Handwashing Tips for Special Education

February 10, 2025 AutismadeLeave a comment

Hygiene posters are great for sequencing functional life skills! I’ve designed these ones for Special Education, focusing on washing hands that feature simple, clear visuals and step-by-step instructions to ensure understanding. Here’s a breakdown of the elements I’ve included:

Title: “Wash Your Hands” in large, easy-to-read font.
Images:
- Visual of turning on the faucet and adjusting the water temperature.
- Clear images of applying soap, rubbing hands together and rinsing thoroughly.
- Drying hands with a clean towel or paper towel, with a visual of using the towel.

Step-by-step guide: The poster would use simple, steps, with a large icon for each action, such as “Turn on water,” “use soap,” “wash hands,” “Rinse off,” and “Dry hands.”
Colorful and clear design: Bright colors that are visually engaging, yet not overwhelming, with a mix of simple shapes to represent the actions.
Text: Short, simple sentences or phrases to accompany the images. Large font sizes and a clear.
Emotional reinforcement: Smileys or fun characters make the poster friendly and motivating.
Tips for success: Use a small reminder at the bottom, like “Count to 20,” to encourage washing for a recommended duration.

The goal is to display them or make them accessible, interactive, and motivating for students in special education by breaking down the task of handwashing into manageable steps that are easy to follow and visually memorable.

More life skills resources are linked below:-

Washing Hands Posters

Washing hands life skills

Brush teeth life skills

Tips for running a simple Classroom Rotation System

January 31, 2025April 14, 2025 AutismadeLeave a comment

A classroom rotation system is an instructional strategy where students move between various learning stations, each designed to target different skills or concepts. In a kindergarten Special Education classroom, it means that each station might focus on different aspects of learning, such as motor skills, communication, literacy, or social-emotional development. Students rotate through these stations in small groups or independently, ensuring that they receive a diverse, multi-sensory learning experience.

Here I’ve listed how I set up and run a classroom rotation system for my Special Education classroom to ensure structure, engagement, and efficient learning experiences,

Steps to Create a Rotation:

Identify your areas: Include areas like literacy, math, fine motor skills, social skills, sensory activities, fine motor etc.
Rotation Frequency: Depending on how many activities you have, you might want to rotate every 10-20 minutes to keep the activities short and engaging.
Use Visual Schedules: A visual schedule can help students understand the rotation process. For example, a picture board or visual timer showing which area to go to next. For non-readers, pictures or color codes work well.
Small Groups: Divide students into small groups, and assign each group to a different station. After each rotation, students move to a new activity. This way, they get a mix of independent work, group activities, and teacher-guided lessons.
Include Sensory Breaks: Special education students often benefit from sensory breaks between activities to help manage overstimulation. Designate short times for sensory activities, such as using stress balls, or simply having a calm, quiet corner.

My Rotation Schedule:

Station 1: Literacy (guided reading, letter recognition, etc.)
Station 2: Math (counting, number recognition, etc.)
Station 3: Fine motor skills (coloring, cutting, playdough)
Station 4: Sensory break (quiet area with fidget toys, soft music)

Cue Cards for activities and stations

2. Resource System

This resources system helped me organize the materials for each rotation and ensure everything runs smoothly.

Steps to Organize Resources:

Label Materials Clearly: For each rotation station, make sure materials are clearly labeled. You can use color-coded bins or folders that match your visual schedule to make it easy for students to find what they need.
Use Simple Materials: Choose materials that are easy to handle and safe for young children. Think sensory bins, large manipulatives for counting, and picture books.
Student Resources: Set up “independent use” bins or areas that students can access on their own, like worksheets, tactile toys, or quiet reading materials.
Prepare Materials: Set up each station with materials ahead of time. Keep a checklist to ensure you don’t forget anything.
Support for Communication: Many special education students benefit from communication supports such as communication boards, picture cards, or apps. Make sure these are part of your resource system for students who may need them.
Class aids responsibilities: If you have any classroom aides or assistants, make sure they have access to the necessary resources and designate specific roles or responsibilities for them during each rotation.

Example Resources:

literacy station resources: Alphabet flashcards, letter tracing sheets, magnetic letters, adapted books

math station resources: Counting bears, number puzzles, shape folders, dice, number flashcards etc!

fine motor station Resources: Crayons, scissors, glue sticks, playdough

sensory break resources: Fidget toys, weighted blankets, calm-down jars

By planning with flexibility in mind and making sure your resources are organized, your rotation system will run more smoothly, and students will have the best chance to succeed and stay engaged.

For more Resource Ideas use the link below:-

MY TPT STORE

Making Classroom Rules into exciting learning experiences

December 20, 2024March 17, 2025 AutismadeLeave a comment

With the right tools and strategies, you can turn classroom expectations into engaging and fun activity that promotes social-emotional skills and builds a strong community.

One way to achieve this is through a sorting card game, designed to help students differentiate between good and poor behaviors.

In this blog, you can see how I’ve created this activity to use for classroom behavior management, so explore the benefits of using this game as a tool for creating a positive learning environment.

This simple activity will help your students sort out the good and poor behaviors for the classroom expectations you want to see everyday

This hands-on activity is how teaching classroom rules can be a joyful and an engaging experience at your independent stations and work centers, that’s once laminated can be practised over and over again.

Dive and promote positive classroom management and behavior, all while building a strong class community. Get ready to make this learning exciting for both you and your students!”

Tips on How to use Help card Visuals!

November 30, 2024December 9, 2025 AutismadeLeave a comment

Struggling with Communication? Discover how help cards can help your students with their Emotional Intelligence!

For kids in special education, expressing their needs and seeking help can be a daunting task. However, there is a simple yet effective tool that can greatly improve their communication skills – visual cues. Lets explore the importance of effective communication for children with special needs and how the use of a visual aid, such as the help card, can greatly benefit them.

Discover how we can support and empower these children to express themselves and seek the help they need.

In this post, we will explore the importance of effective communication and how you can use visual aids, such as help cards, that can greatly benefit our kids in the classroom.

Using Help cards with symbols My 5 tips

1. Help your young learner to realise when they need to use the Help Card, usually before they get too frustrated or loose concentration. Set up a situation in which they will need help, show them the help card and place it where they can easily reach it.

2. Point to the help card and tell them, “This is your help card. You can use it if you need help.” When your student starts to show behaviors, You say “If you are getting upset, use your help card to tell me you need help.”

3. Immediately allow the student to take the help symbol and make up his sentence, or allow the student to use the help card and follow the visual instructions.” I found that self regulating visuals on the bottom of the card is a fantastic way of reminding your student what they need to do when they need help.

4. Requesting is an important part of teaching the student to trust and use the visual support, once they are consistently asking for help, or making up a sentence strip, you may begin to generalise situations, locations and with different staff, while practicing this critical skill.

5. The added visuals at the bottom of each card has been a big help with reminding students to what they can do and how to express it.

Resource links

I need Help- Visual strategies

Visual Support Cards

Visual keyring supports

Classroom support cards

Christmas Center Activities for Special Ed

November 25, 2024 AutismadeLeave a comment

The most wonderful time of the year is just around the corner, and teachers all over the world are gearing up to make the holiday season fun with fresh activities for their students. But for special education teachers, this can be a particularly challenging task.

Finding ways to engage and teach about holidays can be a daunting task. So here I present Task Boxes as a solution that will not only bring holiday cheer and excitement to your classroom, but will also cater to the unique needs of your special education students.

Get ready to add these 6 holiday-themed center activities for Christmas to your rotation this year, and watch your students thrive and learn in a fun and inclusive environment.”