My Montage 12/7/09 at OneTrueMedia.com

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The week of November 16th

Once again B8 was on the move. We try to go on out based learning adventures at least once a month. This month the class has been talking a lot about foods and menu planning for a holiday feast. With all of the planning there has been a lot done in the area of reviewing functional words in the category of grocery. Since the class has been working very hard at reading numerous grocery words as well as the prices of several items, we decided to go Krogering! On Thursday we took our outbased learning to the Kroger in Southaven. The students took turns reading the aisle markers and locating various food items on the individual lists that they had with them. We did comparison shopping as we discussed the prices of various brands of bread, eggs, and milk. At the end of our shopping experience each class member had the chance to use the u-scan and locate bar codes to check out their selected items. Everyone was so pleased with their ability to check out the groceries. After the shopping trip and all of the reading of food items everyone was hungry so it was a good thing that we had planned to eat lunch at CiCi Pizza. As a group we discussed what a buffet is and the manners to be used when taking items from a buffet. The students were excellent and followed directions very well while we were on this outing. During art this week the class cut out letters from the newspaper to construct their food word turkeys. The class is doing a great job at reading food words. In life skills we continue to work on table washing, vacuuming, and sweeping.
This week we also held the installation of our new Jr. Civitan members.I have uploaded the pictures from the installation for all to enjoy. We are so thankful to have such a fine group of students to support the activities that we do in the Community Based Class.

Remember: There will be a Hope Dance held for the Community based classes at OBHS, OBMS, Lewisburg, and CenterHill on December 4th. The invitations to this dance will be sent out this week by the members of the Interact Club.

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The week of November 9th

This was yet another eventful week in B8. We did some new and exciting things that Mrs. Fields learned about at the conference that she attended last week. Probably the activity that we tried i class that was the biggest hit involved punch spelling. Each class member was given a list with their spelling words typed and they were given a corn holder. The students were instructed to punch along the letters of the word as they practiced spelling it. The class loved doing this and the spelling test scores this week also reflect that it was a hit. We had a very special guest on Wednesday when Jordan Ruark showed up for a visit in our classroom. Jordan came right after lunch, so he got to sit in on Listening time. The story that we were reading on Wednesday was about Glacier National Park. Jordan really enjoyed the story, but he mainly enjoyed seeing all his ole buddies. Everyone got hugs from their buddy. It was so glad to get to see Jordan and his mom. We are proud to report that Jordan is working now for Desoto Industries and seems to love it.

We had another huge treat this week when the class was treated to donuts and pizza due to their all trying to do their very best on the first nine week grading period. We realize that this celebration was a little late....but what the heck it was a celebration. Later in the week we did some cooking and measuring as we made Gingerbread. The class had a lesson on doubling and how on e would do this when measuring. Everyone got to practice reading the measurements. The class loved sampling the Gingerbread when it came out of the oven.

One of the reading groups has finished the novel Prince and the Pauper and will be beginning a new selection this week. They can't wait to start Call of the Wild. These novels offer excellent vocabulary and comprehension building skills. The other reading group read the story about the Two Socks. We had a lot of fun as we discussed the crazy activities of the two frogs in this story. The students were allowed to take readers home to share the story with their families.

In the area of Daily living we practiced the skill of chopping and had a blast. The class chopped over a half a dozen onions to freeze in preparation for our Thanksgiving Feast to be held next week. In the area of Life Skills we worked on laundry, as well as sweeping. Sweeping proved to be a challenge for several of the class. We will continue to work with this skill. Remember it really helps when the skills taught here are also done at home.

Things to remember this week: We will be going on a class outing on Thursday to Kroger and then to CiCi Pizza for lunch. If you have not sent in the permission form and the $7 please do so now. The other big event that we put on our calendars was the dance that will be held on December 4, 2009. Interact will be handing out invitations to this dance in the near future.

My Montage 11/8/09 at OneTrueMedia.com

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The week of November 2

Monday and Tuesday of this week I was in Memphis attending a conference on occupational writing techniques. I learned so many new and exciting things to do with my students. The thing that I love the most about teaching is that it is an ongoing learning experience for me as well as for my students. As you know there is never a dull moment in B8! While I was at the conference the class was in the capable hands of Mrs. Hill and my favorite substitute Mrs. Zink. Everyone was awesome while I was away....I knew that they would be just fine. The highlight of this week of course was being able to attend the Special Olympics Bowling at Strike Zone on Thursday. Everyone had an awesome time and showed great sportsmanship. Our next out based learning activity will be November 19th when we go shopping at Kroger and then eat lunch at CiCi Pizza.

