When You Can't Do It All & Magical E's

I have come to the conclusion that I cannot do it all.  I would love to, but unless I want to give up my job, stay home and lock myself in the office, then I cannot do everything.  Have you ever had to come to this conclusion?

I would love to blog daily (or a least a couple of times a week), make TPT products, create my own cute clipart (I love to draw/doodle my own characters), but I still have to be a mom, wife, teacher, and friend.  I realized last week that I cannot do all of the things I would love to do and still keep my sanity!  Sometimes it is good to step back and reorganize your priorities.  I am definitely not the person that my Pinterest boards portray me as! I would love to be impeccably organized, beautifully coiffed, incredibly creative, and teacher of the year! :)  For now though, I will be happy being somewhat organized (and continuing to improve), put together nicely, creative (without pushing myself to the limits), and the type of teacher that does what is best for the kids.  All of my TPT purchases may not be laminated and my desk may have piles, but I know that I am doing what is best for the kids and that is what is important to me!

Maybe this summer I can set some goals to finish some TPT products and get some of those Pinterest inspirations complete, but for now, I am focusing on one week at at time instead of trying to do it all at once! Sometimes I just need to be reminded to work smarter...not harder!

So for this week....this is what we are working on in my resource reading:

That sneaky "e" will get you every time!  My reading group has the CVC pattern aced, but that "E" throws them for a loop.  Here is a favorite TPT product that I am using to help teach this concept in my reading group:

Click the picture above to be directed to the TPT so you can purchase your own Magical E bundle!

So what can you expect from me during my readjusting period?  

• A sneak peak into the skills my reading or math groups are working on...hopefully with a great TPT product to share with you
• An update about how the week went
• A positive outlook school and being the teacher the kids need! :)

Do you ever have a readjusting time in your teaching career?  What do you do when you can't do it all?  

Chore Chart

A few years ago my husband and I took Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey and I must say that it changed our financial lives.  I won't get into all of that right now, but I did want to share with you one of the good habits that we continue to use daily.

Dave Ramsey talks about kids and money and giving them an "allowance."  He does not "give" money to anything ;), so he suggests having your kids work for a commission.  My kids are nerdy like their mama and they loved this idea.  We discussed what the word commission means, how to earn a commission,and what to do with the money you earn (give, save, spend).  If you want to learn more about Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University, or how teach your kids how to handle money at a young age with Financial Peace Jr. you can go to the link below:

PS: I am not in any way affiliated with Dave Ramsey or his company and I do not get paid to endorse his products.  However, I am a firm believer in the practices he teaches.

Now, I must come clean and say, we started Financial Peace Jr. with our children, worked on the chore charts, and we were incredibly successful.  Then...life happened.  We moved, the chore charts were never unpacked, and we stopped keeping up with them.  So, this past weekend my husband and I talked about starting chore charts again and he urged me to make our kids charts this time.  The ones with FPU Jr. are effective and simple, but we wanted something a little "spicier" and interactive! :)  

Chore Chart How-To

Materials:  

scrapbook paper

bulletin board

thumb tacks

glue

access to printer

white paper

craft sticks

1.  Make envelopes or pockets to hold the craft sticks/tickets (whatever you use to show your child completed the chore).  I used the template you can find here: http://www.earthmothercrafts.com/images/BasicEnvelopeTemplate_1.jpg

2.  Cut out envelopes and arrange on the bulletin board.  I used thumb tacks in each of the four corners to hold the envelopes securely in place.

3.  Label each pocket with a chore.  Our labels include: Pick up and put away laundry, Clear dishes (this means after supper), empty dishwasher, pick up toys, put away silverware.  These chores are the ones my kids are expected to do daily.  We add to this by giving each day a chore of its own.  (We have just started doing this as a family.  I am really hoping it helps us to stay on top of cleaning throughout the week so we do not spend all day on Saturday cleaning).  

Monday-Clean Bathrooms

Tuesday-Dust

Wednesday-Vacuum

Thursday-Sweep & Mop

Friday-Catch-all Day (whatever has been missed throughout the week)

Saturday-Straighten Bedrooms

You can find other chore ideas here: 

Age Appropriate Chores

4.  When the child completes a chore, he/she place a craft stick in the corresponding envelope.  My daughter uses red sticks and my son uses blue sticks.  This helps me to keep up with who did the chore, especially in the extra chore pocket.

