Holy crap – I cannot believe October is already here. September literally flew by. Last month I shared my September lesson plans. My goal is to share my monthly reading and math plans the week before the next month starts so you have time to add any ideas to your plan! Sounds good? Awesome. To learn more about how I do seasonal and thematic units – check out this post. To learn more about how I do my lesson plans – check out this post.
My math and reading instruction is done in leveled groups. I put kids at similar reading level together so I can teach them the same thing at the same time. The size of the group depends on the level of the students, behavioral issues, and group behavior skill set. I made group curriculum maps based on a combination of student IEP goals, Common Core, other assessments (ABLLS, Words Their Way, Reading Assessment, etc.) and individual student needs. Check out my reading curriculum maps and math curriculum maps.
October Reading Plans
High Group:
FYI: I don’t plan a ton for Wednesdays because my SLP pushes in during that time so we collaborate on thematic activities for Wednesdays. The paragraph of the week is by Teaching in Room 6 and is worth every penny! Our guided reading focus books are Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules, Vampire Vacation, and Pumpkin Trick. All other links are below. I use a ton of resources from Ultimate Guided Reading Resource within this group as well.
Links to Activities:
- Halloween costume character traits
- Halloween writing prompts
- Halloween idioms
- Halloween nouns sorting
- Halloween main idea detail
- Halloween word search
- Halloween idiom monster match ghosts and goblins
Mid Level Group:
FYI: We use the reading milestones curriculum in this group which is why I don’t need to plan as many activities for each day because reading milestones is built into each lesson. I like reading milestones for my lower readers because it is concrete, visual, and provides tons of repetition.
Links:
- Syllable sort
- Halloween word work
- Halloween sentences
- Halloween initial sounds
- Halloween beginning sounds cut and match
- Falling Leaves Language Arts Lesson Mini Books
- Fall and thanksgiving freebie
- Halloween I have, who has preprimer dolch
Low Level Group:
FYI: There is also less planning with the low level reading group because I take daily (or every other day daily) data on 2-3 IEP goals per student within this group. But I still like to mix it up and provide fun, thematic activities. There is also a lot of fine motor skill work done in this group. It would get boring with the same old goals each day!
Links:
- Halloween uppercase/lower case
- Fall math pack
- alphabet and counting trick or treaters
- Halloween Pack freebie:
- self checking math activity cards
October Math Lesson Plans
High Level Group:
FYI: We will be spending two days a week (Tue/Thurs) in smaller groups to focus solely on building math fact skills. Group 1 will be focusing on multiplication where as group 2 needs a little more practice still on addition/subtraction. It’s like mini groups within a group. We will also be doing daily timings on math facts (and graphing progress after) on those days.
Links:
Mid Level Group:
FYI: There are less links for math because we will be doing a lot of hands on activities with manipulatives and doing a lot of small group instruction on math operations. My lowest level math group doesn’t have a nice lesson plan sheet yet. With my low level math group, we are working on ABLLS skills – so that is not all finalized yet.
Links:
In addition I have these two products which I LOVE that we will be using throughout the month:
Halloween Language Games {Fact or Fiction & Real or Make-Believe}
I will be linking up more Halloween & Fall Activities and Crafts next week 🙂 I freaken love fall!
- 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
12 Responses
I just want to say thank you Sasha for your wonderful blog! I am a first year Special Education teacher, and love all your advice and lessons. You have helped me tremendously!
Thank you for sharing all of your ideas! They are wonderful and I like seeing how other special ed. teachers create and organize their rooms.
Teaching Special Kids
I love this! Thanks for all the links. This is my first year with higher functioning kiddos and so much of what I have done in the past, is too easy for them. Love that you are showing plans and tasks for each level. Thanks for all the fab links!
Hello Sasha. I was wondering if you could elaborate in the halloween sensory bin?
Thank you.
Andrea
Where are your low level math plans?
Right now for math I use my Interactive Math Work Book Level 1 – https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Interactive-Math-Work-Book-Level-1-1462631 and Daily Leveled Curriculum Level 1 – https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Math-Leveled-Daily-Curriculum-LEVEL-1-2023331. Hope this helps!
Do you use a template for reading milestones? If so do you mind sending me your template?
I don’t, I’m sorry 🙁
Do you have a specific way to break up reading milestones?
Honestly, I never found a great system for organizing it!
Hi Sasha!
How do you use the Leveled Math curriculum in addition to these fun activities? Do you spend any time whole group?
Hi Emily! I think it depends on the needs of your class. If you have a pretty varied group as far as skill level I wouldn’t do anything whole group. I would group based on common goals/skills and incorporate these types of activities as extension activities after the curriculum lesson!