Giving Thanks

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I had so much fun celebrating Thanksgiving during our last two days of school.  It was so refreshing to talk about things we are thankful for.  See the yummy chocolate turkeys that we enjoyed below!                                                                                                                                                                               Our classroom has something very special to be thankful for:  Cullman Church of Christ Youth Group raised money especially for our classroom!  We are going to be able to purchase a projector for our classroom.  I am so excited by this news, and I know it will enhance our students' learning experience.  I am hoping this new equipment will encourage our students to learn several new skills! 

Just VOTE!

This week we have spent our time learning about our govenment and voting.  Tuesday we held a classroom election and voted with our own privacy shields and ballots.  We also learned about past presidents and our current president.  We read and used an Alabama sample ballot.  For our Friday activity we had a very special treat:  We were able to vote for all of our activities for the day!  It was also a perfect lead into the upcoming study on PATRIOTISM.  Don't forget that next week is a short week-- we celebrate Veterans' Day on Monday!  I will see everyone's smiling faces on Tuesday. :)

H-A-double L O W double E N (spells Halloween!)

After a week of camping lessons, I failed and forgot to update our blog!  Our camping week was wonderful.  We were able to make a tent and had smores at the end of the week for our treat.

That brings us to this week, we learned all about the holiday at hand, Halloween.  We read 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffery, had a Halloween party on Wednesday, and decorated Halloween treat bags.  We had a great week celebrating this unique holiday.  We are preparing for the upcoming election this week by learning all about VOTING.  we will be taking a vote for our classroom.  I will be sure to keep everyone updated!

Have a happy week and don't forget to VOTE on Tuesday!!!

Farm Animals Galore

Before getting to what all we did last week, I have some GREAT news!  We reached our goal, and our classroom will be getting an electronic tablet to use for communication and learning other skills!

Last week we had a great time learning about different farm animals!  We made construction paper horse faces, sang Old Macdonald, matched different animals, AND did a felt activity with The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly.  We picked out each animal that lives on a farm.  We heard different animal sounds, and we also were able to see some real-life farm pictures one of our students brought to share.  This week we will be learning about camping--Looking forward to all of the spooky camping stories.  Please send any if you would like to share!

**Remember:  This week is homecoming week.  Dress up to show your school spirit!** 

Pumpkin Season!

Last week we learned about pumpkins.  We were able to paint the pumpkins, make pumpkin prints, dissect pumpkins, and count pumpkin seeds.  We also got to try pumpkin seeds-- yum!  Everyone loved this special snack.  To finish off the week, we got to read AND watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Friday was a very special day because we also celebrated Retts Awareness month.  We are so proud of our students with Retts Syndrome.  Enjoy the link below of our student with the Prattville Mayor!

http://www.prattvilleal.gov/News/october-is-rett-syndrome-month.html#.UGyjEicZCFk.gmail

This week we will be learning about farm animals, so look forward to lots of animal art!

Breaking News!

I recently began a charity project to benefit my classroom.  Please consider helping our classroom get an electronic tablet; this has the potential to help my students gain valuable communication skills.  Many of the students in our classroom use little to no spoken language.  This device can give them the ability to communicate their wants, needs, and emotions.

If you would would like to help, please visit our donation site at:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=889169&sharebar=true&utm_source=dc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=proposal_approve



Thank you!

Fruits and Vegetables

Last week we learned all about eating healthy with fruits and vegetables!  We were able to make carrot faces, paint with fruits and vegetables, plant our own fruits and vegetables, AND make vegetable soup.  This was a very enjoyable week.  Our peers from the therapeutic class at the high school began coming for visits.  They helped us with our daily arts and crafts and enjoyed socializing with our class.  In other news, it is Rett Syndrome awareness month.  If you are interested in purchasing a t-shirt or bracelet to help support our friends with Rett Syndrome, please contact me!  I am also beginning the necessary steps to create a donation site for our classroom.  Stay tuned for more information on how YOU can help our classroom.

Weather, Weather

This week we have been learning about the weather.  We were able to use whipped cream to make clouds on our desk.  We also made paper snowflakes, made pictures of us in the rain, blow bubbles and made kites, and made edible suns.  We also learned the importance of rain for the plants we have in our environment.  We used a spray bottle to immitate this. 

At the beginning of the week, we decided to do a BIG science experiment.  We used mentos, Diet Coke, and Mt. Dew.  We placed the Mentos into the sodas to show a cause and reaction.  We then compared the two soda explosions!  Diet coke ended up being the bigger explosion.  Enjoy the video below...

Falling In Love With School

This turned out to be the perfect week to begin our study about fall!  The weather is cooling off (yay!).  This week we did several fun things in addition to our curriculum study.  To spark an interest in the wonderful season we did several in class activities.  What is interesting about fall?, you may ask.  Well, the weather cools off, the leaves on trees change colors, and football season begins!  We plan to go on a leaf hunt tomorrow during P.E.  Some other activities we participated in include: gluing red, yellow and orange tissue paper on paper leaves, choosing colors and painting our own trees, each day during our whole group answer we caught the football, and we created our own paper footballs using pipe cleaners.  What a wonderful way to begin this season!

It's Already the Third Week?!

Welcome to my teaching blog!  I am so excited that we are settling into our classroom routine.  Every day is an adventure for my students, our paraprofessionals, and me!  This week we are learning about our different senses and using them in our daily lives.  Our whole group lessons have included: paint bags, making shakers and listening to different sounds, coffee art and different smells, "What's in the Bag?" and different textures, and , of course, TASTE TESTING!