Tracking progress on IEP goals as special education teachers can feel like a juggling act. That’s where these editable IEP data collection sheets come in! They’re designed to help you streamline your data collection for special education.  Imagine no more near-all-nighters to finish  each student's progress report! With these sheets, you have the jumping off ... Read more The post IEP Data Collection Sheets: Your Guide to Easy and Effective Tracking appeared first on Autism Classroom Resources ..read more

Looking for summer resources for ESY? This post has them! As many of you know, I like to make resources set up by seasons.  Part of this is because many of the students I know we all work with need to use the same resources for 2 to 3 months before we change it up on them.  And seasons just give us a good dividing point to change up many functional skills, like places we go, what we wear, etc. So, I thought I would start to do some seasonal rounds ups of activities and products from the blog and my store for easy reference. I’ll include free activities and products from my store that ..read more

In a previous post, I talked about strategies for teaching students to tell time, and today I want to focus on how are students can get in some telling time practice easily in their day. I’ve got 3 types of telling time practice activities that are perfect for task box independent work systems and a free one you can download and try. As we all know, when we are teaching in a consistent, systematic manner, we need to make sure that our students are learning with explicit instruction, practicing what they have learned, and generalizing their skills. Task boxes in independent work systems make a ..read more

This life skills math task box idea will be great for any students who need to work on measuring using measuring cups, spoons and other tools in the kitchen. This is a great opportunity for students to practice measuring dry ingredients (although you could add wet ingredients depending on the mess factor) using a variety of tools. I really love this life skills math task because measuring is something I find students learn more successfully when it’s hands-on for them. Abstract worksheets are ok for practice, but they don’t substitute for actually using a measuring cup or a measuring spoon. Gr ..read more

Over the years I’ve met many life skills teachers who struggle with how to effectively teach telling time to their students. Sometimes we fall back on presenting time materials more than the explicit instruction our students benefit from most. Teaching telling time can be complex, though, in that we tell time in different ways: analog and digital. We use different time telling tools (e.g., watches and clocks). And some students will learn to estimate the time, learning the skill to the quarter hour for instance. While others will master telling time to the exact minute. The Importance of Telli ..read more

Whole group instruction is often one of the most challenging parts of working in a special education classroom, particularly in a self-contained classroom. Sometimes just keeping students engaged throughout the group time is the first challenge. But even when you get them engaged, how do you assure that they are learning? Why Bother with Whole Group Instruction? Let’s start with WHY we should be doing whole group instruction. As a behavior analyst, I have met many teachers and behavior professionals who think that, particularly for students with autism, that we shouldn’t focus much on whole gr ..read more

If you are a special educator looking for Valentines Day activities, you have come to the right place! I am a strong believer that all ages in special education classrooms should celebrate holidays, but that the activities should still focus on their goals. So in this post I’m sharing some different Valentine’s Day activities that range in age from preschool to secondary. I’ve got some language resources, circle time, and life skills tools for you, plus there is a free download at the end for working on vocabulary! Valentine’s Day Activities: Adapted Interactive Books These 2 sets of interacti ..read more

Years ago I did an 8 day countdown to the end of school for winter break with a free holiday resource each day. Those freebies are still available so I wanted to make sure you knew about them and where to find them if you didn’t catch them the first time. Every year, I update the Winter Break social story in my store. That project began with a mini color book social narrative for the winter holidays. It’s all updated for 2023-2024.  You can read more about it here and you can download it for free in my TPT store HERE. Free Holiday Resource #2 The next one is also in my store.   In ..read more

Let’s face it, downtime in the classroom is not your friend, but strategies for student engagement are! I’ve talked about the magic of engagement in this episode of the podcast. Essentially, engagement is magical because when students are actively engaged in activities, you see fewer challenging behaviors and students learn more. But engagement is also important because it’s a lot easier to maintain student engagement than it is to try to get it back once you’ve lost it. Downtime is the Opposite of Student Engagement But Isn’t Always Expected “Downtime if Not Your Friend” as a colleague of min ..read more

“I Spy” printables for playing the game are my secret weapon for killing time and getting kids excited about learning new words and chatting more. I whip them out when we’re stuck waiting for the class before us to finish, or when we’ve got a few surprise minutes before switching activities. I’ve played “I Spy” with all kinds of kids to help them learn all sorts of things, but it’s a real gem when it comes to boosting their vocabulary. You’ve probably played the classic “I Spy” game before, right? You know, “I spy, with my little eye, something…” and then you drop a hint. It’s a super fun way ..read more