Counting Snowflakes Interactive Book!

Long time no see guys! Erin here from Creating & Teaching! I've made it a 2017 goal to be a better blogger again. Along with that, I can't forget about sharing awesome free stuff with all the readers here at Freebielicious!

I know it's February, but I'm still using some winter themed resources in my classroom along with starting to mix in some February/Valentine's themes.

I love interactive books and in my class of Pre-K up to First Graders there are so many different ways that I use them. They are great turn taking activities for my pre-k kiddos. We can practice wait skills, language, and social skills during these opportunities. For my older students they make great independent work, especially the counting books, so that I can work with other students 1:1, while keeping the others engaged at the same time. The possibilities are endless! I wrote a blog post with a bit more detail on how I use them in my classroom and some great resources for quality interactive/independent books! Read more about that {here}.

You can grab the counting snowflakes interactive book for {free} in my Teacher's Pay Teacher's store!

If you love it, there is a bundle available for Valentine's themed counting books. The bundle includes 4 books and works on counting 1-10. They are also available separately if you're just looking for 1 or 2 books. 

Thanks for stopping in! I can't wait to be back with more great freebies to share with you!

Interactive Short Story

I LOVE using these with my students and my students LOVE using them too! They are great for differentiating with your students or using with ELL learners. I use interactive stories with my students during our group time. It helps to keep their attention when everyone is taking turns to match the correct pictures to each page.

I thought I'd take a gander at creating my own interactive book since I use them so much. I wanted to share this one for free with you-- I hope it's something you can use in your classroom! It's great to use now or even after break in January.

Click {here} or the photo above to download this Freebie! 

I'd love your feedback too!

Sensory Table- Visual Language Support

Do you work with students with low verbal skills? I have students in my classroom who are completely non-verbal, communicating with only pictures, students who use an AAC device, and some students who use verbal speech, but still benefit from some visual supports here and there.

The other thing about my students? They LOVE the sensory table. I think some of them would put their whole bodies inside of it if I'd let them. I try to change the table each month to provide different sensory experiences and build in some thematic vocabulary.

This month, for November, the base to our table is hay and I've added fake leaves, acorns, feathers, and some pine cones. You can also find pom-poms, some glitter foam leaves and plastic acorns/leaves.

I've created a visual support to use while working with kiddos at the sensory table. It is great for labeling, commenting, and in some cases even matching. We can practice identifying the colors we see the table, the objects we see and also placing items on top of the pictures to match the real item to the picture.

You can snag this visual support for {free} in my TpT store. I also had one created for the month of October if you want to grab that one for next year you can find it {here}.

I can't remember exactly what is in our December one, I know the base is green and red noodles with I believe tiny presents and pom-poms. There are other items as well, but I can't remember them right now.

Hope this freebie is something you can use!

Colors Assessment Ring Freebie

As a special education pre-school teacher my world pretty much revolves around data. Data, data, data! I'm always assessing on different skills and IEP goals. To help make that easier for me I've begun to create a set of assessment rings.

Each ring will have multiple ways to assess the child on that particular skill. The first set I've made is for colors. The full pack includes 7 different ways to assess students on colors. I've created a {FREE} sample pack that includes one of the seven question sets.

If you want to read more about the full pack with all 7 different sets of assessment questions, click {here} to go to my blog and see the post.

Click the picture above to download the free set question set!

Up next: shapes! 

Classroom Book Orders-- Freebie Forms for Families

Pump the breaks, am I actually posting AGAIN?! Say it isn't so! I'm just as shocked myself. I prompted a question on my blog's facebook page the other night about Scholastic Book Orders and how many of you send them home consistently. Not surprisingly, a lot of you do! This is something I've always wanted/needed to get better at-- what huge benefits this could have for my classroom! Free books, rewards points, and most of all- great prices!

I always get the flyers in my mailbox at school-- and for a variety of ages. Which I am totally a fan of, being a special education pre-school teacher. Not only do the interests of my student vary greatly, but with varying developmental levels, a lot of them are interested in the books that are in the toddler flyers.

I also love the toddler flyers to find board books. We start the school year exclusively with board books. I have quite a few students who love books, but they aren't always that gentle with them- especially at the start of the year. In a post of my blog, I highlighted a few of my favorite deals in the current HoneyBee Flyer.

