Teachers are Heroes Sale!

Teachers Pay Teachers first sale of the year starts on February 25!  Teachers Are Heroes Sale!!

My special education blogging friends and I are linking up so you can easily find special education products.  Please link up your store at the bottom of this post if you are a special education teacher/TPT seller!

Check out some of my most recent additions:

And my best sellers:

An InLinkz Link-up

New!! Special Education Featured Teacher

I have been blessed to become a part of a special education blogging community.  I never thought when I started this blog back in 2011 that so many doors would be opened before me.  This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I tend to be very shy.  I know some of you are reading this and thinking, "Yeah, right!"  It's true, but writing this blog has allowed me to open up about a field of education that I feel very strongly about and has given me the courage to my chase dreams for new jobs, presenting professional development and taking on more leadership roles in my own school.

This blog has given me so many amazing opportunities!  I have reviewed apps and products, participated in blog hops, consulted with teachers across the country, and become a member of outstanding educational communities such as Learning A-Z and Social Thinking.   It has also opened doors of communication and idea sharing with parents and colleagues in my own school district. Even with all of these awesome chances to share my love and expertise in the special education community, nothing compares to the work I do day in and day out with my students.  Which is the whole reason I began this blog in the first place.  I love sharing what I have learned over the years and pushing myself to become a better special education teacher through the contacts and encouragement I have received from parents, teachers, colleagues, family and friends.

When I began blogging, there were already TONS of teacher blogs, but very few special education teacher blogs.  I remember finding my first couple of special ed blogs and being so excited that I would have someone to follow that would be sharing ideas that I could implement in my own resource classroom or share with my co-teachers.  I really and truly hope that my blog has inspired some of you.  I hope I have shared ideas from my own experiences and classroom that you can adopt and use.  I know the special ed bloggers that I follow have done that very thing for me! I have gained friendships with bloggers from across the country that I look up to and respect. It truly is like knowing a celebrity when a blogger that you have followed and sought advice from over the years becomes someone that you can readily call on, talk to (about non-school related things), and calls you by first name!  It is silly, yes, but so exciting!!

I would love to grow this special education blogging community even more by featuring a special education blogger each month in my new adventure called Special Education Featured Teacher.  I will feature a special education teacher, interventionist, school based therapist, or educational consultant once a month starting in March!  This blogger will be able to share a guest post on my blog, be featured throughout the whole month, and we will all get to learn a little more about our favorite special ed. bloggers!

If you would like to become an upcoming Featured Teacher, please click on the page above titled Featured Teachers and show your interest by completing the form.

I cannot wait to help this community grow!!  I hope you are inspired as much as I am by the amazing special education bloggers that I promise you will meet throughout the year!

~Kim

Teaching Resource Math: Capture the Creature!

Straight from the Resource Room, I'm excited to share with you a game that my kids LOVE and beg to play!  Yes, they really do beg to play!  :)  

Capture the Creature is a fun math game that helps strengthen addition and subtraction skills within 100.  Capture the Creature is a fun game for practicing adding and subtracting within 100.  Students take turns drawing a card from the deck and adding the number on the card to the "Dinner Bowl" of the creature.  Specialty cards are included to "Capture the Creature."  The student with the creature at the end of the game wins!  Students learn how to add and subtract using a bead string or bead rack.  Students will learn more advanced strategies for adding and subtracting (such as composing and decomposing numbers to add/subtract in the most efficient ways, adding and subtracting 5's and 10's, and using related addition and subtraction facts).

Here is what you will need to play this game!

