Tag: lessons

Posted in Teaching Life

Keeping it Fresh

Posted on by listeningladybug

This year I want to find new ways to keep things fresh and engaging with my middle school and high school students. I find that they need relevant and quick activities. I decided I was going to use games from the New York Times for fun and fast language activities.

I have been playing Wordle with my husband for over a year. We love seeing who can complete the word the fastest and in the least amount of guesses. I started to think how can I use this with my students. I also personally love Connections and knew that this would be perfect to use with students.

Wordle

This is a great game to help students apply spelling skills they have been working on and using for years. I thought my older students might be resistant, but they love it. They ask me to play when we have time in a session. Wordle has definitely added some healthy competition to our sessions. I highly recommend playing with your students.

It is perfect for teaching and reinforcing:

  • vowel pairs
  • consonant blends
  • patterns
  • vocabulary

Connections

This is my personal favorite. My daughter clued me into this game and after the first time playing it I was hooked and thought it would be perfect to play with my middle school and high school students. I am happy to say I was right.

When I first introduced this game to my students I made connection, no pun intended, to activities we have been working on for years. We read the rules provided and did the first daily puzzle together. I wanted to show them how I make connections, so I vocalized my thoughts as I was reading and connecting words.

I love that this game:

  • refeinforeces vocabulary
  • teaches new vocabulary
  • sparks creativity
  • makes them think of multiple meanings

I allow my students to google words that are unfamiliar. This is helpful, because they look at antonyms and synonyms when looking words up. We discuss ways to use and apply the new word in a sentence or connect it to words the student does know. I love how this game is a fast and fun way to teach a skill(s) in a real world application. Playing Connections has sparked some interesting conversations and shed light on things my students know and need to know. I always say I try to be

Mini Crossword

This is the third game we have started to play this year. I find that many of my students hate crossword puzzles. This is a bite size option that gives them success with an activity they typically avoid. I love that it is less than 20 words to weave together. Depending on the student I am working with this activity can be individual or we can fill the puzzle in together. I have a student who now does the puzzle on his own and like to race me. This game is timed, so he loves solving all the words before me.

This game rocks because:

  • supports vocabulary
  • supports language
  • supports content knowledge
  • supports real life knowledge
  • supports spelling

How to Play

We like to play these games on a desktop computer or a Chromebook. Some of my students will get scrap paper to work out spelling patterns and draw connections. You can have students work independently or work with them, offering differentiated support. We play daily-if we can. I am going to start some sort of progress monitoring for these games. This resource will be posted in my TpT store, so stay connected for that monitoring tool.

Real Life

Playing these games are great for my student sessions, but I love that they are real world/real life games my students can play now and transition into their lives after they leave school. Many of my students have mentioned they know people who play Wordle, often mentioning parents. I find it very interesting that they are embracing something they knew about, but assumed was too difficult for them. I love it when they play on the weekends and report their scores.

I highly recommend giving these free, online games a try.

Posted in Teaching Life

5 Ways to Make the Most of an Unexpected Canceled Session

Posted on by listeningladybug

The school year hasn’t even started for me yet. I am eyeballs deep in planning and scheduling for my itinerant caseload. As I am making my new schedule, I’m thinking about all the ways to make my travel and time work for me, all the while keeping my students and teachers happy. Something new I am focusing in on is how can I make the most of time when I have a student absent or a cancellation. My motivation for this post is the dreaded show up at the school/classroom door and hear the phrase “Oh-Sorry the student is absent.”

Photo by Oleksandr P on Pexels.com

Now sometimes this is annoying and sometimes it is a gift in my busy day. I could go on and on about how much of a drag and pain it is dealing with this situation, especially if it happens often and there is supposed to be a plan in place to avoid wasted time, gas and stress. Let’s focus on the gap in your day as a GIFT.

Knowing In Advance

When I know in advance that a student will be unavailable for our scheduled time I typically plan how I will use my time. I always have options and try to make the most of “free time” in my busy schedule. When a block of time is scheduled in advance I typically choose a location that will allow me to make the most of my time; this could be a meeting, use of technology, a make up session, or housekeeping. However, when I can’t plan in advance here are my top ways to make the most of my “gift”.

