Setting up my Autism Class- Step 1: Getting mentally organized

I wish I had taken a picture of what I walked into when I went to visit my new classroom, located on the first floor of my school. Before me, the actual classroom that I'm moving into housed the Autism Specialist's office. She is relocating and left a ton of goodies for me. Her stuff was mixed in with all of the furniture, manipulatives, and toys, toys, toys moved over from the actual class that I am taking over. Combine all of that with my own personal materials and we had a disaster zone. I kept thinking "I don't know where to start." In an effort to help others who are in this same position, I'm going to share the process that I went through to get my room organized & set up.

Step 1: Get mentally organized
-What population will I be working with?
-What is the layout of the classroom?
-What areas will we need? Circle time area? Teacher desk area? Storage area?
-What centers do I want?

 I thought about the population that I would be working with- Pre-K and Kindergarten children with Autism. Pulling on my past experience with this population and my TEACCH training, I know that they are going to require ALOT of physical structure in the room. I think discussing this requires a post all of its own but during step one I'm just thinking about it, not actually doing it yet.

I also needed to look at the layout of the classroom before I got started. I needed to know where the outlets were for the computers & to take advantage of the areas already set up for storage. I was able to see that there are a few areas in the room-like the corner next to the counter- that I could take advantage of and use as a barrier for a center.

I talked with the teacher that had the class previously and with her two paraprofessionals (now mine!) and decided that I would (at least for the beginning) try to keep the same centers that they used. I knew that I needed a teacher area, a circle time area, a table time area, and a computer area. I talked with my paras and they also have had a reading/sensory bin area, a DVD player area, and a play area. I'm going to also add two individual work stations for higher functioning kids and a listening center. I'm still considering a play dough center but I remember how messy that was when I taught preschool before. Also still considering a puzzle center or smartboard center. I try to be really flexible and remind myself that I can make changes to the physical structure throughout the year but right now I am settled on 7 definite centers:
1. table time
2. computer
3. reading/sensory
4. DVD
5. play
6. work stations
7. listening

Each center will have space for 2 students; except for computer & listening- only room for 1 at each.

Okay. Now I am mentally organized. I have a game plan and I am ready to get busy! My next post will be about setting up the physical structure of the classroom.

Last Day of School Surprise

As the school year was coming to an end, I've been working really hard on getting organized for next year. I already had so many plans for incorporating more games into my lessons & I had created many of those and starting teaching my kids how to play independently. I also had already organized most of my materials into themed notebooks- moving away from the file folders, gallon Ziploc baggies, and tubs that I had used previously. When the last day of post-planning arrived, I only had 1 small paperwork task left before I was completely finished for the year and off for my two-week break before Extended School Year started. But then came the surprise.

I have been moved to the Autism Program. I have many mixed feelings about this- I am both excited and anxious- but one thing I am certain about is that I will be placed where I am needed and I will quickly fall in love with those kids. I have missed using all that I have learned at TEACCH trainings and being with the kids that made me fall in love with SPED. This will give me an opportunity to get back to my roots. But I was so organized and ready for next year!!!!

Oh well, no time to focus on that. I have a room to get ready! I thought this would be a great opportunity to share how I am setting up my Pre-K and Kindergarten Autism classroom so stay tuned for pictures & tips to come.

Extended School Year

This will be my first year teaching extended school year. I'll be working with a small group of 5 & 6 year olds. Extended School Year- or ESY- is an opportunity for students with special needs to get extra practice on their IEP goals to help in preventing regression or to have additional time to work on emerging skills. I'm excited to get a chance to work with this group of kids. I'll only have them Monday through Wednesday for 3 hours a day for 4 weeks so I really won't have too much time with them. I have been looking through their goals to see what they have in common. Most have goals related to expressively or receptively identifying colors and shapes and rote counting to 10. I've decided to stick to one theme and try to incorporate those basic goals into our circle time using that theme. For the four weeks, I'm going to focus on "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" I remember using this book a lot when I taught special needs preschool & my students really loved it. I found my old CD with the song version of the story & plan on singing that everyday during circle time. I just did a TPT and Teacher's Notebook search and found an activity for all 12 days of ESY. Here are all of the FREEBIE's I found:

Day 1: Introduce book & vocabulary using cards found here.

Day 2: Color the emergent reader found here.

Day 3: Roll a color word game found here.

Day 4: Shapes game found here.

Day 5: Animal count found here.

Day 6: Letter discrimination found here.

Day 7: Smartboard games found here.

Day 8: Color words cards found here. I plan to handwrite the words for them & laminate and Velcro the pieces to create interactive cards.

Day 9: Candy sorting found here.

Day 10: Counting practice found here.

Day 11: What do you hear? found here.

Day 12: Brown Bear Bingo found at my TPT store.

Here are some other great resources if I have time:

 

Brown Bear unit at 1+1+1=1.

 

Story Patterns here.

 

Check out my Brown Bear Pinterest board for more ideas!

Math Games

We only have a couple of weeks of school left (yippee!). All but one of my kiddos will be coming back to me and my new addition from next door will be coming over to spend some time with us this week and next. I plan on working on getting my students prepared for some changes to expect in my room next year. I've decided that I will do our math groups a little different next year- I will teach the main lesson while my para supervises students participating in individual or small group math games and calls students aside for individual goal work. I want the students working on the math games to be able to play these games independently so I am going to be introducing them over the next two weeks and then we'll spend some time at the beginning of the year going back over them. In order for the students to be independent with these games, they must be skills that the students have completely mastered during teaching sessions. I'll probably come up with some sort of table to keep track of which games each student has mastered and is ready to work independently on. Hopefully I can tie in some IEP goals with them as well!

BUMP!

