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Simply Special Ed

Resource Downloads & Teaching Advice

Blog ESY Seasonal Simple Classroom Summer

ESY Survival Guide

I can’t believe it’s almost here. With summer right around the corner it is time to start prepping for ESY. Even if you don’t teach summer school, your kids still need a setup their summer teacher will understand and materials to keep them engaged!

Here are my top tips for ESY!

1.Decide what basic skills you want to work on!

ESY is often a shortened day, so you don’t have time to continue the regular school schedule, and the kids need  a change up anyway. Make a list of things that your students need to work on that you usually don’t have time for during the school year and find FUN materials to target those skills!

2. Integrate HANDS ON activities

Summer is not meant for worksheets. Use hands on learning like Cooking, Science experiments, virtual field trips, and life skills to keep your kids engaged!

3. Don’t forget to refresh basic skills

Sometimes, basic skills get lost in the shuffle. Don’t let these skills fall apart! Use fun materials to keep your kids working & ready for back school.

4. Utilize FREE curriculum!

Don’t miss N2Y free summer curriculum! Find out more at the end of this post!

5. MAKE LISTS!

During ESY I get TONS of ideas for next school year, I keep a notebook nearby to write down ideas and start searching for materials to make next year the best year yet!

 

My favorite Summer Products:

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Even if your kids don’t attend ESY- they need summer practice. Some parents will ask me how they can keep working on skills at home and I always tell them- that is the BEST PLACE to work on them. Can you say generalization? So I created these seasonal handouts to give to parents to get them thinking! It may sound simple, but these ideas are so helpful to parents!

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Summer is a great time to work on skills that you may not have much time for with the constraints of the school year. I often work on toilet training, feeding, and fine motor in the summer when the pressure is off! These sheets are my absolute favorite for fine motor skills! ( you can watch the video of how I use them HERE). For years I would highlight where to cut on worksheets! These are already there and practice SOLELY ON CUTTING. No other skills involved. Perfect for individualized practice- and they are differentiated FOUR ways!

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Task boxes are perfect for summer. They are easy to pull out and clear to use with unfamiliar paras. I don’t take data on task boxes and they can also be independent work! Such an easy thing to have on hand. These Summer Task Boxes are great visuals for summer and include NINE basic skills!

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FINALLY my favorite activity (yum!) is cooking. If you don’t have the time or means to cook during the school year, summer is the time to try it out or start it up! All of these recipes do NOT need a kitchen to make!

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FINALLY! News 2 You Unique Learning System offers a FREE summer curriculum. Those of you who have been dying to try unique- this is your chance. They usually don’t post it until June…. but once they do it’s time to start printing and prepping. They offer stories, comprehension, worksheets, and science connections for all levels! We use news 2 you all year long, the visuals are great and the activities are already differentiated for you, making it easy to have a table of kids at 4 different levels (hello ESY!)

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Looking for a survival kit with everything all in one place at a GIANT discount! Don’t miss my NEW ESY Survival kit!

Hope all these tips were helpful to you! Let me know what I missed in the comments below!

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Comments

  1. Jessica Jackson says

    June 5, 2016 at 4:33 pm

    I absolutely love your blog and Instagram! I just graduated from college and am teaching ESY this summer and starting a diverse resource/contained special education teaching job in the fall. Love all the advice I can get!

Hi amazing teachers!
I'm Alyssa Shanahan -- a former Elementary Special Ed & Life Skills teacher. My classroom focus was always to keep things simple, increase communication, and build independence. Simply Special Ed's goal is to help teachers and students reach their full potential in and out of the classroom!

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