Christmas and Hannukah Sorting

We read This is Christmas and This is Hannukah this week. We then created a Venn Diagram of Christmas and Hannukah.  I found a free Venn Diagram online,

http://surfari.editme.com/files/VennDiagram/Venn%20Diagram.jpg

I created some icons in Boardmaker and this is what mine looked like:

I had my students circle the Christmas circle in green and Hannukah in blue.  It helped my students to find the correct circle.

December Desk Strip

This is the deskstrip that I made for December.  It follows the same format that I used for November.

In case you need a reminder, the desk strip was based on a post from PrAACtical AAC about using desk strip for different subjects:
https://www.facebook.com/PrAACticalAAC/posts/443506725696628 

The November ones were used in a variety of ways by my students - some that surprised me. 

I just need to find a way to secure them to the desk.  I have been using MacTac (clear sticky shelf paper) but my students like to peel it off each day. 

December Holidays

I can't believe it but I only have 12 days with my students before we are off for the Winter Break. 

We are going to be focusing on Hannukah and Christmas as these are the holidays that my students celebrate.  I have one student that does not celebrate anything so most of our activities while they can tie into one of the holidays they are still generic enough to go for either holiday.

Here are some of the activities that we will be doing.  We are not doing any baking/cooking so I am supplementing some of the activities with crafts I find online.

Hannukah:
Making a Star of David from Popsicle Sticks from The Education Center (you may need a free password)
http://www.theeducationcenter.com/tec/afc/my-files/mailbox/idea.do?DETAIL=06_dj09pri_dec

Christmas:
I bought a Foamie craft kit to make snowmen s'more ornaments.
They will look like this:
http://www.makingfriends.com/winter/ornament_smores.htm

For Lesson 19:
I have an Elmer's paint your own Gingerbread Ornaments.

Beginning Sound Sorting Mat

In Lesson 11, we are working on Beginning Sounds.  I have taken the supplied worksheets, and I get my students to create a word sorting mat. 

Materials Needed:

17" by 22" sheet of construction paper one for each student

copy of the printables for lesson 11 for each student

Metre Stick (or Yard Stick for the Americans)

Black Marker

Scissors 

Glue

How to Prepare the Materials:

I take the sheet of construction and paper and fold it in half (hot dog fold).  I, then, fold the paper into thirds.  I take my metre stick and draw the dividing lines in with a black marker.

The Student Construction:

I give each student a copy of the letters and ask them to cut them out, and glue each set of letters into a box.  I provide them with my sample so they can see what they need to do (see the picture below).  For me, it does not matter what letter goes in which box - my only rule is that the letters need to be oriented correctly.

I have been having the students work on this project on the first day of a new unit.  This allows me time to work individually with each student on the monthly pre-tests.  

One of the ways, I conduct an assessment for my students is that I give them the stack of pictures for the month (sometimes the students cut them out, sometimes I do it) and I see how many pictures each student is able to sort by themselves.  See an example in this picture:

Another extension activity that we did this month was to take the printables from  Lesson 12 and we created a sorting activity.  I used Word to create the titles.  See below for an example of what we did:

Clicker 5 files for November

Here are some files for Clicker 5 that support Lesson 13 for this month's Elementary Unit.

Scrambled Sentences where the model stays at the top of the page with Clicker clipart:
http://www.learninggrids.com/us/ResourcePage.aspx?resuid=c237e56c-6ea6-46a7-8afd-8ee14a8ed95e

Scrambled Sentences where the model will pop up and then disappear as you write the sentences:
http://www.learninggrids.com/us/ResourcePage.aspx?resuid=e9eeafa5-8533-41d5-8e00-e958624389b0

Popcorn Word Mat

I recently read Ana's blog about Popping Words with her permission I have created a "popping word mat" for the November Unit.  I have and will use it as a sight word recognition activity.  I will give each student their own copy and small toy/block/marker.  I will ask them to put the block on certain words, and this will be a type of bingo.

One More Rhyming File

Here is another rhyming worksheet that I created.  This is a cut and staple book.  See page 3 for the directions of how to use it.

http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activity/1695844/Unique-Flip-Book-for-Rhyming

I took the idea from this book: 

They did not have -ee or -ook as a flip book so I made it myself. If you look on the front cover the BUG book is what I was trying to recreate.  They used a hole punch and brad fasteners but I just decided we would staple the page flaps at the top of each pile.

Rhyming in SmartNotebook

Here is the SmartNotebook rhyming file for the month of November:

http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=dafcf469-10d1-45d2-9f1f-f7222867925f

Rhyming Activities for November

Here are a variety of things I made for the Rhyming Part of November's Unique Learning System Elementary Unit.

Interactive files in Boardmaker Studio:
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activity/1695254/ULS-Elementary-November-Rhyming

Sorting Worksheet in Boardmaker Plus:
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activity/1695263/ULS-Elementary-November-Rhyming-Worksheet

Desk Strips for November

I saw a post this morning from PrAACtical AAC about using desk strip for different subjects:
https://www.facebook.com/PrAACticalAAC/posts/443506725696628

And that got me to thinking about how I could use this idea with ULS so I created this desk strip for the month of November:

November Unit

Now that October is almost over, it is time to think of a new month.  November brings us to the City and the Country.

Here are some things I have found:

To talk about what you can do in various places in the city:  ex . "Where do you go to buy books?"
http://kizclub.com/Topics/community/town.pdf

Art Idea for making an apartment building: I have tons of those lick and stick squares
http://lifeinfirstgrade1.blogspot.ca/2012/01/last-week-in-pictures.html

Town and Country Printables
http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/topic/world-around-us/environment/town-and-country.html
I thought this would make a great background for a T-chart about the differences between town and country
http://resources.sparklebox.org.uk/4000-5000/sb4408.zip

Farm Printables
http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/Farm&Country.htm

Supplemental Activites for October

Here are the two activities that I found on the Internet that complemented the unit this month:

Sorting by Habitat:
http://kizclub.com/Topics/animals/habitat.pdf

This one was more difficult
http://kizclub.com/Topics/animals/animalhomes.pdf

Unique Learning System (ULS) Elementary

This blog is going to be about materials that I have created to supplement the Unique Learning System - Elementary Curriculum. They will be in SmartNotebook 11, Boardmaker Plus or Boardmaker Studio format, and then posted on the correct sharing website.  Here is what I have created so far for:

October Animals in their Homes

Lessons 8, 9, and 10 - rhyming

Various Rhyming Activities - interactive.
http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=6afe97ea-5aa6-4b21-896a-89cb16d50223

Black and White Cards with Rhyming Sorting Mats - printable
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activity/1680406/og-and-ide-rhyming-worksheet

Multiple Choice Questions - interactive
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activity/1676488/Rhyming-Unique-October-Elementary

Lesson 11 - beginning sounds

Multiple Choice Questions - interactive
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activity/1651915/ULS-Elementary-October-First-Sounds

Sorting Mats, 3 at a time - interactive
http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activity/1651944/ULS-Elementary-October-First-Sounds-Sorting