Extra Support for Your Edmark Users

I have found over the years that there is a love/hate relationship with Edmark for some people. Edmark is a direct instruction approach to sight word acquisition. I get it, it's not using authentic literature to teach sight words... it needs the commitment of one staff member teaching one student, so it can be time consuming.... and I'm sure others have heard many other reasons (or may even be passionate about why you don't like it!) as to why it should not be used in the classroom. I'm a reading specialist and Edmark was NOT even mentioned in my program. But, I just can't deny success! I have seen amazing results with students who are still struggling with mastering 5 out of 26 uppercase letters, yet they are consistently reading the words learned through Edmark lessons during weekly probes. I am a huge proponent of Edmark, specifically in younger elementary special education classrooms.

I have tried to approach letter/number identification in the same visual layout as Edmark, with some success, but I kind of have to do my own version.

For years, I had used the old (copyrighted 1987, possibly?) outdated Edmark. About two years ago, I was able to get a new version of the kit. It is amazing. No more of the nondescript, yellow labrador dog....there is an Airdale Terrier, a Great Dane, a Bulldog! Little kiddos in my class would struggle with generalizing dog into that one yellow dog, now the kit provides 8-10 different images of a dog! A few of the different images that are seen in the kit include: cars, horses, balls, boats, and much more.

I have been able to use Edmark with kiddos with typical language development, kiddos with articulation issues, kiddos who sign and even AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) users!

I use the comprehension sheets that go along with the updated version as well. They are proving to be  perfect for ESY (Extended School Year) support this summer. It provides students with the possibility to complete worksheets successfully that included WORDS.THEY.KNOW. Perfection!

I found that I needed additional activities to supplement their sight word acquisition. I created worksheets that students can find and color the sight word, perfect for kiddos with fine motor needs! I'm hoping to create more activities that include the words that my kiddos are mastering through Edmark. Keep an eye out!

5 Tips for a Successful Read Aloud in a Special Edu Class

Earlier this week I gathered my students at our kidney shaped, "blue table" for a read aloud of Tops and Bottoms.

The supporting activities from Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills April Guiding Readers are a wonderful resource for this book. When we were done, I immediately reflected and chatted with my ParaEducator about how well it went. Then I thought about why it went well.....

1. Start with a finger play song
Right now "Little Arabella Miller" is a big hit with my kiddos. We also love one that my student teacher from last year shared:
Two hands up. (Up in the air)
Two hands down. (Down on the table)
Pat the table/carpet slowly. (Pat the table/carpet slow)
Pat the table fast. (Pat the table/carpet fast)

They get their wiggles out. Hands were moving, now they're not.

2. Sign Language/Gestures
In my classroom, it is normal to see my signing. I am often asked if students have an hearing impairment. They don't. I just believe that signing to them gives them another modality of input and hits another brain pathway. This article provides more information about why using sign language in literacy gets all children more engaged in what they are reading, hearing or doing.

I'm not saying you have to take sign language to incorporate this, I am a basic signer. I'm versed in the most important ones to my students; colors, emotions, food, toys, verbs. Even if you are not comfortable bringing in some sign language, try and incorporate gestures (think Whole Brain Teaching) that relate to the story. We acted like Bear with one eye open, we yawned and grunted, we weeded on the table like Hare and his family. My students were so engaged. A good rule of them is one sign/gesture per page. Exaggerate, go for the Oscar, be dramatic. They will love it, they will imitate you, and they will be more engaged with you and the text.

You can also search on Lifeprint for a specific sign. The site includes a picture and often a video of someone modeling the sign.

3. Use visual supports for any retelling of a story
My favorite commercial retelling product are the Big Books from the Journeys Kindergarten kit. There are 4 cards with specific illustrations from the text on the front with your talking points on the back. When you model retelling the story, you can read the back as students see the picture. Sounds simple, but having the talking points on the back really helps. I have also made retelling sticks with paint stirrers and velcro. I find that giving each student one helps with kiddos that need to be busy. They can be busy while holding pictures that relate to the text!

4. Find any opportunity for students to participate in repeated text
This is always easier in books that have an obvious repeated text. My kiddos loved chiming in with me for "Wake up Bear!" and "It's a done deal!"