The week of October 26th

The week prior to Halloween is always exciting! This year at OB we had double the excitement because it was Homecoming Week as well as Halloween Week. We had a week of celebrations for sure! We finished the paper mache pumpkins and sent them on their way to become home center pieces. In science this week we talked about the seeds within the pumpkin and how they aid in the reproduction process. The class was very involved in the carving of our class pumpkin. Another science this week involved spiders. We talked about tarantulas and even had an animated one to pass around during the reading of the story about the Goliathian Spider. In Daily Living we discussed the importance of eye care again. This time our topic focused more on keeping ones eyes clean. We did review the importance of cleaning glasses (last week's lesson) but moved on to express the importance of checking the eyes for "eye buggers" every morning. Corena is modeling this for us on the slideshow! We made a great banner as an art activity this week to show our OB Pride for the Blue Gold Game tat we attended on Thursday. The parade was rained out but we attended the Pep Rally that was held Friday. Cooking was a real highlight of our Halloween Week as we cut rectangles from dough and made our own mummies to eat. They smelled and tasted great! We had a very special treat as we traveled the offices in costumes Trick or Treating.We also had a special treat as Mr. Nichols came and showed us how to make his famous cornbread. In math one of the groups began doing comparison shopping as they looked at two prices. The entire class has been diligently working on reading prices so that we can begin shopping in our class grocery. Thanks to everyone that has sent in empty food boxes to be used in our grocery. We hope to be using it next week. This will offer a pre shopping opportunity before we go to Kroger as a group on the 19th. We have been using nickels for the class wages but are now working with dimes so everyone got an increase in wages. Monday we will begin utilizing dimes to pay for completed homework. Mrs. Fields will be gone on Monday and Tuesday as she attends a workshop, but we will be in great hands with Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Zink. On Thursday we have another outing!! This time we will be going to Strike Zone to participate in bowling. We have practiced and we are ready to compete.

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The week after Fall Break

This has been an awesome week for all of us in B8. We have continued to work on money and adding numbers with touch points.
One of the reading groups is completing Prince and the Pauper while another is reading stories in Milestone Readers. We have spent time after lunch doing prevocational skills such as learning personal identification and being able to spell family member names. In social skills we did some mock activities that showed the correct and the incorrect way to approach the door of a neighbor as you Trick or Treat. We did a lot of discussing the reasons not to go into the home of someone as they go and get candy for you. It was fun giving each student a chance to role play going to the door and trick or treating. In Art the pumpkins are almost ready to go home. Perhaps after one more coat of paint these pumpkins can find permanent homes with the various students that constructed them. While we are talking about messy classroom activities, I must mention the spelling class that took place this week. In an attempt to offer some sensory input into spelling, we covered the desks with shaving gel and then students wrote the spelling words on their lists on the shaving cream. It was fun seeing the class beg for another word and another chance to write in the mess. The highlight of the week was definitely our bus trip to Memphis on Thursday. The class went to purchase pumpkins. Everyone was asked to bring their own money and use it to individually purchase a pumpkin. Students were able to practice the lifeskill of counting money as they paid for the pumpkin of their choice. We went to Eden's Garden located inside of the Agricenter. The students all loved the various displays and the variety of pumpkins. I have never seen a gray pumpkin until this trip! There was even a gift shop there with Christmas items displayed. The owner of Eden's treated all of us to the best Apple Cider. This Cider was so good that I had to go back and purchase some for my family. We visited about three more booths and saw all kinds of things from fruits to seafood. Everyone was so nice and each student was given a free small pumpkin and a beautiful gourd. Later on one of the vendors made sure that everyone left with an apple and banana. Of course this prompted our own Lottie to burst out in song about "Apples and Bananas!" We may have had cloudy skies and a light rain but it certainly did not dampen the joy that this trip brought to the Community Based Class

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We started off the month of October decorating the classroom with all of our Halloween Decorations. The class had a blast as they went through the box of decorations. We decided that we needed to add to the decor so everyone made their own bats from hand prints. Later in the week we did a hygiene unit on hands and all of the girls were given manicures. Everyone participated in a game of labeling the correct items used in taking care of ones nails. On Wednesday the class used the skill of ABC order to look up homecoming nominees in the yearbook and then vote on the candidate of their choice. This provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the need to learn ABC order. Lottie showed everyone her recent skills at using the guide words to look up information in the dictionary. She is truly taking this ABC order thing to the next level!

