Welcome back to my blog! In this post I am going to share how I modify the Creative Curriculum to fit the needs of my students. I want to preface this post by saying that my administration is extremely flexible with their expectations of the preschool teachers using the curriculum to its fullest. The curriculum they have provided us with, The Creative Curriculum, is written for a full day general education class. My class is a half day special education class, so the expectations provided by the curriculum do not align with the expectations we have in place for my students . They have full trust in the preschool team that we know what is best for our students and we know what they need. 
I will have another blog post about how I organize all of my Creative Curriculum materials. 

General Info About My Class

I teach a preschool self-contained class in a public school. I have 2 half day classes that can go up to 12 students in each, and two teaching assistants. All of my students have IEPs (Individualized Education Plans). In my school there are also two other preschool classes. One class utilizes ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) where students work in 1:1 and 1:2 ratios with teachers. The other class is an integrated class, where half of the students are typically developing, and the other half of the students have special needs. Having the different classes allows us to move students to the class that best fits their needs at any time during the school year. Also, if we find it appropriate, we have the ability to have a student split their day between two classes.

Creative Curriculum

Our supervisor provided us with 10 Creative Curriculum Studies when the district switched to the Creative Curriculum. We have the following alternative studies; Beginning of the Year, Boxes, Clothes, Buildings, Trees, Bread, Pets, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Roads and Balls (we only use during ESY if needed). For some of the studies we only have the guide and for some we have the books and the other provided materials (you will find out below why this isn’t really a problem in my classroom). The Pre-K team decided a few years ago to make an ‘A’ and ‘B’ year with the studies. We did this because there are too many studies to fit into 1 year and we have so many students that are with us for 2 years, so they are able to get different materials each year. 

A year: Beginning of the Year, Boxes, Clothes, Buildings, Trees
B year: Beginning of the Year, Trees, Bread, Pets, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Roads

Modifying the Curriculum 

Since my classroom is self-contained, all of my students have some type of delay and are not able to learn in a general education setting. This is why I modify the curriculum and expectations for my students. To be honest, I look at the focus questions in each study and plan on my own from there. For the most part, I make each focus question last a whole week. I find that my students need a full week of one topic to fully grasp the material. Below is an example of how I planned the PETS study. When there is a holiday or something special like Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Hanukkah/Christmas, Fire Safety Week, etc. I do try to plan a whole week to talk about it.

I make a plan like this before the school year starts for the Fall and right before winter break for the Spring. This gives me an idea of how long we will spend on each study and when I have to prep certain things. 

Planning

I am going to share with you how I plan for each study and each week. I think this will give you a better understanding of how I use the curriculum in my classroom.
I use this Unit Planning sheet that I made to plan for each study. This gives be a broad outline of how each week will look. At the end of this post there is a download button for you to download my planning freebie. This unit planning sheet is part of the freebie.

Since I have already planned what week I am going to teach each focus question, filling out the first three columns is easy. 

1. First, I start to figure out what lesson materials I will need for each week. When I discovered that @twopeasinaprimarypod made anchor chart materials for the Creative Curriculum my life was made so much easier! I use these anchor charts to teach my students about each focus question. These anchor charts are simplified versions of what needs to be covered from the curriculum, and they are a PERFECT fit for my students! Now that I have them all prepped and ready for each study, I just pull them out when it is time. So, in the ‘lesson materials’ column I write what anchor chart I am going to use and then if there are any other materials that will help teach my students for that focus question I also write them there. 
   I have started to make retention data sheets for each CC study to see if my students are gaining the information from the focus question after a week of talking about it. You can find those in my TPT store.
   
2. Next, I start finding books for the study. Again, I do not have the books for all of the studies, probably just for 6 of the studies. But even the books I do have from the curriculum are too advanced for my students. Most of the time I get books from our school library related to the focus questions, or I find books online. I plan one/two books per week depending on how many I find and depending on the focus question. 
   
3. Then, I plan cooking activities in advance. There are cooking activities in the curriculum, but I do not use those. The PreK ABA teacher and I do cooking together on Fridays. We find cute cooking activities together online or we make them up ourselves. We like to plan this in advance so that, if possible, we can shop for what we need all at once. Parents give us $5 a month for cooking and we “cook” every Friday. Here are some examples of cooking activities we will be doing during the PETS study:

This is an example of what the planning sheet looks like when it is done. I do not give this to admin, this is not part of my lesson plans, this is just to help ME!

The last thing to start thinking about/planning is small and large groups!

