Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Donor's Choose

We have had lot's of exciting things happening in and out of the classroom! My fiance and I have been trying to narrow down our wedding date and venue. So in the past few weekends, we've managed to get our engagement pictures taken, visit an amazing venue, visit our old college town friends, visit the UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA for a football game, and welcome the mother-in-law for the first time! And to top it all off, I've finally got my wedding dress!!!! YAYY! So I have been staying busy and trying to forget about all the stress that comes with obtaining a master's degree! I am now three weeks away from the last class I will EVER attend for this degree! YAYYYY!

So in the classroom, I'm finally beginning to see the MILES of progress that we've made. This is the MOST remarkable thing about working with high-functioning autism. I mean check out this FACE! Have you ever seen such a better smile of pride?! It was the first time he had ever completed an ENTIRE worksheet INDEPENDENTLY!!

I was SO excited, that I jumped up and down, screamed, squealed, and obviously scared the entire class, but I could have cried because I was so happy! And then, I had barely even put my camera away, and IN walked our DONOR'S CHOOSE DELIVERY!!! How do you spell: "B-E-S-T-D-A-Y-E-V-E-R"?!?! Here's a little teeny-tiny peek:

 One little man in particular was excited to see all that we received... 

... There will be more pictures to come later!!! ...

So, back on track... for Halloween, we made these awesome little pumpkin ornaments from Oriental Trading! Another teacher was SO sweet, and gave me her extra's when I complimented the work of her students. Ahh the benefits of having 5 students :D So we had them draw and decorate, and then we wrote about them. Here's just a few....

We practice writing and tracing everyday, but this student has NEVER traced this much writing before - EVER! I guess it goes to show that students can make so much progress when you add new activities.

 

 Our Kindergartner Little Man here, just began copying words and sentences independently. Before, we had been writing everything in highlighter, and allowing him to trace. He wrote 3 sentences: "My pumpkin has teeth. My pumpkin has eyes. My pumpkin has a nose."  ISN'T THAT AMAZING?!

I love holidays!! For Thanksgiving, I had the fiance and future step-mother to come and visit our classroom!! So I arranged to make turkey oreo cookies that day! It was so much fun!!! 

 Upside down feathers!! Ah hahaha so cute though!

 

Last but not least... we've got to add some turkey legs!!!

 Finished products!!

 

And then as we ate our treats, we enjoyed our FAVORITE song on the ACTIV BOARD... Don't you just LOVE Chicka Chicka Boom Boom? We got to show our special visitors, and they all loved it! We had so much fun!

And then we all went home after that! It was the best day ever. Here are some other things that we did for Thanksgiving....

 I thought I had a more recent picture, but I guess I will have to add it later! So this is my outdoor display of our TOM TURKEYS!! I had sent home Turkeys to be decorated and disguised so that they will not be hunted by the farmer and eaten for Thanksgiving dinner...

   

Do you believe one student thought of the TURKEY BIEBER all by herself?! LOL I allowed for the families to help out with decorating and gathering materials, but this one thought of the idea all by herself, and her family helped to cut everything out! It was so amazing! There were a couple of turkeys who didn't follow directions, but they sent Tom back with color, so that was great! The one on the right is the GHOSTBUSTER turkey... hahaha so cute!

 We made turkey hand prints to go along with our poems. ^^ And then we made Indian Headdresses with patterns. I allowed them to choose the shapes they wanted, and what type of pattern. Only one student made an ABC pattern, but the rest did AB patterns, and that was great!! We normally practice extending patterns, but now that I know they can create patterns independently, we're gonna have even more to practice! :D

 That's all for now! Please share your Thanksgiving festivities! Leave a comment with a link to your blog!
~Sarah