sped curriculum, sped scope and sequence, special education scope, special education curriculum map,

Teaching in special education classrooms can be tricky! We often teach students in a variety of grades and with a variety of needs. We have to figure out how to teach SO MANY standards and IEP goals & differentiate based on each student's needs. Something that has helped me with this SO much over the years is creating scope & sequences for content areas (math, reading, morning meeting, science, social studies, etc). Scope & sequences are also great because they remove the question "What am I going to teach next week?" and ensure that you cover all of the standards/ IEP goals required. What are scope & sequences and how are they helpful? Scope & sequences are also often called curriculum maps. A scope & sequence lays out the content that will be taught (the standards, IEP goals, etc.), the order that the content will be taught & often also includes materials and activities for lessons. They help you plan how you will teach different standards/ skills across lessons and units. If you have boxed curriculum in your classroom, it likely includes a scope and sequence. However, many special education teachers don't have boxed curricula that meets the needs of all of our students... So creating a scope & sequence based on your state standards and your students' needs is a great alternative! Steps for creating a Scope & Sequence: Start by creating chart or document with all of the standards for each grade you teach. I start with one content area at a time. I make charts in a Word Doc for Math, Reading, Science and Social Studies. This year I only have 4th-5th grade, but I also did this when I taught K-5. These charts will help you look at all of the grade level standards at one time. Now it's time to start grouping standards that have similar outcomes/ tasks. Here is an example of how I did this for 4th and 5th grade math standards > I color-coding standards that aligned with each other (i.g. there are multiple 4th and 5th grade standards that relate to money). After I grouped all of the standards with similar outcomes, I identified 13 broad math units. I picked 13 because that would allow me to do 3 week math units, but you can pick whatever number of units that works for your classroom and standards. I know this is harder when you're planning out more than a two grade levels, but it's doable with creativity! Now you're going to create another chart (sorry!) for each unit. I put each grade level side by side for each unit. For each unit, you can include: The standards you're targeting IEP goals you will target Materials you will use or activities to do How you'll differentiate Any other important information or reminders! (I left some of this information off of the scope & sequences I'm sharing due to confidentiality) Creating scope & sequences can definitely take a few hours for each content area (depending on how in depth you make them and how much info you add), but they will save you time in the long run! I pretty much use them as my "lesson plans" and guide for the entire school year, so it saves me a lot of planning time during the school year! If you're looking for math units to use with your scope & sequence, check out this bundle of math units! Each unit includes differentiated worksheets, hands-on centers & digital Google Slides!

Blank books provide a great way to encourage kids to write. Here are 3 easy ways to assemble blank books for your writing center, literacy center, and beyond.

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.

One thing I've learned about 3rd graders....they think they are right. They don't mean to argue with adults, it's just...you are wrong and they are right and they are just explaining. They are doing you a favor. You should be grateful. This is their perception, and you know what they say about perception...it is reality. So I've been training myself to rephrase things in a way that stops any arguing, excuse me, any student lead explanations of misbehavior. I found a great guide that has helped me rephrase my words, it's from Love and Logic of course!

While the globes in the previous post are a wonderful representation, using paper mache can be quite an undertaking. I came up with the ide...

