's a SPED Tricks and Treats Blog Hop hosted by my blogging buddy at Mrs. D's Corner! Just hop from one blog to another to grab some great tips and freebies from all of us this Halloween!

Easy Peasy Caramel Apples!!!

These caramel apples are great for Halloween and are so easy for the kids to make! Only 3 ingredients are required.

Caramel or Caramel Apple icing, small green apples, and sprinkles (not pictured). You will also need to pick up some wooden skewers and wax paper. I used dowel rods from the craft section so they were not pointy and sharp at the ends.

Now here's how easy they are! 

1. Prepare your apples by washing them and placing a skewer/dowel in the center of each one. Place them on your wax paper.

 2. Take the lid and seal off of the frosting and stick it in the microwave. Microwaves always vary, but I microwaved mine for about 45 seconds. You want it to be somewhat runny like liquid. 

3. The reason I suggest small apples is because students will dip and roll their apple around in the icing container itself. There will be some spillage with the first apple, but not the apples following.

4. Place on the wax paper and let your student sprinkle away. TIP: Allow icing to set for a few seconds before adding the sprinkles, otherwise they will run right off. It doesn't take long for the icing to set, so the dipping process needs to be fast.

That's it! 

Your candy apples are done in minutes and your students will LOVE them!!! :) 

A great and inexpensive treat your kids can make for their Halloween Party! And kids especially love eating things they make themselves!

And now for a little non-related Halloween trick I recently came up with that has helped me in my classroom!

I just love these little book sets from Lakeshore and my students do too....especially the non-fiction ones with real photos. But keeping track of who read what has been a challenge for me. You see, my students will grab books from the boxes that they have already mastered! Like all students they like to make us proud and like to have success! Who doesn't, right? 

So they were getting books they had mastered and showing off to me how good they are reading! When I would say slyly, "Didn't you already master this book?" Of course they would reply, "No." 

So while very simple, It's WORKING! My problem has been solved. 

I had one of my assistants tape this little insert into each book and my students will now write their names here once the book is mastered. I'm also making them use pen now, so my little slicksters can't erase it. 

Since it's gently taped, it can easily be removed and replaced as needed or each year without ruining my books.

If you could use this organizing system for your little readers, download it for free!

You got your TRICKS, now it's time for your TREATS! Click on each freebie pic below to grab all three of your Halloween freebies!!

And if that's not a pretty great Trick or Treat, I'm also having a giveaway!!!

Win this flashdrive bracelet loaded with 5 products of your choice from my store!

Enter here!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

MORE!!!??!

Click on Miss, Hey Miss' Button for more!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

from

THE BENDER BUNCH!!!

Five for Friday & Freebie!!!

I'm linking up with "Doodle Bugs Teaching" this week to share 5 random things about my week! I think October is all teachers' favorite and we've had so many fun things going on...it's going to be difficult to limit this to only 5!!!

We started our week out with this SUPER COOL Science Experiment! I mean really cool! Watch the video and you'll see exactly what I mean! 

I told you!

All you need is a cup full of packing peanuts and Acetone. I would get more than a cup though, because your students will want to do it over and over again!!

We started our pumpkin life cycle project!!!

It's been fun for the kids watching for sprouts each day! This idea and the sign came from "Primary Techie" and you can read all about it on Primary Techie's Blog {here}. You can get her sign {here}. We don't have any sprouts yet, but we just did it on Tuesday. 

Halloween Crafts!!! 

Okay, I'm sneaking two in here!!!

 Cotton Ball Hanging Ghosts!!

 3-Dimensional Pumpkins

These were great for my students' fine motor skills and we discussed and compared the difference between 2-D and 3-D.

We started using my Money Mats this week and my students are amazing me! I have students working on all 3 levels!

Level One

Level Two

Level Three

Check 'em out {here}.

And last....I got my dress for the Educator of the Year Awards tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I love it! It's so me!

I'm super excited AND starting to get VERY nervous!! If you read my Five for Friday post about 3 weeks ago, then you know I was nominated for Educator of the Year and am now in the top 4!!! Tomorrow 1 of the 4 of us will be named!!!! It's been very exhilarating to say the least, and I am so grateful! So wish me luck!!! Maybe next Friday I'll be announcing the news on Five for Friday!!