5.  Our kids are motivated by money.  We teach them the principals from FPU.  They earn commission based on each chore.

25 cents for each chore completed daily

25 cents for the weekly chore (daily)

10 cents for any extra chore above and beyond what is asked of them

Our kids are taught to GIVE, SAVE, SPEND.  They give 10%  to the church as a tithe, SAVE 10% or more for something they really want (a special toy, an outing, vacation), and what is left over they put in their wallet as SPENDING.

We also have FINES.  Fines are -25 cents for infractions to house rules.  My kids are 10 and 5, a girl and a boy, respectively.  Let me let you in on a little secret...they LOVE each other all of the time, but they don't LIKE each other all of the time.  Many times, their infractions come from not getting along with one another.  Also, our daughter is ten thinking that she is going on sixteen! Ugg!  Sometimes attitude and pre-hormonal hormones take over that child's body!!!!  Need I say more?! :)

6.  On Saturdays, we tally the number of chores complete and figure the amount of money that is owed to each kid.  They could earn a minimum of $6.25/week if they complete all of the chores as outlined on the chart.  If they chose to do extra chores then they could earn extra money, but I like to cap it at $10.  :)

Here is our completed chore chart, hanging, and in use:

I hope you enjoy this and find it useful in your home, too!

~Kim

PS:  I know this was not school related, but you may able to modify this in a way that would be useful for behavior.  I am thinking, smaller pockets inside a binder with a good choice/preferred behavior on the envelope.  The student can earn tickets to place in the pockets and earn rewards based on the number of tickets.  Just a thought ;)  I had to make it "schooly" somehow! 

Sight Word Box from Teacher Mama

I am linking up with The Resource Room Teacher today!  I have something incredibly exciting to share!

Several blog posts ago, I mentioned a few of the projects from Pinterest that I would love to accomplish.  One of those was from Boy Mama Teacher Mama and it was her Sight Word Practice Box.  Pictured below:

Well, yesterday I received a message from her saying,  Hi Mrs. H! Just wanted to let you and your readers know that I now have the templates for the sight word box available! I appreciate you featuring our idea and for all the friends you have sent our way!! Here is the link--http://boymamateachermama.com/2013/02/09/teacher-mama-sight-word-practice-box-templates/

I must say that I am quite excited about this!  I hope you are, too!  Here is a link to her TPT store where you can download her templates for the Sight Word Practice box along including several games!  Ready....GO!!

Sight Word Practice Box Templates from Boy Mama Teacher Mama

Personal Word Walls

I love the concept of a word wall!  I've toyed with the idea of putting up my word wall (on the wall) all year, but I know that once a word goes up there it doesn't really get used or looked at again.  The kids forget what the word is and then get frustrated about not being able to remember the word or read the word, so they lose interest and the words become just another decoration in the room.

So, we make personal word walls.

Each student is given a manila folder and stickers (some are leftover alphabet stickers and others are plain dot stickers and the students write the letters on them).  The students place the stickers on the folder in order and remembering to leave enough space to write words.  Not only is this a word wall, but a pretty good fine motor and visual planning activity.  Some of my kids had a hard time with this.  In the picture below you will see a quick accommodation I made for a student with some fine motor challenges.  I used small sticky note to help him with spacing his letters out appropriately.  (I love when little things make a big difference!)

After all of the stickers are added, the students decorate the front cover and then begin to add words to their "wall."  One way I help motivate my students to collect words independently (words that are not their practice words or in our story for the week) is for every ten words the students collect for their wall they receive a sticker to use for decoration on the cover of the folder.  The kids love to rummage through my sticker collection to find "just the right one." :)

Some of the words my students add are:  (the two items in bold are words they are required to add to the word wall)

the sight words they are practicing for the week

vocabulary from the weekly story

any word they do not know that they read in a book

interesting words

words they have a difficult time spelling or saying

Students then use the words they have collected to add into their writing assignments, practice reading, or use for word work time.  I like to do my word wall this way, because it allows me to differentiate for each student (as far as words and vocabulary is concerned).  The students are allowed to have words that interest them, words that are on their level to continue practicing, and gives them ownership over the words they choose to make a part of their collection.

