Welcome to SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!! Every Sunday I host this freebie link up here on my blog for Special Education Teachers! Visit every week to download free resources for your classroom! If this is your first time visiting, you can access all of the freebies from previous link ups by clicking on "SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies" under "My Files" on my right sidebar. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you're a TPT seller, blogger, or resource creator, I invite you to link up and share your own freebie using the link up tool below!
Link Up Rules
1. All resources must be FREE! It can be free for the day, but please delete your link once you mark it back to paid. 2. Your freebie may link to your blog or store. 3. Freebie does not have to be related specifically to SPED, but should be practical for SPED. 4. If you are linking up from your blog, using this image in your post and linking back to my blog is not required, but is greatly appreciated! Be sure to share this image on your social media so others can see your freebie!
*I recommend using an image of your freebie & not your button when linking up.
Feel free to share the image above all over your social media to let other teachers know about these freebies!
The link up tool will close on Saturday each week, but "forever" freebies will remain accessible! Come back every Sunday to link up or download new freebies!
Have you heard the news!?! ABCmouse just released the expansion of their new curriculum that now includes 2nd grade! It is now geared for children ages 2 - 8, or children working at a Pre-k through 2nd grade level.
If you're not familiar with ABCmouse, it is an award-winning curriculum, available on computer, tablet, or phone, and is highly recommended by educators and parents. AND, it is FREE for teachers! Here are some facts about ABCmouse. -ABCmouse is regularly ranked as the leading children's learning iPad, iPhone, and Android app in both the Kids and Education categories. -More than 8,500 standards-based learning activities covering preschool-2nd grade and 850 lessons. -More than 1.6 million ABCmouse learning activities are completed each day, with over 2.2 billion completed to date. I am so impressed with ABCmouse that I don't know where to start to share all of the fabulous features it offers! Take a tour with me to see for yourself!
This is what the student's homepage looks like. It is very user-friendly and so easy for children to navigate. I also love that that it reads all of the text to my students. So as they hover their mouse or finger over each section or link, it reads each category or command to them. This is great for our non-readers.
Students can complete the activities you customize and assign for them in the "My Lessons" section or they can complete the activities in their Classroom or Learning Path that are determined by ABCmouse based on the student level you assigned them to. Setting up and adding your students and their level is super simple. Click on the "options" tab on the bottom left hand corner to be taken to the teacher dashboard. Don't worry, you'll have to enter your password, so students won't be able to access this without your password.
Click on "Class Builder." Here you can add/remove students and create classes or groups.
In the "Add Students" section, you'll be able to select their level from Toddler through level 10. My students are working at a grade level of KG to second grade, so I found that Levels 7-10 were the most appropriate for my students.
To build and assign customized lessons for your students, choose "Lesson Builder" from the teacher dashboard and then click on "Start."
I love that there are life skills lessons too! The particular student I am going to use in this example to show you how to build lessons is a student with Autism and is working on learning about the kitchen. So I typed "kitchen" into the search bar and these are the kitchen lessons that came up. Each lesson includes several activities. You can also choose to not type in a search and view all the lessons available if you are not sure.
Click on the lesson you'd like and click continue. Next, choose your activities. Use the drop down filters to select what you're looking for and narrow your search.
You can choose specific learning topics....
activity types...
or specific levels.
You can also choose activities using the search bar, which is what I did for this student. I typed "kitchen" into the search bar and as you can see 23 activities came up. Check the ones you want, or I liked them all so I checked the "add all activities" box on the bottom right and clicked "save and next."
This step gives you the option to organize and arrange items in the desired order if you choose. If you like them in the order they are, click "save and next."
Last, assign your lesson. You can assign to classes, groups, or to individual students. As you can see, I am only assigning my "kitchen" assignments to one student.
Then, click "save" and you are done.
You can go to your "Lesson Library" anytime to see what you have assigned and to edit, assign, or delete assignments by clicking on the white button in the upper right hand corner of each assignment.
