Pattern Block Task Cards

I created these Pattern Block Task Cards for my first grade friends and they LOVE them. 

Half of the task cards have images on them that the students have to create. These are the favorite of the two options. I have been using them as morning work (they are so quiet while creating!) and as a station during Math Block. I have seen many students who will count each shape to see how many they need to create the picture and begin after they have collected them all. Yippie for learning while having fun! 

The other half of the task cards have images of the pattern blocks and how many to use. The students are prompted to see what they can make using those shapes! It is so fun to see them be creative and they are very proud of their creations! 

  

I printed these cards front and back with an image to create on the front and the pattern block prompts on the other side. Then I laminated them because we all know they would not last 34 seconds if they weren't laminated! 

PLEASE print these and have fun with them! They took me wayyyyyy too long to make for me not to share with the world! ;-P

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Printable 120 Chart Bulletin Board

Does this 120 chart not just make you smile when you look at it? ;-) Thank you astrobrights for having so many color options!

Counting to 120 is a pretty big deal in first grade! I wanted a 120 chart that would be big enough for the class to see with ease and would also be easily accessible for students to count and touch, so I made one! I have not priced a pocket 120 chart, but I'm almost certain that this is probably wayyyyyy cheaper. 

This was pretty easy to make too! 

The first thing I did was pick out 10 different colors of card stock (because who doesn't love a pretty rainbow???). Then I printed out the pages, laminated them, and cut them out! I created the document so each column would be a different color to help students see patterns while counting. You could do a solid color, alternate colors, or whatever you want! 

My bulletin boards are covered with fabric, so I wanted to put the numbers up in a way that was 

1. Sturdy

2. Easy to remove if I needed to

3. Wouldn't damage the fabric if I were to take it down

So..... I placed a long strip of masking tape on the board and hot glued the numbers to it. Doing it this way will allow me to peel the tape away from the fabric instead of having glue spots all over it.

If I would have thought about it before I was over 1/2 way done, and if I had the patience to create it, I would somehow make this more interactive. For instance I could put each number up with velcro (yikes), so I could remove numbers and so on. I can pretty much do the same things with this and just cover up numbers with sticky notes if I want to. A magnetic one would be pretty sweet toooooo....

So, all in all, it's super cute, affordable, and I'm sure my students are going to love it!

Click here to print yours!

Printable Classroom Shape Posters

Hey teacher friends!

I created these shape posters for my classroom! I wanted something with real-life examples for students to relate to and I couldn't find what I was looking for online, so I just created what I wanted! 

You can print these on the actual size setting for your printer on a page of card stock and then laminate, or scale the sizing down and print. Then you can time the edges, glue on cute card stock, and laminate! (because who doesn't want more color added to their classroom ;-))

I'll post pics once I get mine completed! You should post pictures too! 

xoxo, Mrs. B

{Shapes: square, triangle, hexagon, circle, octagon, oval, 

pentagon, rectangle, trapezoid, rhombus, star, heart}

CLICK HERE FOR FREE PRINTABLE

                           

Improving Social Interactions Among Students With Autism

What is Autism?

Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, is a complex brain disorder that is present from early childhood and is characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people in using language and abstract concepts. 

When students with ASD are in the classroom, they have difficulties socializing and interacting among their peers and commonly the typical students in the classroom with the child with ASD are more likely to interact socially with the other typical students. A way that teachers can help students with autism is by implementing Peer-Mediated Instruction (PMI) into their classroom.

Peer-Mediated Instruction is an approach that addresses the concerns of teaching children with ASD new social skills within the natural environment. The focus of the intervention is to teach peers how to engage students with ASD in positive social interactions. 

