In collaborative groups, emerging engineers or environmental scientists plan and construct a water wheel or watermill that rotates for a total of three minutes. Everything you need to carry out this lesson is included: objectives,...

Focus on learning how to sign cardinal and ordinal numbers, nouns, and lexicalized fingerspelling. Here is activity 10 of the series on learning ASL. Provided, are multiple links that provide a visual guide to proper signing. Teach your...

The Fitness Walking Class unit is well-organized, and you could use the skeleton of this unit to organize your own Fitness Walking Class. Use pedometers to keep track of steps, write in journals, and get other people to walk with you....

Fun is in the air as learners with special needs engage in sensory-filled activities. They discuss color, snow, cold, winter, and body parts while touching and smelling various objects. They discuss the parts of the body with relation to...

Sorting big and small objects builds spacial reasoning classification, and visual discrimination skills. Your class will read a story about big and small bubbles, practice identifying big and small objects, then sort big and small balls...

Children with special needs participate in several activities to reinforce shape and color recognition. They sign the word leaf, sing a song about leaves, and bounce leaves around on a parachute. They then help the instructor name...

A special education classroom examines a variety of literature from Latin American authors. In groups, they read excerpts from many autobiographies and compare them with their own life. After writing their own autobiographies, they...

Assertive communication is an acquired skill. Teaching young people to ask for what they need and to believe that they have a right to ask is at the core of a unit on assertive communication. Over the course of the unit, middle and high...

Planning activities for Autism Awareness Month? Check out the ideas in a packet designed to raise awareness of autism. Suggestions include plans for an assembly to launch a school-wide focus, lesson plans for classroom activities,...

Teach your special education students about cause and effect with this SMART board activity. After analyzing real-life examples of cause and effect -'What happens when you eat too much? What happens when you don't get enough sleep?"-...

Exploitation is a real issue for the disabled community. Secondary Special Education students learn what exploitation is, their personal rights, and how to say no. They focus on finding a trusted adult to get help if they have been taken...

Keep your secondary special education class informed and aware of STDs, HIV, and AIDS. They learn what STD stands for, how STDs are transmitted, and how to protect themselves. A case study, note to care provider, handouts, transparency,...

Bring the excitement and beauty of Japanese festivals into your classroom. Kids with special needs create calendars that reflect special festivals and holidays common to Japanese culture. They start the project by creating a list of...

Use photographs to teach young special education or speech young scholars how good speech looks, as well as sounds. Kindergarteners are photographed making the F, TH, W, R L, and S sounds. They then use the images to identify each sound...

Whether this the first time you've had a learner with Asperger Syndrome in your class, or you have years of experience with learners on the autism spectrum, a booklet about the best ways to accommodate these kids in the classroom could...

Have you special education class examine multiculturalism. By exploring the cultures of Israel and Greece, they discover the holidays, cuisine, arts, andgeography of the countries. During this twelve-week unit, students develop a...

Such an ambitious lesson! Third graders with special needs listen to an audio recording of the novel, Moby Dick. They stop often to discuss each of the main characters and analyze their actions in the story. They then make puppets of one...

Creating substitute plans may not be the highlight of your workday. Make the task less daunting with a general, day-long plan covering math, reading, word work, and writing. 

Focus on an individual's behavior by providing daily feedback. The teacher makes notes each day on the progress page and provides comments before sending the form to a parent or guardian for a signature.

Tackle a task on the gridiron. Scholars use geometric concepts to determine the distance on a coordinate plane that certain football players need to move for a play. They then design their own plays and create presentations where they...

Students investigate the effects of autism by creating a slide-show presentation.  In this special needs lesson plan, students define autism and the mental health problems it can cause young people afflicted with it.  Students...

Special Education students practice setting a goal and following through with it. They learn skills needed for transitioning into a different part of their life.

Students investigate how both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington displayed the trait of honesty. They listen to read alouds of class books and poems that address both the lives of these men and the trait of honesty. They use a graphic...

We are All Alike…We Are All Different is the springboard for the creation of an illustrated book in which young writers record their impression of themselves, their families, and their interests. Sharing the completed books in circle...