Touch Math

For some of the students, we has started a math program called TouchMath. It is a multisensory approach to math. The program uses TouchPoints to engage students of all abilities and learning styles. The TouchPoints provide the students with a visual to help develop numeral and other number sense concepts. We will be completing hands on activities as well as creating our own TouchMath visuals. I will be sending home additional information this week.

Here is a video (courtesy of the TouchMath program) that help explain the program at the beginning with touchpoints and counting patterns.

Overview of TouchMath Touching/Counting Patterns

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Happy Holidays!

We had a great couple of weeks talking about the holidays. The students did well today for the schedule being so out of place. I hope you take some time to look through the holiday gifts and crafts that came home. The students work so hard on them and were proud to bring them home.

The Christmas Trees were a hit this year. Thanks to me son's preschool teacher, Ms. Nancy, for sending home this craft with him so that I could "lesson lift" it (new term thanks to a #spedchat friend). The activity was fairly simple. but worked on so many of the basic skills that the students are working on. The students first cut along 3 straight dark lines draw on the large triangle. Using the dark marker helps them focus on the correct area to cut. Next (and under my guidance), the students built the tree from stump to top putting it together kind of like a puzzle. After that, the students added shiny star stickers (which were a big hit) to their tree to make it festive. Lastly, each student either wrote their name or first initial on the back. I assisted by writing Merry Christmas on the front.


I hope you enjoy the time off with family and friends! I know I will enjoy the time off to gear up for 3rd and 4th quarter! Stay warm! Stay safe!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

PS - School resumes January 3rd.

Holiday Traditions

Check out our poster about Holiday Traditions!

Be sure to leave us a comment about what holiday(s) you celebrate and what traditions your family has for the holidays.

Happy Hanukkah!
                         Merry Christmas!
                                                  Happy Kwanzaa!

Winter Holidays

We are in the thick of Winter Holidays! I always enjoy this unit every year because I get to know a little bit more about the students as well as family traditions. 

Last week we focused on Hanukkah. The students enjoyed listening to books about Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. One story that was quite a favorite, Eight Nights of Hanukkah, provided a repetitive text which was programed onto the Big Mac switch. Each student was able to help "read" the story.

This week we will be focusing on Christmas and the traditions that family have during the holidays. We will discuss a little more about traditions and holiday events that take place around the city.  Each day we will add a little more to our Glogster poster about holiday traditions. By the end of the week, we will complete the poster and share it with our Room 5 Friends from Cleveland. We will also share it on this blog to get feedback on our post as well.


What holiday(s) do you celebrate? What is your family holiday tradition?? Please comment below and include your location so we can see where different traditions my come from.

My family celebrates Christmas. One of the traditions with my family is to go downtown and look at the lights and the tree on Fountain Square. On this night, we do something very special.....we have ice cream for dinner!! Yes, we get ice cream at Graeter's (my favorite ice cream ever!) and eat it on Fountain Square. Afterwards, we drive around town looking at all the Christmas lights. ~Mrs. Broxterman

My Edublog Award Nominations are in!

After being swamped with work-work as well as grad school-work, I finally had time to sit down and think about nominations for the Edublog awards (just under the deadline ...phew!). I still feel that I am very new in this world of social media; however, the impact that some of the people I have met, some of the posts I have read, as well as some of the comments I have received over the past couple of years has definitely changed me as an educator. For this, I am taking time to share a few of my nominations in hopes that others see the benefit of being connected as a group of globals educators. If you would like to nominate some great educational resources as well, check out Edublog for more information.

Best Individual Blog - The Innovative Educator

Best EdTech/Resource Sharing Blog - Cybraryman’s Catalogue of Education Websites

Best Teacher Blog - Miss Kolis’ Room 5 Blog - an amazing resource for parents: newsletters, collection of app reviews, theme activities, classroom resources

Best Twitter hashtag - #spedchat and #maet (Masters of Ed Tech at Michigan State University)

Best Free Web Tool - Google and the collaborative tools available, such as Google Docs and G+ hangouts

Best Educational Wiki - UDLtechtoolkit