Using Station Binders to Differentiate and Make Teaching Easier!

In the morning I have all of the same students for both Language Arts and Math classes, so I run the class as a block. This way I can run stations and individual work with math and language arts skills (along with independent life skills) scattered throughout our morning.

One way I make differentiating easier for each student is by incorporating binders.

Station Binders: Each student has a "work binder" that they use during their journal, math, and language stations (they also have morning binders where they keep their schedules and more).

I separate the work for each station with labeled tabs. What's great about this system is I usually put work in their binders for several weeks at a time, so it is ready to go and I don't even have to think about it until we start to run out. Also, if several students are working together at the same station at different levels, no students are singled out and given the wrong work.

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Visual Color Coded Calendars for Students with Special Needs

Whenever we are about to start a new month, it's time to prepare our color coded calendars! These are ESSENTIAL in my special education classroom. My students absolutely love filling out and coloring their calendars as it really helps them know what to expect for the month.

Time can be such a tricky concept to teach...what exactly does tomorrow mean? When we have a field trip at the end of the month, how long do we actually have to wait for it? Using these calendars daily helps students better understand the concept of time, days, and calendars.

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Teaching Students to Shop Smart - Finding Which Costs Less

When shopping, it is important for students to be able to spend their money wisely and choose the item that costs less. After my students are able to find items on their grocery list, I like to challenge them to look at the prices and pick the brand that is cheaper.

When teaching students to determine which item costs less, I follow a three step process to help them learn this important skill.

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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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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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Math Life Skill Worksheets: Thanksgiving Themed

If your students are anything like mine, they love working on skills with a theme, whether that be a holiday/seasonal theme or our community trip of the month!

I was busy this summer creating daily journals to go with our themes, and now am busy creating life skill math packs to go along with those journals! I absolutely love these math packs, because they touch on the skills that can be hard or impossible to find in a worksheet. 

    

I have included 3 levels so that this one pack can reach all of the students in my classroom (and hopefully those in your classroom too!) The page below shows the concepts and levels included in each math pack.

In my classroom, we do a worksheet each day and then do a math activity that corresponds to that worksheet so that we are getting hands-on practice in addition to the worksheet. 

Check out the thanksgiving math pack on TpT or in the video below! And check out more life skill math packs here.

I'm working on creating more so that you can use these year round with your students! I'd love to hear what you think :) 

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Visual Task Cards for Special Education

I absolutely love using task cards for my special education students. They are easy to store, easy to use, and great for practicing a wide variety of skills! They can be used during direct instruction, for independent work, and in TEACCH / work boxes. Plus, I've created my task cards to be used for non-readers as well as readers so they can be used by any students in my classroom who are working on those skills.

I have a range of money task cards, great for my higher level students. And I have functional life skill cards, great for both low to high students, including simple concepts such as male or female and more complicated concepts, such as determining if food goes in the cabinet, freezer, or fridge.

Check out this video to see all of my task card sets and to hear about how I use them in my classroom.

Here's all of the task card topics that I currently use! Click on the picture to check out each task card set.

Want them all? I have two great money saving options for you!!

Buy all 9 (non-money task cards) in this HUGE BUNDLE!

Interested in the 4 money task cards? They are bundled HERE. 

(Australian money task cards are also available here.)

Do you use task cards in your classroom? Do you have another idea for task cards? I'd love to help you out, so let me know what you need. I'm sure my students would benefit from it as well!

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Color Coded Visual Calendars for Special Education

I love doing calendar activities in my special education classroom. I try to make our calendar activities as age appropriate as possible, while also reaching my students intellectual needs.

I started doing monthly calendars again this past year, but this time with my lower group of students. See how I did calendar with my higher students here. It took me a while to realize that my lower students could complete a similar calendar but they totally can! So we ditched the individual Velcro calendars and started this instead. It also worked out great that I got some higher students halfway through the year and this activity was easily modified for them to be more challenging as well.

I color code our calendar so students can visually see what is happening that week, without the support of symbols. The color code key is simple (with only 4 colors) and stays the same, so students pick up on it relativity quickly.

So you can see with this one below I outlined the dates with their correct color. This student has the tracing version and traced (with assistance) the numbers and then colored in the dates based on our key.

This next student received the black calendar and was able to write in the numbers while looking at her communication device page of number to make sure they were in order. Then she was able to follow along and color in the dates as I explained what we had to look forward to that month on the board.

So what do you think of that picture - is that a bunny or a spider?! :)

Once students complete their calendar for the month, I have them hole punch and put it in their binder under the calendar tab. Each morning, we go to our calendar and cross off the days that have passed. It's a great visual way to see what has happened and what is going to happen each month.