"Research has shown that the ability to self-regulate is essential to the development of learning skills and work habits (Baumeister & Vohs, 2011), which are critically important to student success throughout the grades." We have been using the 'Zones of Regulation' as a way to support our students with their self-regulation. We hope to give our learners a good start on their journey to self-regulation. Ontario Kindergarten curriculum has now created 'Self-regulation and Well-being' as one of the main 4 focuses of the program. The curriculum document tells us, "Dr. Stuart Shanker (2013b, p. xiii) identifies the following as six critical elements required for “optimal self-regulation”: when one is feeling calmly focused and alert, the ability to know that one is calm and alert when one is stressed, the ability to recognize what is causing that stress the ability to recognize stressors both within and outside the classroom the desire to deal with those stressors the ability to develop strategies for dealing with those stressors the ability to recover efficiently and effectively from dealing with those stressors" We began our learning by investigating feelings and emotions. We did many activities and spent a couple weeks exploring and learning. We began to slowly introduce the Zones of Regulation to our learners. You can get a copy of the book here. [We did not follow the exact program of the book, but rather used it as inspiration for our own version]. We connected our learning about feelings to the colours of the Zones of Regulation. We then explored each zone in more detail. We used the framework 'looks like, sounds like, feels like" to help our learners use their own experience and to get a full understanding of each zone. We added this work to the wall in our 'Self-Regulation centre' in our classroom. We added photos of our learners demonstrating some of the behaviours and facial expressions you might see for each zone and added those to our wall. Recognizing what Zone they are in and others are in takes some learning. We have been reading a variety of books and discussing what zone we think the characters are in and why. Some of the books we've read are: Since the 'Green Zone' is the zone where we are optimally regulated, we want to support our learners in working to get themselves back to the green zone, should they find themselves in another zone. As a group, they came up with the following list: We have been doing a lot of "noticing and naming" the emotions our learners show throughout the day and then naming the zone they are in. For example, "I see your fists are clenched and you're frowning. I see you're angry and in the Red Zone." We are beginning to work on implementing strategies for our learners to down-regulate (from the Yellow or Red Zone) or up-regulate (from the Blue Zone). Our 'Zones Check-In'. This allows learners to take ownership and to visually see whether they need to up or down regulate. Right now, we give them a strategy we feel will work best (unless they tell us what they need) and are working towards our learners doing this independently. Some strategies we're using: Self-Regulation Centre- we have placed fidget toys and books here for learners to help down-regulate. Yoga- both individually and whole group. Our Yoga centre in the classroom Cosmic Kids Yoga (click for link) Take 5 Breathing- independently or collectively. We (educators and students) are continuing on our learning journey about the Zones of Regulation and ways we can ensure we're regulated (Green Zone) throughout the day. We will continue building independence when up- and down-regulating. We hope you will continue to support the Zones of Regulation at home. If you have any questions, please let us know.

6 Effective co-teaching models, the pros and cons to each one, and advice on when to use them.

Hello, friends! My kindergarten is wrapping up a self-portrait lesson and it's one that I've never done before with them. I'm super happy with the result and I wanted to share with y'all. Mostly I wanted to share some of the tips and tricks and things I learned in hopes that it may help you, if you decide to go down this rainbow/self-portrait path. But first, let's chat about where this lesson falls in my kindergarten line of projects. We start the school year in kindergarten with Line Sculptures. From there, we moved on to Dot Painting. Following this, we painted Rainbows! Now, in the past, I completed this Line Unit before moving on but the last couple of years I've mixed it up a bit. I will bounce back to those lessons but for now, we are painting. We've also not finished our rainbows (by adding the sun and clouds) but that will happen this week. My favorite supply for painting with kindergarten are tempera cakes. This is a little what my set up looks like. I always serve up paint (or have the kids get their own paint) on trays. This helps us carry the supplies easier and contain the mess incase there are spills. If you know me and my paint set up, then you know that we normally use dog dishes for water and a sponge. But sometimes we are using them for other things so this is my back up set up: water pot (these are my favorite and you can find them here, they are NO SPILL!), sponge for 'drying' our brush (sponges are called Dirty Ole Sponge Bob and I get them from the Dollar Tree) and a tray to hold the sponges (old sushi dishes!). My tempera cakes are usually a mess. You can purchase tempera cakes in a set but they always end up getting crumbly or with a big hole in the middle. The tray the cakes come in is crap and a thing plastic. I noticed huge messes of paint left on tables a couple of years ago...which was from the thing plastic tray splitting and paint leaking out the bottom! So now I NEVER order the whole tray, just the refills like I do my pan watercolor paint. I love Prang's tempera cakes as well as Jack Richesons. I order all the colors in the rainbow. I use muffin tins and plastic condiment cups to create a palette for the kids. When we are painting our skin tone, the palette is changed to have only red, orange, yellow, white, brown and black. For painting rainbows, this is how I set up the palette. We spend a LOT of time listening to this song and this song as well as learning the ASL for all of the colors in the rainbow! Then we hit the ground running and paint our rainbows. Even in 30 minutes (the length of all my art classes), I always have early finishers! So early finishers are given another sheet of paper and told to paint a rainbow pattern. We wrap those up the following art class. Hot Tip: Cut 2" off the paper that you plan to frame that way it's ready to frame on traditional size construction paper! I plan to frame these self-portraits on black construction paper 12"X18". The following art class, we learn what a self-portrait is! This video REALLY helped and we loved it! After listening, dancing and singing with the song, I demonstrated drawing a large self-portrait as the kids directed me. I asked "what should I draw first? What shape should I use? How big should I draw?" Afterward, they were given paper and a permanent marker (I wished I would have had them use a regular black marker as the line would have been thicker). They did an amazing job! The following art class, we learned all about scissor safety! And how to carry and wear our scissors correctly. Below is a video on how I explain scissor safety to my students (if you cannot see this video, try viewing this blog post from your laptop): After cutting out, kindergarten glued their selfies to their rainbow backgrounds! This is definitely a project I'll be doing again!

