Structure Classroom Ideas

Jan.10,2014
First week after Christmas break has been everything I expected busy and fast. The students were happy to be back to school and ready to get back on routine. Just as I and my staff.
We worked really hard getting the students back to their normal routines. Also had an old student return from another school district. I was so pleased to have him back. That's one thing about Autism teachers once we get a student they are forever in our hearts.
So I was ask several questions from parents and colleagues about room structure and TEACCH work task basket systems.  So I will first share about room arrangement. I have some pictures that will  help with that.

Cubbies with students picture and name

Always important that students know where their backpack and jacket needs to go.

Individual student work station. I have had a lot of teachers tell me they don't have space for each student to have a table; this can also be done with student desk if you only have desk. Dividers can be made with PVC pipes, however, I was lucky and they were purchased at Lakeshore. Having

 individual work stations helps the student to stay focused on the task he/she needs to finish before they can move on. Notice they have a small schedule on their desk. Most of my student do a "First and Then" schedule on their desk. "Then" is usually a " Check Schedule Card" which is their prompt to go check schedule after they finish their work.  

I have  individual student schedules on a wall sorry I don't have picture of them. (on my school computer).                                                                                  

 Group time Area: Students have a clearly defined area for each thing that we do. I use my smart board during every group time. This is where they learn to sit, wait, and take turns. I even have 3 year olds that use the smart board. So once you introduce the smart board they really do not try to break it. Most of mine call it " The Big TV". Notice I have regular pre-k chairs and assistive chairs( the stools are mine and my staff). I do start some of my students in a assistive chair and quickly teach them how to sit and wait. Then they go to a regular chair.  With that said most of my student will go and try to use the assistive chair if I would let them. There is something they like about the seatbelt and the arm rests.

This is our Hatch Touch screen computer (Love it) one of my fellow special education teachers wrote a grant and our whole school got one for each room.

 

Calm down house: I made this a couple of years ago with PVC Pipes( if you haven't notice I love PVC ) and some cheap material. This is the place my student use to calm down due to anxiety or during a melt down. You have to teach autism students how to regulate, this is one way to do it, Below is a picture of the inside of the Calm down house ( remember this is not used for punishment) it has a beanbag chair, blanket, sensory bottles, books, and magazines(sometimes used to tear up) when they need to throw or hit. I teach my students we never hit, but you can tear up paper or tissue. 



 



 

 

 

New Year in th Autism Room.

I always love coming back to school after the Christmas Break. It is a chance to start again. I love my job and I really love my students. I have lots of fun in my classroom because I do the things that Autism professional have suggest we use. I use the TEACCH method, and Discrete trial (one on one learning) some call it ABA. I have been trained in ABA but since I have 2 half day programs it is not as strict as most ABA therapist do. If you are a teacher we would basically call it one-on-one teaching except I take a lot of data. I teach visually with my smart board(could not live with out it) it truly keeps my students engaged. So I really do not have a lot of behavior during group times.  My students love to sing and YouTube is great when choosing songs for group time. With that said lets get started with Theme of the week.
January is always fun we start this week off with Winter and what do we wear in winter, also we will review a lot of concepts that we might have forgotten over winter break.
Book we will use all week:

 

use this for cut out pieces for felt board

 

I love making it interactive so I can get some good communication from my students. I will give each child a piece of clothing to help dress the paper doll on the felt board. You could also make it into a file folder activity. I have paper dolls that we will make at art time to help reinforce the group time activity.  I and my staff will also have them use it again in a discrete trial to see if they can match the clothing items and/or say the name of the item. I work a lot on getting them to communicate.

Large group song:

YouTube: Colors of Winter, 5 little Snowmen, and Let it snow.

Art Table:

 Monday: Paper doll

Tuesday:

Paper plate, cotton ball, and colored dot stickers

 

Wednesday:









 



Make with different colors: let those who can cut out cut them; decorate with stickers, markers, and whatever you have left over from Christmas

 

Thursday:

Art and fine motor activity using cotton balls, glue, and you can also use quilt batting.

 

 

Friday: We have a busy day with Assembly with whole school, and it is our library day.

But I will review with reading the book again which I do every day. And I try to go back over the data and see which of my students are still not gasping the concept of the clothing.

Will post tomorrow all the task basket activities. Have fun.