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Teaching students to match is an essential language skill. It builds vocabulary and comprehension and is a prerequisite to many higher-order math skills like classification and sorting. It's especially important for emergent communication skills. Students using alternative and assistive communication devices (AAC) need to understand that the picture they are pointing to represents an actual object. Begin teaching matching at a concrete level using actual objects. One of my favorite, functional ways to do this is by matching socks. You can also match various manipulatives, action figures that are especially motivating, paint swatches, or bowls and cups that stack together. If you're looking for more concrete matching activities, I have linked lots of them on this Amazon board. After the student understands how to match objects to objects, try matching pictures to objects. Gather small toys or objects and take pictures of each item. You can also use a symbol program, like Symbol Stix or Smarty Symbols, if you don't want real photos. Next, move on to match pictures to pictures. I love using Match It! tasks for this. These tasks come with three different matching levels, errorless, identical matching, and non-identical matching. I like to start with errorless matching activities so that students understand where to place the pictures and how to complete the task. Next, I introduce a Match It! task by presenting one matching card at a time. As students get more proficient with the skill, I give them more than one card to match at a time, until they are finally able to complete the task independently. I like to start with matching identical pictures first, then move to matching non-identical pictures, and finally to matching words to pictures. I have tons of Match It! Tasks available in my store and several freebies in the resource library. I love creating binder activities or cut and paste activities with them. Binder tasks take more prep upfront but they last forever! You can even turn them into file folder activities. Try them out and let me know how it goes!

The end of the school year is upon us, and I know that we are all excited for summer! I also know that many of you have already started thinking about next year. I get so excited to start planning for the next school year. All the changes that need to be made are fresh in my mind. I get excited to try new schedules, new activities and routines and work with new students. But I don’t like to spend a big chunk of my summer planning for the school year, so I try to get as much ready now as possible. Here are a few things teachers can do now to prepare for the next school year! Prep any whole-class programs or systems. I get all of my Sign of the Week workbooks put together, any calendar materials, and our science materials. My paras are amazing at helping with this. Start working on data sheets for incoming students. I get started with data sheets as soon as I can access their IEP goals. I like to have all of my data sheets for students ready to go as soon as possible so I can train everyone and get IEP goals up and running as soon as possible. I like to put together my data sheet master binder so that when I'm ready to organize data binders, all I have to do is make copies. Draft out your schedule. It may will change, but block out certain times for your prep, whole class/ group instruction, and IEP instruction. Think about any schedule things that you didn't love this year and how you might change them for next year. If you can get a copy of your school's master schedule now, you can even plan your prep time, lunch, and para lunches/breaks. Just know that, of course, things will change, and you will have to make adjustments, but it's nice to have that first draft out of the way. Clean out your classroom. Get rid of materials you don’t need to use next year. I will admit this isn't something that I have always done, but I wish it were something I started earlier in my teaching career. Because my students' levels vary so much, I have a lot of stuff that takes up a lot of space. Some years, there are certain things/materials/curricula that I never touch. I like to box it up and throw it on top of a cupboard so that the stuff I need is more easily accessible. If you can organize a little bit now to prepare for next year, it will help you set up your space better when you’re ready. Plan out your paraprofessional and peer tutor training and materials. I have peer tutors that enroll in the peer tutor course as an elective, so I give them weekly assignments. I like to have my canvas course and all assignments ready to go for the trimester, so all I have to do is change a few dates and click publish. I also like to do a weekly staff focus, and while I do leave some weeks unplanned to fill in as needed, there are certain skills I like to plan. For example, we always start with pairing and building relationships. I plan out as much as I can now, so it’s easier to print and get them ready each week. If you do regular staff meetings, you could plan out your training topics for the year and prep any necessary materials. So what will you get started with? Pick a few things you have time for now and get them done, and then enjoy every minute of your summer! You deserve it!

Ok, I spend a lot of money on Teachers Pay Teachers. Anyone else? 🙋 As special education teachers, we are always on the lookout for curriculum and supplemental materials for our students with disabilities. Here are five resources that I use (almost) every day that have become a staple in my special education classroom. 1. Visual Schedule Flip Books by Especially Education This is my go-to for students who need visual supports for behavior or need a visual schedule. I love how it keeps all the visuals in one place and it can travel easily from location to location. Also, it's a lot less destructive when thrown across the room than a binder or clipboard...speaking from experience. It's easy to customize and always lasts the whole year when laminated. And I love updating the tokens based on what my students like. 2. Question of the Day from Breezy Special Ed Question of the day is a great way to work on language and math skills. We create a graph with our answers, go around the room and practice answering the question in a complete sentence, and then asking a friend, and counting and comparing the responses in our graph. It's quick and easy and my students love it. 3. Sign of the Week from Miss Lulu Ok, I made this one but I've made a lot of things and this is one that we use year after year after year. Sign of the Week is literally my students favorite part of the day (besides lunch but they are middle schoolers so I don't hold that against them). I prep new workbooks at the beginning of the year and boom, lesson planning for the whole year is complete. 4. Adapted Books from Mrs. D's Corner and Mrs. P's Specialties We live on adapted books in my classroom. When these first became a "thing" I wasn't convinced. I didn't see the point. But I caved in and tried them out and they are a must-have in special education! These are great for modeling with AAC, reading comprehension, matching, and so on. Even my students who are fluent readers enjoy the interactive-ness of adapted books. 5. Math Skill Checks from Cupcakes & Curriculum These worksheets have been a game-changer for my math instruction. My students always need more practice than a program provides. I have 3 grade level bundles of these skill checks and we use them every day. I love that they align right with my math curriculum and they are in a simple & clear format without unnecessary clip art. Even better, they are print and go! These 5 special education classroom resources are lifesavers in my middle school classroom! Have you tried any of them yet?

