After all the talk about what students love during Valentine's Day activities, I always found a natural next step in my thematic units was to focus on feelings and emotions.  Check out some of my favorite Emotions activities: ELA Ideas I first introduce feelings vocabulary. We use a variety of visuals including photos, icons, and even emojis.  Next, we practice sorting emotions based on the vocabulary we've learned. These cut and paste worksheets are also included in my Feelings Thematic Unit .  Then, we read stories to discuss each emotion in context. I love The Way I Feel by Janan Cain because it covers so many robust feeling words. I use the communication board from my Feelings Thematic Unit for students to participate. Another favorite feelings story is When Sophie Gets Angry-- Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang. I love this story for introducing the concept of coping strategies to my students.  I love this story so much that I created an entire Picture Book Comm......

The holiday season is my absolute favorite time of year outside and inside of the classroom! My students and I always have so much fun celebrating the holidays. And the first holiday to kick things off will be here before we know it! Keep reading to learn more about how I celebrate Thanksgiving in my special education classroom....

The holiday season is a magical time in any classroom, but it can be especially meaningful in a special education setting. Planning December activities in special education means blending festive fun with functional learning goals. Whether you're looking for winter-themed academic tasks tailored to IEP goals, holiday crafts for family gifts, or fun classroom games for the busy season, December offers endless opportunities to engage your students in creative, structured, and joyful ways....

December is my favorite month in the classroom. Yes, I admit it can be a bit chaotic with the holiday parties and overall excitement but it is a lot of fun and there are so many fun themes that we do each year. Each year, I start with our gingerbread theme. Below are my favorite gingerbread activity ideas from my special education classroom. ...

I'm not going to lie... teaching math is not my favorite. BUT I love how easy it is to make multisensory activities for math instruction. Several years ago I wanted to expand my math instruction beyond my extended standards time, ULS group, and IEP time. I was looking for a way to practice a variety of skills every day. Alas, my Number of the Day Math Corner was born!  **This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. I only recommend products that I use and love!** Every day we practiced the same skills and it WORKED! It worked better than I even dreamed. Suddenly I had students who had been stuck working on basic number identification who were suddenly skip counting by 5s. I had students beginning to generalize Touchmath skills and coin identification. It was AWESOME! I only wish I would have started it sooner.  Below is the overall bulletin board and as you can see after 146 days of school it was well loved! Se......