Goals of using PMI in the classroom:

• Teach peers how to interact with students with ASD
• Increase the frequency of interections
• Extend social initiations using structured activity implementation
• Minimize teacher/adult support
• Promote positive and natural quality intereactions

Strategies for Peer-Mediated Instruction Intervention in the classroom:

• Integrated Play Groups
• Peer Buddy/Tutors
• Peer Initiation Training
• Peer Networks
• Group Oriented Contingency 

Apps to help with Social Interaction
*click to view for more info

• Book Creator
• AutisMate 
• Proloquo2Go
• Choiceworks
• Pictello
• My PlayHome
• Word SlapPs
• ABA Find IT
• Puppet Pals
• Kid in Story

Here is a great example of Social Skills Training that can be used in the classroom:

Social skills do not come naturally to children with ASD like they do others. The more improvement of social skills and social interaction, the better a child can excel in all areas of life! They will be able to interact and communicate better with their classmates and the more class participation, the more students will learn! This post is only a small chunk of information on this topic. There is much to be discovered about improving social interaction among children with autism and as an educator, it is important for you to do your part and help you students succeed as much as possible!

Nearpod

What is Nearpod?

Nearpod is an interactive presentation tool that can be used to an amazing effect in the classroom. The app and website's concept is very simple and easy to pick up on. A teacher can create presentations that can contain quizzes, polls, videos, images, drawing boards, memory games, web content, and so much more. Nearpod can be used for all subjects and students say that it is fun and engaging. when using Nearpod, teachers can give a presentation while the students follow along while on a tablet or a computer. The teacher can manage what each student sees on their screen or allow them to work at their own pace.

Teachers can embed quizzes, polls, and short answer questions throughout their presentation and while on the teacher dashboard, immediate feedback and scores from the students shows up.

Students do not have to have an account to participate with Nearpod. All students need is the access code to enter to take them to the presentation in the app or the website. 

Pros:                                                                                      

-Nearpod is free                                                                  

-Easy to use                                                                          

-Live results                                                                           

-Easy way to perform formative assessments                      

-Increases student engagement                                                     

-Available on Apple, Android, and Kindle devices              

-Can be used on Nearpod.com just the same as the app

 Cons:

-Potential time management issues

-Some Nearpod services are only available through paid upgrades

-Network issues can arise

-Not every student will have internet access at home

Three ways to use Nearpod in the classroom:

• Ongoing Assessments: When a student takes a quiz on Nearpod, it automatically sends a report to the teacher. You can access the data at anytime and download it as a PDF to print out. This can help you view comprehensive data of your class or just one student.
• Modelling Lesson Materials: Nearpod has a very cool feature called 'Draw It' that can be added to any presentation. 'Draw It' is essentially an interactive white board that allows the teacher to work through something, such as a math problem, and it can also allow the student to do the same thing. Students can really benefit from this feature because they can view a demonstration video over and over again if they are having trouble understanding what to do. The teacher can also use this as an assessment tool and watch how the student worked through their problem and see where a student might be messing up or needs more knowledge on a subject.
• Assigning Homework: A teacher can provide students with a code to access a Nearpod from home. Students can view the presentation at home and complete any add-ons that were made into the presentation. Teachers will have access to see who is participating and who is not. 

 *These are just a few of the many ways a teacher can use Nearpod in a classroom.

Click below to use Nearpod on either platform:

Apple, Android, Kindle

Apps to Increase Reading Comprehension in Students with Austism

Did you know that 1 in 68 children have some form of autism? And did you also know that EVERY person with autism are not the same, in fact, they are very different. So, if you have an autistic child in your classroom one day, will you know what to do to differentiate for them? The first, and most important, thing you can do for your students is to GET TO KNOW THEM! Every child is different and every child learns differently whether they are autistic or not. 

Recently I learned about many apps that you can use in your classroom to help increase reading comprehension in children with autism. You may be wondering how apps can help students with autism and I am here to tell you that the possibilities are endless! Children with autism commonly struggle with single word reading, homophones, antonyms, synonyms, and higher-thinking skills. When using the iPad, autistic children like the colors, pictures, and the easy-touch screen. Oftentimes, autistic children have very strong visual recognition skills, so when using the iPad, the colors and pictures help engage students and help then retain more information in an easy and effective way.