It is also beneficial to give them an initial sound prompt of what they should repeat if they don't chime in after an appropriate amount of wait time.

5. Explicitly tell students how to respond
My kiddos struggle with calling out, chorally responding and bumping my turn to talk. If I don't give them an advance prompt that they will be calling out (and a signal of my hand pointing at them), I will say "Call it out" when I am done my question. You will have to decide what you want your students to focus on and know that it is helpful to repeat it often. Early on in a story that I expect them to call out or chime in with me, I explicitly tell them then fade to a gesture of putting my hand out in anticipation as if I am waiting for them to respond.

Hope you find these tips useful for your class. Happy reading!

What time do we go home?

When is lunch? When do we have PE? Even though I have visual supports with their personal picture schedules, it's just natural for kids to ask those questions. I use (Dollar Store) foam clocks and list the events with the clock set to the appropriate time. It gives kids another visual support and it also helps to have it posted for anyone else who needs to know:)

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

We got to use mirrors yesterday to read sight words (flipped text) and the kids LOVED it! I bought Dollar Store mirrors that had bendable stands. I reviewed expectations on safety and how we can use them with the kids before I gave them out. I differentiated the sheets, some kiddos could Smart Copy the word from the mirror, others needed to color the word (already written on worksheet) to match. A few of the kids figured out on their own that they could see the word (with the text unflipped) on the back side of the paper. This helped if they couldn't Smart Copy and look at the mirror at the same time. One kiddo had a blast just looking at himself as he stuck his tongue out in between words! This can actually an appropriate Speech strengthening activity, I was okay with it and he was on-task as soon as he got a new word:)
Click on one of the pictures below to link to the activity pack these came from.

Staying On Topic: Social Skills

We had an amazing group discussion about staying on topic in a conversation in the first grade class that we are included with. I started by reading the social story I wrote for staying on topic you can find it here.

I had written up comments that were on topic and off topic for high interest topics in our class. The teacher that I work with loves Hello Kitty and the kiddos love to wear Hello Kitty, too:) Soccer, Star Wars, My Little Pony and Angry Birds were the others I chose. Some other suggestions for the younger grades would be MineCraft, Pete the Cat and Lego Movie.

It will work best if you allow students to go to the topic of their choice. You want them to be excited about it and know some things to generate conversation. I am lucky enough to be in there to support inclusion with my Para Educators so we had enough adults to monitor and shape the conversation. You could do it in small groups, one topic at a time if it is only you.

Although my students have specific needs, this is really helpful with any student and for classroom management as well!

We love finger flashlights!

During BEAR (Be Excited About Reading) time today, I brought out the finger flashlights for the kids to use. Since it was a new activity during that time (tends to be distracting), I had them read their Edmark words so they could play a little bit. We turned out the lights and the kids had a blast! If you watch this little guy, he draws a C in the air with his flashlight, I think it helps him remember the word see:)

Number Words

This has been a fun center for my kiddos lately. To practice spelling number words, I have them use letter beads. I got plastic pencil boxes (the ones that open up like a drawer) at the Dollar Store and put a foam number on the front. I placed the beads they would need inside with a pipe cleaner. A few kids have needed a sheet with the number and the word written to check their spelling. I could even differentiate it further by just having the foam letter stickers spell out the number on the front and they can match letters. I think I might make some more with the first 20 Edmark words, too!

Using Word Wizard with Journeys

My students have been responding well to using word wizard to explore their sight words for the week on Monday morning. I place them out on the table and they get their iPad, open up the Word Wizard app and spell out the words. Word Wizard reads it back to them. I like that they are exploring it on their own the first time they see the word. I'm not worried about them spelling it incorrectly (putting b for a d, etc.) because they are noticing that they word doesn't sound right. I cue them in that it doesn't make sense and prompt them on what letter they need to correct to get the right word. They love it!

Some of My Favorite Tips

One of my favorite tips that helps with classroom organization is to have timers on plastic coil keyrings. They are inexpensive (from Walmart) and can just be set in the back of these clip timers. The timers you would use would have to have something on the back (like a clip) for the keyring to hook into. I have them hanging on magnetic hooks all around the room and keep one on my wrist when I need to time something.