For additional calendar practice for my higher level students, I have a worksheet that asks questions about the calendar, such as "How many days are in this month?", "How many Tuesdays?", "What holidays/special events are happening this month?", etc.  

I also have worksheets that work on writing the months, matching months to their picture or abbreviation by cut and paste, and a worksheet for each month that works on picture identification and/or word identification. (For my students who aren't able to recognize words yet, I just cut off the bottom portion of the worksheet!)

Watch a video preview of this product below

All of these calendar activities are available for purchase here in my TpT store. I love using them and think you'd love using them this year too!

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Classroom ATM Machine and Entering PINs

You might remember a while back I asked for advice on what to use for a credit card swipe machine for my students to practice on and enter their PINs and you came up with a lot of great suggestions! One of those was this Zillionz ATM machine...but it was a little expensive! I think because it probably isn't sold in stores anymore. So I gave up on that decided to start asking stores if they had any old swipe machines they wanted to get rid of! LOL I asked once and then chickened out.

I had just about given up when....I found this in our school store (where teachers/parents donate items for students to buy with their hard earned school bucks)! 

Yup, that's the same Zillionz machine that Sincerely, School Psychologist recommended on my facebook post! I think I begged one of my students to buy it for me for $4 of his "thunderbucks." That sounds a lot better than $139 :)

Now, for how I use it in my classroom. We use the Banking for Non-readers curriculum and we have pretend debit cards that we use for practice. This machine turns on with any card inserted, so that was perfect because each student could use their own card! Whenever we got to a lesson that used the ATM machine (or depositing money into the bank or buying something with a debit card, etc), we used our ATM machine!

Now for the PINs, since each of my students had created their own PIN, I was afraid this would be a challenge. However, I looked up the instructional manual online and found you can change the PIN by entering the current PIN, pressing enter twice and then entering the new PIN. So I would walk around like a crazy person dedicated teacher, and change the PIN for each student. Why, yes, I did memorize each one of my students' PINs, that's not weird, right??

As you can see, you can insert pretend money as well! I was also very excited about this feature (I may or may not have been jumping up and down with excitement as I was figuring all this out). The machine has no idea of the amount, but that's okay.

I feel like this ATM has added a lot to our banking lessons. It seems so much more realistic, and I know that my students can enter their PINs and use a machine that is similar to a real ATM machine. Plus, it's a lot of fun to deposit money! (Withdrawing money just opens the drawer, but I have been known to load it with the correct amount they were withdrawing so that each student could withdrawal $20...)

A huge downside to this ATM was the volume with no controls. It was LOUD. Seriously, all caps necessary, LOUD! My ears were ringing after playing with it for a while. So, I filled the volume holes with putty and taped purple plastic over it...and that at least helped a little bit. My students didn't seem to mind the noise anyway, so that's really all that matters! 

It definitely isn't perfect, but it's a whole lot better than my students sliding their debit cards in the air or on their paper and entering their PINs on a calculator... :) If you are looking for one to use in your classroom, this ATM looks like the same thing just in different colors, and is just under $30 (or this smaller ATM by the same company, a little different but under $8!). Do you use anything else to practice skills like this? I'd love to hear what you use!

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Practice Paying for Items in the Classroom

Today we finished our banking lessons a little bit earlier than usual so I decided to give out these Christmas themed dot-to-dot worksheets. I was just about to tell my students to put their classroom wallets away when I realized I could make them pay for their worksheets with the change back they had received from our lessons. :) Haha, I know I'm such a mean teacher. 

So I quickly set up this "store" and students came by and had to pay for each marker that they wanted to use and then choose the worksheet and pay for that as well. I even had a student come back up and give me another dollar because she decided she wanted to use red to make the reindeer into Rudolph. 

This little added step made our last ten minutes of class seem so much more meaningful. Anything to practice money exchange! I do this a lot with free time choices, but just think about everything else you could do here. Give each student a paycheck, have them cash it in for money, and when they need to get supplies, they can pay for them! Oh, the possibilities :)

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Monthly Calendar Worksheets + August Freebies!

I'm quite excited to use these new set of monthly calendar worksheets this school year!

By focusing on the calendar at the beginning of the month, it gives students an idea of what to expect, which decreases anxiety, plus it also works on important calendar skills.

Many of my students are not able to write on their own, so these calendars can all be traced. However, I do have a few writers this year (so excited about that!) so I have a blank copy for them so that they can still be challenged with this activity.

After the numbers are traced (or written in), we will go over the key on the side. The key is very basic. It has students identify weekends, school days, non-school days, and special days with separate colors.

