Returning to School after the Break with a FREEBIE

Classroom Freebies Manic Monday


Since I teach students with special needs, I need a calm and gentle plan for when we return to school on Jan. 6.


I enjoy using Responsive Classroom and found two great articles that outlined some great ideas:

1.  Let students share something about their break like a person they spent time with or the one best thing they did over the break.

2.  Have a read-aloud with discussion to create shared focus.

Now for the read-aloud, I wanted a book that could help me create positive focus on goals and I found this:



"Superdog:  Heart of a Hero by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner.  Dexter, a dachshund, dreams of being a superhero and doing heroic things.  To do so, he undertakes a fierce exercise regimen, orders a costume, and more.  As Dexter does in the book, your students could think not only about their resolutions, but about the steps they will take to accomplish them, and about what it will be like once they have done so."

This is perfect for my kiddos as they don't have any trouble listing goals but do need help with the steps it takes to accomplish them.

To put this all together, I made this neat, little graphic organizer/foldable to go along with the book that I am sharing with you HERE.  

It has a space to write the main character's goal and then there are four flaps for the 4 steps that he took to reach his goal - with blanks for the students to fill in.  Then, under each flap is a step that mirrors the book's steps for the students to fill in with their own steps to reach their own goal (or resolution).

Please know it's my first attempt to make my own (hopefully) visually appealing "foldable" so I'm sure it still could use some finesse.  :)  



I'm also planning to pull out a mentor sentence or two to teach dialogue in a conversation.  I'll post pictures of what the mentor sentence lesson and foldable looks like all completed as soon as I can. Until then, thanks for stopping by; I hope your return to school is a good one!

And this might just help: