A Look Inside my Autism Classroom!

I have been so excited to bring this to you! About two weeks ago, I got a new job, and have been NONSTOP busy ever since.  Creating for my new students, setting up my new classroom and familiarizing myself with my new school has certainly kept me busy- but I am so excited to finally share my new room with you.

Welcome to my Autism Classroom!

When you enter my room,  you see schedule boards and the calendar/ group work table!

This year, I made my classroom schedules using a mix of Smarty Symbols and Boardmaker to best suit the needs of my students. My schedule boards home is on a mobile whiteboard that will double as a divider for students having a difficult time focusing.

Students complete their morning work at the group work table. They then wait there with a small reward until calendar begins! I use Autism Adventures of Room 83 Interactive Calendar Books! You can find my cool blue calendar materials here!
                          

To the right of my calendar area, storage for materials, job board and windows looking out to the Outdoor Learning Center.

My students LOVE my adapted books! They help promote independent reading ( as you can see INDEPENDENCE is a major goal in my classroom!), keep busy hands busy, work on matching skills, comprehension skills, and so much more! Pictured here is my Back to School Bundle and Colors Adapted Book Bundle! If you enjoy using seasonal books in your classroom- you can grab my Seasonal Adapted Book Bundle and be READY all year long- at a huge discount!

One of my favorite parts of my room is the book nook and sensory area. Students can take a break here, earn a sensory toy or access to the library, bounce on the yoga ball chair, rock in the rocking chair, or enjoy an adapted book!

Here is a wider shot of the back of my room, book nook, and 1:1 work area! You can find my ASL Alphabet here! I choose to decorate my room with calm cool colors to enhance the learning environment and make my students feel safe and welcome in their classroom. They spend the majority of their time here- and so do I and my staff!

This is my 1:1 work area. I will mainly use this for Discrete Trial Teaching, but will also utilize the 3 drawer work box system to build independence and act as a visual schedule for students to know when they are done and can earn a reward. You can learn more about my 3 drawer work box system here! (and get the visuals for free here)

This desk will be used as a calm down area for students having trouble working. I use visuals from Autism Adventures of Room 83’s Calm Down Kit!

This little area is right when you walk in. It has an all done bin, a homework bin, and any other supplies students and staff might use throughout the day. I use black velcro curtains all around my room to hide storage areas, and areas that may be of particular interest to students. I store my sensory bin under here!

Here is another work area of my room. The left is “Binder Work” and the right is “Independent Work” or work bins. Students share the table but space is clearly defined with yellow tape. This helps students learn to work beside one another and tolerate others in their space, while also clearly defining who’s space is who’s.

The shelf on the left stores all my binders. This includes my Common Signs Units, Grocery Units, Boardmaker Vocabulary Units, ELA units, and anything else I might find for my students. This year I will also be using Autism Adventures of Room 83’s Apple binder set!

The independent work bin area is perfect to build student independence, matching skills, following a schedule, and so much more! This area is based off of the TEACCH method. Work bins are labeled so staff knows what bin is for what.You can find my Simply Special Task Box System Here!

In these task boxes I store tasks that not only work on IEP goals but mostly mastered tasks that the students need to practice so they do not lose. Things like my Money Task boxes for Autism, Telling Time Unit, and phonics clip cards.

The last station in my room is the Fluency Station. Here students will work 1:1 with teacher working on fluency of all kids, flashcards, reading, math facts, identifying common objects, colors- fluency can mean so much! They work on goals and the yoga ball chair helps them to get their body and mind into focus.

Also in this area you can see a first/ then board and reward board. Each of my stations have these two visuals. When a students gets to a station they pick a reward from the options on the reward board and move it to the “then” on the first/ then board. This gives them a clear visual of what needs to be done before they gain access to that reward. You can find a freebie sampler of first/ then and token boards HERE. But you’ll need the full product that includes boardmaker symbols to get the reward boards—> you can find it here. 

Thanks for visiting my classroom!

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