I’m here to share about one of my favorite, versatile classroom management tools: punch cards! But how can you use punch cards in the classroom? Here are ten ways. Punch Cards for Bathroom Passes You can modify this to make this work for your classroom but many teachers give one punch card every x amount of weeks. Many secondary teachers also give their students extra credit for unused punches. We don’t do extra credit at my school, but I love the idea of giving some type of reinforcement for unused passes. You could do something as simple as a candy bar or fun pencil. Punch Cards for Classroom Jobs This is the main way I use punch cards in my classroom. We do a classroom clean up every Friday. My students earn one punch for every job they complete. When they get all their passes, they earn a gift certificate to our class store. Punch Cards for Behavior Management Punch cards are great for managing group or individual behavior. I like to set a classroom goal that we are working towards, like pushing in our chairs, and then when everyone in the group remembers to push in their chair, they can get a punch on their group card. You'll want to set up something for them to trade the card in for when they have earned all their punches. Punch Cards for Assignments Lots of teachers use punch cards to reinforce students for turning in their assignments on time or for assignment completion during a certain time period. This is great for secondary teachers looking for a little extra motivation for their students to turn in their assignments. Punch Cards as Hall Passes If you are having issues with students leaving the classroom too often, this is a great solution. Students get one punch card every semester or trimester and they have that number of punches as hall passes. Of course, make sure you are making exceptions for students who have medical needs, IEPs, or 504 plans if it's one of their accommodations. Punch Cards for Math Facts Fluency This is a fun one that I never would have considered. One teacher used punch passes for their class multiplication facts party. Students got to punch the number when they had mastered that set of facts. Love this idea! Punch Cards for Student Run Businesses If you run a coffee cart or a snack cart in your school, this is a fun way to encourage staff participation. Staff get a punch for each purchase and a free item after they have all the punches. My local coffee shop does this and I love it. Punch Cards for Progress Monitoring You could punch a students card when a goal or objective is mastered. You could also do this if you teach a letter of the day or week and punch the card when a letter/sound is mastered. Punch Cards for SchoolEvents or Special Activities If you want to increase attendance at school events or activities, punch cards are a fun way to get families involved! Punch Cards for Random Acts of Kindness I love this one. I've seen lots of schools do this in February. Students could earn a punch on their card when they complete a random act of kindness. You can decide if you want to have some type of additional reinforcement at the end or if just the act of kindness is reinforcement in itself. Maybe you could feature students with all ten passes on a special bulletin board. There are so many ways to use punch cards in your elementary, middle, or even high school classroom! I sell several different designs in my store. Grab a freebie here so you can try them out. I'd love to hear the creative ways you use your classroom punch cards!

I love reading novels with my students. Reading content that is interesting increases their motivation for reading, as well as their comprehension. One of my foundational beliefs is that our students with disabilities deserve access to general education curriculum. Story based literacy is one way that I've provided access. You can read more about what SBL is and how I run it here. Last year while prepping materials for the book we were reading, I came across an article about using a least to most prompt hierarchy to increase student's listening comprehension. This article, by Melissa E. Hudson, Diane M. Browder, and Bree A. Jimenez, investigates the effect of a system of least to most prompts on correct listening comprehension responses for students with moderate intellectual disabilities. The outcomes indicated that the system was effective for teaching listening comprehension. If you want to read all the details, you can view the article here, but this got me thinking about how to apply the same type of system in my classroom. During story based literacy, I read my students the chapter, and then with their peer tutors or paraprofessionals, they read the chapter again in small groups. During this second read, we work on answering listening comprehension questions. This is where I've implemented a system of least to most prompting. Before implementing this, we had to explicitly teach the types of WH questions and how to answer them. You can find several free posters to help with this on TeachersPayTeachers. I also had to create chapter boards with pictures that align to the questions that I plan to ask. This is part of what I do for story based literacy anyway so it wasn't an additional step for me, but it could add extra prep time for you. The prompt hierarchy goes like this: First, we remind the student what type of questions this is. For example, this is a who question. Who questions are answered by people or animals. Next, we re-read the paragraph that contains the answer. If the student is still unable to answer, we move to the next prompt and re-read the sentence that contains the answer. If the student is still unable to answer, we state the answer and the student repeats. If the student is still unable to answer, the final prompt is pointing to the visual on the board that aligns and state the answer. Here's what it looks like in my classroom: A few of my students require a different set up and more concrete prompting. For those students, we place 2 or 3 visuals on a felt board and ask a question, presenting the board at eye level. If they answer incorrectly, we gesture to the correct answer. If they are still unable to answer correctly, we flip over the distractors so they are blank. If they still are unable to answer correctly, we remove the distractors so only the correct answer remains on the board, essentially making it errorless. This prompt hierarchy has been so helpful for reading instruction! Instead of just telling the student the answer and them repeating it back, we are teaching students how to use comprehension strategies to find the answer and what kind of response we are expecting from them. I have these posters up on the whiteboard, right in the front of my room, as a reminder to staff and peer tutors. You can grab a free copy here and get started implementing today! Let me know how it goes!

Daily student-led discussions are an easy way to incorporate transition planning into your classroom curriculum. In Utah, we are required to begin transition planning at age 14, but I like to start as soon as I get new 7th graders. Our students with cognitive disabilities need a lot of repetition and practice with new skills, so middle school is an ideal time to start working on self-advocacy and self-determination. One way that we address these skills is through our end of the class period routine. At the end of every class period, staff and/or peer tutors discuss with each student about something they did well and something they can improve on. It takes us several months of practicing this before my students learn to precisely identify their strengths and needs. Being able to identify their strengths and needs is an essential skill for the rest of their lives. In order to advocate for yourself, you need to know what you need help with and learn to ask. It's also helpful for goal setting and managing their behavior. I love watching my students grow over the year and generate their own ideas. But it takes time. This is a critical thinking skill; it requires them to recall specific details, analyze what went well and what didn't and then express their thoughts. It can be tough at first, so with some students, I provide visual supports in addition to the sentence starters. We also spend a lot of time modeling and giving students choices during our discussions. Here is what their daily planner looks like and the prompts we use for our discussions. If you want to grab a copy, you can download it by clicking on the button below. It's fully editable, so you can change it to fit your students' needs. If you start this in your classroom, I'd love to hear how it goes!

