Special Education Math: Core Words, Xtra Math, and Monsters!

This week for #BSEspedinspiration, I asked everyone to share something that they were doing in math this week. I loved seeing everyone's responses (even though math definitely isn't my favorite!)

Here's a few highlights from the week. Be sure to follow these Instagrammers if you don't already!

If you want to see more, search the hashtags #BSEspedinspiration and #spedmath

Core Word Math

this_teach_loves_speechHere is what we are doing this week for Math. We are non-verbal and try to incorporate our core words (what we use to communicate) into everything we do. This week we are playing fun games using our core words then graphing them in different ways. The students are learning how to read graphs, how to graph information, counting, colors,etc. #bsespedinspiration #spedmath#iteachsped #weteachsped#teacheraofinstagram#teachersfollowteachers#this_teach_loves_speech#multipledisabilities #autism #nonverbal

I thought this idea was absolutely genius! Sure, math is important, but it's SO important that our kids can speak, so I love how this_teach_loves_speech included core words in her math lessons!

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Telling Time File Folders for Special Education with color support

When we talk about life skills and math, telling time is one of the first concepts that probably pops into your head. Understanding time is an important skill for so many reasons, which is why we work on it so often in special education classrooms. I created this pack of telling time file folders that ALL of my students could work on.

But wait, what about your students who aren't able to recognize numbers yet, or maybe are just mastering numbers but aren't ready to move to a clock yet? I have something for them too!

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Visuals in a Special Education Classoom

You can't have a special education classroom without visuals. Probably LOTS and LOTS of visuals! I asked you all on Instagram this week to share your favorite (or most used) classroom visuals and I love what everyone shared!

Check them all out at #BSEspedinspiration and #spedvisuals. Here's a few of my favorites...

I am in love with all four of Miss Lulu's favorite visuals!

@missluluspecialedJoining@breezyspecialed for #BSEspedinspiration. Some of my favorite visuals are my 1) computer stop signs, 2) my reinforcer chart, 3) my math materials board, and 4) my noise levels chart. Can't live without my#spedvisuals!

This next one cracks me up. I totally had the same visual in my classroom a couple of years ago! Go pick your nose in private please ;)

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Calendars in Special Education Classrooms #BSEspedinspiration

The first week of #BSEspedinspiration was so much fun! We had 32 different posts and it was so much fun to look through and see everyone's calendars in their classrooms. I loved them all! This is going to be hard, but I'm going to limit my feature to three each week, and you'll just have to check out the rest on instagram #bsespedinspiration!

Use a Desk Calendar as a Classroom Calendar

This great pic is from @n1colette09, who says "Writing on a posted desk calendar has given my calendar time more meaning than ever before! I'll never go back to Velcro numbers!" There are so many things I love about this. The home visuals help students understand weekends and days off. It is easy to set up! And it's extremely age appropriate for older students as well!

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Winter Themed LA, Math, and Crafts: Lessons for Special Education

Hello winter! They say it's going to get to -2 degrees today. I had to shovel our driveway yesterday. Brrr. In fact, I'm drinking hot chocolate right now. Winter is indeed here so it's time to bring some winter activities in the classroom!

Let's get started with some winter journals!

These journals are my absolute favorite as they reach all of the needs of my students. A classroom sample provides sentence starters and three errorless options. The options are errorless because so many of my students are concerned about getting the right answer that they always look for help. I want them to be successful and these journals help them be confident about their writing abilities.

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Celebrating Birthdays in a Special Education Classroom

I love it when we have a birthday in my class because it's a great opportunity to practice tons of life skills! Whenever we have a birthday to celebrate, we plan a party. This is usually pretty low-key (because I usually don't think of it until the day of) but awesome just the same and my students love it!

(clip art in graphic by Monkeying around in First)

Here are some of our QUICK and EASY birthday party planning steps:

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Insta-Inspiration #BSEspedinspiration @BreezySpecialEd

Starting next week, I'm calling all special education teachers (and SLPs) to inspire and be inspired by sharing posts of their classrooms through Instagram. Throughout each week you can share pictures related to that weeks topic using the hashtags #BSEspedinspiration and #spedclassrooms.

Sometimes it's easy to feel alone in special ed, especially if you are the only (or one of the few) classrooms in your school. I hope this will be a great way for us to connect and share ideas among our fellow sped teachers! Teachers can then search those hashtags to checkout other classrooms and maybe even get new ideas for their classroom as well. (This should totally count as professional development IMHO!) I will post some of my favorites in a weekly round-up on Sundays on my blog for those of you who don't have Instagram.

Doesn't that sound awesome?! We aren't officially starting until Monday January 11th, but I'll let you in on week 1's topic....

To get you thinking, it could be a picture of your classroom calendar, your planner, your schedule calendar, etc. I know everyone has something they can share on this topic!

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