Made For Me Literacy are monthly themed comprehensive special education reading units spanning various subject areas, including basic reading, writing, math, science, and fine motor skills. With over 30 tasks, every task box and file folder come with two levels of difficulty, so the differentiation is always done for you!
Here are 20 center ideas that you can use for your self-contained classroom. I have it all listed out for you including pictures
The first two weeks in a special ed classroom are more than academics. Ideas on what to teach, what to practice, and what you should be doing.
Autism teacher strategies for asd classrooms. Autism strategies for teachers looking for autism classroom set up ideas.
Don’t you love the beginning of the school year? I always enjoyed seeing smiling faces, reconnecting with students, and just soaking in the excitement a new beginning brings! But, if mid-year me could send a letter to beginning-of-the-year me, it would probably read something like this: “Stop stressing! Get to work, and please, ask for
Get all of your students engaged during your morning routine, and plan the first hour of your day only once. Differentiated ideas for any teacher.
There are so many working parts in a self contained or Autism Unit. Read MORE on what you can do to survive and thrive in a self contained classroom!
Teaching self contained is a challenging but very important job! Are you up to it? Most of the time, and especially in my program, special education courses are all lumped together. They rarely focus on self contained, or more severe students. This usually leaves teachers scouring the internet or coming up with everything from scratch! […]
Welcome back to my blog! In this post I am going to share how I modify the Creative Curriculum to fit the needs of my students. I want to preface this post by saying that my administration is extremely flexible with their expectations of the preschool teachers using the curriculum to its fullest. The curriculum […]
Do you struggle with groupings and organizing instruction that meets the needs of all of your students? We tend to get students with a wide range of needs and levels in special education classrooms. It can be a real challenge to organize groupings and meet everyone’s needs. Here are 3 different types of instruction I ... Read More about Instruction Options in Special Education Classrooms
Create a Math Block I can't say this enough. An effective math block will help you tremendously! It creates routine and structure that you need to make sure everyone is on task. This is what I include in my math block: Engaging Mini Lessons Math centers Independent practice visuals throughout the classroom Use A
Welcome to my K-2 Classroom Tour! I am a k-2 self contained autism teacher. Come inside and see what a day in my classroom looks like!
In you special needs class, do you have any behavior issues? Any kids that are over-responsive or just the opposite, under-responsive? YOU.NEED.HEAVY.WORK. I cannot stress enough how much of a DRASTIC change we saw in some of our special thinkers when we began implementing this work system into their daily routine. Here's some info on
Teaching in a self-contained special education classroom carries its own unique set of challenges. Planning instruction that meets the needs of all of the students is one of those challenges. There are so many factors to consider that it is tough to know where to start. Are you aligning your instruction to the grade levels standards? But what if you teach multiple grades... how are you going to swing that? What about the general education curriculum? Are you utilizing this as well? Oh yeah... then there are the IEP goals... you should probably work on those skills too... but everyone is at a different level. Does this sound familiar? Over the next 2 weeks, I am going to share some of my tips for planning out your year. First up - Thematic Literacy Planning for the Year in a Special Education Classroom I like to plan out my entire year, week by week, before school even begins. I find that mapping everything out at the beginning of the year frees up time during the school year to work on the important things that come up... because let's be real... I don't have time to wing it! If it isn't planned, I don't do it. I am way too busy during the school year to be creative! Here is how I make it work in my classroom: I like to start out with a theme. I was resistant to go with themes at first because all of my students were working at their own level and in their curricula. I felt like I didn't have time to squeeze in an additional topic. However, my reasons for avoiding thematic units were actually the reasons why they work best in my classroom. I base my themes on the essential questions and books from our general education reading curriculum. I find that this is a great jumping off point and provides common vocabulary for my students. Since I generally have a span of 2-3 grade levels within my classroom, I like to choose a combination of essential questions from each grade level to make sure that I am providing grade level content for all of my students. Once I have my essential questions, I choose a book and letter of the week. I also add in possible writing prompts that tie in with the essential questions... one less thing to think about later! I read the book(s) during a whole group story time, giving my students the opportunity to participate in a shared experience before they break off into their small groups. I also like to add in a sentence frame or core word of the week for my students who are using communication systems, an art or cooking project, and a sensory bin since I try to tie them into my essential questions. It has taken me a few years to come up with a scope and sequence document that works for me. You can find a free template HERE if you would like to try it out for yourself! Because my students' skills can vary significantly from year to year, I don't use every activity every year. For example, last year I didn't use the letter of the week, but I will this year. As far as skill-based curriculum goes, I can't map that out as easily. Each of my students works at their own pace and in their own curriculum. I use a combination of Read Well, Reading Mastery, Edmark, Wired for Reading, and Wonders. I don't include this information on my scope and sequence since it is so heavily dependent on the needs of my students. However, I do include it in my planner, which you can pick up for free HERE. What about you? How do you map out your year? Please share! And keep an eye out for next week's post where I will be talking about Planning Math Concepts for the Year in a Special Education Classroom. 10/19/17 UPDATE - Many people have expressed interest in getting a copy of the completed scope and sequence that I have been using in my classroom. There are projects that have not been planned, but I am happy to share what I have so far. Click HERE to download a copy. Enjoy!
special education, structured autism classroom tour, elementary, moderate/severe, setup, canine companions, visuals
Free Sequencing Cards and Color Matching for Pre K-K-1---3 free printables for sequencing picture story cards, colors, and a game.