Here's a list of our tried and true classroom favorite fine motor tasks! All the images are links that will take you to the item or resource. This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click in the qualifying links at no additional cost to you. Perler Beads: These are so much fun and such great fine motor practice. I bought this mini iron to melt them with in my classroom. Also, don't forget to buy a roll of wax paper! Pony Beads & Patterns: Super cheap and fun! Students can string these onto a pipe cleaner if a string is too difficult. I have pattern cards in with mine to give my students ideas Arts & Crafts: Cutting Shapes: I don't know about you, but my students always need practice cutting paper. If you have scrap paper, throw it in a bin for students to just chop up. Or download these free shapes and students can practice cutting out shapes. Folding Papers: Here's a free set of folding templates that you can use. I print these on old scratch paper and put them in a fine motor box. If you don't want to print, you can always draw your own folding lines! Origami: This is a favorite in my classroom. Bonus, students are working on following directions and motor at the same time! Punch It! Task Cards: Using a hole punch is an awesome way to build hand strength. These punch cards are great because students can work on matching and identifying while they are hitting fine motor goals. You can grab them here. Tracing Task Cards: These tracing task cards are a great way to practice correct grip, marker/pencil control and accuracy. You can laminate them and use them with dry erase markers or print and let students trace in their favorite color of pencil. I have a bundle available in my store. Dot to Dot Task Cards: Dot to dots are great fine motor practice. I love using these task cards during fine motor stations. I laminate mine and then we can re-use them over and over again. You can grab them here. Sticker Posters: These are so fun and the kids love them. I may or may not have bought a book for myself... Games: Mini Connect Four: Putting the tokens into the Connect 4 board is great fine motor practice, plus it's a easy way to also hit social skills and work on taking turns. You can get a travel size Connect 4 for more of a challenge. Topple: I had this game when I was little and it was one of my favorites! Students have to lightly stack their pieces and try not to topple over the game. It's great for fine motor! Misc. Activities Tokens: Here's a quick and easy fine motor task. Gather up some poker chips from the old poker set you used in college and a yogurt or cottage cheese container. If you don't have a poker set, here's some tokens you can buy. Make a slice in the lid and have your students push the tokens into the container. Try holding the container at shoulder height for the student to make it more of a challenge. Nuts & Bolts: I was worried about these being a little too "young" for my middle school classroom but my students really like them. You could always purchase large nuts and bolts from the hardware store if you want something that's better for older students. Theraputty: I love theraputty and so do my students. I like to put small items in it so they have something to get out. These little wooden people are perfect, or if you have an old Monopoly board game laying around, you can use the pieces from that! I hope this gave you some ideas! If you need even more ideas, I have a whole idea list that you can check out here. Don't feel like you have to spend tons of money either. Make sure you check out your local dollar store or thrift store for supplies! Or try making a classroom wish list and share it with your friends and family.

This is an area I'm still working on, but I wanted to share 5 things I have done to help maintain work boundaries. Burnout is real and it's important to remember that it's okay to have a personal life and you don't have to work yourself so hard be a good teacher. Allowing myself to take breaks and be okay with letting things go is something that's really difficult for me so I've set a few guidelines. This is something I've asked my husband to help me with so I have someone to help hold me accountable. I'll admit, it's hard but I know it helps me to be a better teacher when I am taking care of myself and setting healthy boundaries. 1. Set a "Go Home" timer. I have a timer set for 3:30 each day. When it goes off, I wrap up what I am doing and head home by 3:45. I won't lie, this has been the hardest one to do for the beginning of the year because there are always a million things to do. 2. Take your work email off your phone. I did this a few years ago and it's been super helpful. I check my personal email a million times a day out of habit and I used to have my work email on my phone too. When an email came through, I would feel like I needed to drop everything and respond. It stressed me out. Now, when I leave work I don't check my email again until the next morning. 3. Don't give parents your personal phone number. I use Google Voice and it's my favorite. I prefer to communicate via text and this is a great way to do it without having to give out my personal number. I also started using ClassTag this year, it's another great option! Both are free. I love that ClassTag is almost like a class website where I can add events and files. 4. Set a limit on at home work. I prefer not to work at home but sometimes there's something I need to finish that can't wait. I will take things home if I know it's something I can finish in a given amount of time. So if I have an IEP to write and I know I can finish it in 1-2 hours, I'm okay with occasionally working on it at home. But if it's something that doesn't have a clear end time, then I'll wait and work on it at school. If I have a lot to do, I prefer to stay late one day a week and get caught up. 5. Say no. If it doesn't truly align with your end goals, say no. I suck at this, but I'm trying. I am the kind of person that wants everything done at once so I have to stop and check myself and figure out what the priorities really are. You may have to practice this. I ask my family and co-workers to ask me to help with things that don't align with my goals so that I can practice saying no. I also have a list of ways to say no saved so I can copy and paste into emails as needed. I hope a few of these tips give you a starting point. Remember to take care of yourself, you deserve to be happy and healthy!

I know how challenging and time consuming it can be to find or create materials for students with significant or multiple disabilities. My students with limited mobility, speech delays and severe cognitive disabilities are quite a challenge in the classroom in that it is difficult to find meaningful, academic activities and experiences for them to engage in. I've created a few sets of adapted task cards that have the all the modifications built in. I love these because they are perfect for my students who use eye gaze or who need their answer choices presented further apart to be accurate. I've included two sizes in each set. The larger size is perfect for students who have vision impairments. These task cards are great for emergent level learners who are working on basic skills but may not be able to read or write. For students with limited mobility, students who need an alternative presentation or students who need an alternative way to respond to a task, print two sets of the task cards you are using. Cut up the answer choices from the second set and add hook Velcro to the backs. Present the task card and then present the answer choices on a separate board. This way, you can place the answer options further apart. Students can use eye gaze to select their answer or reach to touch the answer. For students with more severe cognitive disabilities, I like to use task cards in this instructional sequence. First, I use errorless instruction. After I've printed two sets of the task cards, I present the task card and the correct answer card. The student then just matches the correct answer to the card. Next, present the answer card and a blank card. This allows the student to discriminate between two choices. After this is mastered, you can present the answer card and an obvious distractor. For example, if you are doing shapes task cards, present one shape and one number. Next, I move to an array of 2 answers, one correct and another possible answer from the task card set. Finally, I would move to an array of 3 or greater, as the student is able. I have my paras or peer tutors work with students using these task cards. First, they present the task card and ask the question. Next, they present the answer choices, depending on the student's level, as described in the instructional sequence above. I like to present the answer choices on a black felt board, like this. Students can touch their answer, look at their answer, or if able, can grab their answer and hand it to the teacher. I've also included smaller cards for direct matching. You can grab the Adapted Task Cards Basics Bundle here or by clicking on the cover image below. Are there other skills you'd like to see? Leave me a comment or shoot me an email and let me know!

