Setting Up for Success

With the start of the new school year beginning yesterday, looking over the IEPs of my new students and caseload, and planning lessons and activities for my class, I honestly have no idea how I found time to start my blog!  As exhausted as I am from the start of the first two days (as well as quickly getting my classroom unpacked and put together last week), I am excited to begin this blog to share classroom ideas, lessons, and activities for special educators who work with and teach students in primary grades, specifically in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.  However, many ideas and resources I plan to share can easily be applicable and modified to any grade level for special education.

I have seven students in my special day class for this school year with a range of disabilities (autism, speech and language impairments, other health impairments, and intellectually disabled) as well as a wide-range of academic and social abilities.  They are quite the lively and excited bunch, but they are also so loving and sweet.  I couldn't be more excited to have them all together in my K-2 SDC!

I am a new teacher to my school, and my new site was gutted, revamped, and renovated this summer.  Every teacher's classroom is bright, new, and absolutely beautiful, and I was delighted to see my room was HUGE.  With the help of other teachers and my parents (thank goodness for them -- I wouldn't have had my classroom ready for Kinder orientation this past Saturday without them!), I organized and set-up my classroom for success.  I plan on having whole group, small groups, and individual work times throughout the year.  I have a rug for circle/carpet time (whole group), three small group areas, library area, play area, and a quiet area for students who need a break (see below).  It seems to be successful so far, but it is only day two, so I will blog about it as the year goes on.

Front of the classroom for circle time.

The library.  I plan on taking pictures of my students with their favorite book and posting it here.

My favorite piece of furniture for small group/guided reading: the kidney bean table.

The play area for free choice. The rug was so cheap from Ikea!

The "Quiet Area" for when a student needs a break by himself or herself. (Still working on improving this area! I need to buy sensory items/calming tools for my kiddos.)

More storage for Language Arts small groups (next to another small group area - not pictured).

I will share more pictures of classroom storage ideas as the year goes on!

Last but not least, I want to do Calendar Math with my students, but my shipment from Lakeshore has not come in yet.  For now, I created my own (I call it ghetto) Calendar Math:

Homemade calendar math.

The students enjoy it, but I think it's because the songs we sing with it enhance the beauty of it (haha).