Thankful for Special Educators Bloghop!! Tips & Freebies!

It's here!!!! And you're here!! So put up your feet, grab a notepad for all of these awesome tips you're about to receive and enjoy your freebies and the bloghop! You deserve it!

My tip is to show you how I organize my classroom center rotations with so many levels. 

I teach 1st through 5th and students with a wide array of disabilities. I have ten students. The first two hours of our day consists of ELA and Math center rotations. I have four centers for each and each center is 15 minutes. So ELA centers are 9:27 to 10:27. Math centers are 10:27 to 11:27. 

This is my rotation chart. I really like using "real life" pictures as often as I can.
I have four groups and they each go to four rotations. My groups go by colors. I have a pink, green, blue, and yellow group.

ELA Centers are: word work, at your seat, teacher table, & read to self.

Math Centers are: number work, at your seat, teacher table, & computer/iPad.

This is my Word Work Center. As you can see, the trays correspond with each group's color.

 This is my Number Work Center!

 Each group does what is in their group colored tray. If they are pink group, they know they are to do what is in the pink tray. Sometimes each tray will still have differentiated activities. It may not always be the same activity for each child in that group. I also have an aide in this group working with the students.

At Your Seat Group

These are my student bins. Bins are not color coded, but folders are.  

Each child's bin looks like this! Two interactive notebooks and 3 color coded folders. During the"at your seat" centers, they do IN's. During the ELA rotations, they know their IN activities are in the blue folder. For math, they are in the green folder. The yellow folder does not pertain to our rotations and contains their independent morning work that they take out and do as soon as they arrive each morning. 

 This method keeps all of their work and individualized curriculum so organized....for them and for me!

Some think I do the bins because I use tables. But...we have these awesome tables with desk storage, but allowing them to store their work and assignment folders in these cute little table cubbies....let me tell you....is a DISASTER!  The bins spell out ORGANIZATION! Note, I also have an aide working in this center.

Teacher Table, Read to Self, and Computer/iPad centers are pretty self-explanatory. My Read to Self and Computer/iPad centers are fairly independent and do not require an aide or assistance for the most part...once you get them trained!

So picture four centers, me at teacher table, one aide at word/number work, one aide at the at your seat center, and one center is independent in both ELA and Math. The independent center in reading is read to self, and in math the independent center is computer/iPad.

This is the timer I use to time our rotations. I LOVE this timer! It is the simplest method I've tried. I love that we the teachers can monitor how much time we have left during our center and whether we have time to start a new activity or such. It is so easy to use. No punching buttons or inputting numbers....just drag the red slide to the minutes you want and that's it. No start button or stop button when it goes off! This is the large one, but they come in small, medium, and large. I got mine for free from my Assistive Technology Dept. so check with your AT dept. first!!! If they can't provide you with one, they can be purchased at Lakeshore {here}. 

As you know, there is little time in the day to collaborate with your aide(s) and I want to know how my students are doing on the activities I've set up in their centers. So in order to do this, each aide has a communication log at the center they work that they leave me notes on.

 They can tell me on the log if a student is struggling with a particular skill, has mastered a particular skill, if they see an "ah ha" moment or whatever! It has been a great tool this year!

I have worked by trial and error, several times over as I'm sure we all have, and this system is the perfect fit for my classroom! I love doing centers as it keeps the kids moving and engaged, plus allows for much easier differentiation! If you are using centers or are thinking of doing centers, I hope these tips and this system will assist you with your special needs students and rotation system! And for your freebie, I've included the communication log and my center rotation cards to get you started!

Communication Log

Center Rotation Cards

And before you go....If you'd like to follow "The Bender Bunch" on our special education adventures, I have a couple of giveaways for you! Enter below to win a "Mini Time Timer" from Lakeshore or a $25 gift certificate for thirty-one!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

I'm also giving away an item from my TpT store! To enter, browse my store {here} and leave a comment below telling me the name of the item you'd like and I'll pick a winner next Friday! 

Thanks for stopping by and joining our special educator bloghop! We are thankful for you! I hope these tips and freebies will help you on your special education adventure! For more freebies and tips, continue your bloghop by checking out Mrs. P's Specialities...just click the button below.