All of these organizational printables shown on this blog post are FREE! This page contains affiliate links. Read Full Disclosure

Common career interests among preschoolers range from athletes and ice cream vendors to superheroes. Due to societal and cultural influence, the career of a doctor is often a popular choice.

Pattern activities are used to teach kids the math skills of identifying and creating patterns. Keep kids engaged and having fun as they learn.

Here's how to decide if the Handwriting without Tears preschool program is right for your child. The most important thing to keep in mind is...

I made these with my pre-school class in June to top off a great lesson on the water cycle. The kids loved them.

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.

This blog post gathers ideas and lesson plans that show how to teach revising and editing. It also gives lots of revising and editing practice ideas.

Hello Everyone! We are working hard this week on skip counting. I decided I needed to put together some math tub activities for next week. We need the practice!! So this is what I came up with. Five different tub activities with an apple theme. I think the kids are going to love them!! The unit includes opportunity for kids to create their own skip counting pattern! Here are a few pics. For your free 24 page mini unit, SKIP on over to HERE!! :) Short but sweet tonight! Stop by again for a peek!! I've got some fun kid pics to show you later this week! Have a great night!! Joyfully! Nancy

Social-emotional activities have never been more important for younger kids.

*UPDATED* Editable Behavior Calendars for the 2024-2025 School YearTrack your students' behavior and communicate with parents at home through daily behavior calendar log! This correlates with most behavior charts in the classroom. There is also an option to fill in your own personalized behavior sys...

Use the special ed inclusion documentation forms to keep track of service times, lesson plans, and more. Streamline it all quickly and effectively!

This spring is presenting new challenges for teachers all across the country. Some of us are getting ready to go back to the classroom for the first time this year. Some of us have been in person all year, but we are about to get new virtual kids. Some of you have been in the ... Read More about Classroom Management and Expectations

Do your students ever wonder why the sky is blue or why it rains? Or maybe they want to learn how to read a thermometer or predict the weather for their

Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable comes with eight editable pages, containing two pencils. Each pencil has pieces for two letter names up to nine letter names. Getting Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable

Kids will love these fun patterning activities! They are perfect for preschool and kindergarten math centers. Patterning with Pattern Blocks

This summer orca craft for kids is a fabulous way to keep your little ones entertained and engaged with crafting fun over the summer break. You can use this free printable arctic whale craft anytime

Color, cut and paste this Halloween with our free build a monster printable craft for kids to make with 22 pages of designs.

Going to school after the summer is always exciting as children prepare their new school supplies and meet new people. This free printable backpack template is one of our favorites! It will help prepare your

I never would have thought I would be tracking data digitally, I am really not that savvy when it comes to tech, however, when someone pointed out how easy it was, I had to try it. You guys, its sooo much easier than my typical paper and pencil tracking system. I had data sheets EVERYWHERE!! […]