To help myself get into the habit of sending the flyers home more frequently I went ahead and typed up a generic letter to send to families with each order. In the past I had used the letters generated by Scholastic. Now I just need to add our classroom code and due date to the form. I also included a reminder to send home right before the orders are due. You can grab these forms for free from my TpT store by clicking {here} or on the photo below.

Thanks for reading & enjoy!

Winter Cookie Tray Sampler Pack!

Did you start to wonder whether or not I was still apart of this wonderful blog?! It's been FOREVER since I've posted something. But I'm super excited to share this freebie with you. If you follow my blog or my facebook page you've heard all about my cookie tray activities that I use in the classroom.

I started cookie trays in my classroom the beginning of October. I was so happy with how well they worked! I have 3 students in my room during the time that we do these. I set out 4 different activities that are completed on cookie trays and we rotate through them. I have one student who typically works faster than the other too, hence the reason for 3 kids, 4 activities. They have to complete a minimum of 3 trays, but most days they each do all four. I wrote a more detailed post about them {here} on my blog.







I currently have 4 different packs of cookie tray activities available for purchase in my TpT store, but then it hit me. I need to offer a sampler pack! What if someone isn't sure they want to try these in my classroom? So I pulled 4 different activities from my Winter Cookie Tray Activities and put them in a sampler pack. Give them a whirl with your students and if they're a hit you won't be disappointed with purchasing the full pack!

Click {here} to download this freebie from my TpT store. Click the "cookie trays" category in my store to see the other available items.

I hope you'll enjoy them!

Beginning Sounds Freebie

I decided to take a break from some paid items I'm working on to bring you this freebie. I would love to have pictures of this product in action, but, uh, I forgot my camera today. Whomp. I mentioned on my instagram that this would be posted by the end of the week so I wanted to hold true to that.

Head over to my blog to see more pictures, the set up instructions, and how to download this freebie!

Summer Fun Ideas Packet!

Last year I put together this freebie of summer fun ideas. I print out this packet and stick it in a sand bucket with some other goodies for my kiddos at the end of the year. I teach a small special education class so I tend to splurge a little bit on gifts since I only have to purchase 8, not 28! [It's a perk in my book!]

This years bucket includes:

- Summer Fun Packet

- $1 Book from Scholastic

- stickers (came with Scholastic order)

- 1 splash ball

- 1 container of bubbles

- 1 glow stick/wand

- 1 pack of stamps

- 1 pack of flash cards (differentiated for each child based on need)

If you downloaded this freebie last year, make sure you snag the updated copy! {click here}

A Rainy Day {FREEBIE}

Looking for something fun for your morning work? Or maybe an activity for your early finishers? Or maybe if you teach pre-k, you're looking for something for your writing area?

We're doing a "rain theme" right now for all our centers activities and I whipped up this fun freebie!

Head on over to {my blog} for the link to download this freebie!

Hot Chocolate & Hearts... for {FREE}

I know some of you may be past the hot chocolate in your classrooms, I know I am, but it's certainly still cold enough out for it! I have this fun game that I play with my students to help them practice their letter recognition. I wanted to share it with you too!

I've also put together a Valentine's one with hearts and lowercase letters.

Click {HERE} to head to my blog to get the links to download them for FREE!

Enjoy!

The Mitten Sequencing & Story Board

This freebie is actually an oldie, but goodie of mine that has been downloaded over 20,000 times!

I went ahead and re-vamped it with some new clip art, new fonts, and even added a worksheet in! So if you've downloaded this freebie from me once before you'll want to grab it again to get the new stuff!

{Click the cover photo to download}

You can also grab this freebie storyboard for The Mitten! I love using storyboards to engaged my students during read alouds. Work with students with autism, they thrive off the visual support and it helps to keep their attention if they have something they can follow along with.

To grab this freebie you have to be a facebook fan!

Click below to head to my facebook page. Click on the "Freebies for Fans" tab to grab your freebie. If you aren't a fan, make sure you click to like the page first!

** If an error message pops up while downloading the facebook fan freebie, simply exit out of the error message and download the file to your computer and then open it! **

Meet Erin from Creating & Teaching

First and foremost, I am so greatly thankful for all of the wonderful ladies that make up this blog. Despite my forgetful mind (if I don't write it down, I don't do it) they let me add my name in again at the bottom of this list so you could still get to meet me! 