Best Ever TpT Center Storage

Trial and error, trial and error! That's my middle name. I believe it has taught me more than any college program ever did! I'm always trying new things, and either they don't work, or they do! I'm always looking for ways to simplify my planning and organization and most of the time it takes much trial and error. I'm a seventh year SPED teacher and I'm still looking for the perfect method to teach and collect data on IEP goals, how to progress monitor effectively, how to develop the perfect multi-level lesson plan, and so on! Does that tell you anything? But through much trial and error I can finally say....I have finally found the perfect way to store my center activities. Problem solved! No more ziplocs! 

Don't get me wrong...I love ziplocs for everything, just not for my centers!!!

I was beyond excited for these to arrive a few days ago!

BEFORE.....

While this may look somewhat organized, it was a pain in the butt! Trying to keep task cards and little pieces in these open ended folders, or staple baggies to the inside, or much less trying to store required dice for an activity in these office folders.? It doesn't work very well! Believe me!

These zipper envelopes are just genius!!! They are 9x12, so they are perfect for storing full page centers and recording sheets. They easily and conveniently store small pieces as well as dice or counters that may be needed for each center! The clear pockets allow you to see what is in the pack or allow you to easily insert a cover page for each center! I just love them! Best investment ever!

Here are my centers now! All neatly tucked away in their own pocket! 

And while everything is always a work in progress for a teacher....now I'm looking at possible color coding as each package comes with 5 colors! The possibilities with these are endless...and there are SO many uses! While these are easy to flip through, you could also organize skills by color. For instance, all base ten activities could be blue, while all addition centers could be yellow. Holiday and seasonal themed centers could also be sorted by color.  

Personally, I try to stay away from too many seasonal/holiday themed centers for a few reasons. Through trial and error, I have learned that these skills are not usually what I need for my students at that time...and adjusting their centers for each holiday/season can cause a great deal of additional work for the teacher when you are working with multiple levels. 

I've already filled up 75 of these zippered envelopes....and just ordered 10 more packs! I don't want to chance them being discontinued as I accumulate more centers. They come 5 to a pack from "www.officesupply.com" and after searching the web, this is the best deal I have found!! You can check them out {here}, and shipping is free on orders that are $45 or more!  

How to Differentiate Your Centers Easily

I've written about my center rotation system a couple of times, but never in isolation or with details of how I often have to differentiate my centers within one group to meet my already differentiated groups and all of my students' needs. 

To start with the basics....and I must add, at this time, I am working with moderate to high functioning students. I teach grades 3-5, but do have a 2nd grader this year. I have students with Autism, Downs, MI, HI, and am mostly consumed with EBD students this year and this is how I differentiate centers in our classroom. 

Back to the basics. With three grade levels, I find that I can easily break my students into 3 to 4 groups that fit nicely. One group is my very low-non-readers/non-verbal students that are on more of a functional curriculum, one group is my beginning readers, one group is my students that are reading but are 2-4 years below their grade level, and one group is my high functioning group that are at or near grade level, but are in my room due to severe and extreme behaviors. 

I color code my groups into 3-4 colors; so I have a pink, blue, green, and yellow group and these colors remain consistent throughout my centers. This is ONE center in my reading rotations; the "Word Work Center." 

One of my aides works this center and knows exactly what to to with each group of students depending on what I have placed in that groups' basket. 

I also use this same system for my Math Centers. When I took these photos last week, I only had 3 groups for math, but that has since changed with our school-wide schedule change and I now have a "yellow" group included here too. This is my "Number Work" Center that one of my aides also runs.

These colors also correspond with the same colors at the "Teacher Table" center. Reading is kept in their color-coded basket, while math is kept under their basket keeping it easy for them to manage during reading and math centers.

Again, my groups are organized based on the criteria I mentioned above and here is my visual center rotation chart. I always have my students rotate counter-clockwise so this is easy for them to learn and follow. My centers are on the walls around the room, so they are not bouncy back and forth. Having them rotate counter-clockwise provides a nice, easy rotation flow for them that they can easily follow after a few days of practice. 

