Schedule

Our Preschool has two sessoins that are each 2.5 hours long. We have a morning session and a afternoon session. It is so important for our special needs preschoolers to have a consistant routine and schedule within the classroom to best support their learning.

We start each session with Circle Time. I will make a post to go more in detail about what our Circle Time looks like. We do a greeting, go over the days of the week, the months of the year, the weather for the day, and dance to a closing song.

After Circle Time students participate in Song Choices. During Song Choices they take turns choosing a song to listen and dance to. I typically have three or four kids choose songs each day. I draw names randomly from popscile sticks to see whose turn it is to choose a song. For my students who are non-verbal or have little words I use PECs pictures for them to choose the song. I put two pictures on the screen using a Powerpoint for students to pick from the two songs. I use the same picture from the Powerpoint as a PECs when giving my non-verbal students their choice of the two songs.

Next comes Fine Motor. I have three tables in my classroom for students to work at. Two are for my paras and I have one as well. We split the students up for Fine Motor time between the three tables. Each day of the week each table does a different fine motor activity. The three activities that rotate between the tables are lacing with a shoe string and big button, picking up pom pom balls with tweesers, and playing with Playdough. Each table also has a filler fine motor activity in case one table takes longer then the other or the students have a shorter attention span. The filler activities include foam blocks, foam shapes, and stacking pegs. On Thursdays we use Handwriting Without Tears to teach some handwriting during Fine Motor.

Students then participate in Storytime. During Storytime I read them a book or we listen to a book on YouTube. I ask them some questions throughout the book to keep them engaged and to check thier comprehension.

After Storytime we go outside to play on the playground. Students love being outside even when its hot out! They get to practice their social skills and their gross motor skills while playing.

Next, students are taken to the bathroom to go to the bathroom or to get their diaper changed. Once they are all done in the bathroom they have snack. During snack we use PECs to help them pick what they want for snack. We also have special place mats that help students build a sentence using the PECs to ask for snack.

Lastly, students rotate through three 10 minute centers. Each day each student goes to the Art center and the Academic center. My paras run the activities at these centers. The third center is with me. However, I see students for their IEP service minutes an goals during this time so the students I see at my center varies daily. Some students I see all four days they are at school and some I only see once or twice. If they do not need my center they either go to books, puzzles, blocks, or the play kitchen.

To end our day we do a closing song. Our days in Preschool go by quickly and keep us busy! The schedule helps keep the structure of the classroom and helps students know what is coming next. Each student has their own visual schedule with PECs to follow each part of the school day. I will share more on the visual schedules in a upcoming post!

~Marissa