Happy Monday and Happy (almost) Valentine's Day!! I never used to make a big production of Valentine's Day in my classroom. We always focused on Feelings and made Valentine's Day more of a secondary theme. However, then I found this super cute book from the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond and now we do a whole unit on Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse ! This super cute book is great for talking about Valentine's Day but it is extra awesome for talking about friendship and why we love our friends because in the story Mouse makes different valentine cards for each of his friends based on what he loves about them. On my TPT store, you can find my Happy Valentine's Day Mouse! Picture Book Communication and Comprehension Supports which includes printables,  IEP goal ideas, and progress monitoring sheets including these vocabulary boards which can be made into a fun memory or matching game... ...and this sentence-building board ......

We had a hard time this week finding a cute, predictable story to use for our polar animals theme. It was my first time doing this theme so I did not have my usual bag of tricks! We ended up using a Scholastic mini-book called, Are You Cold?, with lots of new polar animal names that my kiddos surprisingly didn't know. The walrus was called an ostrich more than once! Like I said it was our first time covering polar animals! The best part was the last page of the book had a slot that I could slip their pictures in to make them a part of the story. They LOVED this surprise ending! This week there was definitely no shortage of ADORABLE polar animal crafts! There were so many that all of my teammates chose something different. My two favorites were this too cute walrus craft made from painted paper plates, yarn, and plastic knives. Then, my students made this great ink blot penguin painting. Didn't they turn out so cute?! To give a visual for the kids so they knew......

It's a new year and a new month in the special education classroom! This means it is time for some new themes and picture books to engage your learners. Since we have returned from break we have been enjoying lots of fun snow-related books and activities. Keep reading to see what we are up to this month! Reading The first week we studied The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. I love talking about Peter and all the fun snowy day adventures he goes on. Interested in using this story with your students? Click the image below to grab my  Communication and Comprehension Support unit  on my TpT Store! After The Snowy Day, we read The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel.  To go along with the story I also created some  vocabulary and communication supports , reading comprehension activities, and progress monitoring sheets that you can grab by clicking the image below: We also read Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle and There Was a Cold Lady Who S......