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. ...

Back to School season is upon us! I know I can't believe it either. To make heading back to the classroom easier I have compiled my top 10 special education resources for your classroom. Click on any of the cover images below to find the resource in my TPT store! Resources for Teacher Organization Before the students even start, it is essential to get organized! So much of the SpEd world revolves around paperwork so these resources are great time (and sanity) savers! 1. NO PREP IEP Organization Kit : This kit provides helpful resources for IEP planning and progress reports. Check out this blog post for a page-by-page snapshot of what's included: Must-Have IEP Organization Kit   2. NO PREP IEP Progress Monitoring BUNDLE : This bundle includes over 100 progress monitoring sheets covering TONS of skills in Math, Reading, Writing, Communication, Vocabulary, Daily Routines, and Fine Motor that are ready to print and go! Resources for Routines The first week (or two!) of school shoul......

When I first started teaching, I did not have a curriculum. I didn't have anything really. So each week I was recreating the wheel trying to find something to use to target common elementary skills and IEP goals. It was EXHAUSTING! And extremely time-consuming. Eventually, I discovered if I chose a theme for each week it made planning easier and instruction more cohesive. As I repeated themes year after year, I was able to accumulate a variety of activities so I would keep the same theme for longer than a week. Typically 2-4 weeks would be just right.  For each theme, I had some predictable activities with the same format that I would just modify to match that week's theme. As any successful special educator knows, predictability can be so important in our classroom! This allowed my students to learn the content without simultaneously needing to learn the activity expectations.  Vocabulary: Students chose vocabulary words from a bag to match to the corresponding pictures on my......