Are you in the middle of prepping special education materials to be ready when you head back to school? Have you been teaching for awhile and still don’t know the best tips for prepping all of the many special education materials you’ve gathered over the years? Or are you a brand new special education teacher feeling overwhelmed at prepping materials for your classroom?
Special education teacher’s classrooms look very different from general education teacher’s classrooms. We have to provide our students with many hands-on manipulatives and opportunities, as well as sensory seeking opportunities. This may look like fine motor activities, independent work stations or lots of fidgets for their sensory needs. It can be overwhelming to prep all of the materials that we need in special education. Here are 4 simple tips for prepping special education materials so that you are ready to rock the school year.
Tip #1- Develop a 3 Drawer Work Station
Special education can be overwhelming. All of your students are on different levels and you have to teach different lessons to different groups of students all day. It is important for students in special education to work towards independence. One of my biggest tips to you as a special education teacher would be to develop an independent work area. In my classroom, this was the 3 Drawer Work Station. This worked well in my classroom because it was an easy place to store file folders and work boxes for my students to use during their independent work time. I made sure to teach procedures on how to use this during the first few weeks of school and then students were able to use this 3 drawer work station independently while I was buddy teaching other groups.
Tip #2-Get Your Visuals Ready
We all know how important visuals are in special education. You will use them with many of your students. Check out this blog post all about how I color-code my visual schedules. Figuring out the best way to store visuals is always the trickiest part. You can grab these plastic zip envelopes from Amazon (affiliate link) to easily store them in. I love these because they are big enough, I can sort them by theme or have one bag for each student AND they are see-thru!
Tip #3- Incorporate Simple Fine Motor Centers
A lot of students in special education have difficulties with their fine motor skills. Something that worked really well in my classroom is using simple fine motor centers. I used this as centers along with my independent work station center. Students can practice and develop their fine motor skills in a fun and engaging way. Sometimes this is even when the OT would push-in to my classroom. Check out this post to read all about how I used them! You can also check out this Amazon list for all the materials that I use! I would highly recommend preparing these Simple Fine Motor Centers before school starts if you are able to! Store them on a shelf in your classroom like this one (Link a shelf from amazon or a moving cart to your amazon account? I thought I had your password to generate a link from your store on the old SQ Airtable but I couldn’t find it) and you have another center already ready for the school year and are ahead of the game!
Tip #4- Use Summer to Get Your File Folders Ready
Summer is a great time to relax but it’s also a great time to start preparing special education materials. If you get ahead now, trust me- you will have a MUCH smoother start to the school year. Make sure you have some file folders ready to go. I use these ALL DAY LONG-during small groups, for independent work, for early finishers…the list goes on. I have file folders available for every subject, theme and holiday. They are so great for a hands-on center or task to keep students engaged and learning.
New Special Education Teachers:
If you are a new teacher, you may also want to check out:
- 9 Special Education Classroom Tours for ideas on how to set-up your new classroom!
- 5 Must-Have Resources for New Special Education Teachers
- Special Education Classroom Setup Bundle
- Sped Classroom Setup Amazon Must-haves
Finally, if you are a new Self-Contained Special Education Teacher, I encourage you to check out my new course-Simple Self-Contained Setup 101. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes that I did during my first year of teaching (and I made a lot!).
With my new course, Simple Self-Contained Setup 101, you can say goodbye to that uneasy and apprehensive self-contained teacher who dreads the daunting classroom setup and back-to-school prep process! You’re not even going to know her anymore. You will instead be CONFIDENT and EAGER to take on anything that comes your way with rock-solid plans and systems in place from day 1.
Happy teaching!
