Class Businesses for Fundraising in Special Education

Help your students learn important job related skills while earning money to spend on community trips and materials for cooking. It's a win win!



Here's some ideas to help you get started thinking about what class business would work best for your students and school community.

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How to make an Activity Booklet from File Folder Activities

I decided to try something different and prep my file folder activities into a booklet and I am obsessed with how it turned out! It's also the perfect solution if you don't have a big enough laminator to fit file folders (a 9" personal laminator worked great to create the booklet). 


How to turn file folders activities in an activity booklet for special education and more



How to make an activity booklet from digital file folder activities

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7 Ways to Improve School to Home Communication

Good communication with parents is essential in special education classes. Of course, it is important in all levels of teaching, but with our special education students who might not be able to tell their parents anything about the day, it become even more important.


So, how do you make your parent communication FAST and EFFECTIVE?

For so many years there was the communication notebook that went back and forth. I remember getting a few of these from parents and they would write a long letter every day and expect me to do the same. While I appreciate the information and want to be able to tell them about their child's day as well, there just simply isn't enough time in the school day to write in these notebooks. If teachers did spend the time writing letters in each child's notebook daily, it would take from important instructional and learning time - and no one wants that either!

Whether you choose to use technology, paper, or a combination of both, there is a better way!!
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Color Coded Calendar Visuals

Do you have a calendar set up that you love and that is functional for your students? Do your students have a hard time understand concepts such as weekends vs. school days, yesterday/today/tomorrow or struggle with changes in their schedule?

Enter: Color coded calendar visuals!! This calendar color code system helps students
  • understand what to expect for the month
  • reduce anxiety about upcoming and new events
  • learn time skills
Color coded calendars for special education classrooms

This was a total game changer for my students. It helped reduce anxiety about upcoming events, weekends, and special days. And it started with four simple colors.

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Teaching Students How to Budget for a Simple Shopping Trip

Shopping is an important life skill, and knowing how much money you can spend is essential! We had a school store when students could spend their hard earned school bucks each week. Without fail, students would just grab anything they saw that they were interested in, and then we would have to help them narrow down their purchases. And then there was always that student who thought they could only spend exactly the amount of money he had, instead of including options that would have cost less as well.

So, as many of my students were visual learners, as most students with special needs are, I created this visual strategy to help them learn what exactly they could (and couldn't) spend their money on each week).

And of course, once a week while they were shopping, was not the most ideal time to practice this concept, so I created worksheets so that students could practice in the classroom before they went shopping!

Budgeting Visuals

These posters and cards can be displayed in the classroom and also kept at students desks while they work in order to help them determine if they have enough money to spend on an item.

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Adapting Books with Widgit Online Symbols

You might know I LOVE adapting books. And for good reason! Adding symbols and/or interactive pieces to books helps give students confidence and a purpose while reading.


Recently, I adapted this book B is for Breathe using Widgit Online and it was so simple! I wanted to share the steps here with you, so you can adapt books of your own. And also, I'll share the symbols for this book as well.

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Making Money IEP Goals More Functional

When teaching money, where do you start? Coins, right? Well...maybe not.

One of my pet peeves was getting a new freshman's IEP and seeing that one of their goals was to identify a penny or to recognize the value of a quarter. This happened ALL of the time. Why did this bother me? These skills of recognizing coins and their values simply aren't functional anymore for these students. If they still aren't able to identify coins at 14 years old, they need to move onto something else.

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Classroom Jobs + School Vocational Experiences

Giving students jobs in the classroom is important for a variety of reasons. Not only can classroom jobs be helpful in keeping the classroom running smoothly, they can also give students a sense of purpose and responsibility.

There are two main categories of school jobs for students in special education: classroom jobs done either in the morning or afternoon for classroom maintenance, and then work experience jobs that might take up a class period because you are focusing on teaching vocational skills through those jobs.

Here's a list on each of those categories to get you thinking of jobs that your students might be able to do in your classroom and throughout your school!
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"I Like Myself" Adapted Book with Symbol Support

Adapting books with symbols helps beginning or reluctant readers read more confidently because of the symbols that go along with the pictures! I use the Widgit Online software to create symbols for all my adapted books.

When I found this book, I knew it would be perfect to adapt! I love the message and feel like it is appropriate for all ages, my toddler loves it and I would have used this in my low incidence high school classroom as well.

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