Drive On

If I am at a school that doesn’t allow me access or the convince of technology I will just drive to the next school in my schedule. This allows me a more relaxing drive (hopefully) to the next school. Depending on time and weather I might stop and drive through for a caffeine boost.

Photo by Quang Anh Ha Nguyen on Pexels.com

Catch Up

Catching up can mean many different things. If I need something at the cancellation school I will make the most of being there.

Photo by Dzenina Lukac on Pexels.com
  • I love it when I can touch base with another teacher or provider and face to face chat about a need or situation.
  • I will catch up on emails.
  • Work on paperwork.
  • Make sure my data is up to date.
  • Work on notes.

Plan

I typically will use this as a time slot to plan for any or all of my students. I love to infuse books into my lessons and themes, so this is a perfect opportunity to check out books in the library. If I have printing or laminating access I will make the most of my time getting resources ready for future lessons.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com

Create

Fresh and new resources are very important to me. I find I am always looking for new ideas to keep things interesting and student specific. I enjoy making resources, but they typically take a lot longer to develop than a missed session time can afford, so I will research new ideas from all the brilliant teachers out there. Teacher Pay Teachers is my first choice because there are so many teacher authors providing content and resources that span my diverse caseload. This can be a rabbit hole situation if I am at home, so I definitely will take my gift of limited free time and use it wish listing or printing out new resources.

Photo by Lex Photography on Pexels.com

Organize

Keeping up with organization can be a struggle when you are on the go. I try to be as organized as I can, but some days…or weeks are harder to manage. A cancellation can provide the perfect opportunity to clean up, purge or rearrange your itinerant school life. Here are a few things that I can manage in a small window of time.

Photo by Vinta Supply Co. | NYC on Pexels.com
  • My bag
  • My car
  • Workspaces
  • Storage areas
  • Email
  • Folders

All of these are manageable in a session time. My bag is one I definitely try to tackle once a week, but if I get extra time I will toss and organize its contents. Being Itinerant can be difficult, especially if where you work doesn’t allow materials and resources to be left, so when you are carrying your world in your bag-giving it a good tidy up can make like a lot easier.

Everyone’s time and schedule is important-with this perspective I never think a teacher is trying to make my day more difficult. This reality has come with experience and age. As I add another year to my career, I think I am more aware and reflective of what will set me up for success. A healthy mindset is sure to help me keep my sanity as I run from school to school. Hopefully one of these ideas will come to mind as YOU navigate your school year and help you cope with the challenges of being itinerant.

Posted in Teaching Life

Holly Jolly Teacher Stratagies

Posted on by listeningladybug
Any of the Turkey books are loved. The worksheets are in my Teacher Pay Teachers store.

While Christmas is in the air, elves are causing shenanigans and everything gets a hint of peppermint my students slowly start to loose focus. December can be one of the most fun months to plan for, but also the most frustrating. I call this the Madness of Christmas.

These cards are lowercase letter s and initial sounds. They can be found in my tpt store.

I started to unearth all of my holiday titles and activities the last days of November. I love to be ready and being in multiple buildings I have to get things sorted and distributed. Teaching K-11 this year is fantastic, but keeping the holiday train on the tracks is a challenge. This being said  here are three things I do to keep myself merry and bright while I am channeling my inner gingerbread girl.

This was a huge hit last year. Went perfectly with holidays around the world.

Acceptance

I love a plan. I love to be organized. However, the first thing I have to make a daily mantra….”ride the wave of cocoa and candy canes”. I know there will be sessions derailed by teachers, assemblies, and of course my students. I would love to think they have visions of goals, speechreading and language dancing in there heads, but reality and experience tell me it is Santa, elves and Christmas vacation filling their daydreams. This understanding and acceptance, that my fun and functional plans may get put to the back burner or slowly accomplished, is helpful for me to take each day as it comes.

Directed drawings. Perfect for listening and vocabulary development.

