Since posting my classroom tour I have gotten a lot of requests about my students visual schedules- so I am going to go a bit more in detail!
I keep my schedules on a mobile white board divider- mainly because I don’t have a lot of wall space and it is kept by the door to block the exit for some bolters 🙂
Everything in my classroom works on a left to right system. This is how you read a book, how you complete a task box, and how you complete your schedule.
How my students check their schedules:
1. 
The schedule card next to their name is where they are or what they are doing RIGHT NOW.
2. 
When they are ALL DONE with that task, they move it to the RIGHT to the “all done” column.
3. 
Then the student moves UP the next schedule card to the top next to their name and completes that task. This continues throughout the day!
I was surprised how quickly my students caught on to the method and how quickly it transfers to real life skills. Everything in our world works left to right. Learning the system not only helps practice skills such as positional words, direction following but also builds student independence.
Here is another picture of how the schedule begins to look throughout the day. this student is currently all done getting off the van and doing the backpack routine and is now doing morning work.
This also helps with staff to quickly know where students are without their eyes having to scramble across all of the schedules. RIGHT beside each students name is where they are or what they are working on- NO CONFUSION!
I always hope to move my students, as they get older and more independent, to a “take along” schedule system. It becomes alot smaller and more appropriate for older students and follows the same left to right system!
ANOTHER PLUS: I absolutely LOVE that I used my mobile whiteboard/ partition as my schedule board this year, I did not even think about the possibility of specialists leaving me notes RIGHT NEXT to their schedule. This avoids the notes getting lost in a sea of post it notes on my desk and staff wondering why I student hasn’t been picked up yet.
So far my students have had so much success with this system- they had never used visual schedules before and they are rocking it and it is reducing lots of anxiety!
I loVe it…what type of paper did you use for the daily schedules? Is it poster board?
Hi Meredith! It is actually bright tape from AC Moore. I found it on clearance for 70 cents and fell in love! Each student is color coded 🙂
Since your kids are doing independent work in the morning, I’m assuming there isn’t any whole group instruction during this part of the day. Do you also incorporate whole group instruction? If so, how would you work that into the visual schedules? I’m thinking that once one student is finished with a task, another student might not be, so how would you time the schedule so that there is whole group instruction somewhere in the day? Thank you!:)
Hi Sara! Morning meeting is whole group and we do a group at 1:00 each day. They usually have inclusion before whole group so when they arrive back at 1:00, they check their schedule and go to the group table.
If a student was working on independent work, I or a para would make sure the work load would time up with what is on their schedule (giving them 1 task instead of 2). Hope this helps!
Are there only two students in your class? If more, where do you put the rest of your schedules? Thanks for the great ideas.
Hi Kelli, I keep all of my schedules on the front and back of my mobile whiteboard! For more students I would use a wall space of back of a shelf! Hope this helps
Alyssa
I am teaching a mix of pre-k/k students. Would you suggest making any changes for this age group?
Hi Alyssa, thanks for the good ideas. I’m wondering how many students you have? It only shows two schedules up on the white board.
hi..I love this ..can u kindly help me with organizating this schedule am thinking of starting a special education center ..pls what are the things needed..? how do I manage the kids as well ..one has C.P nd the other ASD