Visit the "Progress Tracker" in your teacher dashboard to track the progress of your students. Here you can see how many activities they've completed and how much time they've spent on the site. You can even search specific date ranges.
Another awesome feature of ABCmouse is the teacher resources. Visit the "Teacher Resources" feature on the teacher dashboard and download tons of printables, student incentives, and logic puzzles.
You'll also love the simplicity of student logins. No passwords required. Once you log in, students simply click on their name to get started.
When students click on their lessons, they receive the following notification.
When my student I assigned the "kitchen" lessons to clicks on his lessons, all of his kitchen lessons will show. He will click on a lesson to complete it. Since I chose "ALL" activities when I set these activities up, he will get to do books, games, songs, art, and puzzles all related to learning about the kitchen.
Here is one example of a kitchen vocabulary lesson. As my student clicks on each item in the kitchen picture, the word will appear as you see with "pot", and the word will be read to my student. I also love that the kitchen resembles what a traditional kitchen really does look like.
Another thing that makes ABCmouse so fun for children is the "All About Me" section that they get to customize themselves. This section is accessed by clicking on their name on the left. Here they can change their Avatar, save activities to their files, save favorites to their "favorites" list, print their activities...and they earn tickets for each completed activity that they can use to buy things for their pets and to decorate their room with.
This is a great tool that teaches children how to print and save which can be transferred over to utilizing these features on other computer programs and students love being able to customize and have their own private files.
Students can also visit their saved files, click on a particular file and have the option to crop, edit, or delete their files. They can also turn their files into a puzzle if they choose.
In this section, students can learn to take care of virtual pets, feed them daily, and even learn facts about their pets or complete activities pertaining to their pets.
Parents can also be a part of their child's learning with the ABCmouse "school to home connection" and children can work on your lessons at home. You can send invites by email or print invites to send home. All parents have to do is go to abcmouse.com/redeem and enter the code provided!
ABCmouse has definitely outdone themselves and taken all educator and childrens' needs into consideration. It is user-friendly for both teachers and children, has no advertising or pop-up adds, targets all areas of instruction designed by expert educators to include reading, math, science, social studies, and health, utilizes a multi-sensory approach that includes books, songs, puzzles, games, videos, art, and real world experiences, offers life skills activities and instruction, provides motivating and fun learning experiences for children, prepares students for more advanced computer use, provides an accountable teacher tracking system, allows for differentiated instruction, and allows parents to participate and be a part of their child's learning.
Did I mention that ABCmouse is completely FREE for teachers! Just click on the image below, then click on "Teachers" in the upper left hand corner to sign up for FREE and start using ABCmouse in your classroom. If you're not a teacher, click below to try it for FREE for 30 days! Or sign up for an annual membership at 38% off!
What do you think of ABCmouse thus far? Do you know of another teacher that can benefit from ABCmouse? Forward these deals onto them!
You must know by now, that The Bender Bunch LOVES Science. My students crave it and ask every.single.day "What's for Science?" When I don't have a science experiment prepared, I always feel bad because they look so forward to it every day! We live in a desert where it never snows and many of my students have never even seen snow before. So this entire month I am trying to incorporate snow activities into our curriculum. Today we made "Snow Blizzards!" I posted a video of our blizzards on Instagram and Facebook and received such a huge response on how to do it, that I decided to share it in this blog post.
