Classroom Job-POLLSTER

Classroom jobs are one of my favorite classroom management tools and the children take their jobs very seriously and look forward to them every day! Not only does it help the child feel responsible, they also get to contribute to the daily happenings in the classroom in a meaningful way for both the child and the adults!

I started out with a job that I called the interviewer and they were responsible for taking a poll. They were very official and had to carry a clipboard with a fun and fancy pen and ask each peer a yes/no question related to our theme or event that happened at school. After some reflection I felt that calling this job the interviewer was not sufficient. The job is now called the Pollster! You can head over to my TPT store and pick up a years worth of questions.

These are the developmental domains and academic skills that this job covers. As you can see there is a lot that the child is engaged in while performing this job. It is very important! 

 As an early childhood special education teacher teaching all learners in an inclusive environment, differentiation, adaptations, and modifications have to be taken into consideration! Below are some examples of how this can be adapted to meet the needs of all your learners! I have a variety of supports from least to most, including a completely adapted sheet.

You can head over to my TPT store and pick up a years worth of questions (209), ideas for implementation, and directions for making and adapted pollster sheet. What are some of your favorite classroom jobs?

Diana

TPT "Make your Masterpiece" Challenge

The next challenge in the #tptsellerschallenge was to create our masterpiece! It was a fun challenge and I am thankful for them allowing a week and a half for this one! I needed the extra time! My think time alone was 1-2 days.

I decided to extend an earlier freebie that I have in my store and make it last all year long.
Here is the description of my 102 page masterpiece. I will definitely be using this in my classroom and hope you get to too!
  

Here are more cutting AND tracing activities that grew from my cutting honeybees activity that is currently available in my store for free!

This activity is intended to provide children with an opportunity to practice their cutting skills, tracing skills, and demonstrate understanding of the concepts start and stop.
Additionally this will provide opportunities to practice some executive functioning skills such as task initiation, self-regulation, and self monitoring (they have to stop themselves from cutting through the pictures as well as monitor where they are on the line).

It is easy to get into the habit of providing children feedback and sometimes we forget to ask the child how they thought they did. To help with this, I have included reflective questions to ask your child/student after cutting or tracing so they can evaluate their own work.

All the pages are the same so you can use these to monitor cutting and tracing progress throughout the year. Keep a beginning, mid, and end of year in the child's portfolio to show to parents/guardians.

You will receive color and black line pages consisting of two cutting pages, and two tracing pages. The first has easier lines to follow and the second has more challenging lines. All pages are ready to be printed and used right away. Low prep time and ready to use!

Have your children create their own colors and color in the pictures on the black line copies.

You will receive the following in cutting and tracing:
Beginning to snip
Back to school
Apples
Pumpkins
Turkeys
Presents
Snowmen
Valentine Cupcakes
St. Patrick's Day
Chicks
Flowers
Fun in the Sun
Patriotic

You can also make this a fun activity to use with puffy paint or glue to provide raised lines. I hope you enjoy using this as much as I did making it!

Thank you!
Diana Smith
Engage and Play in Pre-K

This took me a while and several revisions but it is done! You can go and pick up your download of it in my store. It is on sale at 50% off! You can get your set for only $2.00 for a limited time. 

I want to send out a special thank you to my new friend and fellow educator, Angie at Glimmers of Learning for your time reviewing my product and giving me valuable, through, and honest feedback!

Angie has some excellent interactive storybooks featuring commonly used nursery rhymes that any preschooler will love! She has incorporated ways to make this easily adaptable for all the little learners regardless of their abilities. Go and check out her TPT Store for some excellent products!

I also want to thank Keri Vandongen from Speech Party who also gave me valuable and honest feedback. She also has a TPT Store for all you Speech and Language Pathologists (SLP's) and other educators who have a special place in your heart for the wonderful work that SLP's do for our children.

http://myspeechparty.com/

I have met some amazing people along the way with this challenge and I look forward to future collaborations and creation of products with my wonderful professional connections!
Go and check out their products!

Countdown to School!

I have just finished a Countdown to School! resource for teachers and parents to use to help our little learners understand the passage of time in a concrete and visual way.

Product Description
Our youngest learners struggle with understanding the abstract concept of the passage of time. These have been created with this in mind and provides our little learners with a concrete way to understand this challenging concept.

Our little learners are so eager to be in school and these countdown sheets are designed to have the child interact with them and give them an idea of when school will be starting up again. This would be a great handout to give during home visits and on the day before a break begins.

In this download, you will find school countdown handouts for the following:
Countdown to the first day of school
Countdown from Fall break
Countdown from Winter Break
Countdown from Spring Break

This has been designed to include the following additional skills:
Counting backwards
Number Identification
Left to right directionality
Patterning
Passage of time
Fine motor skills
Coloring practice
Home/School connection

Adaptations to this sheet could include the following:
Use stickers in place of coloring (you are still getting in some fine motor practice!)
Have the child point to the next picture and color it in using hand over hand support.
Include this in a daily routine at the beginning or end of the day.

Extension activities could include the following:
Have the children write in the numbers with or without a model in place of coloring.
Create a complex pattern.
Look for other patterns within the images.

 Pick up your copy here: 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Countdown-to-School-1924685

Included in this download are four different countdown sheets for common school related breaks including the first day of school. 

I have also included a sheet for 7 day breaks and sheets that you can insert your own numbers.

Thank you so much to the following artists!

TPT "Dare to Dream" week 2 Challenge

#TPTSellerChallenge
Thank you Amber, Ashley, Emily, and Jen
This week, the challenge is to create a blog to share our TPT dreams. 

Oh my...if your new to blogging like I am, this challenge instantly created anxiety and overwhelming feelings followed by the mantra learned at a young age by the book "The Little Engine that Could" by Watty Piper 

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...Here it goes! 

My TPT Dreams

Collaborate

I knew from the start of my teaching career that I needed to connect with other educators and other service providers in order to become the holistic teacher I envision.  I never entered the field of education believing that I could teach alone in a vacuum. To have that mindset, I believe would cause burnout, disappointment, and feelings of loneliness. While my brain is full of ideas and expertise that others may not have, the same is true for others in the field.  It is essential to learn from the expertise of others and combine all our knowledge for a common goal. Teaching. My first dream is to connect and collaborate with others in the field.

Create  

Combining all the knowledge I can from myself and others will help me to create resources, tools, and activities that others can use. I look forward to getting back in touch with my creative mind that for so long has been put aside while I was pursuing other goals and dreams in the realm of higher education. My second dream it to let the creative juices flow!

Share

"Sharing is caring." I hear my mother saying. That has never been more true when educating children. I teach my students the value of sharing with others, so it is only fitting that I walk through this journey as an educator with the same mindset. I care immensely about the field of education and know the financial limitations of schools as well as how many use their own money to supplement their teaching. My third dream is to create resources that I can share with others for free or at a very minimal cost. 

Clip art/Font/Design Credits

Children Clip art and Banner by Educlips 

  
Chevron Chalkboard background by Surfin Through Second 
 

 Font by 
Darcy Baldwin
Kimberly Geswein 


Yay!!! I did it! This is so much fun!