Schedule Break Down

Figuring out your schedule is like trying to solve a puzzle. There are tons of pieces you have to fit in but the question is how? After reading this post, you will learn how I set up my schedule and hopefully be more confident in creating your own!

Arrival: As students come into class ready to work, they hang up their jackets and backpack. They then sign in by moving their name from home to school. This is a wonderful practice for fine motor skills, name/picture identification following one-step directives. (Grab my FREE Sign in poster HERE). After that, students go and get their work bin. Work bins are filled with tasks pertaining to student’s IEP goals. Following the completion of their work bin, students may choose a blue bin or a book. Blue bins are filled with manipulatives geared towards fine motor and pre-academic skills and are rotated out bi-weekly. Check out my reel to learn more by clicking HERE!

Circle: Our morning circle is all done on the Promethean board. For me this works the most efficiently. I don’t have a bunch of calendar pieces that will go missing or have to stash elsewhere. It also super easy to edit, as things are constantly changing in our room! We even have a schedule for morning circle!. Morning circle starts with a good morning song choice. We then follow our song with attendance, classroom rules, calendar, and weather. Next, we take look at our focus wall which has our weekly letter, number, color, and shape. After that, we do our name letters and exercise. Look at our Morning Circle Post for a more in-depth look or watch this video!

Rotation stations: This is my favorite time since it means I get to work 1 on 1 one with students! Rotations station is 30 mins long with ten min stations. Students navigate between an assistant-led station (craft), teacher lead station (IEP and academic work), and a carpet station. The carpet changes depending on the day of the week. Tuesdays and Thursdays it is a student-led station. Students can play with the toys on the shelf (these are rotated out biweekly). Mondays and Wednesdays this station is led by our amazing SLP. If you want to take a deeper dive into Rotation Stations click HERE. or watch this VIDEO! No rotations Friday! On Friday we always cook((check out our post on Friday baking HERE.)).

Centers: Center time is a chance for students to learn through play! My assistant and I play alongside the students working on social, communication, and academic skills through play. Students are free to navigate across the classroom while flowing a few simple rules. To enter a center, students must take their names and put it on the corresponding board (linked here). Each center has a student limit so if it is full they have to go somewhere else (reinforcing turn-taking and social skills!). Students can change centers as they please but they MUST clean up before leaving. Our centers are blocks, cars, trains, discovery table, sensory, puzzles, art, books, light table, and housekeeping. We also have a core board and visual prompts for each center to help reinforce or AAC skills!

Whole Group: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we have whole group storytime. We follow our Read it Once Again Curriculum books but apply Creative Curriculum Intentional teaching cards (I have a separate blog post about this) for storytime and switch them biweekly. Each time we read we incorporate something different.. We use different props, activities, and SmartBoard lessons. On Tuesdays, we do our Focus study using our Little Books for Big Thinker books and on Thursdays, we do music and movement. Who doesn’t love a good song and dance session?!

Potty/Songs: Using the bathroom is a big task in our classroom. Some students are potty trained, some are just beginning, some are in pull-ups, and others are still in diapers. Needless to say, potting all students can be time-consuming. To make it faster, we do song choices that relate to our story and take turns using the bathroom. We can have all students use the bathroom in under ten minutes! (Grab my free bathroom visuals in my free resource library! ) While my assistant is helping students with the bathroom and the rest of the class is listening to songs, I am filling out their daily communication log found HERE!

Playground: We go on the playground for 30mins give or take every day. For the first 15 mins, we are the only class. We are then joined by our kindergarten friends!. This is a great time to work on our communication and social skills. We even have a communication board for the playground (see separate post here!) to help us better interact with our peers!

Snack: This is a great opportunity to work on requesting and AAC! Students bring in their own snacks due to allergies and the occasionally picky eater. Parents have the option of sending them in bulk to keep at school or some daily. We always encourage to choices so students can practice their communication and requesting skills. You can get the same AAC snack board we use in my classroom by joining my free resource library!

Goodbye Circle: While their classmates finish up snacks, students can read a book on the carpet. When the timer goes off books go back in the basket. We then sing goodbye, pack up and go home! We may only be at school for a short amount of time but we pack in a lot. Students always leave one day smarter!