The Only Curriculum You’ll Ever Need
Let's talk about the best curriculum out there for my self-contained classroom! As a teacher in a self-contained classroom, I’ve always sought resources that truly meet the diverse needs of my students. After years of trial and error, I finally found a game-changer:...
Lesson Planning and Activities for the Extended School Year
The extended school year is a time when our learners have the opportunity to maintain the skills that they have learned throughout the school year. My team and I also strongly believe that it is a great time to encourage more play and fun. It is summertime and the...
Differentiation in a Kindergarten General Education Classroom: Small Group
Meeting with all students throughout the week can be difficult. While in a perfect world, we’d be able to see all students in a small group or one on one setting, sometimes that isn’t always possible. Depending on the class size, being flexible on how often you meet...
Differentiation in a General Education Classroom: Stations
Differentiation in a general education classroom does take a lot of planning and prep, but don’t panic! Differentiation is necessary for all learners. While we do it often for small groups, all areas of the classroom needs to include it. Not all learners are the same....
Unlocking Academic Success: The Autism Helper Leveled Daily Curricula
In the ever-evolving landscape of a classroom, differentiating for the unique needs of every learner can be challenging. For parents, teachers, and service providers working with students on varying levels of skills, The Autism Helper Leveled Curriculums offer a...
Academic and Functional Learning During Long Breaks
As a mom and a teacher, I enjoy academic activities and ideas to do over long breaks. Although many breaks are filled with an increased amount of time with extended family members, there are better days knowing my children and our learners are at home learning. I also...
Discrete Trial Training in a General Education Setting
I have had the wonderful opportunity to teach, train, and work with many wonderful general education and special education professionals within my career. One area of focus has constantly been modifying and working with learners who benefit from discrete trial....
Accommodations Versus Modifications
Accommodations and modifications are two terms that are used heavily in the special education world. These are also two terms that are included in every IEP and are very important to a learner's success. Both of these terms require specificity and training to...
Progress Monitoring and Small Groups in Kindergarten
This year is my first real experience in kindergarten. I have been having a blast working with a new team of educators and learning about the skills at this developmental age. With a son who started kindergarten this year as well, I am learning how hard kindergarten...
Leading Homeschool Math Lessons with The Leveled Daily Curriculum
Starting this month, I wanted to help fellow homeschool parents navigate the Leveled Daily Curriculum by showing how I run through lessons with my boys. I will be going through every subject to give some examples of how to teach each subject. This month, I will be...
IEP Goal Examples: Math
Math goals will be very individualized, just as any other goal. Similar to my IEP goal example post about play and language and literacy, this post will review goal examples that are aligned with the early learning standards for my state as well as the ABLLS- R and...
Tips For Bringing Homeschool Learning Into The Community
I believe homeschoolers have an advantage because we can teach however and wherever we like. The goal of what we teach at school is to prepare our kids for the world, so it is a perfect opportunity to bring learning opportunities outside the classroom. My...
Math Centers for Emerging Learners
Let's Talk Math Centers!I LOVE centers. They can transform your classroom! You teach so much more than just academics in centers - students are learning to take turns, listen and attend to others, how to wait and how to share. Centers for emergent learners...
Focus on Five: Arrangements for Math Instruction
After coming back to in-person learning, trying to fit math in our schedule has been a challenge. Time of day, staff availability and student needs are factors when creating a math schedule and arrangements. This year, our math and science block is combined into one...
Focus on Five: Setting Up Daily Leveled Curriculum
The Autism Helper’s Daily Leveled Curriculum is an amazing resource for any low-incidence classroom. You can use it in a variety of ways- for independent work, at a teacher-run station, at a paraprofessional run station and more. I started using the Language Arts...
The Classroom Business Series: Vending Cart
Several years ago, my building principal came to me with the idea of creating a classroom business. The teacher’s lounge had a vending machine with soda, costing the school more money than it could make. Cue the Vending Cart! Setting Up After all the...
Engaging Summer Activities
Many families, and even teachers, worry that their children and learners will lose skills over the summer. Whether there is time embedded throughout the day for homework or structured activities throughout the summer weeks, there are many activities that can be...
Michelle’s Classroom Tour: Math Center
I’m so excited to talk about my math center instruction! For starters, my classroom is a TK-1st grade autism classroom. I structure our day with six different centers, which makes for a nicely structured environment. My centers include various subjects such as...
Math Skills and Milestones For Early Learners
Math lessons are often skipped over in early childhood classrooms. Math curriculums are not the easiest to find and most are hard to adapt to all of our learner's individual needs. As a teacher, I often struggled to come up with ways to teach early math skills as well...
Focus on Five: Number ID and Counting Instruction for Emergent Learners
Teaching number identification and counting is a common goal to work on with students who demonstrate emerging math skills. These emerging math skills also help students develop the skills of one-to-one correspondence and being able to read a variety of materials...