Time Management

Next, I plan activities that can be sweet and condensed or stretched out over multiple sessions (with no recall issues) that have a bit of holiday whimsy. Time is always the issue, regardless of the holidays. My session minutes are precious, so I look for activities that fit the holiday vibes and tackle goals. Selecting shorter books and familiar games is very helpful. The kids love it and games that we have played or activities they have done before help manage time. We don’t spend alot of time on directions and rules. We love holiday matching games played the traditional way or using the game pieces for listening and sequencing. They are essentially picture prompts, so they can be used for categories, sentences, building a story or charades. Any holiday matching or memory game will do.

Descriptive language activity.

Quality Connections

Last, I try to connect to my classrooms. I love supporting classroom content. Working with organized and pre-planned teachers helps navigate the month. This could be said all year, but during December this is essential. Knowing that vocabulary and language goals can work together makes everyone jolly.

I love to plan activities that expand off of classroom ELA strategies and connect then to IEP goals. Depending on the skill and grade level of a student I try to select activities that pull in listening, prior knowledge, vocabulary, writing and holiday fun. One of our favorite activies is Mad Libs. I love that I can use these silly pages with all of my students. I just modify as needed.

Throwback fun!!! Purchased a few years ago. Still a great activity.

Surviving the holidays as itinerant can be challenging. Finding the balance between festive fun and collecting data can be done. These strategies work for me. As the month progresses I am going to share some more fun and festive lessons.

Posted in Teaching Life

Literacy Skills: Spring Sequencing Activity

Posted on by listeningladybug

My students love Splat the Cat stories. I find them easy to read aloud and think the illustrations are cute. Each story typically has enough content and pages to keep my young listeners engaged.

How I Use When Reading Aloud

  • Read
  • Stop and ask questions
  • Predicting
  • Vocabulary
  • Text to self connections
  • Text to text connections

Depending on the student I probably use 2-3 of these ideas when reading the story. I find that reading a fun and simple story can pepper in and layer in many goals or needs a student might have. Story books are one of my favorite tools when working on goals.

I decided with this story I wanted to develop a resource that could be used with various levels of learners. I created different options to sequence the growing process Splat goes through. Creating worksheets that go with the story, but can also be used with other stories is also a goal of mine. I have a student that does not enjoy Splat as much as others, so I know I can use this resource with a few other Spring/planting books I have in my collection.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sequence-Retell-Splat-the-Cat-Oopsie-Daisy-6825500

This resource can be printed and copied in color or black line. I typically love color, but if you have a student who loves to color or needs fine motor practice, then printing the black line version would be awesome. Anytime I can support another therapist or teachers goals is a total win!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sequence-Retell-Splat-the-Cat-Oopsie-Daisy-6825500

The language used in the various options supports different learners. Some of my students are using transition words, while others need just a simple number to support sequencing the pictures.

The prep for this is very easy. Decide what page option suits your students best and print.

How To Use

  • Small group
  • Centers
  • Morning work
  • Whole group
  • One to one

These can be printed on card stock or laminated for durability. Students can sequence and retell after the story. Another option is to have them listen and sequence at the same time. I would do this with a second read through. When my students used the cards the love to self check, so after the sequenced I find the first page, where Splat starts the growing process, and the listen and correct the card order.

Last, I love to connect their expressive writing skills. My students love to share their favorite aspects of most everything, so I take advantage of this joy of sharing and have them write. The illustrations are typically the easiest part of this sheet. Again finding ways to connect to the whole child. Working on fine motor and creativity. Writing and remembering the text is a fantastic auditory memory skill. If they need prompts or gentle reminders I definitely help them out. The “tell me why” piece is typically the hardest component. Wh questions are always a goal and those why questions typically challenge my students. This is a fun, simple and basic way to attack that skill with a personal connection.

Skills Addressed

  • Creativity
  • Fine motor
  • Expressive language
  • Wh questions
  • Auditory recall
  • Personal expression
  • Phonics/spelling
  • Writing

Spring has definitely sprung in my planbook. I am looking forward to reading all of my favorite Spring storybooks. I am sure I will share texts and activities in the upcoming weeks, but for now I hope you found this inspirational and useful. You can find the resource in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Happy Spring planning!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Listening-Ladybug

Posted in Teaching Life

St. Patrick’s Language Activities

Posted on by listeningladybug
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sayrades-St-Patricks-Day-Descriptive-Language-Game-6479598

I have created a handful of these Sayrades and some of my students love them. They ask for them. This of course makes my heart happy, because I love doing new activities and especially these days we need to spice it up.

