Celebrations!
This week in CSS K-1 we celebrated some little and BIG things! First we started the week off with Ms. Krystal's birthday!!!!!!!! Happy birthday to you!
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| HAPPY BIRTHDAY! |
The second thing we really celebrated was HOW WELL these boys all worked together and in their independent work time. I was super proud!! Every class has issues or moments where you want to pull out your hair. This week, I could not have been happier. I was out on Thursday and Friday for an absolutely amazing training which I can not wait to implement in the classroom. During my time out I heard the boys were great and the sub had no issues or complaints. She loves working with our boys too.
Yet another celebration? My NOOK made its appearance in the classroom and the boys were thrilled. They are extremely driven to work with it and used gentle hands and fingers for the most part. I did not bring it in right away because we needed to establish rules, routines, and rituals before I would allow them to work with such an expensive piece of equipment. This was even the same with my own children! We use safe hands first....then we play! No Work...No Play either. So trust me, they work for me! The boys continue to plug away at either writing their names, matching letters of their names and/or recognizing their names in print. We are continuing our fall curriculum reading about leaves and changes they see in the fall. I wish Florida would cooperate and start giving us some crisp air *wink wink*, a New England girl can hope! We have also established enough of a classroom routine and extended our attention spans to the point of being able to implement our math curriculum. This is tailored to each child and is specifically designed to make them feel like they are playing board games and fun computer games. Very cool program!
As I said early in the year when we study a letter or number we do it for weeks, not days or even one week. So we are just now moving on to the letter B. We made some cute acorns in class that are hanging up right now, stop by and see! For B we are exploring bats! (Apples are not quite done yet as we did not get to make our apple sauce, we will do that this week. We are a very very busy group!) We are also working on color recognition and color words, how to read them, trace them, write them and how to color within the lines. This is a difficult concept when some of our guys have sensory input needs. Coloring can be very over-stimulating! We are working on control and progress is made daily!
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| Jonathan's Acorn! |
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| Keegan doing his name practice for the day. |
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| Putting together puzzles on the NOOK. |
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| "So if I trace this I get the NOOK!?" Go Andre! |
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| Keegan loves the animals program. |
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| David is VERY motivated for the NOOK. He is learning to glue the letters of his name without errorless choice! YAY David! |
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| Learning self control with our hands and coloring in the lines. Super star! |
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| Chase making his Acorn! |
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| Corey loves to make things all on his own! |
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| Chase has done his work and has a turn on the NOOK....Chris is now motivated because his group has had NOOK time....he finished all his work too! |
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| Jonathan reading the letters in acorn. |
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| Great work Chase L.!!! |
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| YAY! Peer NOOK time...I believe they are watching the interactive LORAX book. |
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| Time for name work..... |
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| "I know my name lady...jeesh" Chase is working hard. |
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| I think he is eyeing that fruit loop ..... |
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| Corey is able to match his name even out of order! |
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| Christopher is our classroom jokster! He always makes us smile with the funny things he comes up with. Here he has a finger puppet farm animal on every finger! |
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| B is for BAT! |
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| GOOOOOOD David!!! notice how instead of a scribble over the whole page he is singling out each item and trying to localize the color. I am super proud!! Is Chris asleep back there?! |
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| Keep it up David mom and dad are going to be so proud! |
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| Chris is becoming a pro at name writing! |
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| Superb work Chase! |
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| Working on hand control for name writing! |
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| They did not plan this! TWINS! |
Class Challenge Of the Week:
Me being out for two days :( SORRY GUYS! It was for the betterment of our class and my professional development.
Class Goal Of the Week:
Learning to use equipment appropriately.
Parent Question of the Week:
"Do the kids do work when you are not there?"
Wowza. Tough question. Yes and No. Is that a good answer? No? OK let me explain. When I am out, the boys routine is immediately thrown off. My face is the one they are used to seeing when it's time to go to class, when I call out schedule, when I do direct instruction, when I work in centers with them, etc. When Krystal or I are out it is difficult for them to adjust to not only a new person, but also to wanting to stay within routine. To them, we are the routine. However, we have picture schedules in the class ( which also will be switching), that help guide them to where they should be. When I have a sub I do not have her enforce work, if they will do it with her great, but they need to establish trust of a person before they will really work for them. That being said, on Thursday I did leave lesson plans that included introducing the color orange, and the boys did do their work. I was pleased! On Friday we do centers and movie afternoon for the boys for having a great week. This is the time when I am doing grades, assessments of individuals, and IEP work. So this past Friday was not a wash for them. They did what they were used to doing and again, the sub said they were great!!!!
Coming up this week!!
Some changes will be coming and I will send home a note about it in case anyone missed it on the blog. I
will have a new home note system in place. It will be weekly and I
would ask that you sign it every night and keep it in the folder so I
may keep a record of weekly events. Unfortunately, hand writing notes
every afternoon for ten boys takes 1/2 an hour + and takes away from
instruction time so I needed something easier and more efficient and
beneficial to all in place. I think you will enjoy it too! Also all
work will go home on Mondays from now on. I will send out homework
packets on Monday as well as all work the students have done for the
week, remember, I have to keep a portfolio so a lot of work stays
behind, you are always welcome to come in and look at it.
HOMEWORK IS GRADED AND PART OF THE FINAL GRADE!
Thank
you to all the parents who have contributed to the classroom and helped
out with snacks, cleaning supplies and more! You guys are amazing!
Coming up in October!
CSS is in charge of the Fall Carnival and we will be looking for ideas and thoughts on what we will do. The theme thus far is Where Wild Things Are to go with the theme of the school year. Looking forward to working with all of you and seeing you there!
Wish List Items
Large rugs ( used is fine!)
Small cars and a car rug or play mat
Large Cars or trucks
Plants/ Fake or real would love a tall tree to decorate for the seasons. Fake would be best.
Teacher thought of the week:
“I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am
the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the
weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's
life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of
inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations,
it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or
de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.” Dr. Haim Ginott
Please know that I love each and every one of these boys as my own!!!
I respect them as I would a friend, a parent or a colleague. A child needs respect as much as an adult, a child with autism is no different.
