Schedule Break Down

Arrival: As students come into class ready to work, they hang up their jacket and backpack. They then sign in by moving their name from home to school. (This is wonderful practice for fine motor skills and following one step directives). After that, students go and get their work bin. Work bins are filled with tasks pertaining to student’s IEP goals. Following the completion of their work bin, students may choose a blue bin or a book. Blue bins are filled with manipulatives geared towards fine motor and pre-academic skills.

Circle: Our morning circle is all done on the Promethean board. For me this works the most efficiently. I don’t have a bunch of calendar pieces that will go missing or have to stash elsewhere. It also super easy to edit, as things are constantly changing in our room! Morning circle starts with a good morning song choice. We then follow our song with attendance, classroom rules, calendar, and weather. Next we take look at our focus wall which has our weekly letter, number, color, and shape. After that we do our name letters and exercise. Look at our Morning Circle Post for a more in depth look!

Rotation stations: This is my favorite time since I get to work 1 on 1 one with students! Rotations station is 30 mins long with ten min stations. Students navigate between an assistant led station (craft), teacher lead station (IEP and academic work),  and a carpet station. The carpet changes depending on the day of the week. Tuesdays and Thursdays it is a student led station. Students can play with the toys on the shelf (these are rotated out biweekly). Mondays and Wednesdays this station is led by our amazing SLP. No rotations Friday! On Friday we always cook((check out our post on Friday baking HERE.)).

Centers: Center time is a chance for students to learn through play! My assistant and I play alongside the students working on social, communication, and academic skills through play. Students are free to navigate across the classroom while flowing a few simple rules. To enter a center, students must take their name and put it on the corresponding board. Each center has a student limit so if it full they have to go somewhere else (reinforcing turn taking and social skills!). Students can change centers as they please but they MUST clean up before leaving. Our centers are blocks, cars, trains, discovery table, sensory, puzzles, art, books, and housekeeping. We also have a core board for each center to help reinforce or AAC skills!

Whole Group:  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we have whole group story time. We follow our Read it Once Again Curriculum books for story time and switch them biweekly. Each time we read we incorporate something different.. We use different props, activities, and Smart Board lessons. On Tuesdays we do Mat Man (part of Hand Writing Without Tears Curriculum) with varying gross motor components and on Thursdays we do music and movement. Who doesn’t love a good song and dance session?!

 Potty/Songs: Using the bathroom is a big task in our classroom. Some students are potty trained, some are just beginning, some are in pull ups, and others are still in diapers. Needless to say, potting all students can be time consuming. To make it faster, we do song choices that relates to our story and take turns using the bathroom. We can have all students use the bathroom in under ten minutes!

Playground: We go on the playground for 30mins give or take everyday. For the first 15 mins we are the only class. We are then joined by our kindergarten friends!. This is a great time to work on our communication and social skills. We even have a communication board for the playground (see separate post here!) to help us better interact with our peers!

Snack: This is a great opportunity to work on requesting and AAC! Students bring in their own snacks due to allergies and the occasionally picky eater. Parents have the option of sending them in bulk to keep at school or some daily. We always encourage to choices so students can practice their communication and requesting skills.

Goodbye Circle: While their classmates finish up snack, students can read a book on the carpet. When the timer goes off books go back in the basket. We then sing goodbye, pack up and go home! We may only be at school for a short amount of time but we pack in a lot. Students always leave one day smarter!