NEW PRODUCT: Social Studies Units on US Holidays

My monthly science products have been a huge hit and I have been asked by several people to create social studies units that are a similar style.  What better time to tackle this than summer break?  I have created my first social studies unit all about U.S. HOLIDAYS.  These products are much larger and have many more activities than my science units so they could last for an entire quarter, or they could be pulled out throughout the year when needed.  Look for more social studies throughout the year...and if you have any topics you are wanting, please leave me a comment or shoot me an email (autismtank@gmail.com).

This product includes:
-Vocabulary overview and matching page (differentiated)
-3 Types of Assessment
-Flashcards (picture, word, and definition)
-38 Worksheets covering a variety of levels and address skills such as writing, matching, counting, graphing, word search, money, time, fill in the blank, cut/glue activities.
-3 Games: Bingo, Memory, I have-Who has. These game includes multiple versions for different ability levels.
-2 File Folders (differentiated for variety of levels)
-1 Adapted book with comprehension activities
-22 Journal pages (differentiated for 2 levels)
-Mini Research project: planning worksheets, grading rubric, self-monitoring checklist, etc.
-Note home about the unit
-Cover sheet for kids to color and use as a cover for all their completed work (either to send home or for in the classroom)

Classroom Set-Up: Data Collection

It's that time of year...back to school shopping, classroom set-up, and prepping for the new school year ahead.  Are you a new teacher looking for some materials to set up your brand new classroom? Or a veteran teacher looking to revamp classroom visuals or up your data game?  I want to take a chance over the next couple weeks to share some tips and ideas for setting up your classroom this coming year.

I recently put together a product based on all the resources I created and implemented in my classroom so that others can use the ideas that worked so well for me, without the work of having to create it on their own....  over 150 pages of class-room set up materials included in the Complete Autism Classroom Set-Up!  I have used this baby in my district with tons of teachers already this past year...and it has been a big hit.  Today, let's talk about one aspect of this product, Data Collection:

You get your classroom furniture set up, schedules figured out, visuals posted, and start teaching...but how do you figure out if your kids are making progress? How do you monitor IEP goals? How do you track behavior? collaboration with other team members? parent communication?  Our jobs as special ed teachers are never over...these data sheets are here to help save you some major time and energy in the data department.  Many of the data sheets included in this product are editable so you can customize to your students/classroom needs.

Classroom Set-Up: Behavior Management and Visuals

It's that time of year...back to school shopping, classroom set-up, and prepping for the new school year ahead.  Are you a new teacher looking for some materials to set up your brand new classroom? Or a veteran teacher looking to revamp classroom visuals or up your data game?  I want to take a chance over the next couple weeks to share some tips and ideas for setting up your classroom this coming year.

I recently put together a product based on all the resources I created and implemented in my classroom so that others can use the ideas that worked so well for me, without the work of having to create it on their own....  over 150 pages of class-room set up materials included in the Complete Autism Classroom Set-Up!  I have used this baby in my district with tons of teachers already this past year...and it has been a big hit.  Today, let's talk about one aspect of this product,  Behavior Management and Visuals:

Classroom Set-Up: Notes Home

It's that time of year...back to school shopping, classroom set-up, and prepping for the new school year ahead.  Are you a new teacher looking for some materials to set up your brand new classroom? Or a veteran teacher looking to revamp classroom visuals or up your data game?  I want to take a chance over the next couple weeks to share some tips and ideas for setting up your classroom this coming year.

I recently put together a product based on all the resources I created and implemented in my classroom so that others can use the ideas that worked so well for me, without the work of having to create it on their own....  over 150 pages of class-room set up materials included in the Complete Autism Classroom Set-Up!  I have used this baby in my district with tons of teachers already this past year...and it has been a big hit.  Today, let's talk about one aspect of this product, Notes Home:

Classroom Set-Up: Visual Schedules

It's that time of year...back to school shopping, classroom set-up, and prepping for the new school year ahead.  Are you a new teacher looking for some materials to set up your brand new classroom? Or a veteran teacher looking to revamp classroom visuals or up your data game?  I want to take a chance over the next couple weeks to share some tips and ideas for setting up your classroom this coming year.

I recently put together a product based on all the resources I created and implemented in my classroom so that others can use the ideas that worked so well for me, without the work of having to create it on their own....  over 150 pages of class-room set up materials included in the Complete Autism Classroom Set-Up!  I have used this baby in my district with tons of teachers already this past year...and it has been a big hit.  Today, let's talk about one aspect of this product, Visual Schedules:

  

Creating Daily Routines to Eliminate Downtime and Increase Productivity

Imagine telling your students to sit down at the table for math. You finally get 4 students seated, but then you turn your back for two seconds to grab the materials for your lesson, and in the mean time, two kids pop up and run back to their preferred activities. Scenarios like these make me want to pull my hair out...I hate down time...my students struggle with it, which makes my life as a teacher so much harder. So one way I have found to eliminate as much downtime as possible (beside packing my day full of activities) is to create routines in every part of my day. This way, students know what is expected and can independently get going with an activity even when I have to run and grab some materials, deal with a challenging behavior, etc. It makes my students (and me) more productive! In today's post, I want to share some helpful tips and activities I have found to reduce downtime in the classroom.

