October Staff/Parent Newsletter

October's newsletter continues to focus on books that I love to use during this month.  I try to recommend at least 5 books for the month.  My top 3 choices for October are Apple Trouble by Ragnhild Scamll, The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams, and The Chocolate Chip Ghost by Meighan Peifer.  I love the book Apple Trouble because the main character is a hedgehog!  Who doesn't think hedgehogs are cute? Am I right!  I also love this book because my daughter has a stuffed hedgehog that I "borrowed" from her room...shhhh... don't tell her! We used this book in therapy along with pictures of the items that got stuck to hedgehog.  I just printed some pictures I found on google and laminated them.  Then I used double sided tape so that each item that got stuck to the hedgehog could be placed on my stuffed hedgehog.  The kids loved it!  Any time you can bring a stuffed animal to class and use it during therapy is a win!

Another great resource that I just found is a website called Tarheel reader.  This is an awesome site where you can create your own stories for your students. It's simple and fun - you can create any story you want including social stories, sensory stories, and stories about field trips.  The stories can be viewed as a whole class using a smart-board or laptop, or you can print them for smaller group projects. I have already received a positive response from the music teacher!. Yup, that's right...the music teacher loved it!

October Staff/Parent Newsletter

October's newsletter continues to focus on books that I love to use during this month.  I try to recommend at least 5 books for the month.  My top 3 choices for October are Apple Trouble by Ragnhild Scamll, The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams, and The Chocolate Chip Ghost by Meighan Peifer.  I love the book Apple Trouble because the main character is a hedgehog!  Who doesn't think hedgehogs are cute? Am I right!  I also love this book because my daughter has a stuffed hedgehog that I "borrowed" from her room...shhhh... don't tell her! We used this book in therapy along with pictures of the items that got stuck to hedgehog.  I just printed some pictures I found on google and laminated them.  Then I used double sided tape so that each item that got stuck to the hedgehog could be placed on my stuffed hedgehog.  The kids loved it!  Any time you can bring a stuffed animal to class and use it during therapy is a win!
Another great resource that I just found is a website called Tarheel reader.  This is an awesome site where you can create your own stories for your students. It's simple and fun - you can create any story you want including social stories, sensory stories, and stories about field trips.  The stories can be viewed as a whole class using a smart-board or laptop, or you can print them for smaller group projects. I have already received a positive response from the music teacher!. Yup, that's right...the music teacher loved it!

September Staff/Parent Newsletter

Does your school have parent feedback goals and whole school learning indicators?  We have done this for a few years and each year I strive to communicate in new and exciting ways.  This school year I have decided to provide teachers and parents (of my students) with a monthly email newsletter outlining various strategies and resources to increase communication skills.  For my September email newsletter, I compiled a list of suggested activities parents and teachers can utilize with their child(ren) or students. I generated two separate emails, one for parents and one for teachers, each just slightly modified to adjust to recipients.  Included in both (parent and teacher) were suggested books for the month of September, YouTube "Born Learning PSA - The supermarket, and strategies for articulation.  My goal is to get the word out about how important reading is for a number of reasons, including improving focus and attention, imagination, and increasing vocabulary. I have also just discovered these great YouTube videos "Born Learning PSA" and I LOVE them. It demonstrates the importance of narrating to your child ALL the time as they are learning so much from listening to what you are doing.  What are you all doing for your school goals?  I hope this helped you a little bit.  I will be back next month to share my November newsletter suggestions.  Have a great school year!