Best Bulletin Board Ideas for a Special Education Classroom

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Today’s post is for special education teachers because it is going to be all about bulletin boards in a special education classroom.  Bulletin boards can be used as visual supports to support your students throughout the day.  It is important to utilize wall/cabinet space with bulletin boards and visual supports that will add to the success of your students, not distract them.  

Once you have all of your furniture arranged you can start mapping out your wall space.  To learn more about setting up a special education classroom’s furniture, read about my FLOOR PLAN post HERE.  It’s important to utilize this space to set up interactive boards, visuals, schedules and dividers for each center.  Students with special needs THRIVE off visuals, so this stage in setting up your room is crucial!

Classroom Theme

When setting up your classroom, it is easy to get carried away with classroom themes and cute decor.  However, this should be the least of your concerns.  It is important to keep your bulletin boards practical so that they do not pose as a distraction for your students.  Each bulletin board and visual should have a purpose.  Yes, you can have a cute border on a board or a cute decor here and there, but they need to take a back seat to what is important.  

Student work should be put on display to help students feel proud and accomplished of their work.  It should be done so in a clear and minimalist way to promote learning.

Visual Supports for the Special Education Classroom

Before you map out your bulletin boards, think about what visual supports your students will be requiring to be successful this year.  It is also important to review IEP’s at this time to see what visual supports are required to meet the needs of your students.

Here is a list of common classroom bulletin boards and visual supports that are often found in a special education program that can be a great way to support students within their school day.

Daily Schedule Bulletin Board

Establishing a consistent school routine is important starting on the first day of school.  A simple way to establish consistency within your school day is to have a daily schedule posted in the front of the classroom.  This may look different depending on the needs of your students because it may be a visual schedule or a written schedule.  There is no right way to display your daily activities in a schedule as long as the needs of your students are being met.

Here is a picture of how I set up my daily schedule in the front of my classroom.  I used magnets on a visual schedule because they can be easily adjusted on the magnetic white board.  Unused icons are easily stored in a magnet storage container on my whiteboard.  This same method could be done using velcro on a bulletin board if you do not have a magnetic board.

Weekly Schedule Bulletin Board

Daily schedules are important, but it is usually not the same exact every day.  Most schools offer Physical education, music, art, library, computer lab, assemblies.  Students will also have individual services that will differ depending on their IEP and varrying needs.  I have a weekly schedule bulletin board on display in my classroom.  This made it super simple for any administrator, staff member or service provider to know where my class was at any moment when they walked into the classroom.  This helped to keep my students, my staff and myself on schedule.

​Here is a picture of how I utilized a weekly bulletin board schedule.  Because of this schedule, I was able to easily keep my whole class and individual service schedule up to date. Grab this resource for your classroom HERE.

Morning Meeting Bulletin Board

A lot of classrooms start their day with a morning morning or circle time activity.  This helps create a classroom community where students feel welcomed and supported.  To learn more about how I ran Morning Meeting, click HERE.  Utilize your bulletin board space in a way that your morning meeting visuals are on display in a way that makes sense to your floor plan.  Will you be teaching morning meeting with the students sitting on a rug?  Is there going to be a group table?  Will they be sitting at their desks?  Its important to have the visuals/tools needed to run your morning meeting easily assessable. 

​Here is a picture of my morning meeting bulletin board on display in front of my student desks. To grab this resource, click HERE.

Calendar Routine Bulletin Board

Depending on the needs of your students, you may or may not have a big calendar routine in your classroom.  Calendar skills are crucial life skills for every student.  Over the years in my classroom, my classroom routine was always a big part of our daily schedule.  I ran a differentiated calendar routine so that all students were able to participate on their own.  To read more about my differentiated calendar routine, click HERE.

Here is a picture of my interactive calendar bulletin board. To grab this resource, click HERE.

Classroom Job Bulletin Board

Classroom jobs are a staple in most classrooms.  I used this simple classroom bulletin board to rotate classroom jobs weekly.  It wasn’t anything fancy but it was an easy way to rotate jobs each week.  Students loved getting their new jobs during Morning Meeting on Mondays in my classroom.  This bulletin board is a perfect way to help facilitate job skills in a special education setting.

​Here is a picture of my simple classroom job bulletin board. To grab this resource, click HERE.

Calm Down Corner Visual Supports

Do you have a calm down corner in your classroom?  Do you provide behavior visuals for students who need help coping with their emotions?  A calm down corner is a great way to provide a safe space for your students.  A calm down area can look different depending on your students from year to year.  Because all students are different, there will be no two calm down corners alike. Common items in a calm down area are fidget toys, visual timers, sensory toys, bean bag chair, visuals and deep breathing tools.  To learn more about my calm down area, click HERE.

​Here is a picture of my Calm Down Area: To grab this resource, click HERE.