These rainbow tally marks are a great, hands-on way to practice counting by 5’s, counting on, and working on fine motor a bit as well!
Learn every step of classroom setup, must have resources, and materials needed to setup your self-contained classroom. Peek inside my classroom!
Reclaim your time and energy and alleviate stress with these 9 SPED prep hacks to help you streamline your prep and prioritize your to-do list.
This post is dedicated to Sara Esther Regalado Moriel. Sara and her husband, Adolfo, will be deeply missed by their friends and loved ones. Sara and Adolfo were parents to […]
Happy Summer! Welcome back to the Crazy Critter Café! So I've been thinking about how I'd like to use my Class Dojo reward system and here's the latest...Numbered Tubs to match the Class Dojo "point clubs". I used this idea toward the end of the school year and it seemed to work well. Students gave input on what they'd like to have in the tubs (thus, the 2 levels of sweet treats!) My goal was to have a daily Dojo time, but due to our hectic afternoon schedule, that couldn't always be done, so I'd find time during the week for our class Dojo time (or every 2 weeks if I felt more time was needed for students to reach certain Dojo Point Clubs). I had a checklist and whenever we had Dojo time, I would write the point club for each student so I would know which reward tubs they've picked from during that particular Dojo time. At a designated date, all Class Dojo points would reset and students would start over. I bought 2 plastic organizers to help keep the rewards separate. All I have to do when we have Dojo time is snap apart the 5-15 trays and pull out the 20-30 point drawers for easy distribution of rewards! I'm sure there are tons of ways to use Class Dojo in the classroom. I found that starting simple was more effective. I didn't get overwhelmed with keeping up with rewards and trying to grab my iPad to give Dojo points every second of the day. I used it mostly during transition, independent work, and center times. Make it work for you and your class! I'll switch out rewards periodically so students don't get bored with these. I'd love to hear how you use Class Dojo in your class. Please add a comment below! :-) Thanks for stopping by the café!
Hi everyone, My little learners have been working SO hard on their reading these past few months and I am VERY excited to show what what they have been up to!
Use these story sequencing cards printable activities to teach sequencing and order to your preschoolers. These cards will help preschoolers visualize and retell their favorite stories.
Don’t you love the beginning of the school year? I always enjoyed seeing smiling faces, reconnecting with students, and just soaking in the excitement a new beginning brings! But, if mid-year me could send a letter to beginning-of-the-year me, it would probably read something like this: “Stop stressing! Get to work, and please, ask for
Do you have students who need explicit instruction to learn their body parts? These ideas are for them! Get your students moving and learning their body parts with these hands on ideas. My students all have language based disabilities and need skills that come naturally to peers explicitly taught. Most of my K- 6th grade […]
Free Printable preposition game for toddlers and preschoolers to help develop gross motor skills, fine motor skills, vocabulary and visual discrimination.
Don’t you love the beginning of the school year? I always enjoyed seeing smiling faces, reconnecting with students, and just soaking in the excitement a new beginning brings! But, if mid-year me could send a letter to beginning-of-the-year me, it would probably read something like this: “Stop stressing! Get to work, and please, ask for
Preschoolers can learn counting, subitizing, one-to-one correspondence and addition with this oversized domino math printable worksheet.
Howdy peeps! Lindsay here . . . Well, I survived. Barely. Our school district had its first day of school yesterday, but at my scho...
Printable play dough task cards to help your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students stay on task in the play dough center.
Awhile back I saw this pin and kept thinking I need to do that. It took me longer than I wanted but I finally got around to getting it together. I bought a $1 pack of kids' size clothes hangers. The wire ones may be easier to get the shirts on and off of though. I made these little shirts and punched a hole in the top. The original pin focused on making sums to 10. Below you can see where we've practiced doing that but I also wanted to include the shirts with numbers 1-10 for preK and kinder friends that are still working on counting and matching the quantity to the number shown. I chose to use 2 colors of clothespins so that students can get use to seeing numbers in relation to 5. You can download a copy of the shirts here. You'll have to load different colored paper in your printer if you want them to print in multi-colors. Hope your sweeties have fun with them!
WAHOOO! The BIG classroom reveal! I made some new additions to my rainbow classroom this year and kept all my fun makeover items from last year, too! When I was taking the pictures for this post, I thought of a few more things I wanted to update. It is always a work in progress! I am always adding new activities, taking out the old, putting up new student work, taking down the old, and organizing.
