Special Education Teacher Resources
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From resources for the special education classroom to accommodations for mainstreamed students with special needs, explore Lesson Planet’s reviewed and rated teaching strategies, assessment tools, apps, lesson plans, videos, resource collections, and activities designed to make learning come alive across disciplines!
Whether new to special education or an experienced veteran, starting out the year can be difficult. Here is a model you could use when developing your own weeklong schedule. There are apps to help instructors write IEP goals and objectives for all kids in your caseload. Check out this video review of one such app.
Lesson Planet has resources, lessons, and apps designed for learners on the autism spectrum, sample lessons provided by an ADHD specialist, lessons for children with moderate disabilities and/or Down syndrome, and activities for other students with profound needs. The resources in our collection are designed to make your job just a little bit easier.
Showing 3,404 resources
CJ Hatcher & Associates, Inc.
Skill Building with the Newspaper
Extra, extra, read all about it! Use a newspaper as the primary resource in a special education classroom to teach reading, writing, and math skills. The activities help class members build their reading skills as well as their...
Curated OER
Special Protections-Session Six
Parents and children work together in a community circle to discuss caring for people with special needs. In separate groups, the children sing and listen to a story. They discuss ways people are alike, and ways they are different....
Curated OER
Yes We Can! Students with Autism & Down-Syndrome on the Drums!
To learn about various topics and improve their social skills, learners with special needs play along with music on drums and other sound objects. Teachers take digital pictures of the students participation and use them to make bulletin...
Curated OER
Another Backpack Idea- The Button Bag
Students receive activity bags to bring home and share with their families. They are excited to have "homework" and they accomplish several skills by completing the activities within the bags. This is great for special needs students.
Perkins School for the Blind
Capture the Treasure
Did you ever play capture the flag? I did, and it was so much fun! Your learners with special needs, physical handicaps, or visual impairments can play a classic and highly engaging game with a few minor adaptations. The best part is,...
Perkins School for the Blind
Modified Golf
Golf is a popular game that is enjoyed around the world. Invite your pupils with visual impairments or blindness to putt a few balls or make a hole in one. This lesson plan provides several very good suggestions as to how you can teach...
Perkins School for the Blind
Placemats on Trays
Maybe the idea of putting placemats on trays doesn't sound that great, but it is, especially if you have a physical disability or are visually impaired. This task is one that can be used in a vocational setting and helps develop skills...
Curated OER
Lesson 6: Mittens, Socks, Mittens, Socks, Mittens!
Mittens and socks, two of my favorite clothing items! Young learners with special needs, explore clothing appropriate for cold weather. They identify both socks and mittens, discuss weather appropriate clothing, and listen to the...
Nicole Held
Disability Research
Learners engage in a disability awareness assignment where they research and identify a particular disability, and answer such questions as how the disability might affect the way one learns or what services are available for support.
University of Alaska
Lesson Plans for Teaching Self-Determination
How do we prepare kids, especially those with disabilities, for life after school, for the workplace, for independent living? This 96-page packet is loaded with self-assessment surveys, with skill builders, with information about rules,...
Brain Parade
See.Touch.Learn.
Here is a great app that has tons of potential in helping your child or student with severe to moderate autism, or other intellectual disability, learn words and concepts using research-based methods. Children with autism or PDD NOS have...
Curated OER
Therapeutic Riding Volunteer
For students who have a love of horses becoming a therapeutic riding volunteer may be a perfect fit. This short showcases how therapeutic riding helps both special needs students and horse lovers alike. Students will hear what they would...
Curated OER
Special Ed. Resource
Ways to organize data is the focus of this math PowerPoint. Students view slides that define and give descriptions of a variety of graphs, and how mean, median, and mode are found. A good visual tool which should benefit almost all types...
Curated OER
8th Grade Special Needs P.E. Project
Eighth graders without a disability are encouraged to gain a new perspective about what it is like to have a physical disability. They experience various examples (blindfolding, soundproof ear protection, wheelchair, etc.) to begin to...
Curated OER
Learning ASL: Lesson 9
Here is activity 9 in an extensive series on teaching and learning ASL. Discuss code switching, numerical incorporation, and noun based vocabulary. Then, click on the blue links to view ASL in action. Each link takes you to a printable...
Curated OER
Emotion Card Games
Emotions come in all shapes and sizes, and can be difficult for young learners or students with special needs to identify. Support them in gaining the valuable social skill of recognizing emotions and understanding empathy with this...
Curated OER
Genetic Variation Worksheet
Fill- in-the-blank, labeling, and short answer questions make up this well-written cell division learning exercise. Neat diagrams of chromosomes and dividing cells are included. Junior biologists show what they know about reproduction,...
Curated OER
ASL 1: Lesson 1
Experience lesson one of an extensive American Sign Language series! Whether you are teaching ASL or learning it as a communication tool to use in your special education class, this lesson is great! Foundational signs, such as finger...
Curated OER
Purchasing Items Using the Next Dollar Strategy
Drill and practice is the method of teaching for today. Special needs pupils practice rounding to the next dollar value when purchasing an item at the store. They are shown flash cards with a monetary value, they then have 3-5 seconds to...
Curated OER
Fitness Walking Class
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....
Curated OER
ASL: Building a functional vocabulary
Best resource ever! Teaching and learning to teach ASL just got easier. For special education teachers or those working with hearing impaired young scholars, this lesson provides story and time telling practice using ASL. Each blue link...
Curated OER
ASL: Lesson 10
Focus on learning how to sign cardinal and ordinal numbers, nouns, and lexicalized fingerspelling. Here is instructional activity 10 of the series on learning ASL. Provided, are multiple links that provide a visual guide to proper...
Curated OER
Kitchen Appliances and Utensils: Home Living / Daily Living
There are so many different types of tools we use in the kitchen, everyday. Help your special needs learner discover how to recognize, identify, and use various kitchen utensils and appliances. Using picture cards and drill prompting,...
Lesson Planet
EdTech Tuesday: IEP Goals and Objectives with CCSS
Jennifer and Rich model how to use and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of an app designed to assist special needs instructors in writing IEP goals and objectives for all kids in their caseload.
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