Holiday Gift Guide for Kids with Special Needs

Do you have a child with special needs on your Christmas Gift list?  I scoured the web for you to find some great gift guides for this holiday season!  These are my top 5 places to look for gifts for the special kids on your list!

1.  Here you can find a gift guide for children with special needs categorized by skills that the child may need to work on, such as Fine Motor Skills, Gross Motor Skills, Language and Speech, Social Skills and Self-Esteem, visual and Spatial Perception, Cognitive Skills, Sensory Processing and Oral Motor.
http://specialneedsgifts.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Skill-Building-Holiday-Gift-Guide-for-Children-with-Special-Needs.pdf
2. Silvia Phillips from faithfulmomof9.com offers a great holiday gift guide!  She chooses gifts from all price ranges and ability levels!
http://www.faithfulmomof9.com/2015-special-needs-holiday-gift-guide-3-99-179-99/

3.  Toys R Us is a great resource for finding toys for differently abled children.  They publish a catalog yearly that helps you find toys based on age or skill.  The catalog is beautifully labeled to help you find the perfect gift for your special recipient.
http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3261680

4.  While you're shopping at Toys R Us (or any other toy store for that matter) remember to check out Hasbro's website for games and toys that have modifications, visuals, and directions for making the games and toys more accessible to children with special needs.  This is a must have resource for parents and teachers!!
http://toyboxtools.hasbro.com/en-us/
5.  funandfunction.com is a wonderful website to find all of your special needs games, activities, and tools.  You will definitely be able to fill your cart up here!

Happy Shopping!

Oh "Appy" Day: Christmas Edition -- Christmas Book Apps

I'm excited to bring you some more great Christmas apps for Oh "Appy" Day: Tech on Tuesday!  This week's apps are actually all books.  They are everyone beloved favorites.  Each book ranges from $1.99-$5.99.  Click the pictures below to link directly to each app in the App Store.

The Berenstain Bears Christmas Tree is about the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree.  The bears soon realize that the trees are home for forest animals.  Will the Bears show compassion for the forest animals by saving the trees?

A Charlie Brown Christmas

This book is a Christmas classic!    Help the Peanuts gang find the true meaning of Christmas.  This book is full of interactive features, such as playing Linus' piano, finger painting, and caroling with the Peanut's gang.  If you love the Charlie Brown Christmas movie, you are sure to love this interactive book!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Another classic!  We all know the Grinch's heart changes from bitter and grouchy to a big heart full of love for the Whos.  Follow along while the narrator reads this edition or record your own narration!

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer

Help Rudolf use his big red nose to help save Christmas.  The app uses authentic video clips from the original movie, as well as, other interactive features such as recording your own narration.

Oh "Appy" Day: Tech on Tuesday -- Christmas Edition

This month's Oh "Appy" Day is being brought to you by the jolly, ol' elf himself!  Each Tuesday this month I will be sharing the Christmas Edition of some my favorite holiday apps for kids.  This week's apps are fun for kids (and adults)!  Take a look at some of my favorite Christmas games!

Starting us off this month, we all know that is time for everyone's favorite elf to begin making his appearance in homes around the globe.  Our elf, Rocky, returned on Monday morning. :)
Here is an official Elf on the Shelf app:

This  is a FREE app!  Have a great time with a snowball fight with other elves!  This is sure to excite your little ones!
For more information click the link:  Elf on the Shelf App

My kids love any of the Toca apps and this one is one of their favorites!  Another free app!  You can style Santa or a Christmas tree for their big holiday debut.  Everybody needs a little cut, color and shave...even Santa Claus!
Toca Hair Salon-Christmas Gift

Christmas Fun - All in One Holiday Spirit
This app contains fun holiday songs, games, and interactive activities!  This is a one stop Christmas game shop and the best part is that it is also FREE!






I hope you find that these apps bring a little Christmas cheer to you and your students!

Thankful for Special Educators Blog Hop: 25 Special Ed. Bloggers Tips and Freebies

The turkey is eaten and the leftovers are put away, but it is your lucky day!  25 of your (and my) favorite Special Education bloggers have put together a fun blog hop just in time for this wonderful holiday weekend.  We just wanted to give you a little more to be thankful for.  I know I am thankful for so many of these bloggers myself and am honored to be part of this group of people to share some tips, tricks and freebies with all of you!

TIP:  Take time for yourself.  I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday.  I started the week at the KY Council for Exceptional Children's Conference and am ending the week on break, to say the least it has been amazing and just what I needed.  The conference gave me some new and wonderful ideas that I can't wait to share with my school and with you.  Even more than that, this week has given me some time for myself.  The long hours, piles of paperwork, and the stress of dealing with different behaviors sure leaves a girl drained.  Although special education is a challenging career, it is also so rewarding.  When I see a breakthrough with a difficult behavior or finally find that one strategy that helps a student learn math or reading, I am reminded why I chose special education in the first place.  It is so important to keep your priorities straight as an educator, yes, school is incredibly important, but so is your family, your health and your life.  Take time to prioritize your to do list, find something to do outside of school that you love (like zumba, running or crafting...just my faves).  Remember to be your best in the classroom, you need to remember all of the things that you make you your best!   

FREEBIE:  A fun Christmas Planner to help you stress less and get ready for the holiday season!

Bonus FREEBIE:

No stressing about a Christmas work station, because I've got you covered!created a fun little Christmas freebie, just in time for December!  This can be used in centers or work box stations.  

Christmas Vocabulary: Say and Spell

Students use letter tiles to say and then spell Christmas words.  

And lastly,  Cyber Monday sales start on December 1!!

Head on over to the next blog!!

Thanks for checking in!  For more freebies and tips, continue the trip through the blog hop by checking out A Special Ed Connection...just click the button below.

Five for Friday! :)

It's Friday!!!  This short week has been a long one! ;)  I'm linking up today with Doodle Bugs Teaching to show the top 5 highlights of my week.

1.  We had Tuesday off for Election Day. It was great to have a random mid-week day off.  My kids and I hung out at our favorite bookstore for the morning.  We {heart} Joseph-Beth!

Bonding over books!  Love!

2.  Land of Stories by Chris Colfer.  My oldest child started reading these books and now I am hooked!  FYI: If you haven't read the Land of Stories series...they are awesome.   Chloe is holding the second of the series in this pic. They are the "true" tales of everyone's favorite fairy tales.  The two main characters fall into the Land of Stories and find out some truths about their family.  Check them out!  

3.  The graphic below comes from my favorite iPhone app, Cuptakes.  It has tons of girly graphics for backgrounds or lock screen savers.  I love them!  

4.  These "tweeties" came from Target and inspired me to go for a snuggly, cozy, comfy Christmas theme this year.  Adorable, right?!  

5.  And finally, because I cannot hardly wait until Christmas, I created a simple little Christmas planner for myself and for you.  It is available at my TpT store :)

Have a great weekend!! :)