Schedule

Hi Everyone!

Tomorrow is our last day of the regular school year with the kiddos (why the last day of school is a Monday is beyond me!) and last Friday all of the teachers talked about being lazy with the kids and forgoing the schedule since, what the heck, gen ed kids are all probably watching Disney movies and having end of the year parties - why not let our guys in on the fun too! The problem with this, is that our guys are really used to the schedule. Not that I want my students to be totally reliant on a predictable routine, but when they are at school for 6.5 hours, they really cannot be expected to just play and watch movies all day without feeling a little lost. In my first year of teaching, I didn't have wonderful planning skills every day, and there were definitely times when my lack of planning led to behaviors from my students. I decided to loosely follow the schedule, allowing for longer play time in the morning and longer outside times. I didn't have strict centers but I did have them do simple activities in small groups. One of my students actually remarked to me "We didn't do any work!" so they definitely knew what was up. But since I had a loose plan for the day, all was good :)

Anyway, I realized that having a schedule is just SO important. Even on a day at the end of the school year when you want to relax and celebrate all the hard work everyone did all year, you gotta have that plan!

I am sharing my daily schedule with you all. This would be helpful to someone who is struggling with a schedule or someone who is new to teaching. During the week, we have three different dismissal times (Mondays are 1:15, Wednesdays are 12:30, and T/Th/F are 3:45) so if you are like us and have varied times during the week, make sure you incorporate a plan for each of those days. I keep this posted in my room and I send it to parents because they are always interested in what their child is doing throughout the day. The version for download is a Word file so that you can edit it to meet your needs!

Please don't believe that every single minute is followed exactly to the schedule - I WISH! This is special ed and we are flexible of course. But we do our best to follow it each day.

DOWNLOAD HERE!

Sorting By Color - Free Download!

Hi Friends!
Over the 3 day weekend, I made some time to create a color sorting activity. Using the beloved Google Images, I found pictures of both cartoon and real objects for the kids to sort. I made them all into flashcards for you to download and use with your students! There are 90 cards, 10 pictures for each color. The colors included are yellow, orange, blue, green, red, brown, black, purple, and pink. (After creating them, I realized it would have been helpful to add "white" objects for sorting. Check back later for those!)

There are numerous ways to use these cards: 

Receptive ID (identification) - "touch the red car" or "which one is the yellow banana?"

Expressive ID - "what is this?" "what color is this?" 

Matching - print two sets of each card

Feature Function Class - have the kids identify items by FFC (ex. "which one do you eat?")

Sort by Category - food, color, clothes, etc

Get creative and have the kids match the cards to buckets with a color card on the outside of each one or have the kids find the cards in a scavenger hunt game around the classroom, etc.

I hope you enjoy! DOWNLOAD HERE!

Emotion Sorting Activity - Free Download!

I made this sorting activity to go into the new independent binders that I am in the process of putting together for my students. I think this is fun because it is working on sorting skills, recognizing facial expressions, can be done independently, and could also be used as a matching activity (print 2 copies of the last page). I color coded it and used Boardmaker symbols since they are so widely used in special education classrooms and my students are likely to see them again - therefore they should have exposure to them when appropriate!

Along with the sorting board are a set of 15 pictures, 5 for each emotion. 

And yes... it was awkward using search words like "crying man" and "angry child" to look up pictures to sort! BUT my favorite find was a crying Dean from the show Supernatural. (And yes, I used the image!) Never heard of it? Oh - you mean you don't have a nerdy husband who makes you watch silly sci fi shows? Well, I do :) If you're in the mood for a corny show about brothers who chase ghosts and goblins, check it out on Netflix. 

I hope you guys enjoy the latest download... let me know how it works for your students!

HERE IS THE DOWNLOAD!

List of amazing prompts and questions - could be used for FFC!

Hello friends!

I came across this AWESOME free download on Teachers Pay Teachers that would be oh so helpful for the classroom! You can use these for ideas for feature/function/class, answering wh- questions, fill-in sentences, and more! She has them sized to print large strips and put them in pocket charts for circle activities, journal starters, etc. 
There are 180 of them. 180!

I have perused this lady's blog over at The Autism Helper and she has some fantastic ideas and freebies. 

Also, join Teachers Pay Teachers - I have found some really great things over there!

sample page!

Weather and Seasons Printable!

There are plenty of weather and season printables out there but I just conjured up a simple one to go inside an independent work binder. What's the independent work binder you say? Well, I have two guys in my class who are really beyond sitting at a table, one on one with staff, going through discreet trials. They have graduated to some pretty awesome things like simple cut and paste activities, file folder games, puzzles, etc. with little to no assistance. Yesterday I realized they absolutely need some sort of preschool journal or work binder of sorts that the kids could be responsible for, use independently, and work on typical preschool academic skills. I have a lot of fun ideas for this binder and I will be adding to it and switching things out by the week. Some of the ideas are sorting activities, tracing pages, name practice, ABC and 123 sheets, and tons more!

Right now, my morning circle is simplified and void of a lot of "typical" circle activities like weather, what you wear in said weather, day of the week, month, and whatnot. A lot of my guys are working on things like staying seated during circle, choosing the correct picture to sign in with, following simple directions, and even responding to their name. The work binders will give my guys exposure to what we might be missing out on in circle.

I laminated the following sheet and hole punched it for the binder. I'm keeping a dry erase marker in each binder so the kids can circle the right answers and cross off the ones that aren't. You could also cut each picture out and have them velcro the right ones if you made a blank sheet for them to go with it. OPTIONS ARE ENDLESS. (not really. but still.) 

DOWNLOAD HERE!

Also, check out this cool lap journal I came across. I love the idea of my guys making a journal that chronicles their learning! I might have to make a summer learning journal for each of my students now!

Imitation Level 2 - VB-MAPP Data Sheets!

Who is excited for more data sheets?!?! You mean you aren't tired of them yet? I keep getting emails with requests for more and it makes me so excited to think that someone is waiting for me write a blog post dedicated to... a data sheet. Sometimes I think about how boring my life would have been if I was an accountant or something (spreadsheets? ew.), but people must think we are a snore, the way we ABA teachers talk when we get going on about a data sheet ("Oh girl, don't even get me STARTED!"). 

This one is another awesome resource that has floated around in my school system. It includes all objectives for Imitation in Level 2. If you are looking for Level 1 imitation, check out this post.

Imitation is a great way to start working toward increasing your student's attending and having them get the base for following instructions and increase learning skills. Most new skills are learned by imitating someone else, whether it's a new hairstyle on Youtube or watching your mom cut a pineapple. The ability to imitate others doesn't come so naturally to our guys so we need to work on it and be aware of it's importance. 

Check out the latest and greatest data sheet HERE!


*Also, just a disclaimer: I have some pretty cool, non-boring friends who are accountants. 

Mand Data Sheets: Levels 1,2, and 3 on the VB-MAPP!

This is a nice little packet for all of the Mand objectives on the VB-MAPP. I love the way this data sheet is laid out - it includes all the criteria for each objective and it gives space to write in what you observe. 

Some of those Level 3 mands are tough right?! Especially the intraverbal mands... whew. Even my most verbal guys right now aren't even close to that yet. Those are some high level expectations for our kiddos with autism. I applaud you if you are seeing your students get there! 

I got this data sheet from a colleague who got it from another teacher, and so on. It has been floating around our department so I am unsure who exactly made it but I hope it spreads far and wide for all VB-MAPP testers out there to use! 

Here is the link! - Happy Friday! :)

sample page for level 2!