Great Calendars for Kids with Autism

So yesterday was the first day of school, and I don't know about you, but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed!  I am super excited to see my kids, but feel like I don't have anything 100% finished in my room!  I keep finding more things to do everywhere I turn in my classroom.   One thing we all know our students need to start the school year off on the right foot are schedules and calendars.  

My kids who can write all have this great Calendar from Quill.com  (click link to see the exact item).  I searched for FOREVER (well, just a couple months) to find the perfect calendar that fit my students' needs.  Each calendar costs about $11.00 and since I didn't want to pay for them in addition to all my other school materials, I wrote a grant on www.donorschoose.org to get them funded (and it worked!).  

We used these calendars all last year, and I am still super excited about them!  I find this calendar perfect because it fits in a binder, has tabbed months (to help quickly flip from month to month), and it allows enough space for kids to write in their events.  This also helps teach them personal organization skills.  Here is one of my student's calendars from last school year (I think it's super cute that he came up with the idea to draw sad faces for the days he missed school).  

We use the calendars to record:
                                             *Birthdays                              *Field Trips
                                             *Holidays                                *Assemblies
                                             *Parties                                  *"No school" days
                                             *Days absent                          *Substitute days

We also use these calendars to work on calendar skills such as:
                                             *Date  
                                             *Days of the week
                                             *Months               
                                             *Today, yesterday, tomorrow       
                                             *Counting down days until an activity