For math instruction in my self contained classroom, I have used several programs over the years. The last 3 years, I've been using Go Math with the majority of my students. You can read a little more about how I use it in this blog post. This post is going to go into detail about how I use rotations and centers during math instruction. *This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.* I group my students and I split the class period so that I can work with 2 groups per class period. This allows me time to provide instruction to each student, each day. As I'm working with one group, my other group is working independently or with para/peer tutor support on their math centers. I've tried several systems for centers and I'm loving this 3 folder system. HOW IT WORKS: Each student has three folders. I use a blue, yellow & red folder labeled first, second, third. You could also use plastic bins if you wanted to. My folders are not at all Pinterest worthy. But if you want to get fancy, I made you some labels. You can download them for free here. The "First" folder is an activity that directly ties in with the student's math IEP goal. The "second" folder is an activity that aligns with the skill that we are currently learning in our math group. The "Third" folder is a review activity from a previous lesson. When I write my weekly lesson plans, I include the centers that I will pull for the week. It makes it easier to pull them out quickly and make sure they actually align with what I am teaching. FIRST: In the "First" folder, I put in a center related to the student's IEP goal. I use their completed work to collect and record data. You'll want to make sure that you've provided explicit instruction on the skill and that the student is at the level that they are able to work independently on their current benchmark. If your students' IEP goals are not something that can be done in an independent format like this, you may want to have a para run this center. Or you could have students work on prerequisite skills or review of previously mastered objectives/benchmarks. SECOND:In the "Second" folder, I put a center related to the lesson I taught last in our Go Math groups. I have purchased lots of centers from TpT and also use activities and worksheets from Go Math or other math programs that I have access to. I'll link some of my favorites below. I try to make this center as hands on as possible. THIRD: In the "Third" folder, I put in a review center. This can be anything from a previous lesson from our current chapter to a skill that was taught earlier in the school year. The idea behind this center is that students are consistently reviewing previously mastered concepts so that they are able to maintain what they have learned. A FEW IMPORTANT REMINDERS BEFORE IMPLEMENTING THIS SYSTEM: All of the centers that I put in student's folders are supposed to be independent work. Sometimes I have a peer tutor that helps during centers just because I need somewhere for them to be. Other than the IEP goal data that I take at the end of the week on their "First" folder (when applicable), I don't take data or grade centers. I do check that they have been completed and are mostly error free and then they are sent home. If there are multiple errors, I re-teach the skill in our instructional group and then put additional practice activities into student's centers. It usually takes my students about 2 days to get through all 3 folders. In an ideal world, I'd change them out at the end of the day and have them ready for the next day but in reality, they tell me that they've finished everything and I scramble to grab more. In spring last year, I finally set up a system where students would put their finished folders in a bin and put their unfinished folders back on the shelf where they are stored each day. This was much easier for me to see when I needed to replace center activities. I mentioned this above, but if you have students with IEP goals that they cannot do as independent work, you could easily have a para run center where one of your paras works on the activity in the "First" folder and then the students work on the other 2 folders on their own. IDEAS FOR ORGANIZATION: First, please know that purchasing and prepping math centers for 4-5 grade levels has taken me years. If you don't have the money or time to purchase, there's lots of free options. You can do almost anything with a set of dice, a deck of cards, and a dry erase marker. As far as organizing and storing centers for multiple grade levels, I use 12x12 plastic bins. I put all the centers that I have for each skill area in a bin, so addition, subtraction, fractions, place value, etc. each get their own bin. I have two different shelving options in my classroom. These ones from Michaels do not come with the bins and they are more expensive but you can get a good deal on them during Black Friday and sometimes during the summer. These ones from Amazon are plastic but they come with the bins. MATH CENTER RECOMMENDATIONS: Go Math has math centers on their online platform, ThinkCentral. I also like to use the enrich and reteach worksheets as center activities. I also love these centers from TpT. I linked the Kindergarten version but they all have higher grade levels too. If you need recommendations for upper grades, let me know! Reagan Tunstall's Stations by Standard Tara West Math Center Mats Mr. Elementary Math Task Cards If you implement this system, I'd love to hear how it goes! Shoot me an email or leave a comment below and let me know. Thanks for reading!

If you're going for a clean and crisp modern vibe in your classroom this year, check out these accents and decor items. These are all available on Amazon and go perfectly with the Modern Marble Classroom Decor line in my TpT store. Check out my favorites! This post contains affiliate links. 1. Faux Fur Saucer Chair This chair is a perfect flexible seating option! Plus, it's super cute! You can throw this gold sequin mermaid pillow for a fun sensory addition. 2. Marble Pencil Holder Keep your desk organized with this marble pencil holder. 3. DIY Marble Table If you feel like getting crafty, grab yourself a roll of waterproof marble contact paper and cover your table or desk! It looks super cute for super cheap! 4. Letter Board A letter board is always a fun classroom addition. Spice yours up to match your theme with these gold letters. 5. Gold Pillow Covers Grab some cheap pillows from the dollar store and cover them with these beautiful gold velvet pillow covers! Perfect for a reading or calm down corner. 6. Gold Bulletin Borders These gold bulletin borders will look amazing around your Modern Marble bulletin boards. Looking for more? Here's my Modern Marble Theme list with all of my favorites! Don't have an Amazon Prime membership yet? Try it out with a free 30 day trial. If you are looking for a one stop classroom decor bundle that will last you for years and years, check out this Modern Marble Decor Bundle in my store. This bundle has everything you will need for your classroom and so many of the items included are editable so you can customize to fit your needs!

