Early childhood special education

I cannot believe a new school year is right around the corner! I love the excitement that I new school year brings. I also love the planning and preparation that I new school year brings. I have slowly been easing myself back into "work mode," analyzing my class schedule, staff assignments, and rotation activities. Today, I will be sharing some of my ideas for rotations in early childhood special education (ECSE). With that said, while I teach ECSE and focused on ECSE when creating these…

Establishing a goodbye ritual in an early childhood special education classroom

Independent sitting is an important milestone! In this blog post, I’m sharing five effective ways to promote independent sitting in early childhood special education. I talk about adaptive seating and positioning, sensory integration activities, as well as functional play and games. I also talk about fine motor activities and how these promote independent sitting. Learn more now!

Are you a new preschool special education teacher? Being a new special education teacher can be overwhelming but today I’m sharing how to implement IEPs in the preschool classroom. You must differentiate instructional strategies for your preschool students. Meeting their IEP goals might be working on sensory activities, fine motor skills, and social skills for special ed preschool students. Don’t forget to do data collection and progress monitoring too.

Visually Closing Centers in a Special Education Preschool Classroom

If a student is unable to play with toys during structured leisure time independently, play supports are a great strategy.

Discover the benefits of heavy work centers in your special education classroom. From muscle development to sensory integration, heavy work centers can be beneficial to all students in a special education classroom. On this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about heavy work centers including what they are, how to set up a heavy work center, what to put in a heavy work center, and how they can benefit your special education students. Learn more here.

4 Must Do's on the First Day of Pre-K. Worried you missed something while lesson planning for the first day of school?

If morning meeting or whole group activities have ever intimidated you as a special education teacher, you are not alone. This post can help!

I believe that sensory play is VERY important for our students with autism and severe-needs. However, I also realize that academics are important and that there is a huge push for special ed teachers to be aligning all instruction to the common core. I started trying to implement more academic tasks into our sensory play and want to share some of my ideas. It's been really fun to give my students more rigor through hands-on play. Color sorting activities Hide a variety of manipulatives…

Setting up an IEP work bin system can feel overwhelming! Here are some easy ways to do it so that your students can quickly work on goals!

Considerate Classroom: Early Childhood Special Education Edition: Demystifying the Use of an Individual Schedule

Preparing for an activity and getting the materials out that you need takes executive functioning skills that can be difficult for young children and students with special needs. By providing them with a visual support system to prepare for center and desk work students gain the life skills necessary to be responsible and independent! For example, at the art center, we have a box of supplies for each work area. In each box, we have the materials students need for art instruction: crayons…

Do you use task boxes in your special education classroom? If you don’t, check out this blog post for 8 ways to use task boxes for special education. You can use task boxes for one on one instruction, classroom centers or stations, with early finishers, with morning work and much more. There are so many benefits to including this special education activity into your lesson plans. Use these task boxes during independent work stations or homework today!

I never would have thought I would be tracking data digitally, I am really not that savvy when it comes to tech, however, when someone pointed out how easy it was, I had to try it. You guys, its sooo much easier than my typical paper and pencil tracking system. I had data sheets EVERYWHERE!! […]

Color coding is my #1 teacher hack for the special education classroom. If you are setting up your first classroom as a special education teacher or getting ready for back to school, now’s the time to set up a color coding system in special education. Color coding helps you, and your students keep IEP paperwork, classroom materials, and student materials organized and easily accessible. Learn more about why you should color code your special education classroom and how to get started here.

Encouraging Play Skills in an Early Education Special Needs Classroom

Inclusion Interventions in the Preschool Setting: How to Adapt Circle Time For Your Student's with IEPs in the General Education Classroom. Need simple interventions to help adapt your whole group time for your student's with special needs...

There are several ways to help children learn and be interested in maths – even the reluctant ones.