I Love My Burlap Pennant Banners

I purchased three adorable burlap pennant banners from Etsy at the end of the summer. I get so many compliments on them when people see them. I purchased them from Gifts by Gaby. She created them so quickly! I have the two below as well as a READ banner.

Absolutely love them and I already see some more products I may have to get for next year!

I just want to play with this!

We recently finished our unit on matter. We used the FOSS kit and got additional beans for the soup mix activity. We had small group centers that we rotated through and we wanted each kid to get really hands on. I had some of the beans left over and put them in one of my Sterilite Target containers. Today I added some of my letter stringing beads (two of each letter). Tomorrow I will just introduce it to the kids, but I will work on some type of recording sheet for them to use during centers.

Quiet Spot

All classes could use a quiet spot, but over the years, it has come to be an essential behavior management tool for my students. I use papasan chairs that I bought from Target a few years ago. I have seen similar ones from WalMart. I have some posters that I printed from Boardmaker Share with pro-social language and a mirror. When I first have to implement it with a student, they don't realize that it is something I WANT them to do, that I am okay that they are leaving the activity. I let them blow off steam and once in a while ask if they are ready to talk. Based on the child's needs or if they have a behavior plan, we work through the problem and discuss alternatives to what they could have done. I use a lot of the following language:

• big deal/little deal
• solving the problem
• let's move on
• First....Then....statements

It's been a place that the kids use when they are feeling fine and when they have something going on that is really making the moment/day hard for them. Hope it works for you, too!

Tissue poms on bulletin board corners

I saw all of the poms that teachers were making on different blogs and wanted to make smaller ones that I could put in the corners of my boards. I found a cute, bright polka dot tissue paper print at the party store that went well with my Eric Carle theme. I used 8-10 sheets and only separated the sheets until I made half of a sphere. You can Google directions and find a ton, but here is a link to how to make your tissue poms. I love them!

What to do with book jackets...

If you are anything like me, you think that having book jackets with little ones just.doesn't.work. They have difficulty handling the book with it, and it ends up hanging off most of the time.

I had a wonderful professor for the Children's Lit course for my Reading Specialist cert and I asked her what she thought, especially for the award winners with medals on the front. She suggested cutting the teaser and the info about the author, and especially any awards, and use shipping tape to put them on the inside of your books. Try it and see if it makes your library organization easier!

Sorry about the glare from my phone:)

IKEA in the Classroom

Over this past summer, I finally purchased some IKEA shelving units for my classroom. I went with the Trofast ones, planning on using them for centers and organizing manipulatives and some leveled texts. If you happen to be thinking about if it would be worth it to make the investment of buying the units, it is so worth it! I love mine:) My kids are able to be independent with getting the bins and they hold all of the materials needed for each center. The only thing that is still on my to-do list for these shelves is to change the Reading center bins to be labeled A through E, keeping the Math ones numbered.

Another fabulous find was this under-bed storage bin decorated with numbers. It holds my 3D Touch Numerals perfectly and slides right under the SMARTboard so the kids can access it during center time.

There are also wonderful storage nets (6 compartments) that hang on the wall. I used command strips to hang mine. I have one behind my kitchen area and two on the back of the bathroom door holding random teaching tools. They come in an orange/red set as well.

It was a lot of hauling out of my car this summer, but I'm done with it now and will reap the benefits of it each year! So worth it!

So glad I did this over the summer....

I purchased some of the Sterilite organizers from WalMart when I was in the classroom setting up in August. I made a label for themes and seasons and pasted it to cute cardstock (cut in half it fit perfectly!). This has held all of my thematic materials since the school year started. They fit perfectly above my kitchen area cabinets. I have three on one side and four on the other and could use more for some other themes! So I don't have an empty drawer during a theme, I put all of the centers materials (worksheets, laminated items, etc.) into one of two of my Target green handle bins.

It was so worth the effort to get them filled and up there this summer!

Retelling Sticks for Big Books

I use the Journeys Big Book series for my class. They have great color retelling cards with prompts to use for helping kids retell as independently as they can. I have been making color copies at 25% to shrink them, laminating and using Velcro to attach them to a paint stick. Kiddos hold them during the story, following along with some verbal prompts as I read. Sun a great thing to keep all kids engaged! If their hands need to be busy, I am glad they are holding something that relates to what I'm presenting!