I think the question I get asked the most is how to multi-task so many leaners. Yes we all agree that some of our students require one on one instruction but what do you do with the other kids during that time? It’s a delicate juggling act for sure. One of my lifesavers is my independent morning routine. We call it A.M. Routine. It saves my butt every morning and lets me do my job.
I love a good rotation. I explain this more in my post about my schedules. If you have paraprofessionals – have them run stations! Then your students can move through the stations and have a solid chunk of dedicated instructional time. Amazing! The first thing we do in the morning is rotations with my students who are lower functioning. Each of my aides and myself each run a station. We get to hit most of my students’ IEP goals in a one on one setup. It’s great. But… what about all the other students? I’m sure they would be just pleased as punch if I let them loiter on the iPads and computers, but oh no. I’m a mean teacher. We need academic engagement all the time. Enter – A.M. Routine.
This whole routine takes about an hour and was relatively easy to teach my kids and is easy to maintain. Seven of my higher functioning student participate in this each morning.
Here are the basics – they turn in their homework, do a binder page, have quiet reading time, and play a game.
The binder page has a daily sentence to correct, daily questions to answer, a journal to write, and a word sort. Get this binder page for free in this post!
The binder page is kept in their schedule binder:
I write a sentence on the board with spelling and grammar mistakes and they write correctly. We grade this together during morning group.
There are a bunch of visuals related to this running super smoothly! My students have daily jobs such as writing the date on the board and looking up the temperature. This helps the whole group fill out the daily binder page. Then they also have weekly jobs that they only do on Fridays. These are jobs that don’t need to be done too often such as washing dishes and vacuuming. These visuals are all laminated and velcroed so I can switch them up every week!
Students are ‘in charge’ of the game. This helps it stay organized with one student picking them games and setting it up. It is laminated and I write the initials of the student with a dry erase marker. A student is also picked each day to type the journal. There are step by step instructions that are velcroed so students can grab the instructions the day they are in charge. This serves as a nice social script.
and introducing my Video Tutorial where I explain this in even more detail than you ever wanted to know!
- Planning for the Fall: Part 4 and 5 – Visually Structured Tasks and Routines - January 30, 2026
- Using TAH Curriculum for Homeschooling from a Homeschooling Parent - September 10, 2022
- Using The Autism Helper Curriculum for Homeschool - August 8, 2022
14 Responses
Great ideas! Wish I could see what your whole day looks like. I’ll be a first-year sped teacher, starting in July. Although I’ve been with my 9 students for a whole school year, I’ll be in the role as permanent teacher, soon, with two paras. I’m looking forward to implementing many of your ideas.
I just found your blog and I love it. Thank you so much for the ideas I will be using many of them as I set up my classroom for the next school year!!
Sasha, you are amazing! I have no idea how you make time to post so regularly but it is so valuable to us early career teachers… thank you!
Check out my schedule: https://theautismhelper.com/autism-helper-classroom-class-schedules/. That will help give an idea of what a day looks like 🙂
Great to hear 🙂
You are so very welcome! I’m so happy this is helpful! 🙂
Love it! How long did it take your students to settle into the routine and become independent with this?
It took a few weeks. I slowly faded myself out. I spent a week or week and half walking them through it all and then 2 weeks pulling away and then probably a week to check in. I still of course monitor it. Seems like a long time but so worth it in the long run!
Thank you, that’s very helpful! 🙂
I have been working all summer to get up to speed by the start of the school year. I love your products but sometimes become confused when purchasing them. Like the morning work board. The visuals and labels. I thought that I had purchased all of the components but they are actually sold in separate packets. Some are in calendar, some in temperature, some in student jobs. I guess I need to read more carefully. Thanks for all your hard work.
Sorry about the confusion Phyllis! Each product has a detailed list of what’s included as well as video preview – I know there is a lot though! Let me know if you are unclear where one part of any of these resources are! 🙂
Are the questions you use for “daily questions” from the 180 questions and prompts? If not, do you have list of the questions you use?
Hey Chalette! In the past they have used these: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/180-Questions-and-Prompts-to-Build-Expressive-Receptive-Language-438641. Now the questions are embedded into their Leveled Daily Work: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Leveled-Daily-Work-BUNDLE-1304609
Sasha, I really like all of your great ideas and looking forward to adding a little favor to my class this year with the questions and the group activities.