Daily Schedule- A DETAILED OVERVIEW!
SCHEDULE
(8:40-9:00)
(9:00-9:15)
Centers (9:15-10:15)
(10:15-10:30)
(10:30-10:50)
(10:50-11:05)
Centers (11:05-12:30)
(12:30-12:45)
(1:40-2:00)
(2:00-2:40)
Schedules (2:40-2:55)
individual accommodations within each rotation/activity. By keeping the
whole class **(for the most part) all together, it makes staffing and planning
that much easier. I am able to utilize my aides much easier this way!
together due to individual/group services such as speech, or OT. So
how do I handle this? Here is how I do it… During APE, my whole class does
PE. This means that my students that do not have APE go to PE to do their
own physical exercise while those that do have APE go with their teacher.
During OT, the rest of the students do a craft of some form while those
with OT go to OT. The tricky service is speech. Lucky for me, I
have been able to schedule speech at convenient times so that my students don’t
miss “core” academics. When students miss something during
speech or absences, they get caught up during “catch” up time.
I schedule catch up times once a week or so when we have a random
occurrence that throws off our schedule (assembly, fire drill, short staffed
and can’t run centers, a lot of absent students, evacuative tantrum etc,)
Once they have completed all their work up until that point, they can
work on a preferred academic task such as computer, iPod, iPad, puzzles,
coloring etc.
on task for one minute? Simple. They
stay on schedule. If the class is doing calendar, than he/she is
participating in calendar. However, embedded in this student’s calendar
routine, he/she may know that after each page in his/her calendar book, he gets
to stand up and pace for 30 seconds or pull out his stress ball for
one minute.) ETC ETC ETC. Check out my post on sensory integration for more information.
lower than the other’s that they can’t participate with their peers?
Simple. They stay on schedule. Every
child needs exposure and needs to feel included with their peers. Every
activity I do is differentiated. For example, during reading center some
students are working on comprehension, some working on sight words, and some
listening to a story on a CD. BUT THEY ARE ALL AT THE TABLE WORKING ON
THEIR READING GOAL AT THE SAME TIME! etc etc etc.
Morning Fitness takes place first thing in the morning..
After school wide flag salute students go straight to the playground for
free play for a few minutes. Once
everyone is situated, I start morning fitness.
It changes every day and
is the most laxed part of our day. Every day we do different
activities. Some examples include: swing
50 times, run around the handball courts, shoot the basketball, play tether
ball, handball and soccer. I try
to keep it fun and incorporate sharing, rule following and team building
skills. It’s not necessarily a drill sergeant type of PE. I use these
visuals to prompt students to the activity. Sometimes we only do one
activity in the morning, and other days we do several.
The most important thing that occurs
during Morning Fitness is that my aides take students to the bathroom either in
groups or individually based on their needs so that we don’t have any
bathroom interruptions once we get into the classrooms. The ones that
need assistance get it, and those that just need to be sent go on their own.
This makes the morning routine in the classroom way better with less
interruptions.
thing we do when we step into our classroom following our morning fitness. My students put all of their belongings away
in their lockers, check their schedules and sit down to start Morning Meeting.
Morning Meeting is a 15 minute activity that, in my opinion, starts the
day in a fun way!
Morning Meeting is different every day but works on the
same necessary life skills: communication, social skills, and team building
skills. The main goal of Morning Meeting is to take attendance and say
good morning to everyone. While I am conducting Morning Meeting, my aides
can check my students back packs, pull out any communication logs, get student
lunch/snack out, and have the morning centers ready to go by the time Morning
Meeting is finished. Like I mentioned above, we do different activities
every day. We rotate through them so that my student’s don’t get bored!
First, we sing good
morning songs. Next, I call students up
to the front of the room to “check in.”
Their names are laminated and attached to the board with a magnet. Students find their name and put it in the
“present” or “absent” spot. I love using
the magnets because it makes it super interactive!
has “checked in” on the interactive bulletin board, they get to choose a
greeting to give me. The choices are:
wave hug, high five and shake hands. I
have visual cues to help aide the students.
They have a lot of fun picking which greeting they will do for the
day! We also work on answering
questions. I have created a simple
question binder that is laminated and attached with velcro. I use this
once or twice a week. Here are some pictures of my binder and the
questions I ask.
I absolutely LOVE
my work centers! Here I will only be discussing the system of
work centers, not the “work” and curriculum that takes place. I have finetuned
this system to make it the most efficient system for my students. I love my
work centers because it promotes independence and it is consistent! I have 3 work centers during our work center rotations.
table.
table is a cute little sign to make it more noticeable which table is where.
Morning work centers takes place right after
our Morning Meeting. Students check their schedules and get their working card.
They are passed out once they check their schedule.
their working cards and activities picked, work centers start! Students
are grouped into 3 groups (3 students per group.) Each student group has their own group color:
purple, orange and yellow . I have the student groups posted on the
back cabinets so that all the staff and students know where they are supposed
to be when!
Each groups working card has the color table schedule on the bottom so that the student knows which table they are to go to first!
carried by the student from table to table. Each group’s working card has
visual cues at the bottom of the card indicating the order of tables they will
attend to (Ex. 1st Red table, 2nd green table, and 3rd blue table).