Activities for Personal Word Walls:

Write and read all of the word you have in common with a buddy

Switch word walls with a partner and read your partner's words

Time yourself reading a list of words or your entire word wall

Bang!: Students each choose 5 of their word wall words and each one on a slip of paper, then place the paper in a box. The children sit in a circle and each take a word from the box. If they can read the word, they get to keep it. If they cannot, the word is returned to the box. If they pull a card with the word Bang! from the box, all the cards they have collected so far must be returned to the box. The child with the greatest number of cards when the game ends is the winner.

Around the World:  All the students sit in a circle.  One student stands behind another student who is sitting. The teacher flashes them a word card (collected from the word walls). Whichever child says the word first will move on to the next student. The student who makes it back to his or her own desk or starting point is the winner.

Pay Per Word:  Divide the children into two teams. Have play money available in the following values: pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.  Each money denomination represents an activity with an increasing degree of difficulty. 

Penny = child reads word

Nickel = the child reads the word and acts it out

Dime =  for a dime the child reads the word and tells its meaning

Quarter = the reads the word and uses it in a sentence correctly

When it is a a student's turn, he tells how much money he is playing for and then performs the activity associated with that coin amount.  If student answers correctly he (or his team if you would rather play teams) gets the money.

If the student is incorrect the other team gets a chance to steal.

The team with the most money at the end of the game wins.

Sight Word Dominoes *FREEBIE*

It has been a busy week, people!! And it's only Tuesday!!  Snow days get me off track, faculty meeting, progress monitoring, annual reviews, IEPs to write...ugg the list goes on and on, but so does life.  :)

I did have some time to crank out a wonderful freebie for all of you lucky blog readers!

Here you will find SIGHT WORD DOMINOES!  I used the first 100 FRY word list.  These are the words my school uses to assess sight word recognition.  Click the picture for the file!

To play this game:

1. Cut apart sight word dominoes

2. Place all dominoes face down on playing surface

3. Each player chooses 7 domino cards. The remaining cards are placed in

a pile to the side.

4. Each player holds dominoes so that the other players cannot see words.

5. The first player takes his turn by placing a domino on the playing

surface.

6. The other player then tries to match up a word with an open word. If

player does not have a matching word then he draws from the pile.

7. Finish the game when a player uses all of his dominoes or no more

matches can be made.

I am currently working on the second and third 100 FRY word lists and will have them available on TPT for a nominal fee very soon!

If you download this set, please leave me a comment and let me know how they work for you or if any changes should be made.  One of my suggestions is to make a couple of sets of the dominoes, because you can then build off the domino with a matching word in several directions.

Hope you enjoy!


Special Thanks:
Border from Creative Clips
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-BORDERS-Creative-Clips-Digital-Clipart

Font in Kidding Around Too from:
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/freescrapbookfonts/

Currently...February

I am linking up with Farley today for her February Currently!

Listening:  I love the Hip Hop Power Workout channel on Pandora.  It plays a lot of the songs we exercise to in Zumba.  I. Love. Zumba.  This channel always makes me dance!

Loving:  Snow days!  Gosh, they are awesome.  I love the 5:30 wake-up call saying school is cancelled for the day.  Then I get to roll over, turn the heating blanket back up and then snuggle in for a few more hours of sleep.  The kids and I hang out in our pjs all day and watch movies!  Perfect!

Thinking:  I am glad that it is the weekend.  This time of year moves so slowly.  I don't know if it is the cold or dark, dreary days, but the winter just creeps.  I usually live for the weekends, because I get to relax and there is no running around, unlike the work week with something to do every day after school.

Wanting:  I am thankful for this snow day and I am ready for it to melt now.  I had plans of shopping this weekend.  However, the weather man is calling for another 2-4 inches of snow.  Ahhhhh....KY weather!

Needing:  I always have laundry to put away.  'Nuff said!  Grrrr!

Pet Peeves:  I have tons of pet peeves.  I could drone on and on about all of the things that annoy me, but I'll  limit my rants to today's daily annoyance.  I just came home from Wal-mart and the lady behind me was right up on my behind.  Literally!!  I tried to take a step back and bumped her buggy.  There is no personal space in a check-out line.  OOOOOHHH and what bothers me even more than a person's buggy being up on me is when the actual person is right behind you, so close that you can feel their breath or hear their phone conversations!  Bleck!!  

Here's to a great weekend!!!