 A coworker uses this game with her 2nd graders and they love it. BUMP is a two player dice game. There are a ton of seasonal themed freebies out there. Easier versions, such as Bump Like an Egyptian by Kathy Ryan focus on number identification and recognition.  Here is BUMP in the Garden! by Miss Galvin Learns. Here is BUMP addition facts 0-18 by Megan Jacobs. This version of Multiplication Bump by Katee O'Quinn focuses on the 2 times tables. I made a very simple version for number recognition with 1-9 with a Back to School theme for a couple of my kids. It is available (for free!) at my TPT store.

I Have, Who Has?

This version from Jason's online classroom will help my kids with counting coins. Here's a baseball themed version from Math Coach's Corner that involves place value in the one and tens place. This one by Carrie's Creations includes 2-D and 3-D shapes. This one uses popsicle sticks- great idea Classroom DIY!

Go Fish.

Jennifer Bates created this Go Fish game to practice doubles. Here is a number recognition one from FSUshopkins. For my higher kids, this one by Tales from 3rd Grade will help them practice their 4 times tables.

I think these games are a great way for my kids to continue practicing skills that they have mastered so that they don't regress. Plus, they'll be having so much fun that they won't even know that they are learning!

I Love Trees {Science Unit}

We have one last science unit coming up before the end of the school year. With Earth Day last week and getting ready to plant flowers for Mother's Day, I thought it would be a great time to spend a few days focusing on protecting our environment through saving trees. This unit will be aligned with the GPS Standard:

S3L2- Students will recognize the effect os pollution and humans on the environment.
B. Identify ways to protect the environment.

I don't want to reinvent the wheel so I have searched the Internet and found several (FREE!) resources that I will be using during this unit:

Since my kiddos love anythins with visuals, these Tree Life Cycle vocab cards by Mrs Teacher Lady will be right up our alley.

Here's a cute little mini book from Twisty Noodle.

I just LOVE The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein so we'll be focusing on that this week. Here's a great FREE Reader's Theater that we'll use by Buzzing with Ms. B.

I found this video on the life cycle of an apple tree with a cute little song.

We'll also read Dr. Seuss's The Lorax and pull some ides from Amanda Jackson's unit here.
I'll change out our science center and laminate this interactive book from Boardmaker Share for students to do independently by velcroing pictures to the pages.

I always check out 3 Dinosaurs to see if they have a free printable pack. This one will be perfect morning work for my boys.

I threw together this little worksheet and this one using Boardmaker that I may use as a pre/post test. Students can circle their answers with pencils or use a Bingo Marker to place a dot on the answers.

Check out my I Love Trees pinterest board for other ideas. Here are some of my favorite:

1. Draw a tree trunk. Kids write ways we can save trees on construction paper leaves (or sticky notes) and stick on top of trunk to make a tree.

2. Tree KWL chart. (Know- Roots; Want to Know- Trunk; Learned- Leaves)

3. Create tree artwork using recycled items- magazine pages, cereal boxes, candy wrappers, etc.

4. Go on a walking field trip- take clipboards and draw a tree- non-writers use bingo markers to draw.

 5. Plant a tree!



 I hope that you are able to use some of these resources- enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day Pack

I finally finished my St. Patrick's Day pack just in time for one of my favorite holidays! Okay, they're all my favorite :) The pack includes about 20 pages of math & literacy activities working on cutting, coloring, color words, number identification, creating sentences, and journaling. As usual, it includes activities that can be used with younger, typical students, older students with special needs, students with fine motore delays, and more. There are several activities that can be used as regular worksheets, used to create interactive worksheets, or to create file folder activities. Here's the link to the product over at my TPT store.

I plan on using these pages with the kiddos on Monday & Tuesday. These will be great practice activities for my kids to work on while I pull them individually for goal work. I need to get some IEP goal data collection finished up before report cards go out since I've been gone so much lately with training. Don't get me wrong, I love that my district is so focused on professional development but I sure hate being away from my kids and getting behind on paper work. I only have one more day of training this week & then things should settle down. This week I will learn about the Fundations program- I am super excited about getting a better understanding and to begin implementing the program fully into my classroom! Have a great week!!

And We're Done!

Well, this week was a big one for me. I just got back from the Georgia Autism Conference in Atlanta, I had training for the new SEAS program that we just started using in our district, and my GAAs were due! I am so relieved to be finished with those assessments. I feel like I have learned so much over the past 6 months or so and I definitely want to remember a few tips for myself *if* I have to do them again next year. Here are my top three things that I learned to help me:

1. Plan, Plan, Plan. Since I had never completed GAAs before and wasn't very familiar with what the finished products would look like, I looked at each activity in each standard in each content area in each collection separately. At the end I was able to see how it all fit together. Next time, I would sit down and and plan out EVERYTHING using a graphic organizer. I think if I started earlier and took more time in the beginning, I would not feel as stressed throughout the process. I like the tables included in the manual but I think I would prefer to create my own.

2. Write it up ASAP. This go round, I completed all-or almost all- of my activities before beginning on the writing/documenting process. Next time, I hope to immediately write up the activities after the assessments. Not only will I be able to stay more organized but I won't have to take as many notes on the activities while implementing them because the details will be fresh on my mind.

3. Use my info chart from the beginning. I started using a color-coded chart that included all of my activities for each student. Between creating, implementing, writing, printing, and filing all of the activities, things got a little confusing. For the second collection period, I created the chart and color-coded each activity to remind myself where I was. If it was highlighted green, it was created and ready to implement, red meant it was written and ready to print, yellow meant it was completed finished and filed, etc. The chart included the student name, the content area, the full standard, and each activity. This was so helpful, given my inability to remember anything!

Now that I am finally finished and have tons of free time (ha!), I plan on finishing up a few products I've been slowly working on and getting those over to my TPT store. Hopefully I'll be able to update more often- stay tuned!