Welcome to my classroom! I teach a self-contained class for students with multiple disabilities. I work at a public intermediate school, which is grades 3 - 5, and this year I have three students in each grade level. Let me tell you a little bit about our schedule and how the day goes! Arrival and Morning Work Students start arriving at school around 8:10. My classroom paraprofessionals meet the students at their buses, while I wait outside to greet students and help with hallway ... continue reading...
Search Results for: simple comprehension
Our High School Self-Contained Schedule
My classroom is self-contained for all academic subjects and what we call “Activities of Daily Living.” Although I teach Life Skills, I still incorporate all academic subjects alongside our self-care, occupational tasks, and vocational skills. Every subject, any time of the day, can be an opportunity to increase independence and communication skills; it doesn’t have to be specifically written into your schedule. Look for those teachable moments! Building Our Schedule With seven students ... continue reading...
Circle Time in a Limited Verbal Classroom
In circle time, students gather to participate in a guided discussion or activity. It is common in preschool or lower-grade classrooms, but some upper-grade classrooms also utilize it. Circle time is often used to develop the social, emotional, and communication skills to help young students succeed in school. However, circle time may present unique challenges when you have a limited verbal classroom. In this blog post, I share five tips on navigating these challenges and effectively running ... continue reading...
The Best Writing Curriculum for Special Ed Classrooms
In special education classrooms, fostering writing skills can be a difficult task due to the many different abilities and learning styles among students. Visual differentiated writing journals offer a powerful solution by providing visual support and scaffolding to meet the diverse needs of learners, while allowing them to still work on the same prompt (making planning easy for you!). In this blog post, we'll explore the benefits of visual differentiated writing journals and highlight some of ... continue reading...
3 Ways I Do Ability Awareness in Elementary School
As a special education teacher, I always consider ways to increase ability awareness at my school so that my students with special needs can be better understood and accepted in the school community. In this blog post, I share three ways I do ability awareness in elementary school. Download a Free Book Companion to teach inclusion here! 1. Student Meet & Greet At the onset of every school year, as I prepare inclusion schedules for my students with special needs, I do a mini-lesson ... continue reading...
March Cooking In The Classroom
March Visual Recipes Who doesn’t like to celebrate a holiday with cooking in the classroom? The Simply Special Ed Cooking bundle includes recipes for a Leprechaun Shake, English Muffin Pizza, Peanut Butter & Jelly and Shamrock Mix. There is something for everyone! Each recipe will include a visual recipe, tools and ingredient list, sequencing page, survey and ingredients worksheet. I found the worksheets and included material perfect for every level of student. Each recipe is easy to use ... continue reading...
10 Language Opportunities in Everyday Routines
Language opportunities are EVERYWHERE! They are hidden in everyday routines and can be taken advantage of easily. Here are 10 ideas of hidden language opportunities in everyday routines! 1. Car Time People spend so much time in the car on the way to school, on the way home, running errands, and more. Pointing out what you see outside, like colors, textures, how fast or slow cars are, and other details, are great ways to expand on your child's language. Instead of focusing on reviewing the ... continue reading...
Love Monster Book Companion
What is a Book Companion? This Love Monster and the Last Chocolate book companion provides resources that connect a read-aloud to essential reading skills. If you’ve ever struggled, like I have, with how to turn a fun read-aloud into a lesson that reinforces comprehension then this is exactly what you need! Sequencing, following directions, cutting, gluing, and working on reading skills are included in this week-long lesson. This is such a fun way to celebrate Valentine’s Day in your ... continue reading...
Using Adapted Books for Speech and Language
Adapted books are my favorite material to pull for my speech and language sessions because they are simple and SO incredibly versatile! Keeping my adapted book pile stocked ensures that I have no-prep materials ready to go. Wondering how you can use adapted books in your speech and language sessions? Keep reading for ideas on how to incorporate these amazing materials into your routines! AUGMENTATIVE AND ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION (AAC) Many of my students who use AAC to communicate ... continue reading...
Winter Fine Motor Ideas from an OT
Winter Fine Motor Centers Even if you don't own the Simply Special Ed Winter Fine Motor Centers [although I highly recommend them!], the ideas for fine motor practice are still great! My favorites include: To learn more about how to implement these centers specifically, check out this blog! December Adaptive Crafts Crafts are a great way to work on fine motor skills! They are motivating for students, and make great gifts to bring home for family members. Check out my ... continue reading...
How to Use Play Dough in the Classroom
As an occupational therapist (OT), play dough is one of my all time favorite tools to use during intervention sessions! But you don't have to be an OT to utilize play dough for all types of skills and learning! Classroom teachers can easily incorporate this great tool into every day routines. It can add a fine motor or sensory [or just FUN!] component to almost any activity! See how SSE OT blogger Taylor likes to utilize it here in her blog! Keep reading below for my five tips: 1. ... continue reading...
5 IEP Goal Examples For ELA
What To Know When Writing An IEP Goal Looking for IEP goal examples for ELA? Look no further! Writing IEP goals can be quite daunting, but here are a few things to keep in mind! We don’t want to overwhelm the student (or teacher), so it’s best to only write 2-3 goals per area of need. This could be 2 goals in Reading, 2 goals in Math, 3 goals in Social/Emotional, and so on. When writing ELA goals, they need to be measurable and obtainable. That means you’ll need to write the goal in a ... continue reading...
4 Books to Teach Friendship
Friendship and inclusion can be complex skills to teach in special education. Using books in the classroom or therapy room is a great way to introduce friendship skills. Read on to see my favorite 4 books to teach friendship and inclusion. Book companions are a fun and engaging way to get students interacting with a read aloud picture book! When I was teaching I had a lot of difficulty finding leveled book companions that would meet the needs of students in my self-contained ... continue reading...
Ocean Lessons for Special Education
During ESY (Extended School Year/ Summer School) in special education it is always fun to incorporate themes! One of my favorite ESY themes is the ocean! Here is everything you need for the best ocean theme and lesson plans in your ESY special education classroom this summer! DECORATIONS I really am about keeping it simple, but a few little decorations if you are going with an ESY theme makes things fun for you, your paras, and the students. Using a backdrop (affiliate link) to coverup ... continue reading...
Camping Lessons for Special Education
During ESY (Extended School Year/ Summer School) in special education it is always fun to incorporate themes! One of my favorite ESY themes is camping! Here is everything you need for the best camping theme and lesson plans in your ESY special education classroom this summer! DECORATIONS I really am about keeping it simple, but a few little decorations if you are going with an ESY theme makes things fun for you, your paras, and the students. Using a backdrop (affiliate link) to coverup ... continue reading...
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