Below I am going to list some of the apps I have been introduced to with a short description of what the app does. You can click the app icon for it to take you to the iTunes app store to download immediately.                                           

 
Inference Clues: Reading Comprehension ($4.99)
Inference Clues helps build strong reading comprehension skills in a fun, game-like environment. It helps build inference skills step-by-step unit mastered. New levels are unlocked only when the child is ready. It has a fun and engaging reward system to increase student motivation. 




 
 Same Sound Spell Bound ($0.99)
This app is designed to help students understand homophones. The player gets to start out by choosing to be Luna or Leo and then they get to be a magician and work towards understanding the magic of words. In this game, the player must correctly identify which homophone correctly completes the sentence puzzle.



  Opposite Ocean ($0.99)
Opposite Oceans is a sister game to Same Sound Spell Bound above and it teaches about antonyms. Again, the player chooses between Luna and Leo as their character and they have to choose bubble word antonyms to solve whale puzzles. The player earns a pearl each time they get the answer correct and when they earn five pearls, a mermaid appears with a bonus jewel that the player earned.



 
 Noodle Words HD ($2.99)
Noodle Words contains a series of animated words that was created to help emerging readers from ages 4-7 discover word meaning. The reader can interact with the words and play with them. For example, they can make the word spin actually demonstrate spinning.





Picture the Sentence Lite ($0.99)
This app offers three different levels of difficulty. This allows the user to attend to important elements of a sentence and "picture it" by attaching meaning to the words. It can also help anyone trying to learn English. (ELL students) You can turn the voice commands off and turn the text features on, and use the game as a practice for basic reading comprehension skills.



 
Reading Comprehension Camp ($19.99)
Reading Comprehension Camp is a multi-purpose app specifically designed to encourage language and reading comprehension. It contains multiple levels and fifty different stories for the user to go through and also has the option to create your own personal story. (perfect for social stories, SCORE!) The app holds data, so a parent or teacher can easily access scores and monitor progress. Reading Comprehension is customizable and offers many different opportunities for differentiation.

Augmented Reality

Today in class, we learned about Augmented Reality (AR). This was the first time I had EVER heard of it. Bear with me, and hopefully by the end of this post, you will have learned about AR and how you can use it in your classroom!

So, first thing is first, what is augmented reality? Augmented reality is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. In other words, it is where there is a digitally enhanced picture, or environment, that is viewed on a screen and is produced by overlaying computer-generated sounds and images to create a realistic 3-D view of the picture at hand. For example, a student can view a picture of a sea turtle, but they can also manipulate the image and turn the turtle, look at the turtle up close, and possibly explore the turtles environment as if it were right in front of you!

If you are still confused(I was, don't worry), here is a quick video to help you get a better perspective of was AR really is and is capable of. https://youtu.be/fyD90WNP_To

Pretty cool, huh? Imagine what amazing things children can learn using AR. They see it as a fun game, but they are really learning, and learning a lot! Using AR is a great tool to use for differentiation. All students love it, but it really helps to engage kids who are very introverted and have a hard time participating in group work and activities. There are so many awesome things that can be done using AR. This really gets students thinking on a deeper level about any topic they are viewing on their device. It can help students research and gain more information for a project they are working on and it would also be a good opportunity to get students working together and collaborating to show off cool things they found or even teach each other how to use the platforms they are working on. I will list below two apps that are well known for students to use in the classroom for AR.

Aurasma is a free app that allows you to turn any object, place, or image into AR. Aurasma brings everyday things to life using graphics, animations, video, audio, and 3-D animations.

 

Arloon is a wonderful app to use in your classroom! You can buy each subject as a separate app, or just purchase the bundle for $4.99. It is totally worth it. In the bundle you get an app on each of the following- Anatomy, Geometry, Solar System, Mental Math, Plants, and Chemistry.

This helps make learning fun for the students and the interactive and hands-on aspect of the app also helps students learn more and eager to stay focused. 

I have just barely scratched the surface of the Augmented Reality world! There is so much out there to learn about AR and how you can use it in your classroom, so get to discovering!