Cade Nicholas Jothen

The great news, Cade is here!
Born August 7
He was 6# 12oz.  21 inches long
Every one is great and it is so nice to have him home.

Hop Back to School

School is right around the corner for some of you and others are already back!  We have some great activities for you to begin the year with a great jump start!
Check out our teachers pay Teachers storehttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Teacher-Bin we have a new back to school theme for you, along with a freebie!
Hop into a new school year is a theme unit to help you hop, jump and leap into the beginning of a school year.  The theme is all about frogs.  It includes books, art projects, games, songs and finger plays, along with snacks, and facts about frogs.  The theme also includes name tags, and rules for your new school year. If you want a great jump start to a new year you will enjoy this back to school theme.

Back to School Activity Set

FREEBIE GAME!

SALE Today!!!

In honor of Chanda's birthday and our 1 month anniversary on TpT everything in our store is on sale today only!  Be sure to check it out!  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Teacher-Bin

15 Products Available!

We reached our goal of getting 15 products online for the month of July!  It is our first month blogging, having a TpT store and learning lots about social media!  Our 15th product up is daily sign-in sheets!  Daily Sign in sheets are great for practicing first names and  last names.   It is a way to see improvements in handwriting as each month passes by.  Assign the students a number to write their name and the daily sign-in sheet become an attendance record!

At the bottom of each sheet any significant happening going on in school or the world can be noted and now you have a record events!

Copying a different color for each month is an organization tool to look at a glance at the separate months. It is a great assessment of handwriting and letter formation.

I like to have sheets run off for the month and ready to go when kids walk in the door in a 3-ring binder!

Special Education FREEBIE today!!!

We have a daily note freebie up on at our TpT store.  This freebie is great for special education providers who are on the go! As an itinerant provider with large caseloads and traveling to many schools it is hard to always have great contact with your families as you never seem to be in the same place.  I have created a daily note to keep better contact with families.  The note is simple with check boxes and a little section for a short note.  It worked great for me with parents, teachers, and case managers.  Share this with any providers you know! Get it here http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Special-Education-Related-Service-Provider-Daily-Note-799420

Classroom Management Tip!

A great classroom management tip is having a table “Captain”. The child who is the captain is the person in charge of the table for the month.  He or she must get materials for the table, ensure things are put away, and when games take place at the table, the table captain would have the first turn if we would play a table game. The students in my class use the school supplies community style so before having the captain, the kids would all be scrambling for materials. By having the captain in charge of materials it ensures the children are not all scrambling for materials.

I have always given the students new seating arrangements at the beginning of the month.  It promotes social skills, communication and cooperative learning.  To select my table captain the kids roll a die.  The one with the largest number (or smallest number) is the captain.  Eventually all children get a turn, but I continue to use the same process.

Now one of the jobs of the captain is to get the plastic table dishes  to the table.  It is a total organization tool for me and the kiddos.  I purchased 30 of the colorful dishes from the Dollar Store.  The dishes are used to play all table games at the table.  The kiddos have their own personal space to keep game pieces, cards, manipulative items.  If dice are involved in a game, they must shake the dice on their dish.   The plates are great for keeping art project pieces.  I don’t just use the dishes at the table, the kids use them on the floor for different games and projects.  The dishes are durable, stackable and easy to clean. The dishes are one of the best investments I ever purchased and is a super management tip.

Friday Trivia!

Happy Friday Everyone!  So happy that the weekend is upon us!  Summer weekends seem too few and too fast. It’s hard to believe it is the last weekend in July.  We posted a fun trivia book for a Friday!  This trivia book has over 300 questions.  It is an excellent tool for transition times.  It keeps chaos out of the room when there are a few minutes to spare, meaning excellent for classroom management.  You can even use this trivia as a question of the day book.  Go ahead and print it out and put it in a 3 ring binder to have on hand at all times.  You will be surprised how useful this book of trivia can come in.  Questions are most appropriate for K-3^rd grade students. The trivia is available at our TpT store.  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Primary-TriviaWho-knows-the-answer-792439  

Trivia Book!