This year, I have only one student that requires an individualized step-by-step schedule, and this is his schedule. 

Note that his daily schedule matches the pictures on the class rotation schedule. 

Each time the timer goes off and it is time to rotate, he checks his schedule by grabbing his next visual and then matches it to the corresponding visual located in his next center.

Like this! 

This is his number work station, so he matches the visual from his schedule to the corner of this poster and knows he is in this center until the timer goes off again! 

Here is an example of his Word Work Station Visual that he will independently rotate to.

This looks like our Whole Group Station, but it is actually a picture of whole group posted on our whole group board where he will match this visual to. 

Here he will match his technology visual schedule piece when he rotates to computers. 

Here he will match his "At Your Seat" visual schedule icon when it is time for him to rotate to this center. This is taped at his seat and where we do IEP Tubs. Some of these are a little worn, but it just shows how much they are being used and what it really looks like.

Although my centers are pretty differentiated in themselves with my four groups, I still find that I still sometimes need to differentiate even further within each center. Here are some ways I differentiated Math in my classroom last week in each center. 

This is such an easy one to differentiate! On this game in my "Number Work" station, students typically would roll two die, make an addition problem, solve it, and then remove that heart. For my lower functioning students I use it as counting practice for them. They simply count the dots on each die and remove that number. Students on different levels can still play together. :)

Here we were working on "10 more, 10 less" and "1 more, 1 less." Some students needed a hundreds chart while some students didn't. 

By the way, this little guy aced this activity with his hundreds chart. I was so proud of him!

I love these math fact task cards from TouchMath! Some of my students will complete these using touchpoints, while some of my students don't need them. Some of my students may need a numberline or manipulatives to complete these. It's all about differentiating for what EACH of your students need!

I love this math curriculum from Angie Neal! I differentiate it by using my flair pen to make touchpoints on the numbers for this student. 

I created these Money Mats to be differentiated for 3 levels in my classroom (Level One not shown). Students just learning money and to count by 5's can complete Level 2, while more advanced students can complete Level 3 where they actually count out the coins.  

This is another center I differentiated last week in my centers. Some students were required to simply add the next sequence to the pattern, while higher functioning students were required to add the next 3 sequences without a box, plus discriminate between big, small, and medium. 

Yes, my students are doing this! Some do only ones, some do tens and ones, and some can do hundreds, tens, and ones. I actually have a new student that can do thousands! :) Again, I differentiate depending upon student needs and levels.

Differentiating money is super easy! Who doesn't love money! Some of my students can tell me the name of the coin, while some can tell me the value of the coin, some may tell me how many quarters make up a dollar, and then I have a couple that can actually count dimes and nickels.

Another easy one to differentiate! TIME! All of my students can tell time to the hour, so this is what they practice. Some can tell time to the hour and some can tell time the quarter hour, and I'm even teaching my high group to tell time to the minute. These clock matching puzzles and other clock activities are so easy to differentiate with all of these unique learners. 

When it comes to reading and phonics, look how easy this activity was to differentiate. Four students working on four different skills. One student was working middle sounds, one on ending sounds, one on building the whole word and one was learning to write the whole word. Differentiation at its best!

My students ALL love these, and while they are perfect for my beginning readers, my readers want to play them too! So how I differentiate for them while still letting them participate and play these games is I challenge them to give me the long vowel word for the short vowel word, give me a rhyming word for each word, or for higher functioning students, they have to write a sentence with their word. 

Writing is probably the most needed differentiated task in my classroom! While we all write on the same topic, I have students that write on this paper and copy modeled sentences and some that write paragraphs in regular lined papered journals.

I have students that write in beginner writer journals, and some that write on raised line paper to practice letter formation and staying on the baseline. 

This is another BIG part of differentiating in my classroom! My IEP Tubs! One of my popular posts to date....you can read it here....and one of my most favorite centers in my classroom that is always differentiation at its best! I won't go into detail here, but you can certainly learn more about my IEP Tubs here. 

I really hope you take away some ideas for how to better set up and differentiate centers in your classroom to better meet your students' needs! You can read more details about my center setup and how I manage them and my paras' time here. Feel free to post questions if you have them and I will be happy to answer!