It's soooooo simple and so intriguing to children. Here is all you need: *White paint *Baby Oil *Warm Water *Clear plastic cups *Alka Seltzer Tablets *Silver/white glitter (optional) I did not use glitter this time and it was just as great and one less step....and mess. Directions: *Fill each plastic cup 3/4 full with baby oil. (I paired my students up, so every 2 students shared a cup and worked together) *In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup of very hot tap water with 1/2 cup of white paint together for every plastic cup. So if you are doing 4 plastic cups of baby oil, you would need 1 cup of water and 2 cups of paint. *Pour a 1/2 cup of the paint mixture into each group's cup. *It will sink to the bottom of the plastic cup. *Give each group an Alka Seltzer tablet. I broke them in half for each group so both students could drop in a half. *That's it! Once they drop in the Alka Seltzer tablet, the magic begins! Just observe and enjoy! Your students will be oooohing and ahhhhing at the snow blizzard that takes place right in front of their eyes! Tips: *Make sure your water is very warm in order to dissolve the tablet and get the full effect, yet not warm enough to burn your students. We did this experiment 2 years ago, and had much better results when our water was much warmer. *Be sure to purchase the regular Alka Seltzer tablets that are not flavored. I bought the "orange" flavored ones on accident and after a bit, the snow began to look orange rather than white. *Once the snow blizzard effects stop, children can drop in another Alka Seltzer tablet to begin the blizzard effects again if the water is still warm. If you own my "Science for a Year" resource, this Science experiment is included and includes 3 differentiated response sheets that go with this experiment and follows the scientific process.
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 3
A teacher notes page is also included that provides helpful tips, how it works, and lesson extensions! Children can also take their sheet home and perform the experiment with their family!
If you like this experiment, be sure to check out my "Science for a Year" Kit to discover more simple and fun experiments similar to this one. All experiments include 3 differentiated response sheets as shown above and a teacher notes page. With more than 100 experiments included, your science is covered for the year! Better yet, all experiments have been teacher-tested in my classroom. And even better, new experiments are being added to this resource all the time! As I discover new science experiments for my students, you will receive these updates once you own the kit! Tomorrow we are making homemade snow with shaving cream and baking soda and are going to build mini snowmen. This experiment is also included in my "Science for a Year" unit. Have fun creating Snow Blizzards with your students! They will love it! Click on the picture below to pin it here or to save for later and share with others.
Do you do hands-on science experiments in your classroom?
Welcome to SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!! Every Sunday I host this freebie link up here on my blog for Special Education Teachers! Visit every week to download free resources for your classroom! If this is your first time visiting, you can access all of the freebies from previous link ups by clicking on "SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies" under "My Files" on my right sidebar. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you're a TPT seller, blogger, or resource creator, I invite you to link up and share your own freebie using the link up tool below!
Link Up Rules
1. All resources must be FREE! It can be free for the day, but please delete your link once you mark it back to paid. 2. Your freebie may link to your blog or store. 3. Freebie does not have to be related specifically to SPED, but should be practical for SPED. 4. If you are linking up from your blog, using this image in your post and linking back to my blog is not required, but is greatly appreciated! Be sure to share this image on your social media so others can see your freebie!
*I recommend using an image of your freebie & not your button when linking up.
Feel free to share the image above all over your social media to let other teachers know about these freebies!
The link up tool will close on Saturday each week, but "forever" freebies will remain accessible! Come back every Sunday to link up or download new freebies!
Welcome to SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!! Every Sunday I host this freebie link up here on my blog for Special Education Teachers! Visit every week to download free resources for your classroom! If this is your first time visiting, you can access all of the freebies from previous link ups by clicking on "SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies" under "My Files" on my right sidebar. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you're a TPT seller, blogger, or resource creator, I invite you to link up and share your own freebie using the link up tool below!
Link Up Rules
1. All resources must be FREE! It can be free for the day, but please delete your link once you mark it back to paid. 2. Your freebie may link to your blog or store. 3. Freebie does not have to be related specifically to SPED, but should be practical for SPED. 4. If you are linking up from your blog, using this image in your post and linking back to my blog is not required, but is greatly appreciated! Be sure to share this image on your social media so others can see your freebie!
*I recommend using an image of your freebie & not your button when linking up.
Feel free to share the image above all over your social media to let other teachers know about these freebies!
The link up tool will close on Saturday each week, but "forever" freebies will remain accessible! Come back every Sunday to link up or download new freebies!
