It has been forever since I blogged last! I think the last time I did was at the start of the school year when I found out I was accepted into the Masters program!  Well now as the year is ending, I am planning a wedding! Which is in a few weeks! Let's just say this past school year has been a crazy busy year.  With many many changes, for a bit I had a class and a half... that was fun! But it worked out because I got a co-teacher, bad part is next year that will not happen.

Now to get to my new favorite thing.... SONG BOOKS!  I love love love these books, a support coach at my school introduced me to them this past week!  Sorry no pictures, I need to work on making new one for next year but will share pictures this summer.  

We pick a few songs, right now my students love Shake It Off by Taylor Swift, Let it go from Frozen, and Good morning by Mandisa. We print out the lyrics and place them in a book.  Right now are books are a few sheets of paper, covered with a colored paper as a cover.  I am thinking of binders next year, but may use cardstock and laminate them this summer, then once back at school use the book binder to make books!

Here is how it works,  I play the song and allow them to dance around the first time, then we sit down and read (for those that can) and follow along with the song.  I make sure to project it on the board for my students as well.  I look for sing-a-longs if possible, gonoodle has a Frozen sing-a-long.  If we can't find a sing-a-long, I project my book on the board, we then look for different items within the song depending on students levels, I have one student who has to find a given letter, another group who is looking for sight words, and another who is looking for compound words.  My kids love these books! They are able to focus longer then normal, plus seem to really enjoy it, and I love that I can use this as a whole group lesson and can meet everyone needs!

Now a question to those who read this, I recently went to a sped training and the presenter told us that students focus better when work is presented on pink paper or students have a pink mat behind their work.  Have you ever heard this or used it in your classroom?  What do you think?

Thanks!