These are perfect for vocabulary, syllables and descriptions. The goal is to say the least about of descriptions to your partner to guess. Better description is the key. We clip the number on the side. Dry earse markers also work.

Descriptive Skills

These are easy print and do task cards. I laminate, but you don’t have too. I also printed them on a black and white printer…in a pinch and still effective. I use the clue boards for a guide, but these work just as well with a student. We selected 1 of 12 pictures and then played the same way. When the picture was used, my student covered with a tiny post it note.

Expressive Language

I have a sentence worksheet attached to this resource. These words can be used to generate sentences or be story starters. This is the part two of why I made this resource. My kiddos always need practice writing longer and more detailed sentences and stories.

Listening

The Clue Boards are perfect to use for a listening activity. Once the student has reviewed all of the images they can be used for listening. I like that I can scale the listening. Students can listen for 1, 2 or 3 pictures. These can be tied into sequencing. I like to have the students listen to a sentence with a picture clue…then have the student pull the word out and cover the picture with a mini eraser or tiny piece of paper.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sayrades-St-Patricks-Day-Descriptive-Language-Game-6479598

I’m excited to use this for the next two weeks. Keeping things fun, easy and multi purpose this year has been a top priority and these future right in. I will also use these for a vocabulary tie in to the St. Patrick’s Day books we will be reading. I will share books in a future post.

If you like this resource definitely check out my store. I have other themes just like this.

Posted in Teaching Life

2021 Valentine’s Day Lessons and Read Alouds

Posted on by listeningladybug

This is my new haul of books. I have a solid collection of Valentine’s Day books, but of course I needed new titles.

The title alone brings the kids in. We had fun reading.

I have other stories with Desmond and Clayton. The kids seem to like these two little mice, so of course I needed the Valentine’s Day version.

This one is beyond adorable. We loved the pictures and the familiarity of the story. We read The Littlest Reindeer and The Littlest Elf over the Christmas holiday. Emma Valentine’s story delivered just as much….if not more smiles. The puppy storyline was a huge hit!

The Littlest and Biggest….fun to explore the language.

This is one of my favorite stories. I think it is the illustrations, no matter, I read it every year to atleast one student. This year I decided to make some worksheets and activities to go with it. I found the clip art on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I am having a great time with my students this week. I also read last week Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine. I forgot to snap a pic before I shared it with one of my teams. Love my teacher tribe….not sure how they are using it, but we used the detective story for opportunities to practice predicting.

I am taking advantage of anything cute and fun this year. We are all teaching in a new situation and making the most of it has been my daily mantra. I have a post from last year if you want to see some more Valentine’s Day lesson ideas.

Happy Teaching!

Posted in Teaching Life

Winter Themed Books & Worksheets

Posted on by listeningladybug

I am back in person with my students and I really wanted to make our first week back fun. I purchased new snow themed books for the month off January. I looked them all over and decided I needed to make resources to pair up to the stories and also have fun tackling goals.

Every student seemed to love How to Catch a Snowman. I loved seeing and hearing what sort of trap they would build. I used this page and book with students K-2. I varied my expectations per student. My kindergartner was only expected to listen, recall and draw a trap. Where as, my 2nd graders were expected to listen, recall/sequence, pick out new vocabulary, design a trap and write/explain the trap.

Sequencing is something that I have been working on since September. We started with peanut butter and jelly activities, A s’mores game and activities, and now snowmen. This little matchbook activity hits alot of goals at one time.

  • Cutting
  • Sequencing
  • Oral language
  • Retelling
  • Writing extension
  • Descriptive language

Playing games has been difficult this year. Keeping everything clean and safe is a top priority. We played this successfully because we each had a spinner. I took the spinner on the directions sheet and the student used the large spinner. Having printed and laminated resources has been essential. I can print many copies or if laminated I can wipe down between students.

