Daily Schedule

The daily schedule is basically the beating heart of our classroom, and probably most special education classrooms! The schedule helps me as the teacher plan out our day, helps my students to build a routine, and helps my paras know what to do, where to do it, and which students to work with throughout the entire day. Although creating a schedule for a diverse group of students and including specials, inclusion times and therapies can be overwhelming and time consuming, it is a vital step in creating a structured classroom environment for our kids. I always have a staff schedule and student schedule posted right when you walk in the classroom. This way, anybody walking into the classroom (administrators, subs, therapists) knows where each student is and where each staff member is at all times.

I also have a master visual schedule posted on the whiteboard in a central location in the classroom. Each side of the pictures on the schedule have Velcro so that when we are finished with one activity it can be turned over. We use this as a transition tool along with our "Time to Change" song.

This year, all of my students are starting off with a portable visual schedule on their desks. The individual schedule stays on the student's desk and they go to their desks to check their schedule each time we transition. In the beginning this can be a little hectic because students are still trying to get used to it, but throughout the year every single student makes some kind of progress with transitioning with their daily schedule. We celebrate everything, even the small stuff! Eventually our goal is to carry the schedule to each center independently or to move to a schedule with no pictures. All of my students are still working on pre-reading and writing skills so the color coded-picture based visual schedule works the best for right now.

Each center/ area in the classroom is color coded and the large classroom schedule as well as the student individual schedules are colored to correspond with the center. Each area in the classroom also has a check-in area for students to place their visual schedule piece. When they are finished at the center, they will put their picture in the finished bin. (index card holders with the top cut off)

School has been going on for about 2 weeks now and I can already see progress with my students ability to check their schedules and transition throughout the classroom independently! Click here for a pack of schedule visuals. (not color coded)