How I Prep My Special Education Classroom for the Week

Hey y'all, it's Grace here with The Autism Helper. I am a kindergarten self-contained autism teacher. This is my 4th year of teaching and it is Friday afternoon. Kids are gone and now it is time for me to get myself ready for a successful week next week, and you're gonna come along with me. We're gonna get this whole classroom ready to go so that I can enjoy my weekend and not have to worry about school, but also know that my kiddos and myself are set up for success next week, and we're gonna do it as fast as we can. So Let's get started. Everything ready to go for next week in under 10 minutes. Here we go. Starting now. Okay, so here is table 1, and for our morning small group centers, everything is already prepped already and ready to go. So this is our language arts center in the morning. So students already have all their folders prepped and organized for the entire unit that hold all of their worksheets. And then below that, I have their anchor charts stored in there. And then in the afternoon, same kind of setup. We do math at Table 1, so their folders are on top, anchor charts are on bottom. So that is ready to go for Table 1, both morning and afternoon small group centers. Coming over here for Table 2, morning centers are again already done. They have their anchor charts, and then they do phonics, so their anchor charts And phonics folders are already in here ready to go. In the afternoon they do science, so again anchor charts and folders are ready to go for Group B. So morning and afternoon small group tables are done for both tables 1 and 2. We do 3 tables. I'm gonna quickly get everything set up for table 3 for small groups. Table 3, Group B, right over here next to the 3-tier drawer that holds their morning and afternoon work is this file sorter that has all of our language arts extension activities, and they're leveled. So whoever is running this table that day will just go in, pick out some different activities for the kids to do, and that is what they're going to be doing at table 3 in the morning. In the afternoon, on the iPad, they are going to be doing science, and there are some digital file folder Activities the teacher or student can choose from, and they are going to work through these different digital file folder activities for the afternoon at table 3. So really nothing to prep or plan here either. Just wanted to show you guys what they're going to be doing at table 3. For Group A, I store all of their things in this bin for the morning, and they are working on more of those executive functions— task initiation, sitting in their chair, proximity, task compliance, and language meaning. So we actually took the anchor charts from level 0.5 and cut them up into little flashcards and are having students practice matching one-to-one as well as Putting the different pictures in different kinds of buckets. This is a lot more motivating to my class this year, so we've been working on that for some task initiation. Also do a lot of modeling, and then we use these token boards that are also from The Autism Helper. This student is working for chips. I already have his chips in there. As soon as they complete 3 problems, they earn their chip. So anyways, that is kind of how their morning looks. And at each of those tables, they are doing an extension of that same activity, and we are seeing a lot of progress with that. So that is going really well. And then we also are starting to introduce some of the Airless Phonics digital file folders on Curriculum Access as well to some of our students in Group A that are ready for that. So that is what their centers look like for the morning, and then in the afternoon we are doing a little bit more of that fine motor work. So I'll show you guys what we're doing for that next. So for Table 1, they're going to be working on a shape sorter in the afternoon. So finding the shape, putting the shape in the right slot. Great activity for our students who are still Still learning how to learn and how to be a learner and be a student in a classroom. So they have this activity. We also have this one that is put the bees on a flower. So again, you cannot get these wrong. Different colors of flowers, you can talk about the colors, and then they put a bee on each flower. So another errorless task box. And then our last one for Table 2 is to put the animals in their habitat. So again, can't get this wrong, but you can talk about the different animals, putting them on, following that one-step direction. And then for their last table for afternoon centers, I have some Theraputty and some number erasers, and students are going to practice putting the numbers in as well as pinching and pulling the different numbers out. So you can start to work on identifying the Different numbers increase, encourage that vocabulary, model the different language while still working on that fine motor piece. That is Group A's afternoon centers. Turned around students' names and then hid the rest of the baskets with our Ukeru mat. These are where we store all of our PEAK bins and they already have all of students' supplies inside the bins ready to go. Myself or my paras will just go ahead, grab their bin and then get started on that. So again, no prep needed for PEAK. Moving along for one-on-one Independent centers. This center is already pre-prepped and ready to go. This is our independent center, even though it's not quite independent yet. Students are working towards having this as an independent center. So it's that 1-2-3 model, and students have their cards up here with their name as well as their color. Some students only have 1 and 3, so 1 task then toy choice. Some students are only working on proximity, and then some students are completing that traditional 1-2-3. 2, 3 step for independent centers. So this is ready to go, preloaded, and all set up for the entire week. So no prep needed here. Here is our art table, and I went ahead and put all of our art projects in this organizer that hangs on the wall, so they're preloaded and ready to go. I have my paras help prep these on Wednesdays because kids leave early and we have to stay, So that's a great time for Paras to be prepping art crafts. We do an art craft every day. We're on apples next week, so I have our different crafts ready to go already in each day's file. Wednesdays we don't do art because we have a shortened schedule. And over here is our 3rd and final center, and students are completing this homework pack that is also from The Autism Helper. This is the leveled daily homework. This is Level 0.5. So I just go ahead and make the whole pack for the week, staple them, and then whoever is running the center can just pull the top one off, have students complete it, and then turn it in. Officially done, prepped, and ready to go for next week. Let's check the time. 7 minutes and 23 seconds, and I am all done and ready to go for next week. Okay, that is all it for today's video. Thanks so much for watching. If you have any questions, Leave them down below. I'd be happy to answer anything you guys are curious about. But other than that, I will see you all in my next one. Bye guys!