Expected vs. Unexpected: Behaviors in School Adapted Book

If you are a long time follower of my blog, you probably know already that I am a huge fan of adapted books (see additional links at the bottom of the page for more blog posts on this topic).

They just seem to be one of the best ways I have found to engage students in literacy and aid in their comprehension of the text. In addition, I find them helpful for teaching social skills for those students that a typical "social story" doesn't quite work for.  I like them because they allow for additional opportunities to practice identifying a skill.

Beginning Coloring Worksheets for Kids with Autism

I remember when I first started teaching and I had a mentor tell me about setting up stations.   She said that one of the easiest stations to set up would be an art station where my students could just complete coloring pages or draw.  Um...had she met my students? When I gave them crayons, they got chewed on or tossed back in my face.  The thing was, I realized my students did love art projects, they just needed tons of structure to teach them what was expected.  One of my paraprofessionals did end up running the art station in my classroom and as long as the kids had a model of the end product and clear steps of the process, they did much better.

Does this sound familiar to you?  Are your students struggling to color or draw independently? Then this newest product...Beginning Coloring Worksheets for Kids with Autism could be great in your classroom. It provides a visual model of the finished picture, which allows your students to understand what is expected and increase their level of independence.  I also like that the model/sample of the completed picture is right on the activity itself which helps students who struggle with looking back and forth between the board and their work.  And you guys...check out how great my students did with these...I am so proud of their work!

Social Stories for Expected School Behavior

Looking for some tools to have ready in your classroom day one of the school year to help your kiddos learn expected behaviors for a variety of school environments?  I love using these stories that cover some of the most important social skills needed in school.

 

Replacement Behavior

You know all those behaviors that drive you crazy? Running away, shouting out, whining, hitting, etc.? Replacement behaviors are what we wish our students would do instead...and they should serve the same function as the original behavior.  So instead of running away to get your attention, we would want our students to ask us to play a game with them.  Or instead of whining every time they want the iPad, we may teach the replacement behavior of having a student request in a non whiny tone "Can I have the iPad please?"

The key factor with this is being able to identify the challenging behavior as well as the function it serves (attention, escape, sensory, or access tangibles) and then the appropriate replacement behavior.

The tricky part is figuring out what the function of the behavior is...so many behaviors can look the same, but serve a different function for each person doing them.  For instance, let's look at an example of a student who runs away.

How to Teach Students to Solve Conflicts with Peers

So many of our students with ASD have some sort of goal around learning social skills.  One social skill many of my students struggled to deal with was conflicts with their peers.  And trying to put on my teacher mediator hat and teach them how to deal with it in the moment wasn't enough.  They needed pre-teaching of the skills prior to being able to utilize them in real life scenarios.  Which brings me to today's post on a couple, simple teaching tools that are differentiated to individual student levels to help them learn how to identify what bothers them and how to problem solve with a peer.

Product Preview: Science Unit on Habitats

This month long unit was just posted on Teachers Pay Teachers and is on sale for the next 24 hours! It focuses on the following 12 vocabulary words centering around Animals and Their Habitats (ocean, farm, rainforest, dolphin, lobster, octopus, cow, pig, chicken, sloth, snake toucan).

This packet includes:

-Materials to create a vocabulary velcro-matching activity
-Flashcards
-3 Levels of Assessments
-17 different worksheets
-2 Games (Bingo and Memory).  Multiple versions based on level of difficulty.
-1 Adapted book (with matching pieces and comprehension worksheet)
-11 Journal pages (includes 2 levels of difficulty)
-Parent note home about the unit
-1 Cover sheet for kids to color and use as a cover for all their completed work.

This unit has materials for learners at different levels.   Also, it includes a variety of worksheets which allow my students to work on their science IEP goals as well as a variety of other goals (language arts, math, speech, and OT).  I use this unit over the course of an entire month.  The kids repeat some of the work, but the repetition seems to help them learn the concepts as well as work on becoming more independent.

10 Tips for Incorporating Sensory Strategies into Your Day

"He's overstimulated" "He needs a sensory space" "Maybe a fidget would help him focus" Do these phrases sound familiar? I feel like there is so much talk about sensory needs and fidgets these days and this topic can quickly become overwhelming.  I have no formal training in "sensory needs" (make sure you are consulting with your OTs since they are the experts), but we (teachers, parents, etc.) have invaluable knowledge about our students as well.  We know that some of our students need more movement in their day and that certain activities amp them up, while others seem to calm them down. Use that information (and take data) when deciding what sensory strategies you want to try to help keep your students calm, focused, and ready to learn.

Here are just some examples of sensory strategies you can try with your students...please leave me comments with any other ideas you have found to be successful...I love to hear things that are working for your students!

Product Preview: Color Books-3 Interactive Books for Kids with Autism

Are you looking for a great, hands-on activity for your beginning readers who are working on sight words or color words? Wanting to refresh your students' independent work tasks for the upcoming year?   Then this is the product for you!