Data, data, data. I’ve tried many data organization systems in the past 6 years and I’m loving this new trick! Let me share my new favorite data organization tip with you! This is my data sheet master binder. To make it, I grabbed a binder, a binder cover (optional, but pretty) and dividers. I set up a section for each of my students. At the beginning of the year (and whenever I create or update data sheets), I place a master data sheet here, within the corresponding student section. Then when students are low on data sheets, I can grab the master binder sheet and run and make copies. Or better yet, my aides can grab it and make copies when they are working with students. No need to interrupt me or wait for me to print a new one. It’s very convenient, not much work and takes up hardly any space. You can use a data sheet master binder for pretty much any data collection system. I have individual student data binders. You can use clipboards or post its or whatever. The best part about using a master binder is that all of your data sheets are in the same place and easy to find! Super easy, super quick and super effective. Let me know if you’re going to try this out this school year! Also, if you;re looking for some super cute binder covers, check out these options in my TpT store.

This classroom color scheme is bright and welcoming for every grade level. Mint, mustard, coral and orange hues are a beautiful combination and white accents make it crisp and clean. If you're looking for a unique color scheme for your classroom, check out these Warm & Sunny classroom accents. This post contains affiliate links. 1. Orange Wobble Stool These wobble stools are a favorite in my classroom. The orange color looks great with the Warm & Sunny line. Such a fun flexible seating option! 2. White Wood Bulletin Border I love the white wood combined with watercolor strokes. It's such a nice combination! 3. Accent Pillows These accent pillows are gorgeous! There are so many color options. These pillows would be great for a reading corner. 4. Letter Board A letter board is always a fun classroom addition. I display the date on the letter board in my classroom. 5. White Rolling Cart I have a cart like this in my classroom and I love it! It's great for storing materials for guided reading or math groups. Looking for more? Here's my Warm & Sunny Watercolor Theme list with all of my favorites! Don't have an Amazon Prime membership yet? Get free 2 day shipping when you sign up for a free 30 day trial. If you are looking for a one stop classroom decor bundle that will last you for years and years, check out the Warm & Sunny Watercolor Classroom Decor Bundle in my store. This bundle has everything you will need for your classroom and so many of the items included are editable so you can customize to fit your needs!

As teachers, we regularly post our student learning objectives. It guides our instruction and helps our students understand the focus of a lesson. Posting daily objectives has been a big thing in my school (and probably yours) for the last few years. I started thinking about how helpful it would be if my team of paraprofessionals could have an objective as well, something to focus on improving each week as part of on-the-job training. We all know how difficult it can be to find time to train paraprofessionals in our SPED classrooms! So, I implemented a weekly staff focus. Here's how it works! Each Monday, I post our focus on our staff board. I mapped out some of the skills that I definitely want to focus on with my paraprofessionals each year. I left a few open weeks to incorporate skills that I see as a need in the classroom. I usually try to choose skills that can be applied to all of the students, but occasionally, I will focus on something specific to one student. For example, one year, we implemented a new AAC device with a student, and we spent a few weeks focusing on modeling and core vocabulary to get in the habit of using the device. It was super helpful! Here are some of the skills we will focus on each year: Specific behavior praise Increasing our praise rate Being ready and prepared to start instruction as soon as the bell rings Using behavior momentum to increase compliance Prompting and following the least-to-most prompt hierarchy Encouraging independence in classroom routines Accurate & complete data collection Offering choices Wait time between prompts Engagement types & strategies to keep students engaged Taking accurate and complete data Precision commands Modifying assignments in general education classes I also create a weekly form for my paras that includes the focus, any events or important info for the week, and a self-rating scale. I always print out an extra form for myself as well. If there is something that I'm not doing well, there’s a chance my staff are having a hard time with it too. This is a good opportunity for me to evaluate and see if there's a better way to do something or to re-train everyone at our next staff meeting. I ask my paras to turn in their form at the end of the week with any comments. I included a spot for them to let me know if they felt they needed more training on the weekly focus. If multiple paraprofessionals said yes, then I put it on our next staff meeting agenda. Otherwise, I just do a quick one-on-one training. As you know, finding time for communication in the classroom can be a challenge so this form has been a great communication tool between my paraprofessionals and me. You can grab it for free in the Paraprofessionals section of the Resource Library. If you try this, I'd love to hear how it goes & what skills you focus on each week!

