Read Your Little Heart Out

February is a sweet month to show someone how much you care about them. There is nothing better than reading a kind note from a friend. Reading should be encouraged with not only books, but letters, cards, small notes, and poems. Challenge your students to show a kind gesture by writing to someone who makes them feel special. I'm sure they will definitely brighten someone's day!

• A learning disability is a neurological disorder.
  
• A learning disability results from a difference in the way a person's brain is "wired."
  
• A learning disability can't be cured or fixed; it is a lifelong issue. With the right support and intervention, however, children with learning disabilities can succeed in school and go on to successful, often distinguished careers later in life.
  

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge. (TEA Dyslexia Handbook Revised 2014).

Click on the link below to complete an activity where you can step into the shoes of someone who has dyslexia.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/experiences/readexp1a.html

Here is a list of wonderful resources that your struggling students can benefit from. Please share these with your parents.

https://www.teacherswithapps.com/top-11-resources-students-dyslexia-learning-disabilities/

Executive functioning is brain based skills necessary for people to execute, remember and retrieve information learned to solve problems of everyday life.

Executive functioning (Ef) is the command and control center of the brain. Much like an air traffic controller. EF manages and manipulates information traveling in and out of our consciousness. It's a place where learned experiences and present actions connect. Another appropriate metaphor is to think of EF as the conductor of cognitive skills. EF directs the cognitive performance played by our senses. EF skills develop until the age of 25.

Signs of Executive Functioning Issues in Elementary

• Starts one task and gets distracted, then doesn’t ever finish the original task.
• Can solve a math problem one way but gets stuck when asked to solve it using another method.
• Focuses on the least important thing you said.
• Often mixes up assignments and doesn’t bring home the books and handouts needed to complete the work.
• Has a desk full of loose papers and pencil stubs. But her schoolwork folder and pencil box are empty.
• Panics when rules or routines are challenged, like going out to dinner instead of ordering in because it’s Friday and that’s pizza night.
• Struggles to find the right information in a word problem to come up with an equation.
• Sticks with a plan even when it’s clear that the plan isn’t working

What Affects EF

• Amount of sleep
• Anxiety
• Cultural differences
• Diet
• Illness
• Poverty
• Stress
• Trauma

Foods that Improve EF

• apples
• nuts (almonds)
• dark chocolate
• bananas
• eggs
• strawberries
• salmond
• beetroot

Foods that affect EF

• caffeine
• aspartame
• food preservatives found in processed foods (fast foods and frozen meals)

Activities that will improve Executive Functioning

• Games that require players to remember
• Games in which a child can match
• Games that require fast responses
• Games that involve some strategy
• Games that require attention
• Fast moving ball games
• Simon Says
• Organized sports
• Copy games
• Songs that repeat
• Singing in rounds
• Complicated clapping pattens
• Logic and reasoning games
• Guessing games
• Puzzle and brain teaser books
• Mazes
• I Spy books
• Cards games
• Jump rope games
• Playing a musical instrument
• Dancing
• Crossword Puzzles
• Sudoku
• Spatial Puzzles like Rubik's Cube

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/signs-symptoms/could-your-child-have/executive-function-disorder-symptoms

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/executive-functioning-issues/understanding-executive-functioning-issues

Below are two resources for your classroom. I have the original copies in my classroom if you would like to make copies.

Below is a wonderful resource for you that I was able to gather at the Dyslexia Conference I attended this year. These syllable activities are fun and engaging, plus they incorporate movement! Enjoy!

Label it- This is a great hands-on resource to have your students use when proving their revising and editing question answers. I laminated a set for each student and placed them in a Ziploc bag. My students would use these to prove their answers.

My name is Emily Puente, and I am the Dyslexia/Reading Enrichment teacher at Hamilton Elementary. Please use my newsletter as a guide to help you increase the love and passion for reading with your students.

Email: emily.puente@cfisd.net
Website: https://sites.google.com/cfisd.net/emilypuente
Location: 12050 Old Kluge Road, Cypress, TX, United States
Phone: 281-370-0990
Twitter: @emilyapuente