We do small group 3 times a week. Small group is when my students work in a group of 3-4 with one teacher for about 8 minutes and then rotate to another teacher. I use these small group rotation boards during this time. I do not use the small group suggestions from the curriculum simply because they are too advanced for my students. Also, I have so many other topics I need to make sure I cover with my students since they all have IEP goals. 
We either focus on a skill related to their IEP goals during small group, or something related to the focus question/study that we are working on that week. This is when we do Made For Me Math work, Especially Education task boxes, seasonal activities or other activities I find on Pinterest or TPT related to our study. If there are any crafts we might do during the study I try to plan them out ahead of time. We don’t do crafts every day, or even every week, but if there are crafts I want to do during the study, I like to print an example of it or pull it from my files and put it aside to make sure we prep it in time.

Large group only occurs in my afternoon class, because my students are older (mostly 4 turning 5). In large group we work as a class to complete an activity. This is mostly Made For Me Math activities/books, butcher paper activities, or other fun stuff I find that is higher level for them! 

Here is an example of my planning sheet for small/large groups.  At the end of this post there is a download button for you to download my planning freebie. This group planning sheet is part of the freebie.

I usually plan large and small groups 2 weeks in advance just for peace of mind. This year I am really trying to pull from what I have since I have so much stuff that I have purchased or made over the past 2 ½ years. 

My lesson plans in the end look like this. Again, very simple and my admin is okay with that! They know that I am focusing on what my children need while also incorporating the general education curriculum. This template is from The Creative Classroom. Having my lessons laid out like this helps ME. I print the ‘groups’ page just like it is here and put it on display for myself and my TA’s. This keeps us organized for the week. 

Questions I have gotten about this topic on Instagram:

Q: How can I modify the CC for a 2 year old level?
A: I would recommend doing something similar to what I do. If they are general education 2 year olds it should work well. TwoPeasInAPrimaryPod has great resources for adapting and modifying the CC.

Q: What areas of the CC do you think are most important?
A: I really think the focus questions are the most important. If you can get your students to have an understanding of each FQ, then you are doing a good job. That will look different for all of our students, but I think that is the most important. I do this by having the anchor charts for each focus question out for a week and going over it every day.

Q: What do I do if I was not given materials for the curriculum, just the framework?
A: Honestly, since I don’t use a lot of the materials that I was given, and I only use the focus questions, I might not be the right person to answer this. I take the focus questions and do my own thing (as you can see above). Hopefully reading this post will help you do the same!

Q: Do you have a planner or a pacing guide?
A: As you can see above, I make my own! I take the focus questions from each study and come up with my own schedule. I also use my own unit planning sheet for each study. This just helps me stay organized.

I hope this was helpful to some of you! I would love to add more to this if anyone is looking for more information. If you have any questions or want to know more you can message me on Instagram or email me at engagingearlylearners@gmail.com

After seeing my story on instagram about how I organized my Made For Me Math materials, Michaela from Especially Education reached out to me asking if I could write a guest blog post about it.

Click on the picture below to read more about it!

My classroom has come a LONG way! Not only am I changing things before each new school year, I am constantly changing things during the year! I think that it is easy to want your classroom to be Pinterest perfect and insta-worthy, but this is not realistic. Our classrooms not only have to be a place that we like to be in, but they have to be a place where our students feel safe, comfortable and able to learn!

I learned this right away in my first year of teaching. One quick example is the way I stored my table toys. I had them in colorful bins on a wooden shelf. The way the shelf was, the bins were tilted sitting on the shelf. My students COULD NOT put these away independently. After a few days of school that first year I quickly realized that I had to come up with a new method. I could go on and on about all of the things that I have changed. Not only did I change a lot of the physical ‘look’ of my classroom, but I also changed a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. For example, since my first year I have revamped by closets and labeling system probably 100 times. Not only to make them look better (yes I had comic sans font my first year) but to also make it more FUNCTIONAL for myself and my classroom assistants!

I wanted to post these pictures to let first year teachers, and even 2nd, 3rd year teachers know that PROGRESS is more important than PERFECTION! Your classroom, mine included, will NEVER BE PERFECT!!! We are always getting new students with different personalities and they all need different things. We as humans are always changing and like or dislike different things. Even though I love the way my classroom looks now, I am already thinking about how I will have to modify certain things to fit my student’s needs and the needs of my class as a whole. Just yesterday (2nd day of school) I had to add more stickers to the floor in certain places to help my students be more independent during different times of the day. It was not my plan to do this, but my students needed it, and in a few weeks when my students are fully independent when getting their seat work or putting their sticker on their chart, I will be thankful for those small changes I made!

I hope this helps some of you. I am no expert whatsoever, but I do think that after 3 years of setting up my classroom I have learned a lot! Good luck to everyone who just started their school year…I have a feeling it’s going to be a good one 😉

All of my videos can be viewed on my Youtube channel (click here).
I will not be uploading videos regularly, but these videos will be housed there.