Teaching reading has always been a struggle for me. The curriculum I was using needed something more. I needed something more hands-on, more engaging so that my students made better progress. I also wanted to provide the main instruction instead of my paras or peer tutors. Throughout the time I was teaching, I continually added and changed how language arts and reading instruction in my classroom looked, and it's been a successful change! I use Language Arts rotations to teach reading, writing, and spelling in my classroom. To do rotations like this, you will need a large chunk of time. I teach middle school and our class periods are 55 minutes. I do 2 class periods of language arts to fit in all of my rotations, six rotations at about 20 minutes each. There have been years where I've had less time, and if that's the situation you're in, I would recommend alternating days for rotations so that your students are not doing all six rotations on a day instead of cutting the time of your rotations. Here's what my rotations look like. 1. Reading Instruction- teacher led 2. Spelling Instruction- para led 3. Writing Instruction- teacher led 4. Word Work- independent/peer tutor support 5. Writing Center- independent/para/peer tutor support 6. Silent Reading- independent Here's an idea of what our schedule looks like. You can see that Student 5 & 6 are one-on-one throughout the whole language arts block. I run the reading and writing instruction rotations and my paras run spelling instruction and support during work work and writing centers. Some trimesters, I've split up the Silent Reading block so I could fit in more reading groups, but I prefer to have all students doing Silent Reading at the same time, if possible. Obviously, the more students you have, the more complicated scheduling gets. I like to use sticky notes to move everyone around when I'm trying to figure it out! Let me go into detail about what each rotation looks like Reading Instruction My reading instruction rotation varies depending on the student's level and IEP goals. I group students whenever possible for reading instruction. For curriculum, I use a combination of Reading A to Z, Corrective Reading, Horizons, and novel studies/reading passages. Again, the program I'm using depends on the student's needs and their IEP goals. During reading instruction rotations, I also take data on reading goals. For example, if a student has a reading comprehension goal, like determining the main idea or answering wh- questions, I'll set aside 1-2 days a week to take a quick probe on their current objective. I use the reading rotation to teach the skill needed for the goal. So if I'm using Reading A to Z with a student who has a wh- question IEP goal, part of my instruction will include a review on how to answer each type of wh- question and I will also teach text comprehension strategies during this time. For my emerging readers, I use lots of adapted books. For students who are using AAC, I also like to use this time to model language on their system. Sometimes I have students who are working on reading sight words, so I use the reading instruction block for sight word instruction. I love using Reading in Real Life for this! Check it out here. Spelling Instruction My spelling instruction rotation is almost always run by my paraprofessionals. This is another rotation where I will group students whenever possible. For spelling instruction, I use the program Signs for Sounds. I love this program and highly recommend it! It teaches spelling patterns and rules and doesn't make students memorize a list each week. In addition, it includes a sight word for each week, and students take a dictation test for each lesson where they write the words that fit the spelling pattern in sentences. I love this because the generalization is already built in. Signs for Sounds has a great assessment that I give at the beginning of the year. For my students who may not be learning to spell or aren't ready for phonics-based instruction, I use a functional spelling program from School Bells n Whistles. Writing Instruction Writing instruction is one of the only times I do whole-class instruction in my classroom. We do writing in a week-long format. It usually starts with a mini-lesson & group brainstorming on Day 1, modeling on Day 2, students actually writing on Day 3, editing and expanding on Day 4, and sharing our writing on Day 5. Word Work Working independently is one of my main goals for all of my students. A word work rotation is a great time to practice independent work skills. I have a shoe box bin for each student, which is their designated word work bin. They are responsible for going and getting it off the shelf and completing the activities inside of it. Each student's bin has enough work for the whole week, and every Friday, one of my paras reset the boxes and put in new work for the next week. In each word work bin, I include activities that align with the student's previously mastered skills. Over the years, I have collected tons of center & work task activities, so it's super easy to pull different things and throw them in. I like to include a phonics task, a sight words task, and a reading comprehension task. Here are some of my favorite word work resources: The Designer Teacher Phonics Centers by Design Miss Lulu Work Tasks for Secondary Students: Alphabet & Phonics Tara West Literacy & Math Centers Tara West Endless Mega Bundles Especially Education Hands on CVC Bundle Jodi Sutherland Comprehension Notebook Language Arts Morning Work Mrs. D's Corner Adapted Books Writing Center The writing center rotation is another time that students work on independent task completion. Each has a writing folder, and during the writing center rotation, they complete a writing activity or prompt. This is a time to practice writing, not teach new skills. I use these activities for Writing Centers: Miss Lulu Errorless Sentence Helpers Breezy Special Ed Differentiated Journals Tara West Writing Centers You Aut-A Know Paragraph Writing Journals Independent Reading This is one of the best things I've ever implemented in my classroom, no joke. I wish I had started it my first year. During this rotation, students just read. They can read whatever they want, where ever they want, and they have no assignment or expectation afterward. They just read. And guess what, reading for leisure is a life skill! Many of my students prefer audiobooks, so they will listen to a book during this time. Some students read chapter books, some students read picture books, and sometimes students grab adapted books. I don't care what or how they read as long as they read something. My paraprofessionals support my students who are non-readers during this time. We also love to use Epic, which is a free app that has tons of books. I've also paid for Amazon Free Time before, which is a very inexpensive option that has tons of books & audiobooks. For 20 minutes each day, students are engaged in reading something interesting to them. Another important part of this rotation is that the teachers are also reading. It's important to model to students, so whatever adults in the room that are not supporting students are reading their own book. Language Arts Rotation Tips Starting up a system like this can seem overwhelming, and it definitely can be at first. It takes time to teach students how to rotate and what to do during each rotation. I've done two back-to-back class periods for this before, but I've also made it work by using one class period in the morning and one in the afternoon. Another important thing to remember is that each student doesn't have to go to the rotations in the same order or at the same time. Arrange the schedule so that it works for you. Change it if you need to. Use visual schedules for your students to help them understand where to be and what to do. Questions? I'd love to help! Leave a comment or shoot me an email!

Bright & colorful, a rainbow theme is always a fun way to decorate your classroom, especially if you're a primary or early elementary teacher. If you're thinking about setting up & decorating your classroom in a rainbow theme, here are some of my favorite accents & decor items, available on Amazon! This post contains affiliate links. 1. 10 Door Organizer Cart You can never go wrong with extra storage & organization. And bonus, it comes in colors that match your classroom theme! 2. Storage Caddies These are such a great way to keep student materials or art supplies organized! 3. Rainbow Sticky Notes This one is just for funsies but seriously, if you have a rainbow themed classroom, you're going to love this addition to your desk! 4. Rainbow Clock Adding a themed clock is a fun & easy way to spruce up your classroom decor. I love the look of this watercolor clock! 5. Rainbow Doormat This rainbow rug would look amazing at your classroom door & is such a fun way to welcome students in each day! Looking for more? Here's my Rainbow Classroom Theme list with all of my favorites! Don't have an Amazon Prime membership yet? Try it out with a free 30 day trial. If you are looking for a one stop classroom decor bundle that will last you for years and years, check out this Rainbow Watercolor Decor Bundle in my store. This bundle has everything you will need for your classroom and so many of the items included are editable so you can customize to fit your needs!

