Read It and Roll It

Hi Everyone!

Every Sunday I have been linking up with The Bender Bunch for SPED-tacular Sunday Freebies. I love downloading resources but it is really special to have a weekly link up that it dedicated to free products for special education teachers.

Click here to go the the link up and see today's freebies.

Today on the link up I am featuring a product that I like to use for review: Roll It & Read It

Click here to download

I have used this product in the general education setting in addition to in the resource room, It is a fun way to review many different concepts.

This product is editable and features three differentiated versions. The concept of the game is the same, the different versions allow the teacher to increase the field.

For example, in the first version there is one editable text box in each column. The teacher could put 1-3 items in that column.

The version below was created to have 4 items in each column. 

The last version has the potential for seven items in each column. 

To play each student rolls a die, they read the entire column of the number they rolled. For example, if they roll a three they must read all of the items in the 3rd column. 

This is a great review game and something I keep on hand since it can be played quickly and without a lot of materials. 

In my classroom I keep a blank copies of the game printed out and laminated. I have my students write in the blank boxes with dry erase markers. My students love filling in the boxes and at the same time  they are practicing their spelling! Once all the boxes are filled in students challenge each other to a game.

Click here to download your own blank copy

Some items that I review with this game are:

• sight words
• phonics skills (CVC words, CVCe words)
• letter identification
• number identification 

 I created a Roll it and Read it sheet that focuses on reviewing letter names and sound identification exclusively for my blog followers.

Get it here

If you would like me to create another filled in Roll it and Read it sheet leave a comment below!

A Getting to Know you Game for Staff and Paraprofessionals

This year I am gaining a new special education teacher in my building, along with a few new paraprofessionals who were transferred from other buildings. I have found that participating in a few team building exercises have increased moral and helped us work as a cohesive unit.

This idea is inspired by Hope King's giant jenga review game. (click here to see Hope explain her giant jenga game).

To prepare this game you will need 19 popsicle sticks, 4 different colored markers and a cup.

Using the markers color the tip of 5 sticks pink, orange, blue and color the 4 remaining sticks green. 

Place the sticks color side down in the cup. Each person takes turns pulling a stick and answering a question. 

Pink sticks correlate to questions about personal life such as "share something fun you did this summer", orange sticks correlate to questions about favorite things such as "what is your favorite food?", blue sticks correlate to preference questions such as "would you rather have recess duty or lunch duty?" and green sticks relate to school year questions such as "what is one thing you are looking forward to this year?". 

Once a question is selected each person takes a turn answering the question. 

To download this game  for free click here!

What do you do to get to know your new staff members in the beginning of the year?

Fairy Tales : Beanstalk

Is anyone else teaching Extended School Year (ESY) or summer school? Last year I was on my honeymoon so I didn't teach but this year I am teaching.

I had been playing with the idea to do a fairy tale week for the past few years and this year I decided to go for it!

To decorate my classroom I built a beanstalk!

A few people requested that I describe how to build the beanstalk.

Materials I used:

• 3 pool noodles (I got mine at the dollar store)
• 3 paper plates
• cotton stuffing (could use cotton balls)
• brown paper
• green paper
• double sided tape
• bin (can be any color of size)

First, I placed two of the pool noodles into an empty bin that I had ( I believe it is from the dollar store). I stuffed brown paper into the bin and draped it over the bin so it appeared that the beanstalk was growing from a mound of dirt. The brown paper held the pool noodles in place without a problem.

Next, I attached the third pools noodle to the other two noodles with double sided tape. I taped the noodle in a few places for extra support.

It didn't take a lot of tape and I haven't had a problem with it falling down. I cover up the double sided tape and the places where the noodles connected, I ripped long pieces of green paper and twisted to make vine shapes.

I used clear tape and double sided tape to attach the vines. You could put as many or as few as you want.


My beanstalk didn't quite reach the ceiling and I wanted to give the impression that it was taller than it was so I added a puffy cloud at the top. I took two white paper plates and attached cotton stuffing with glue, then I used double sided tape to secure the paper plates around the beanstalk.

Do you read fairy tales in your classroom?

I created this Fairy Tales, Folktales and Fables pack to provide teachers to posters that define traditional tales, and response sheets to respond after reader or listening to traditional tales. 

View my Fairy Tales, Folktales and Fables pack here and read the full description.