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Showing posts from November, 2013

100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t
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Free Five Paragraph Essay Instruction

Many students struggle with writing and find the required steps both confusing and overwhelming. However, learning the "formula" behind an excellent essay can make the process of writing a relative breeze!  Engage Your Students in the Creative Process: Click This Image to Learn More I often help my students to develop metacognitive skills by asking them to create their own graphic organizers or manuals that can guide them through the sequence of steps required to complete an activity. What's more, when they are apart of the creative process, I find that they are more engaged as well as apt to use and share the resources. Prezi Makes Learning Fun and Memorable: Many of our students are masters on computers, and they love to learn about new technologies that can make learning both memorable and fun. Prezi is an online site that allows anyone to create engaging and dynamic presentations! They have some wonderful templates, or you can just create your own. I
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10 Ways to Release Worries in the Classroom

With stringent common core demands, burdensome homework, and competition for high test grades, many students spend a lot of time worrying about school performance. However, many of these children do not know how to manage stress, and it can lead to sleepless nights, panic attacks, temper tantrums, health concerns, a case of learned helplessness, and even clinical levels of anxiety and depression. So, what can we do to help children manage the academic load while keeping a level head? Help your Students Understand the Negative Side Effects of Worrying: Worrying Interferes with Learning and Makes it Hard to Concentrate: If students are worrying, they are easily distracted and will likely miss important directions and academic content. Here is a great NY Times article on this: Click Here Worrying has a Negative Impact on Memory: Research suggests that stress and worries make it difficult for the brain to access memories. In fact, prolonged stress can cause an excessive amount o
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Free, Multisensory, Learning Center Activity: How Many?

Making activities both game-like and multisensory helps to entice and engage young learners. There are simple facts that every student should commit to memory, and integrating color, tactile manipulatives and puzzle-like instructions can take these mundane tasks fabulously fun.  Free, Multisensory, Learning Center Activity: How Many? I created this free activity to help my students learn some important facts. Each piece can be printed and laminated, and then students can put the image together and fill in the “blanks” using a dry erase marker with the correct information. The free attachment offers all the materials for you to do this yourself. What’s more, this activity offers a great project or learning center idea that can be used time and time again. For a free copy of this activity, CLICK HERE . I would love to hear your thoughts. Cheers, Dr. Erica Warren Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at  Good
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Fun Clothespin Orton Gillingham Remediation Ideas and More

Incorporating the fun factor can help to make any difficult lesson enjoyable. I found these cute, little, painted clothespins on Ebay, and I think it will take my lessons to a whole new level. I have color coded the vowels and consonants as well as the digraphs. There are so many ways I can use these clothespins to enhance my lessons! It will enhance my lessons for a number of reasons: Using these cute, colorful, mini clothespins that measure only 1 1/2 inches by 1/2 an inch will surely engage my learners. Opening and closing clothespins also helps to develop fine motor skills. Color-coding the letters can help the children differentiate between vowels and consonants. Color-coding the letters can also help students discriminate between the different types of syllables. If you look at the image above, the first two words are closed syllables, the third word is an open syllable, and the final word is a silent-e syllable. Placing digraphs on a single clothespin helps the kids
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