Secondary special education teachers, are you constantly searching for materials that target the skill levels your students are at that are appropriate for their age? Then you need the Work Tasks for Secondary Students bundle. This resource line is perfect for older students that need practice with skills at a lower grade level! Here's a close-up of what's included and some tips to put it to use in your classroom. Each set comes with 6-10 tasks, and each task comes in 2-4 levels. There are 120 tasks included in the bundle. Visual instructions for each task with real photos are included. The best part is that this set uses real photos and age-appropriate graphics, making it appropriate for kindergarten through high school! I store these tasks in these photo containers and in pencil pouches. The included labels are color-coded by level, so it's easy to differentiate. I love to use these tasks for independent work, but they are also great for centers and early finishers. Secondary Work Tasks Set 1: Colors & Shapes Set 1 includes 6 color & shape tasks. Students will identify and match basic colors and 2D and 3D shapes. Task 1: Matching Colors Task 2: Matching 2D Shapes Task 3: Matching 3D Shapes Task 4: Identify Colors Task 5: Identify Shapes Task 6: Identify 3D Shapes Secondary Work Tasks Set 2: Numeracy Set 2 includes 9 numeracy tasks. Students will practice numeracy skills from counting to comparison. Task 1: Counting 1-10 Task 2: Counting 1-20 Task 3: Ten Frame Counting Task 4: Subitizing Task 5: Number Order Task 6: Writing Numbers Task 7: Number Representations Task 8: Comparing Numbers Task 9: Identify More & Less Secondary Work Tasks Set 3: Science & Social Studies Set 3 includes 8 science and social studies tasks. There's a wide variety of tasks included in this set, from animal classification to science tools. Task 1: Identify Animals Task 2: Classify Animals Task 3: Community Helpers Task 4: U.S. Landmarks Task 5: Food Groups Task 6: Five Senses Task 7: Identify Planets Task 8: Science Tools Secondary Work Tasks Set 4: Time & Money Set 4 includes 8 time and money tasks. Students will work on time telling, counting money, and budgeting. Task 1: Time of Day Task 2: AM or PM Task 3: Analog Time: Hour Task 4: Analog Time: Half Hour Task 5: Coin ID & Value Task 6: Counting Coins Task 7: Budgeting Task 8: Counting Bills Secondary Work Tasks Set 5: Alphabet & Phonics Set 5 includes 9 alphabet and phonics tasks. Students will match and write letters and practice emergent phonics skills. Task 1: Match Uppercase to Lowercase Task 2: Beginning Sounds Task 3: Mystery Word Task 4: Long & Short Vowels Task 5: Sound Sorting Task 6: Substitute Sounds Task 7: Word Families Task 8: ABC Sequencing Task 9: Writing Letters You can check out the whole bundle or each individual set here. How to use Secondary Work Tasks After prepping each task, I suggest using a work task system to encourage student independence. In my classroom, each student has a work bin. Thir work bins contain the same tasks for an entire week, so they have multiple opportunities to practice and it makes prep easier for me. At the end of the week, I reset their bins for the next week. In each bin, I give students 4-5 work tasks that are skills that they have mastered or are close to mastering. Because this is independent work time, I do not want to have them work on skills that they are just learning because this gives them opportunities to practice errors. I assign each student a color level (blue, green, or yellow), and the tasks they complete are at the appropriate level. Ready to try them? I have a free sample of 5 ALL NEW tasks just for you. Download them in the Free Resource Library. Or get started with the whole bundle! How do you use Secondary Work Tasks in your classroom? Tag me on Instagram so that I can see these tasks in action!

Writing is one of my favorite subjects to teach! Our students need to be able to write to function independently. Functional writing is something that we work on throughout the entire school year. Here are some of the skills I work on with my middle school students. Personal Info: I create a Google Form for each of my students and they practice typing their personal info into it each day. You can add correct answers when you create your Google Form and it will even score it for you. Quick and easy data! I also have these free fillable forms in my store for practicing personal info. Emails and Letters: My students all have a district email address so we practice sending emails to each other. I give my students a writing topic and they practice sending an email to a classmate addressing the topic. They CC me in the email so it's easy to see what mistakes students are making so I can address them in my mini lessons. Text Messages: Text messaging is super motivating for my middle schoolers. I use this website to create a text prompt and ask my students to practice responding. You can download a free response sheet here for your students to practice! Lists: I love incorporating list writing into our cooking lessons. Before we cook, I have my students read the recipe and make a list of ingredients that we will need to buy. This is also a great way to practice checking inventory. We also practice writing a to do list when working on tasks and in general education. I designed this Let's Write a List resource for students with disabilities to work on list writing. If you're interested, check it out here. Signatures: I don't teach handwriting in middle school, so I especially don't worry about teaching cursive, except for signatures. I think it's very important to teach our students how to sign their names. I use this free website to create cursive practice pages. You can type your students name directly into it, print and go. I laminate mine or throw them in a sheet protector and then my students can use their dry erase markers to practice. Cards: Greeting cards are a great way to incorporate functional writing into your curriculum. We make holiday cards, birthday cards and thank you cards. I always start by brainstorming with my students words and phrases that we can use for the occasion before starting. Writing cards is another great way to practice signing our names. What functional writing skills to you work on in your classroom? Leave a comment below.

