A freebie for my 101 followers!

I have been thinking about blogging, but it seems like time is not on my side! Plus the fact that I wanted to create something super-spectacular for all of my followers since I have 101 followers! I think my creative juices have frozen up with the colder weather! I look at everyone's creations and am in awe of all of the materials that I've downloaded and purchased.

Last week was a tough one for my class. I had 2 students that ran out of the room- and one even ran out of the building. Another student got mad at me for making him finish his work before he could have free time (this is a consequence that is posted in my room). After dealing with his physical aggression for over an hour- yes we had to restrain him- we are trained and allowed to use restraining as a last resort, I was mentally drained. Skip forward to science, where one of my lovely students complained that science is boring and he wasn't going to do it. He had a time out in the alcove in my room, where he then decided to throw his shoes out at me! During the science lesson on plants, I had brought in 2 plants and 5 carnations. We were taking off the leaves of one plant (to see the effects on the plant) I handed each student a leaf so they could see the veins. One student ate his leaf! I reminded all of them of my rule in science- no eating anything during any experiment! We moved on to the carnations, putting each into colored water. I split one of the stems, using scissors (note this was hard to do) and stuck each part of stem into a bottle of colored water. The next day my students were amazed at the flowers change in color, the split flower was half red and half blue! On Friday, 2 of my paraprofessionals had the day off. I do appreciate substitues, but I still have to be with my room the whole time, I can't leave any students alone with a sub! It wasn't too bad of a day. My principal decided to rotate some people around so that I could have another regular staff in my room and one of the subs took that staff's place.

I did make break cards for my students that I'm sharing with all of you. I gave each student their own card (laminated). When they feel that they are getting frustrated, overwhelmed, anxious, or need to have a break (short 1-2 minute walk, sensory break) they show their card to staff. Earlier in the year, each student and staff made a list of 5 coping skills they can use in a school setting (count to 10, walk, stress ball, deep breathing, etc.) Everyone has their coping skills on a laminated card that they can reference when they need it.

Break cards

I did have to change 2 of the pictures, when I uploaded this to Google Docs, the pictures were missing on them and I don't know how to fix it.