Yes, I Would Love Another 3 Day Weekend! & Football Fanatic

Guess who has another Friday off?  That's right!  This girl is settled in for another snow day!  Geez, I love KY weather!  We went from ice last Friday to freezing cold, to 60 degree weather, to severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, and now back to snow!  If you don't like the weather in KY just stick around a day or so, because it is going to change!  Any snow day is a good day in my book though.

This Friday, I am joining the 3AM Teacher again for her Friday Five: Freebie, Find, Funny, Frazzle, Feature

1.  Freebie:  I do not have a freebie of my own to share today, but I do have a freebie to share of someone I follow from TPT.  I have several students that have difficulty with prefixes and suffixes.  This activity meets all of my needs this week: prefix, suffix, and football!  Gotta love some Superbowl themed activities!

2.  Find:  Sticking with the Superbowl theme, I found some great free football clipart from one of my favorite clipart artist, Ashley Hughes.

3.  Funny:  First off, let me say that I attend the most amazing church in Central KY.  If you are ever in the area you must stop by Grace Christian Center and worship with us.  Now, for the funny...each year our pastors film a hilarious Superbowl commercial.  Here is GCC Superbowl commercial 2013...Grace Christian Style:

4.  Frazzle:  I love snow days.  A lot.  I do have a lot that I need to get done at school though.  Fridays are the day that I progress monitor and now that is pushed to Monday.  This leaves me off schedule...FrAzZlEd...just a bit!  I'm not complaining though...because I love snow days!!!!!!

5.  Feature: So the Superbowl is said to be the biggest food consumption day right after Thanksgiving.  I am working hard to eat right and exercise, but Superbowl parties (well and life in general sometimes makes that hard).  Today I am featuring a website that has helped me meal plan and keep health on track.  This website offers tons of healthy recipes.  You can store your recipes on an online recipe box, create a shopping list to load to your smartphone and make a meal plan!  I love this website!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!  Get ready for some football!!! 

Go Ravens!  (This is for my husband, since the 49ers beat his beloved Falcons last week!)

~Kim

Sunday Share

Sundays are typically the day that I get to sit around after church, listen to the radio or the television and prepare for the week to come at school.  This Sunday is no different, however, I was thinking about my readers this morning and some of the posts have written and it occurred to me that many of us don't really know the person behind these blogs.  Last week, I posted about my family and what we had spent time doing over the holidays and I as was thinking about what to write about today I thought I would share some more of my personal life with you guys.  I think it is important to create relationships with people and it doesn't matter that some of you I will never meet in face to face and some of you I see every single day.  So, on Sundays I have decided to share a little of myself with you!

Last week, I shared with you this picture of my two kiddos helping mommy build some shelves and I promised to show you the after pictures.  Well, wait no longer!  Here is our reorganized playroom!

These are my kids.  Ready to help make the playroom look like a million bucks!  Of course the little one had to dress up for the occasion.  Safety First!! :)

This is the before picture of the playroom.  We have moved into our new house 5 months ago and I have been putting off unpacking these boxes!  I was tempted many times to just tape the boxes up and throw the away.  I know...Mom of the Year material!  So, I didn't.  The kids helped go through each box and we separated the toys into keep, trash, store and donate.  

We organized the toys.  These are my daughters Barbies neatly placed into a shoe organizer and then hung in the closet.  All of the big toys are put into the closet.

Next, the kids wanted an art area.  These are the Closet Maid shelves that were purchased at Lowes.   I laid the shelves on their sides, instead of sitting them on the ends like they usually are.  The shelves have the canvas drawers inside to hold all of their art supplies.  The kids pushed the shelves back to back to create a little table so they could create some artwork.  They hung wire underneath their painting to displays some of their creations.

Another shot of their art area.

These are $1 frames from the Dollar Tree and some  decorative clips also found at the Dollar Tree.  We super glued the clips to the picture frames to have more places to hang artwork

Here is the finished bookshelf.  The shelf and the baskets all   came from Lowe's.  On either side of the shelf are large baskets (from Walmart) to hold dress up clothes and stuffed animals!

   

My kids spend so much time in here!  They love to draw and color and the artwork in that room changes daily.  There are still some finishing touches I would like to add to this room, but for now it is cute and functional!

Kim

Oh yeah...Snow Day! & Friday Five

I love snow days!  Unfortunately the snow is actually just messy ice that make travel miserable.  There are have been tons of wrecks across Central KY today and I more than thankful that I didn't have to get out this morning and drive in it!
 For a little snow day excitement, I am linking up with the 3AM Teacher for some Five For Friday fun!

