Hi! Welcome to my special education preschool self-contained classroom tour! My class is a half-day program for 3-year-olds who are not quite old enough to stay for full-day pre-k. I love a very structured space that is also fun and welcoming for my kiddos. Come along as I show you how I set up my classroom!
Schedule Wall
The first stop in my classroom is my backpack cubbies (not shown) and schedule wall (shown above). All of my students are color-coded in my room. This includes their schedules, their data folders, their names on their cubbies, etc.. This helps with organization for my paras and me when taking data and organizing materials. It is also helpful for my students who master color recognition before name or picture recognition, so they know where their schedule and cubby are. A student of mine also utilizes a tactile schedule that is kept next to the visual wall schedules. At each area throughout my room, there is a place for the students to “sign in” with their individual visual schedule piece. These schedule pieces exactly match the visual label at each area. (This also targets matching skills!) Visual schedules are a must-have for any type of special education class!
Whole Group Area
This is the whole group area, where circle time and read-aloud are held. In this area are also different items that the students can use at any time when needed. These items include flexible seating, a weighted lap mat, a core board, a feelings communication board, and visual labels.
Learning Stations
The students rotate in small groups between the teacher station, the discovery station, and the creation station.
Teacher Station
The teacher station is where I review the letter and number of the week that we discuss at circle time. I also target academic IEP goals and data here.
Creation Station
This area serves multiple purposes throughout my class day. When in learning stations, the area pictured above is the creation station. A para runs this station, and a different craft or fine motor activity is completed here each day. The craft either aligns with the theme, the letter/number of the week, or targets fine motor skills (such as cutting practice).
The area above is also utilized as our morning bin table and snack table. During morning bin time, my students start with one simple work task that is in a bin. The work task bins are color-coded per student. They complete that bin, and then they transfer it to a giant “all done” box. After, they grab a fine motor bin to work on while the others finish their work tasks. This is one way to ease our younger students into task box systems as they get older!
Discovery Station
This station is typically student-led, but a para facilitates the tasks here. I set up multiple fun activities that align with our theme (this month’s was space). This table typically includes a sensory bin, some different-leveled fine motor tasks, an adapted book, and errorless tasks.
Centers
The students have 4 centers to choose from. They can freely rotate from center to center until the timer is up.
Drama
Pictured above is my drama center, which I change out for every month’s theme. I like to set up activities in there that not only align with the theme but also encourage intentional learning! The backdrop also includes some of the students’ theme-based crafts from the creation station. This allows their work to be a part of the classroom setup!
Toy Center
This center is pretty self-explanatory, haha. I only keep out a few toys at a time to reduce visual clutter and overstimulation, but I occasionally change them out to introduce novel toys.
Library Center
This center is also a pretty common and self-explanatory center: the library. I switch out the books according to the monthly theme. I also provide some alphabet activities and fun plushy reading buddies!
Calming Center
Pictured above is my calming center. This area can be utilized at any time throughout the day when needed. I would typically say not to combine a sensory area and a calm-down area, because those serve two different purposes. Since my classroom is my students’ first ever experience in a school setting, I included the calm down area as a center option, so my students can learn to explore it on their own. This area has different items to help them calm down when upset and items to fulfill needed sensory input. On the shelf, there are also social stories about emotions, emotion puppets, and different objects to help teach social emotional awareness and calming strategies to my students. This awareness will help them learn the correct times when they do need to use the area to calm down and what it looks like. It also helps the students explore their feelings, emotions, and different strategies their bodies may need to regulate.
I am so grateful to have this space to be able to set up a warm and welcoming environment full of learning and fun. There are many different ways you can set up a preschool self-contained classroom, but it is most important to consider the students you have and their unique needs they each have.
Thank you for coming along on my preschool self-contained classroom tour! I hope you are able to take some ideas back to your own preschool special education classroom! 🙂
Want tips on IEP’s in a preschool special education classroom? Check out this blog post!
Are you a half-day preschool special education teacher as well? Check out these 10 Tips just for you!