I varied the game play based on each students goal. I enjoy materials that I can manipulate to meet multiple needs or goals. This makes planning and traveling so much easier.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Rhyming-Pairs-Worksheets-and-Games-5446711

Rhyming seems to be a difficult skill force few of my students. We will be using thematic rhyming for the rest of the school year. Snowball Moon is a new title for me. Hoping the kids like it too.

Froggy books are not my personal favorite, but my students like them, sonwhen I saw this one I knew I had to grab it. I also knew it would fit into my snow theme for January. My students will assemble a snowman after we read and discuss the story. I intend to have them cut and sort the pieces, then listen for what pieces they can select for gluing. I always try to squeeze in listening somewhere!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sayrades-Winter-Descriptive-Language-Game-6339269

These sheets can be cut up into cards or leave as is. I made these to be in color, laminated and cut apart. A printer selection mistake at school…totally my fault, left me with a set in black and white. Instead of recycling, I decided to toss them in my bag for atleast one student to use. So happy. It worked out and was totally fun playing this Winter “Say”rades game. I made a “Say”rades game for each season. I wasn’t sure how the kids would react to playing, but so far this one is a hit!

We seem to need alot of opportunities to use descriptive language skills. Writing can be a challenge, so playing a game and just using verbal skills to describe was fun and time effective.

Winter can feel very long when you live in a cold climate, so making the most out of it is essential for me. I am going to continue to look for fun titles and make activities that engage my students. If you liked this post check back. I have other winter themed lesson ideas coming.

Posted in Teaching Life

Creating Language Activities for My Littles

Posted on by listeningladybug

I find that I am in the constant pursuit of creating new ways to help my students use language to the fullest. Being a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is something I love and my own passion for language has been a helpful quality in supporting my students and the language gaps and barriers they have, but the ideas I think of are not strictly for the population of students I serve. We all use language for expression and reception, so my hope is that these activities can me modified for any student acquiring or expanding their language skills.

Descriptive Language

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sayrades-Christmas-Descriptive-Language-Game-6297874

This is a new resource I created for the holiday season. It is easy to use and can be modified for students needs and goals.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sayrades-Christmas-Descriptive-Language-Game-6297874

My students love games and activities that allow them to use clothes pins-which they love. I have various types for the individual lessons I plan. I try to use basic items whenever I can. They very much like the mini clothespins.

If these pages are laminated, wipe off markers can also be used to mark points earned. Also, laminated pages will save you prepping and planning in the future.

Expressive Language

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Write-A-Story-Holiday-Animals-5072651

My students often struggle with writing. I am always looking for ways to get more from them. I started making these writing promt pages. Our time is limited and I don’t want to waste time on an illustration, so I give them one. Language is my mission, not art. Don’t get me wrong, there are times and opportunities for creativity, but I want the majority of our time to focus on words.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Write-A-Story-Holiday-Animals-5072651

These were a hit last year. Something I love about these is I can print as many pages as I want per student and for multiple grade levels. I always love having resources that I can use in so many different ways. It keeps my bag lighter and mentally I am juggling less.

I encourage the students to use the picture as a spark to start their story on fire. The pictures are there to support and guide the writing process. I love watching and reading their work when it gives life something I’ve made. So many times their little, creative minds take a page in a direction I never thought about when creating a resource. I have other write a story resources in my store.

Receptive Language

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Listening-and-Speechreading-Holiday-Animals-5072469

These are so much fun. I typically use with k-2nd grade students. The pictures are cute and fun, the flexibility is great and another resource that can be adjusted to meet IEP goals. Flexibility is essential to me as an itinerant teachers.a

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Listening-and-Speechreading-Holiday-Animals-5072469

I love exploring and expanding on a resource. I use these mats and cards to work on listening skills, speechreading skills, vocabulary skills and writing skills. I recommend laminating the cards and mats for durability and longevity. If you are using with multiple students laminated pages also easily wipe off, between students.

Having Fun with Language

Whatever language you use to communicate, being able to express yourself to the fullest is essential. Developing new tools to help my students do just that is always going to be my jam. I love language and I love teaching language skills.

If any of these ideas seem like something you could incorporate into your lessons you can visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I also have a Boom Cards store under the same name. Also, you can always follow this blog, I am always adding new content!

Have a holly jolly December teaching!