Special education students thrive on schedules! Consistency and predictability are vital for our students’ success. Using schedules helps students know what to anticipate during the school day. It also helps students build independence as they manage their own daily activities! Keep reading to learn all about how I prep schedules for my classroom.
Types of Schedules
There are so many types of visual schedules to choose from! Wall schedules work best for most of my students. I hang personal schedules on a bulletin board. Also, I keep a general classroom schedule posted to keep everyone on track. All of the visual pieces are from the Simple Visual Schedules resource. It has a ton of ready-to-go icons as well as editable pictures.
Laminate and Build the Schedules
To make my personal wall schedules, I use sentence strips (affiliate link). I like these because they are precut to a good width. Plus, the lines give me a good visual guide for attaching the Velcro. Two laminated sentence strips taped together make the perfect length!
I recommend using laminate that is 5 millimeters thick (affiliate link) to make things extra durable. After laminating, I add Velcro strips (affiliate link) on the schedules. I use the soft side of the Velcro on the strip.
Prep and Store Schedule Pieces
Underneath the schedules, I use these pencil bins (affiliate link) for students to drop their pieces as they remove them. This keeps all the pieces together so it’s easy to reset everything for the next day.
A storage box like this one (affiliate link) is perfect for storing extra pieces. I try to ensure that I have enough of each type of piece for each student in my class, plus extras in case of wear and tear. You can label the fronts of each bin to make it easy to find the pieces you need! When adding Velcro to the schedule pieces, I use the hard side on the card. It’s easy to remember “Hard on the card, soft stays!”
Want to learn more?
Wondering where I picked up all these tips and tricks making schedules? The answer is Simple Self-Contained Setup 101! I took the Simple Self-Contained Setup course three years ago and it was an absolute game changer for my classroom! The awesome thing about the course is that after it’s over you get to keep lifetime access to the lessons and the Classroom Prep Library! I definitely have relied on these amazing resources over the years! The course is what gave me the confidence to become the teacher that I am today. Click here to join the waitlist for the course!