Capture the Creature Cards

100 Bead Rack or 100 Bead String (instructions to make one of your own below)

A Creature (plastic lizard or use the Creature Cards)

Directions:

1.  All cards are placed in one stack in the center of the table.
2. The youngest player goes first and begins by drawing the top card from the deck and reads the +/- amount on the card.
3. The player pushes the correct number of beads to one end of the 100 bead string and announces the total.  The player places this card in the discard pile.
4. The next player draws a card and will put the card on the discard pile.  The player will add or subtract the amount noted on the card using the 100 bead string and will announce the total. (The bead string is known as the Dinner Bowl--a name made up by my kiddos, because the beads remind them of food pellets for the creature/monster).
5. In order to Capture the Creature, do one of the following:
a. Pick a specialty card that allows you to Capture the Creature
b. Play a card that makes the Dinner Bowl equal a multiple of 10.
6. Play ends when:

• Dinner Bowl equals or exceeds 100 
• the last card is drawn or 
• the teacher calls the end of time

Student with the creature at the end of play is the winner!!

Instructions for making a 100 bead string:

Materials:

• 1 long string (can be shoelace materials, yarn, twine) approximately  feet
• 100 pony beads  (50 red and 50 blue)  
• 2 jump ring or binder rings

Directions:

• Tie a jump ring or binder ring to one end of the long string.  This will hold your beads on the string.
• String beads onto your string in groups of 10.  10 red, 10 blue, 10 red, 10 blue, and so on until you reach 100.  You will notice that my beads are 5 solid blue, 5 transparent blue, 5 solid red, 5 transparent red, etc.  This helps my students with counting by 5's and 10's.
• When I begin this game, I start out by introducing the students to the bead string.  Students have time explore the bead string.  I make sure that they notice that there are 100 beads and that beads are in a pattern on 10's and 5's, blue and red.

Special Education February Blog Hop & Valentine Edition of Oh Appy Day!!

Hello friends and followers!  I'm so excited to bring you Day 3 of our Special Education Teacher Valentine Blog Hop.  Remember to come back everyday to find the special education blogger that will be bringing you a wonderful freebie, tip or trick all throughout the month of February!  Finding the special educator's blog of the day is easy, please just stop back by my blog and click on the corresponding day's envelope to directly link to that teacher's blog!  My friends, Traci from The Bender Bunch and Christine from Autism Clasroom News have already brought you some amazing Valentine freebies.

In honor of February being all about feelings and emotions I will be offering (for TODAY, February 3, 2015 ONLY), I my Check In/Check Out Behavior Intervention!
Click the link above or on the picture to be linked to my TPT store to download this freebie TODAY!!  Don't forget to leave some love (feedback) if you download this goodie!

Also, for faithful readers, I am continuing to do Tech on Tuesday: Oh Appy Day, but I am I have decided to only do this once a month.  I will be posting some awesome apps on the first Tuesday of every month!  Well, friends, guess what day it is!  Tuesday!!

These great apps are Valentine themed and perfect for your students.  All of the apps are great editions to your iPads and tablets and I like to add apps instead of buying treats or candy for my kids. I see so many kids in several different classrooms throughout the day that it could get expensive to buy lots of Valentine goodies, instead the kids can use the iPad or tablet to enjoy a little Valentine love from Mrs. H! ;)

iGet...Valentine's Day Social Skills Stories
$2.99

iGet... Valentine's Day is an application providing a photo social skill story for individuals that need support in understanding the process of Valentine's Day. Twenty-seven icons with real picture images are used to illustrate the sequence of events.

The Kissing Hand  {One of my favorite stories!!}
$3.99
Chester Raccoon and his mother share a secret, the Kissing Hand.  A sweet story about love between mommy and baby raccoon.  This book can be accessed as a read along, read by myself or autoplay book.

Valentine's Sliding Puzzle
Free
A fun game for kids of all ages.  Players work through 9 levels of moving sliding puzzles to complete a Valentine's Day picture.  This is just a fun app to surprise your kids with for a V-day present!

First Words Valentine
Free

First Words Valentine teaches kids about letters, how letters relate to words, and even how to spell words. This app is perfect for beginning readers and younger students.  The app provides 8 Valentine themed words to spell and read. 

Happy February!! Don't forget to stop back by everyday to click the envelope of the day and join some of my best blogging buddies for some great February freebies!!