Word Wall/Sight Word Wall Bulletin Board

Will you be using a word wall in your classroom?  Word Walls are common tool used in special education classrooms.  Sight words are also a common tool in a special education program.  In my classroom my students worked on sight words in addition to their phonemic instruction.  Students progressed through their sight word lists at their own pace.  I organized Dolce Sight words into simple slight words list for easy organization in this FREE binder for teacher organization.  Because students progressed through their own sight word list at their own pace, I wanted a simple way to put sight words on display for easy access for students and staff.

Here is a picture of how I organized my sight word lists at my language arts center bulletin board.

Teacher Organization/Staff Organization

Utilizing small bulletin boards within your classroom for teacher/staff organization is a great way to stay organized.  In my classroom I had a teacher desk.  My teacher’s desk was where I kept my technology for my smart board and all things that were “off limits” for my students. Behind my desk I put schedules and resources that were important to myself and for my staff.  I had certain documents that were important in an emergency, school wide bell schedule, school wide room numbers, service schedules etc.

Here is a picture of my simple bulletin board behind my desk where I organized teacher materials:

Bravo Board Bulletin Board

In my classroom, I had a bravo board to display students’ work.  It was a fun way to easily add work students were proud of.  It was a generic themed board that was up all year long.  Clips were on the board so that students could easily slip their work up to put on display.  Work that went on the bravo board ranged from spelling tests to simple visual crafts.  Whatever the students were proud of went up on the board because the purpose of the board was to empower students!  Students felt proud putting their best work on display for visitors and peers to see.

Here is a picture of my bravo board from my classroom displaying student work:

Math Bulletin Board

My classrooms core instruction happened in small group rotations.  To read more about my color coded work center rotations, click HERE.  In my classroom, my “blue table” was the math table.  With that being said, I had all of my math visual supports put on display on our large bulletin board behind the blue table.  This changed each year depending on the academic needs of my students for that given year.  Commonvisuals were number lines, shapes posters, colors posters etc.  I also had a lot of math adapted books on display on the bulletin board to use for early finishers at the math center.

Here is a picture of my math bulletin board at my blue table in my classroom:

Language Arts Bulletin Board

Like I discussed above, work center rotations is where core instruction took place.  In my classroom, my “red table” was our language arts table.  This is where I created my adapted book wall to put seasonal adapted books on display.  This was used often in my language arts instruction do develop reading skills.  I also had my alphabet adapted books on display hanging on hooks for easy access.

​Here is a picture of my language arts bulletin board at my red table in my classroom:

Classroom Rules Bulletin Board

Setting clear expectations in the beginning of the school year is important in every classroom.  I find it helpful to have some simple classroom rules on display for all students to see while in the classroom.  Depending on what your student’s need, your rules will look different in each class.  Some classrooms require a lot of rules and some require a few simple rules.  Because I liked to keep things simple in my classroom, I had 5 simple rules on display.  My rules were paired with visuals for my non readers.  You can grab these visual rules for FREE in my free resource library HERE.

Here is a picture of my classroom rules bulletin board in my special education classroom.

Technology Visual Supports

Using visual supports to support technology use in the classroom is a great classroom management tool for special education students.  Because technology can be a highly desired item in any classroom, transitioning away is often difficult.  By providing technology visuals, you can help reduce any frustration that comes with technology use.  I created a bulletin board with my classroom computers that had various visuals.  These included a “computer/iPad is closed” visual that could be easily attached to the computer or iPad to signal it is not time to be used.  I also had visuals that said it was time be done.  I also stored visuals for computer passwords to help students become independent logging in and out of the computer on their own.  Your technology visual supports will look different depending on what technology your students have access to.

Here is a picture showing my technology visual supports within my classroom: You can grab some of these visuals for FREE in my free resource library.

Behavior Basics Focus Board

The Behavior Basics Curriculum was a core subject in my classroom.  It was a systematic program that taught expected behaviors and social emotional learning skills within the classroom.  We worked on a different skill every week through our small group rotations.  I had a behavior basics focus board on display where we could easily reference the skill we were working on.  To learn more about Behavior Basics, click HERE.

Here is a picture of my behavior basics focus bulletin board:

Interactive Bulletin Boards

Interactive bulletin boards are a fun way for students to be engaged with learning.  In my classroom I had an interactive bulletin board where students had daily tasks to complete.  I changed it out every two weeks and the the kids never got bored of the activities.  Simple letter and number matching, riddles, puzzles and games were all included in my interactive bulletin board.  To see more of my interactive bulletin boards, click HERE.

Here is a picture of one of my interactive bulletin boards.  These were changed out monthly to match our themes!

​Bulletin Boards in a Special Education Classroom

In conclusion, bulletin boards can be a valuable resource in a special education classroom.  They can provide additional support for students so that they can be successful within their school day.  When I create bulletin boards in my classroom, I like to ask myself, how is this supporting my students?  This is an important self-check method to make sure you are not creating visual clutter, but visual supports.

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