When I first started teaching, I used a lot of boring and repetitive instructional methods. They worked fine, but my students really struggled to generalize the skill that they had learned. Over the past few years, I’ve really worked on increasing the types of tasks and activities that I use to teach my students a given skill. By varying my instructional methods, not only are my students doing so much better with generalization but it’s so much more fun. They are more motivated to learn. And with middle schoolers, I need all the help I can get to get students excited about learning! Here are some of my favorite ways to vary instruction in the classroom. 1. Task Cards I love task cards and you can find task cards for pretty much any subject area on Teachers Pay Teachers. There’s just something students love about using a dry erase marker or clothespins to do their work! I don’t generally use recording sheets in my classroom because I have a small number of students and enough staff to check answers as they work, but you can easily have students record their answers if you are using task cards for independent work. I especially love using task cards for math centers. You can check out the task card sets available in my store here. 2. File Folders File folders are another thing that you can easily find on TpT. I use lots of matching and sorting file folders in my classroom for students who are working on these skills. They are a quick task. The take more time upfront to prep, but you can use them for years and years. 3. Write the Room Write the Room is another fun activity that we’ve been using for math review this year. You just tape numbered flash cards up around your room and your students walk around and write the answer on their record sheet. If you have enough assistance in your classroom, your non writers could walk around and verbally state their answers to a para or peer tutor. Great way to incorporate some movement into your instruction. 4. Games Games are my favorite. Everybody responds better to a game than a worksheet! You can easily make board games like Sorry or Trouble academic by requiring that students answer a question or complete a task before moving their piece. For example, if your students are working on addition facts, they have to solve an equation before they can roll and move their piece. It's an easy activity that requires no prep from you- just grab a stack of flash cards and a board game that you already have in your classroom. I also use these Uno type card games quite often with my students. They love them! We also have a blast turning instruction into a game show! Grab a buzzer and a whiteboard to keep track of points and you’ve got an easy and fun review activity. 5. Be the Teacher Another fun way to switch up instruction is to allow your students to to teach the skill or be the teacher. You should obviously only do this once the student is close to mastery so they aren’t teaching it incorrectly. We love to do this for spelling. The student calls out the word and students practice writing it correctly on their whiteboard. Then the student “teacher” checks everyone’s answers and corrects any mistakes. 6. Digital Methods & Technology With technology becoming more and more available in our schools, it’s fun to incorporate it into your instruction and it’s super motivating. I love using my Click It books or having my students read on the free app, Epic. There’s lots of digital activities available on TpT. You can buy or create digital activities with Google Slides or Google Forms, and Teachers Pay Teachers has a free digital tool called "Easel" that you can use to turn any PDF into a digital format. You can grab a free counting activity from my store by clicking here. If you have iPads, there are so many apps out there that help reinforce a variety of skills. Technology is a great way to keep your students engaged! I think it’s so important that we think outside of the box when we are coming up with ways to reach our students. Learning needs to be fun and skills that are presented in a variety of ways will help build in generalization from the beginning. What are your favorite ways to provide variety in your instruction?

Reading is one of the most functional skills we can teach our students. The world is a print rich environment and we need our students to be able to function in it. The ultimate end-goal for reading is comprehension. I love this quote from The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies- Comprehension, like the other components of reading instruction, must be explicitly taught. But it's a complex skill and it's hard to measure. There is a ton of research out there for teaching students to read and comprehend, but not a lot of it is specifically targeted for students with significant cognitive disabilities, just like there's not a lot of reading programs out there for our student population. Too often, I see teachers who are "teaching" comprehension by just asking 10 questions and recording student scores. I've definitely been guilty of this! If we want students to learn to comprehend what they are reading, we must do better. We have to explicitly teach comprehension skills and strategies. Here are some ways to work on reading comprehension with students with severe disabilities. Picture Comprehension: Even your non-readers can work on comprehension through pictures. Students can practice answering questions about a picture or a movie. Single word/ sight word comprehension: If you have students who are working on vocabulary words or functional sight words, work on single word comprehension along with identification. Ask students to match the sight word to the object or a picture of object. If that’s too difficult, at the beginning, provide the picture and a very obvious distractor or even a blank image. Sentence comprehension: Your beginning decoders can work on comprehension with single sentences. If students are working on decoding CVC words, put them into a sentence (with basic sight words) and have the student act out the sentence or match it to a picture. Yes No questions: For students who are just beginning to read or students with limited verbal expression, you can work on simple yes/no questions about the text. Use visuals or AAC systems for students to answer. WH questions: Explicitly teach your students how to answer WH questions. There’s lots of free visuals on TpT for how to answer WH questions or if you're artsy, you can make a cute anchor chart. I like to break it down to one question type at a time. For example, first, teach that who questions should be answered with a person, then read short text excerpts 2-3 sentences and ask only who questions. Next, introduce WHAT questions, but continue to practice and take data on who questions to ensure maintenance, and so on. Activate prior knowledge: When students are reading academic content, they need to have background knowledge to go along with it. Provide hands on experience with the topic or videos to help increase background knowledge Draw pictures to help visualize. A lot of my students don’t necessarily have the verbal language to expressively talk about what they are reading, but they love to draw! After reading, have students draw to respond to what they read. Provide a specific prompt to keep students on track. Use least to most prompting to correct: Scaffold your prompting when a student answers a comprehension question incorrectly. First, re-read the section of the text where the answer is located. Next, re-read the sentence where the answer is located. If students still aren’t able to find the answer, explicitly model finding the correct answer. Ask text dependent question: This sounds simple, but it really takes practice. When I have a student teacher in my classroom, this is always something that we work on. Comprehension questions should be able to be answered and supported by the text. The questions that you ask should require familiarity with the text to answer. Here’s a great guide for coming up with text dependent questions. Teach students to monitor their comprehension: Just being able to identify when you don’t understand the text is an important strategy for students. When reading to your students, model and think aloud as you monitor your own comprehension. Show students what you do when you do not understand when you are reading. We have to teach our students to think about the text as they are reading and the best way to do this is by modeling it. At the end of each paragraph or page, stop and talk aloud about what is happening. Teach students to come up with questions they have about what they are reading. Talk about what you are reading: Comprehension is hard to assess. Sometimes the best way for me to measure whether a student is comprehending what they are reading is to just have a discussion about it. When my students are reading independently, I like to pop in and have quick chats with them about what they are reading, their favorite parts, what’s happening in the story right now, etc. It’s nothing formal, there’s no written response expected, it’s just me checking in. There are so many amazing books out there. Use them to teach your students! You can use picture books, novels, adapted novels, comic books, magazines, books with real photos or interesting artwork, etc. Using texts that are interesting to your students will make a huge difference in what they are able to comprehend! I love to use readworks.org and Epic to find texts about high-interest topics for my students. Both are free! Let's make the most of our reading instruction and provide our students with explicit and effective comprehension instruction! It's not easy but it will be so worth it to see the independence it can create!