This product comes with instructions as well as 3 short interactive books that work on identifying colors and forming simple sentences ("The car is___," "The pizza is___," and "The bird is___")



Each page follows a repetitive and predictable pattern (i.e. "The bird/car/pizza is ___").  Students match the words "The" "bird" and "is" to the sentence.  Then, students identify the color of the object on the page by finding the corresponding written color word. 

I have used these books in my class during one-on-one reading instruction and during independent work time.  Since this follows a predictable pattern, students seem to catch on quickly and then it can be used to work on generalization and maintenance during independent work time.  It could also be sent home as homework!  Check it out in my TPT store here!

Create Your Own Simple File Folder

Do you have random flashcards or pictures laying around your classroom that you aren't sure how to use?  Use them to create a fun new file folder for your kiddos!  I had these community helper flashcards laying around my classroom and wasn't quite sure how to use them.  I just simply glued them into the folder, laminated it and then created some matching pieces.

When make this file folder, I wanted something a little more challenging and something I could differentiate for my different level students.  My most advanced learners were expected to match the name of the community helper as well as the description of what they do.  My mid level students matched only the name of the community helper to the picture.  Since I had a ton of matching activities for my non-reading students already, I did not use this file folder for them, but you totally could!  You could either use a second set of flash cards or use real life images of community helpers from a google image search and have them match the pictures!

Simple enough idea, and it doesn't break the bank!

Drama Time PRODUCT PREVIEW

I can't even begin to explain how excited I am to share this AMAZING new product with you.  It took me FOREVER to buckle down and turn this into a product (some of you have been requesting these materials since I posted about Drama Time on my blog back in 2012...so this is especially for you!)  And the best part is, hop on over to my TPT store today and tomorrow to get 50% off this product!

Let's start with the basics...
What EVEN is Drama Time anyways?
*Drama Time is a weekly activity that usually lasts 30-45 minutes.
*It consists of engaging GAMES and PREDICTABLE ROUTINES
*It can meet the needs of all your students by addressing a huge RANGE of SKILLS
*You can do it in INCLUSIVE (or reverse inclusion) settings
*These activities and this product can last you ALL YEAR LONG.

Differentiated Writing Activity for ESY, Summer School or Home

Whenever my mom and dad came to visit my classroom, they always brought books, play doh, and other school supplies.  One time, they bought these amazing sticker books (link to book on Amazon)!  I saved them for a long time thinking they were so cool that I wanted to do something special with them, but couldn't figure out what to do.  Flash forward to when I was planning for ESY (extended school year) and I was looking around my classroom for ideas of what I could bring with me (ESY was located in a different building than my school).  I stumbled across these books again, tossed them into a milk crate (thank you school cafeteria!), and was one step closer to finally using them!

Social Skills: Where to Begin?

"Social Skills need to be taught" is what we hear all the time in schools these days, especially in special education...but WHERE are they taught? WHAT skills do we teach? HOW are they taught? WHAT curriculum should we use? are just some of the many questions we teachers are asking in response to this statement. I definitely don't have all the answers, but would love to get the conversation going. I would love to hear your input in the comments below or in an email (autismtank@gmail.com) as I feel like this blog post is just skimming the surface of this huge topic.

Ice Cream Unit for ESY, Summer School, or Home

As a special education teacher, I am always looking for ways to make learning more motivating for my students. My students LOVE ice cream. I mean, they really really LOVE it. So, why not introduce matching skills, teach shapes, counting, writing, and graphing all about ice cream!  This can make a great mini-unit to use during ESY or summer school as well to help maintain skills in an engaging way.  Another idea would be to send this home as "homework" over the summer and have parents use these worksheets and activities with their children.

This mini-unit includes 9 worksheets that all have to do with ice cream!  Photo copy, laminate or just throw the worksheets in sheet protector sleeves to save some time!  You can even keep these in a binder and use during the school year at an independent work station for review.

Food Themed Independent Work Tasks

I don't know about you, but my students always loved doing activities related to food.  They loved cooking, google-imaging (I know it's not a word, but it should be) pictures of food, going on community trips to eat, etc.

Many of us also have students who don't like to complete academic work.  You know, you put a worksheet in front of your student and they tear it up? or throw it at you?  Maybe, I'm just having that kind of week?!  But regardless, we all know that all behaviors are really our students trying to COMMUNICATE their needs.  What I assume my students are trying to let me know when they refuse work is either "this is too hard," "where's my motivation to complete the work?", or "this is boring!"

One way to keep your students engaged in work and decrease work refusal is to incorporate preferred topics into their work.  Have handwriting be writing their favorite movie character names, let them do a research project about their preferred topic, make social stories or behavior charts using their favorite video games or apps, etc.

This philosophy combined with having so many students that loved food, has probably been one of the main reasons I have created so many work tasks that have to do with food.  I have collected pictures of some of my favorite food themed work tasks to share with you.  I would love to hear about your favorite food themed tasks as well!