For some students I will have to give them an outline of the color so that they can trace in the correct spot.

For each month, we will also work on identifying the symbol for the month and (hopefully) the word as well with this circling worksheet. I like to add a counting aspect to these types of worksheets because 1) it takes more time for early finishers 2) it works on math skills and 3) I'm just mean like that!

Then I plan on using one of the other worksheets I created each month, such as the cut and paste month symbols, numbers, or abbreviations. Or tracing and ordering the months. I also created a worksheet that can be used each month with generic questions about the month. I'm not sure yet if any of my students will be able to do this on their own, but my paraprofessionals can use it as a question guide if nothing else.

    

This product is available for purchase in my TpT store, and if you want to try it out, you can download the preview to get the August calendar and worksheet for free!

We will also do something with the calendar daily, but I haven't worked out those details yet. Do you do a calendar routine? If so, I'd love to hear about it and steal your ideas!! :)

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Money File Folders

This year my goal for many of my students is for them to be able to recognize the different between different bills. For example, a $20 bill is different than a $1 bill! Even though some of my students can't recognize numbers, I feel like this is something they will be able to grasp, because bills have pictures and even colors to help distinguish them!

I created this set of 7 file folders to help reinforce these concepts. Four of the file folders are simple money identification, for example, sorting $1 bills and not $1 bills. (I am currently using both pictures of the front and the back of bills, but if I notice that confusing any of my students, I will print off more of the pieces and only use the front side of the bills.) Then there are three sorting file folders, sorting $1 and $5, sorting $10 and $20, and then sorting all. I introduced these file folders a week ago, and so far they are going great. I love using file folders to work on skills, because for some reason, my students think they are playing a fun game rather than working. Why? I don't really know, but I'll take it!

Here is an example of an IEP goal for this concept: Given a variety of bills, the student will identify a) one dollar bill, b) five dollar bill, c) ten dollar bill, and d) twenty dollar bill with 80% accuracy, 4 out of 5 trials.

Tabs on the file folders are shaded differently based on the task. Identification file folders are light green and the sorting file folders are a darker green.

Here you can see one of the identification file folders. I have added visuals of the bill being identified at the top to assist with sorting between $1 and not $1.

The sorting file folders are similar, but now the student is encouraged to be aware of two different bills in order to sort the two.

For the last two money file folders, I have all of the bills in one folder.

In the harder level, the student sorts the bills as seen above. The easier level has the pictures of the bills in each sorting area and student will match each bill on top of them same one.

You can get these materials to create your own file folder activities over at my TpT store! 

I hope they will be as helpful in your classroom as they are in mine.

Update: Also available on Etsy, already prepped for you! Check the etsy ones out here!

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Teaching Students how to Tip at Restaurants {special education}

Knowing how and when to tip is an important part of community education. I taught this last year using the resources below. I like to create resources that can be used over and over again as opposed to one worksheet that it used and then done with. Plus, this way you can easily modify your instruction to what your students need.

Tip Charts: Don't you hate those tiny teeny tip charts with random amounts?! Problem solved! I created tip charts by figuring out 15% and rounding. The front has prices $1-$20, and the back $21-$60. The card is small enough to fit in a wallet but still big enough to read. To get students interested, we started playing “games” when I would write down a price and students would have to find the tip and shout it out. 

Restaurant worksheet:  For this next worksheet I would write on the name of a restaurant and the total bill (making these up off the top of my head). Students then used the worksheet to write the restaurant, circle yes or no to leave a tip, and then fill out the total and write in the tip (or $0 if no tip!) We talked a lot of about what restaurant you tip at and which ones you don't. This can be used over and over as the worksheet is not specific – it all has to do with what you write on the board. This way you can also make the restaurant names relevant to students and give prices as are appropriate for the levels of your learners.

Tipping and Dollar Over/Change Back worksheet: This is similar to the last worksheet, with a few more steps added in, included dollar over and change back. I put the total in bold print to remind students to fill that in first since that is what is given to them, then they can figure out the dollar over amount to pay with and calculate change back by subtracting the two numbers. Finally, students figure out the tip. Like the last worksheet, you write the totals on the board and this can be used over and over again!

 

What’s the Tip worksheet: Great for starting out – all that is needed is to figure out the tip for the amount given using the tip chart. In my tip packet, this worksheet has fill-able spaces for you to fill in your own numbers based on where your students are at and so you can use it over and over again.  

Get these resources over at my TpT store! Do you teach tipping with your students? Have you also wondered when you almost need a magnifying glass to read some tip charts?! :)

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