The beginning of the school year is upon us. Like most teachers, I am in the chaos that is a start of a school year. You know where everyone looks shocked that we are back again and actually have to do this job. I am an early childhood itinerant, which is fancy for a resource special education teacher. I service students with IEPs in an at-risk pre-k program. The beginning of the year for me is prepping binders for each of the teachers I work with. These binders have a variety of visuals that can support all the children in the classroom. As I get to know individual children, I will often make individual schedules and visuals, but this is a way to give teachers what they need from the beginning.
What goes in the binder:
- Visual schedule pictures. I use boardmaker pictures to create schedules for students who understand line drawings.
- Photo schedule visuals. I also take photos of the different areas of the classroom and areas in the building the students may go and include these in the binder. Many of our students understand photographs more easily.
- Play choice boards. I make choice boards to help the children engage during center time. I have an overall play choice board and also individual center choice boards. I find this helps our little ones who wander around and have difficulty deciding where to go. I also like to use timers if they are running from one center to the next.
- Social-Emotional support. I have lots of visuals to help with big emotions. I have a feelings page, a breathing page, a calm down choice board page, and a step-by-step visual of how to calm down. This helps with all the children in the classroom and especially our friends who have difficulty communicating.
Here are some freebies of the choice boards that I have made.
Weekly Joy: (This year I decided to write about something that brings me joy in my work life- see after 24 years, this helps remind me to intentionally look for the good throughout the day). **This week I set up my office. I share a space with another teacher, but she allowed me to make a calm down corner in my office for my little ones who need breaks. It is so cozy I ended up using it during my lunch! 🙂