Now, I'll share a secret with you. I'm writing this post 5 days ahead of time so I don't actually forget this go-around. Or else, you might NEVER get to meet me.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Erin from Creating & Teaching!

Yes, I'm planning on a new profile photo. One that isn't me cropped out of a group photo. My fiance even agreed to take one for me and didn't think I was totally nuts explaining to him why I needed a good picture of myself. (If it doesn't happen by December 31st, hello first New Years Resolution!)

I'm 25. My favorite color is pink (imagine that). I love gold, sparkles, stripes, and leopard print.

I began my little old blog back in April of 2011 and it has taken me places I never thought it could and has introduced me to some amazing ladies and teachers in the blogging world!

I am currently in my 4th year teaching. I have taught special education pre-school all 4 years. I am certified birth through 2nd, Special Education, and have my Autism Certification. For the last 2 years my classroom population has been mostly students on the autism spectrum and I love it. It's challenging and exhausting, but to know them is to love them. I always wondered why the symbol for autism was a puzzle piece. Then I knew. It truly is all about fitting together the pieces. Whether it's the pieces for a cure, finding the cause, or determining the most effective intervention strategies.

I am recently engaged to the love of my life! We have been together for almost 8 years and first met in the 5th grade! I love telling that part of our story, I think it's so funny.

When I'm not living in my classroom, I'm living behind a computer screen trying to finish my masters degree. I'm basically 1 assignment away from a masters degree in Special Education. At this time, I have ABSOLUTELY ZERO interest in pursuing any further degrees. Shew. I am ready to start doing other things with my life (like getting married)

When I actually do find spare time outside of those things, I enjoy baking (or well trying to bake) and attempting sewing projects. So far, I've done 3 and have had my sewing machine for over a year....eventually it'll happen.

Now to wrap this post up, I want to thank all of you for taking the time to get to know me and offer you a freebie! If you haven't checked out this freebie I just posted, then now is your time!

[click the photo to grab the freebie!]

Pumpkin Color Sorting Freebie

I whipped this activity up last minute the end of last week when I was prepping for this week! Then I took the time to fancy it up and turn it into a freebie for you guys! What that means is, my set of the activity just has plain construction paper to sort the pumpkins on. Your set, has fancy little cards to print out! ;) 

I have one student who is still working on his colors so this will make great differentiated practice for him.

If you want to snag this freebie and prep it for the week just {click here}

 

Tens Frame Playdoh Mats

I recently posted on my own blog about what I learned in Kindergarten. For the first two weeks of school all kindergarten teachers have an extra adult in their classroom. That extra adult is either a reading para, pre-school para, or a pre-school teacher. Our pre-school students start school two weeks later.

To find out what I learned in Kindergarten this year, head over to my blog by clicking {here}.

 

 

Here's your hint...

Free Color Labels

Today I'm sharing with you an oldie, but UPDATED goodie! Last year I made these cute color labels to organize my markers and things in my craft area at home. These are perfect to organize anywhere you store crayons, markers, papers, etc by color! 

The labels in the picture are from the "old" file.

The updated file has a new font, new color adjustments on some of the labels and I included a white label!

 Have something you organize by color? {click here} to download this freebie!

Summer Fun Printable Packet

For my end of the year gifts for my students I compiled this packet of summer fun ideas. Things parents can do at home with their child over the summer to make learning fun! I added them to some buckets with other materials too. Some of the suggestions in the packet, they can use the items in the bucket for!

I know most of you are out of school, but some of you haven't quite finished up yet. You can grab this packet for free if you want to use it with your students too! It would probably be more ideal for pre-schoolers, or your intervention K students. But, HEY! it's Free! Download it and see if it meets your needs!

Click {here} to go to my blog post and get more info on what is included in the buckets and the links to download the pack on either TpT or TN!

Community Helpers Sorting

I have a quick little freebie to share with you for community helpers! I know many of you may not be doing a community helpers theme right now, but we just finished one up 2 weeks ago. (Sorry--life really got in the way of blogging recently!) But go ahead and download this one to save for next year!

This is a great resource for a special education classroom, or for students with autism. The pictures used are simple boardmaker images.

Click here to head over to my blog for more details and the links to download the freebie!