We have been working on bowling techniques in the room rather than go to the gym. This has worked out well as they are not having activities in gym due to the resurfacing of the gym floor for basketball season. We are using this down time to ready ourselves for the Olympics that take place on November 5th. Another big physical education activity that we participated in was the walk a thon that took place county wide on the 7th. We walked to the middle school and visited with Mrs. Grandi's Class. It was fun to see old friends and meet the students that will be joining us next year. Later in the week we had a surprise visit from Thomas Hall that was a volunteer in our room last year, Thomas briefly talked to the class about the importance of goal setting and told how it worked for him. He set his goal to attend MS math Institute and is enjoying his first year there. The class love hearing about his experiences so far this year, Friday proved to be the best day of the week. Mrs. Fields had promised the class a "fun day" if everyone mastered tying shoes. Now that everyone can tie their shoes we had to live up to the promise!!! (Moms this means that you should never tie another shoe!) Our day was a bit different. Times were written on the dry erase board and class went as usual. The catch was that when the time on the board came everyone was to grab a scarf and tie something in the room. The first person to make the tie was given 5 cents. This helped us work on time and money in a fun way. The funniest thing was 4th period when Derrick walked in and the time matched the time on the board...everyone tied up Derrick. What a fun time!!

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Make a Smilebox photobook

September 21, 2009

Great News!!! The camera has been returned thanks to Mr. Murphy, one of our principals. The young man that took the camera out of my office made a confession and returned it. While I am still a bit shocked that someone would stoop so low as to steal from this type of class, I guess nothing surprises me anymore.

We will be taking pictures of classroom activities this week and hope to have some great items to upload.

Week of September 14, 2009

This is a difficult post for me to make. I actually look forward to my Sunday evening posting. I reflect on the fun things that the class has done and try to plan fun learning opportunities for the upcoming week. I love editing the pictures and reliving the excitement of my students. Things are very different tonight. There are no pictures to upload as my personal camera was taken out of my office and I cannot view or share the pictures with you.
Needless to say, the pictures on the memory card are priceless. I have pictures of your children as well as my child's sixteenth birthday memories. We had such a fun visit on
Wednesday to the dental office of Dr. Evans. His staff was just awesome with the students. If anyone had fears of the dental office they no longer do. We took so many great pictures to share with you and now that cannot be done. Our class was selected to be filmed as a commercial for the Excellence in Education Grant. We even took pictures of the photographer that came to make the video of us . It will be awhile before I can replace the camera. As soon as I can purchase another camera we will be up and running again. I only wish I could replace the priceless pictures.

Week of September 7, 2009

This was a busy week in the CBC. Tuesday morning we began our day making and serving breakfast. This was an awesome chance to work with some very functional reading words. The class loved flashing cards as they asked for various food items. We celebrated Sara's birthday with cupcakes and singing in the afternoon. We were able to do a lesson on hygiene and the importance of flossing. This was much needed since everyone had chocolate smiles after the cupcakes! The cupcakes offered a big change from our study on nutrition and healthy foods:) Art focused on the concept of healthy foods as we got a chance to paint with various vegetables. I must admit the fun of it all was watching the students as they shucked corn to paint with! Later in the week we worked with the vocation work boxes and began timing the tasks. During this time students practice working at speed on task and staying focused. We did a group reading lesson this week to commemorate the 9-11 events. Math wise we have begun working within our groups on fractions. The class is having fun learning how we can divide items to form fractions. Of course the highlight of the week was Thursday when we got to go to Horn Lake to compete in Special Olympics. Everyone did well in their events and had a blast. We are proud of all of the athletes, and especially Keeshun. We knew Keeshun was fast but wow! He placed second out of the entire participants for soccer dribble! Way to go!!!