1.  FREEBIE:  Hibernation is the theme for this week in my resource reading class.  The books that the students use is available through Reading A-Z.  If you have a subscription you can access the Hibernation books (they are multi-level)!  The word work for this unit includes recognizing nouns...hence...Hibernating Nouns!  Students sort the words into nouns and other words (some are verbs and some adjectives).  Students place the nouns next to the sleeping bear.  Click on the picture or link to get this freebie!

2.  FIND:  The thing I love finding most of all is new special education blogs.  I love it so much that I added a page to this blog!  Click in the header above to be directed to some of my favorite special education blogs.  PS-You don't have to be a special education teacher to love these blogs, because their ideas are great for any teacher!  You can also find my favorite sped blogs on Pinterest!

3. FUNNY (&TRUE):  I love snow days!!!!

4.  FRAZZLE:   We were a little frazzled this morning!  Our dog has been sick this past week.  We thought he had eaten something that lodged in his belly, but turns out he just pulled something in his back.  He is on light duty for the next two weeks! :)  So glad our little buddy is going to be just fine! Here's our little Skipper:

5.  FEATURE:  Here are some more great places to find out about me, how I teach, and what I like:

PINTEREST

FACEBOOK

~Kim

What to Say When Parents Ask--What Did I Do Wrong?

Over the last month I have had two separate ARC meetings that were to discuss a referral for special education and to get permission for evaluation.  On both occasions, both sets of parents knew something was "not quite right" with their child and that there was something that "wasn't clicking."  As the meeting progressed the parents opened up more to our team and began to discuss their feelings about their child and how they really feel about their child possibly having a disability.  On both occasions the parents became very emotional and really put their heart and their feelings on the line.  They blamed themselves and asked, "What did I do to cause my son/daughter to be this way?"  This is an extremely hard question and maybe it doesn't have a right answer, but I felt like I owed it to the parents of these kids and all others that I may have contact with an answer.

I have been teaching for 8 1/2 years now and this month I just really realized the extreme impact that learning that your child has a disability has on the parent.  I teach intermediate level students and usually by this time in school many of the students I work with are already identified and have been for several years.  However, because of Response to Intervention some students are being identified farther into their school years.  (Or at least that seems to be the case in my experience.)

I began to look for information online that would help explain to parents the affects of having a student with disabilities.  I read somewhere, but know can't find the article, that learning that your child has a disability is a bit like going through the grieving process.  One of the parents I spoke with actually echoed this to be true.  He said that he had expectations of his son playing sports and interacting with other kids on a team, but his son has no desire for those things.  The parent said that he has had to come to terms with the facts that what he expected is not happening, so he began to look for the good things in his son and be thankful for all that he can do.  He had to let those expectations "die," and come to terms with a new reality and how wonderful this can actually be, too.  Below is some of the most helpful information I found:

https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/ES15-2010.pdf
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/autism_help.htm
http://www.ncld.org/parents-child-disabilities/family-coping-ld/coping-parents-children-with-learning-disabilities

And here are some suggestions from me:

• Learn about your child's disability.  The more you know and research about your child's disability the better advocate you can be for your child.  Talk to the special education teacher (believe me, I am here to talk and answer questions, but often parents don't seek me out), ask questions, join with others that have children with the same challenges, and participate in all meetings about your child.
• Accept you child.  Like the parent said to me, "I know he is not going to do something things I expected, but be proud of the things he can do."  You need to get to know your child and find out what he/she is good at and build on those strengths.  Love your child for who they are and don't spend time comparing your child to someone else's child.  We are all fearfully and wonderfully made.  Each of us serves a purpose.  Your child has a purpose!  
• Speak positive words into your child.  Your child can be whatever they want to be in life and just because they may have a disability this does not mean they have to be limited or pigeon-holed into a certain way of life.  Tell your child they are special, unique, and that you love them unconditionally!
• Celebrate success!  If your child has difficulty reading, celebrate a good grade on a reading test or remember 5 new sight words or whatever they accomplish.  It makes people feel good to be rewarded...reward your child with praise and love.  Build their confidence!  Accept and celebrate their differences and achievements!

I would love to hear how you talk to parents when they are first learning about their child's disability!  Leave me a comment and tell me your strategies or stories about how to help parents cope.

~Kim