The
working card serves as a great reinforcer for my student’s. When a
student becomes unmotivated or begins to act out, a simple prompt to the working
card reminds the student that they will be rewarded for good behavior and hard
work.
rotation, if the student has completed their work and behaved appropriately
they receive a colored clip to clip on to the working card.. We spend an hour total during the morning
work centers. We spend 15 minutes at each center totaling 45 minutes of
work time. If the student has earned
all 3 clips after work centers, they place their working card on their desk and
“trade” it in for their preferred task/activity. For those
student’s that did not earn all three clips, they return back to the table they
did not earn their clip from and finish their uncompleted work. Student’s
are held accountable for their behaviors, and must earn free time. The
students have about15 minutes to play and clean up before snack
time!
free time after work centers students check their schedule and get ready for breakfast/snack. The entire school gets to eat snack during
recess. However, I do snack inside my
classroom before recess. I like to keep
it structured and functional within the classroom so we have all of our tools
handy. I utilize this time of day to
really focus on communication. My school
SLP pushes in during this time to help with different students and their IEP
goals. Overall, this is a quick 15
minute snack time that takes place in the classroom. The rule is- “if you don’t ask, you must not
be hungry.” During snack we have
communication devices, switches, PECs books and iPad apps.
what you would expect- play time outside.
Recess is a very unstructured activity.
In an ideal world, all of my students would mainstream with their peers
for social interaction with no challenges.
Of course, this is not the case.
I have some students go to the playground during recess while other’s
who have more anxiety surrounded by huge groups of people play on the
grass. I store a bunch of outside
appropriate toys in a wagon so that students can roll out the toys during
recess to the designated grassy play area.
My staff work hard to recruit and supervise social buddies during recess
to promote communication and
social interaction for my students. I do
not go out to recess with my staff, this is my only teacher prep time during
the day!
students come in and participate in reading time. I have a book helper
pass out book baskets to students and let each student pick a book or two.
If the student is on task, I allow them to get a “reading
buddy” to help them read. Some students choose to read to their
“reading buddy.” “Reading
Buddies” are such a FUN way to teach our students to remain in their seats
and read/look at a book. It helps them stay engaged and interested!
My reading buddies change depending on the interests of my students.
This year I have some stuffed animals, blankets and pillows. It’s
important to note: the stuffed animals and toys that are in the reading
buddies time are ONLY used during reading time. They are not uses as
reinforcers or toys throughout the day. I try not to mix the toys for
different activities or their novelty will wear off!
book baskets. I’ve found its much easier to grab a basket and walk around
to let a student choose a book from the basket. The library gets too
messy without the baskets as my students have a difficult time sliding the
books in a bookshelf! The baskets are a quick fix! During book time I
play classical music to help calm my students after an active recess.
It
is during book time that we also do all of our toileting needs for the second
time in the day. My aides take the students who need supervision in small
groups. The ones that have health needs/diapers are taken one by one to
the changing room. I stay in the room and supervise the students that
are not using the restroom at the time and interact during reading time.
We are efficient and are able to get all toileting done in 15 minutes or so.
I choose to do this all at once (3 x a day) to minimize the distractions
during work centers and such. If a student has to use the restroom and an
aide needs to go, it can throw off the work centers.
the handicapped bathroom with a ton of visuals. I use visual supports
within the restroom to assist students who are being potty trained.
Our afternoon work
centers are exactly the same as they are in the morning, except different work
at each station. Students know the
routine, get their working card and rotate between the tables before they earn
their reward.
have earned their free time after work centers, I do a whole group calendarroutine. During this time, majority of
my aides are taking their own lunch.
This means I have one aide and 10 kids to get through the activity! Because of this, I keep it hands on and
engaging to eliminated boredom and runners!. Calendar skills carry over
into many aspects of our daily living. With that being said, I am sure to
differentiate the “traditional” calendar routine so that each
kiddo gets the most out of it.
room I have a large calendar set-up on my white board. The calendar is
all laminated and interactive to keep my student’s engaged. All of these
pages up on my bulletin board are the individual pages from my Interactive
calendar books. I just mounted them on
black construction paper to make them “pop” on my whiteboard.
While utilizing this calendar bulletin board to drive the calendar
routine, my students all participate in their own way through individualized
calendar materials. We go through each step together in a strict routine.
I also incorporate TONS of music from various CD’s I have collected and
songs I have found.. Here are all of the variations I use during my
calendar routine!
books I created are printed, laminated, binded and velcro’d. During the
calendar routine, student’s follow along with the rest of the class. The
calendar books mirror the calendar bulletin board in the front of my classroom.
As we cover each page in front of the class, students attach the correct
velcro icon to their own book and read the sentence.
made these simple calendar boards for my lowest students who get frustrated or
mess around with velcro pieces! They are
expected to point a long.
used during my calendar routine. One is
for circling answers and one is for writing answers with the use of a word
bank.
that can be used during calendar time.
All the velcro pieces are included in the file folder. Students fill in each sentence frame to
follow along with the calendar routine!
Like recess, I am not with my students during lunch. It is my chance to eat lunch and enjoy some
quiet! However, lunch is still a huge learning
process for my students. Communication
is the main focus during lunch. Once students are done eating they get to
attend recess outside with the rest of their peers.
students come in and check their schedules for rest time. Rest time is similar to our book time after
our morning recess. Students rest while
my staff take students to the restroom either individually or in groups. During rest time, we turn off the lights,
turn on a disco ball (YES A DISCO BALL), listen to music and relax. Students can choose to lay in bean bags,
peapods, swings, or with blankets and pillows.
Students can also choose to read a book or play with a puzzle. Rest time is a great activity to give my
students a break and a chance to re-collect themselves before the end of the
day.
a little more flexible. Our activities
change depending on the day. This year
we had whole group OT on Tuesdays which was always a blast. Monday’s and Thursdays were typically art
projects or sensory games. Fridays were
ALWAYS movies! We work for Fun Friday in
my classroom. In our district, students
have minimum days on Wednesdays for staff meetings so my students leave right
after lunch.