I'd like to leave you with a popular freebie that you can use next week as you continue your pumpkin studies. You can print it in color or B & W. 

Click on this button for more freebies!

Go to Doodle Bugs Teaching to read more Five for Friday Posts!!!

Thanks for stopping by The Bender Bunch!
Have a great weekend!

Teaching Writing to Beginning Writers with Intellectual Disabilities!

Writing has always been one of my most favorite subjects to teach! While I loved teaching writing when I worked in Intermediate Resource, writing can be challenging to teach in a self-contained classroom with intellectually challenged students! 

Most of my intellectually challenged students love real life photos and always seemed especially interested in my Webber Photo Story Starter Cards. 

The last couple of years I have used these to teach expressive communication and "WH" questions to my students, but I did not use them for their intended purpose, "Story Starters," well because my students can't write a story! But most of them could tell me words about the picture and answer "what" and "where" questions about the pictures! 

Recently, I felt like a couple of my students were ready to be introduced to basic sentence structure and beginning writing skills. So I began brainstorming ways I could utilize these pictures to get them writing! These are the goals I came up with for a couple of my students. 

Xxxxx will write words related to a picture prompt from a word bank achieving a criteria of 60%.

Xxxxx will write words related to a picture prompt from a word bank achieving a criteria of 70%.

Xxxxx will write words related to a picture prompt from a word bank achieving a criteria of 80%.

Xxxxx will use words about a picture from a word bank to write a sentence about a picture using a sentence starter. 

Over the summer, I made writing sheets using the Webber Photo Cards to meet these goals. 

Each sheet has 7 words related to the picture and 5 words not related to the picture. After or while having the words read to them, my students working on this goal, write the 7 words related to the picture on the lines provided. 

Once my student has reached this goal at the criteria stated, I move them onto Level B....creating a sentence using a sentence starter. 

When they master this goal and can write a second sentence on their own, they can move onto Level 3....writing a sentence with no sentence starter. We haven't made it to this point just yet, but we are getting close! :)

My students love the real life colorful photos and I love that I don't have to spend time or money printing colored photos to go with my writing activities!!! And even more...I LOVE that my students working on this goal are making great progress!!!!! They are writing sentences!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The photo card set comes with a landscape set and a portrait set. If you think these would be good writing goals for one of your students or all of your students, I've created all 3 Levels for all 67 of the landscape photo cards! You can see them {here}.

Here are some other beginning writers resources I also use in my classroom with my beginning writers that I love and have been very successful. 

This is an oldie but goodie that I still use and it is editable so you can create your own 3 and 4 word sentences for your students to cut and paste! Grab it for free {here}.

I hope you have discovered some helpful writing tools and that these resources will guide you in teaching writing to your beginning writers!


As Always, thanks a BUNCH!! 

Five for Friday, Currently, & October Freebie!

I'm always preaching to my kids, "Use your time wisely." Well this week, I'm using my time wisely and linking up with three awesome linkys in one post!! Five for Friday, Currently, and Freebie Friday!!!

I am beyond elated that I was nominated a few weeks ago for the community "Educator of the Year Award." "What?" Last week I discovered that I had been chosen as one of the top four finalists!!! "What?" I interviewed with all of the judges Tuesday and the winner will be announced at a formal black tie dinner on Oct. 24th!!! Super super excited, speechless and honored!!!

My Currently hosted by "Oh Boy 3rd Grade." It's been a few months since I've linked up with Farley for her Currently and so happy I remembered today!! And for the first time ever I'm in the top 50 to link up!

Loving my new flash drive bracelets and reading my comments to discover my fan's favorite products!!! Read more about them here and enter to win one loaded with your favorite products!!! The giveaway ends tonight!

My kids dancing to the "Nae Nae" song on "Go Noodle!" They are obsessed with this song....and with "Go Noodle."

A Halloween freebie for you I'm linking up with "Freebie Friday" that is a sample of my new popular "Sequencing Mats" and "Adapted Sequencing Books," thanks to the awesome pumpkin clipart from "Whimsy Workshop."

Thanks a bunch for stopping by!! :) 

What did you do this week?