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We have an out based learning event scheduled for Wednesday of next week. The class has been invited to the office of Dr. Evans to view a dental office and go over the various instruments used. This outing will conclude the dental part of our hygiene unit.

The week of August 31st

This was a fun week here in the Community Based Class. We are working hard in our hygiene unit. We have focused on dental care. Thanks to all of the parents that reinforced what we do here at school by going over our lesson with your young adult and sending in the date of their next dental appointment. We practiced correct brushing using the circle motion with those that have sent in a toothbrush to keep here at school. Mrs. Simmons shared with us that Wal-mart has a neat toothbrush called the "Firefly" that lights up to remind a student to keep brushing. These are so neat and very inexpensive. In Daily Living we are working on tying shoes with those that need to master that skill. We are also working on learning the proper way to vacuum a room. (Put these skills to use and let you young adult help you with the house work.) Science was fun this week as we did a lab experiment and learned about molecules and diffusion. The class loved watching the red food coloring (molecules) move thru hot water and then thru cold water. The school held class officer elections this week. We decided to explain the election process and then have our own class ballot and vote casting within our community. We are proud to announce that Sara Briggs has been elected to the office of Class President. After our social skills lessons on self awareness, each of the students were able to get up before the class and state something that they can do successfully that would make them worthy of the title class President. Sara won on the ticket of organized and trying her hardest. She stated that she wants us to do more Math and less Reading this year. (Remember the President represents the people not the IEP objectives. HA HA

Here is a neat website that we discovered this week in class. (Computer is such a fun time of our day.) www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/gamesforkids.htm

Reminder: Special Olympics is Thursday. Everyone is very excited about getting to go to this event.

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The End of the Animal Care Unit

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Hi!!!

This week we were fortunate enough to begin computer class. Everyone was very excited about going to D-Hall to learn computer skills. Each student has been assigned a typing skills website and a reading website to visit while we are in the lab.

This week's social skills classes have focused on proper introduction procedures. The students enjoyed playing a game where they got to vote whether a mock introduction was polite or rude. The behavioralist, Mrs. Lovitt, was present for one of these sessions and was very impressed.

Also, this week we began studying current events. We discussed everything from newspaper layout to an extensive vocabulary enrichment. (Cash for Clunkers, Michael Jackson, Ted Kennedy, and current health trends were just a few we discussed.)

The highlight of the week was the conclusion of our animal care unit. In Art, we made turtles and practiced various folding techniques. The students loved displaying their turtles in the hall. (By the way, our class pets, Ninja and Yertle, are doing just fine:) We had a special visitor this week, as well. Marshall my daughter's pet lab came to visit the class on Friday. We practiced proper introductions to guests and Marshall got to show off his amazing tricks. Each student also had a chance to get up before the group and give a brief talk about their pet. Probably the most exciting thing for each student was when they got a chance to give Marshall a treat.

This week we also began our spelling units. At this point, the students are all in separate spelling units. As you can imagine, testing took quite some time.

Remember that Special Olympics is September 10, which is a week from Thursday. If you have not returned your student's permission slip, please do so!

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We are off to another exciting school year at OBHS. Our two new students: Dylan and Sara have settled in nicely and are very happy with our group. This week we have been learning school and classroom rules. Students are learning that when you bring Communication Folder, Calendar, and signed papers you may be the spot check person and get a treat. This week we have also done some testing to help in the formulation of reading and math groups. We began a basic Health Unit on Animals. Friday, August 14, we were honored to have Marco, one of the Drug Dogs come to our class. We learned that we have dogs as pets, but that there are also working dogs. The students were amazed at how talented Marco was. While studying the pet unit, class members were excited about our new class pets, Ninja and Yertle (2 red-eared slider turtles). We are also excited about the upcoming event of Special Olympics. This event will take place September 10th. Be on the lookout for release forms to be sent home in the near future. Students are excited about our token economy. They are "paid" for returning signed folders and completing any assignments. At the end of the week, the students are allowed to go to our class store and purchase items with the money they have earned. You can help your young adult earn money by signing and returning their folder daily.

Welcome to my blog!

Mrs. Fields' class....

Mrs. Fields' class held a mock wedding. To look at pictures from the special day, view the slideshow below.

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