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my blog! I am so glad you are here to read my very first blog post!! In this blog I am going to give you a description of a typical day in my classroom. I start by giving you some general information about my class so that you have an understanding of who is in it, and then I go into detail about each part of my day. I also let you know what my role and my teaching assistant’s roles are during each part of the day. I hope this helps you in your classroom!!

I will be giving an extensive classroom tour in my Instagram (EngagingEarlyLearners) stories at the end of August so please watch that so you can SEE everything I discuss here. That tour will be saved to my story highlights as well!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me: engagingearlylearners@gmail.com

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MY CLASS-General Info

I teach a preschool self-contained class in a public school. I have 2 half day classes that can go up to 12 students in each, and two teaching assistants. My AM class goes from 8:25am-11:15am and my PM class goes from 12:15pm-2:55pm. All of my students have IEPs (Individualized Education Plans). In my school there are also two other preschool classes. One class utilizes ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) where students work in 1:1 and 1:2 ratios with teachers. The other class is an integrated class, where half of the students are typically developing, and the other half of the students have special needs. Having the different classes allows us to move students to the class that best fits their needs at any time during the school year. Also, if we find it appropriate, we have the ability to have a student split their day between two classes.

Transitions

I wanted to explain how I handle transitions in my classroom before I get started. I have a wireless doorbell from Amazon that is probably the best thing I ever bought for my classroom. I use it for every single transition, including switching interest areas. I teach my students in the beginning of the year to freeze and look at me when the bell goes off. This definitely takes some practice. So, when the bell goes off I say, “Hands up, freeze, and look at me”. This allows all of the students to concentrate on the directions before moving. With that being said, I also give my students a lot of warnings before transitions. I know this helps all students, but especially in a special education class it is important that your students are prepared for what is coming next, and WHEN it is coming. For this I normally just announce that there are __ minutes left before __. I also make sure to go up to specific students, who I know struggle with transitions, and let them know that a transition is coming.

UNPACK

My students come off the bus from the door next to my classroom. They are able to walk right into my classroom and start unpacking. I have an unpacking visual schedule posted next to each cubby. Although most of my students are able to unpack independently, I found that having the visual there helps them stay on task. I mean, we all need visuals…right?! During unpacking my students hang up their jackets and backpacks, put their folder in the bin and put their snack in the top cubby.

 

EXPLORATION (Independent Task Box Work Station)

After my students unpack their backpacks, they get on line to pick their first independent activity from their assigned drawer. Students complete their activity and then get a new one. They continue this until the bell goes off. We use a wireless doorbell in my classroom!

See my blog post on Especially Education’s blog for more information on my independent task box work station. Here I go into much further detail on this… https://especiallyeducation.com/task-box-independent-work-system/

 

CIRCLE TIME
My students sit on our large carpet for circle time. I use the SmartBoard to display what we need; weather, calendar, etc. This is when we discuss the day. Our greeter says “hello” to all the students and teachers, we talk about our jobs, discuss who is at school that day, discuss the calendar, schedule for the day, and the weather. These routines help foster math concept understanding, as well as social skills and language. My teaching assistants sit behind the students to make sure that everyone is sitting nicely and attending.

 

MORNING WORK – Sign In, Seat Work, Table Time

(see my Morning Work story highlight on Instagram for more information about this time)

SIGN IN/SEAT WORK

Students independently sign themselves into class by completing a handwriting task. Every student starts off by tracing lines and circles and gradually moves up to spelling, building and tracing their own name. After sign in they complete a seat work task which is a worksheet specifically targeted to skills like tracing, matching, coloring, etc. These tasks are leveled to meet every student’s needs. My teaching assistants and I each sit at a table during this time to ensure that every student is on task.

TABLE TIME

Each day the children engage in fine motor, visual motor perception, and readiness activities such as pegboard, beading, Legos, etc. When finished, they clean up their materials and choose a new activity of their choice. My teaching assistants and I allow our students to independently explore their table time activities during this time.

 

SMALL GROUP

Children circulate through small group activities with the teacher and assistants. Groups are 2-4 children and address mostly academic, motor, and social goals. The groupings of students change from day to day according to the specific goals being addressed for each child. Activities are open-ended allowing for exploration and work on numerous types of skill levels. (example: work with colored bears-addresses counting, sorting, color ID, patterning). On Fridays we always do a cooking activity with another preschool class. Our cooking activity always relates to the season and/or theme.

 

SPECIALS

Each day we have a special area class within our classroom. This includes music and library. We also have gym once or twice a week. Library and music happen within the classroom on our large carpet, which allows for some consistency for my students. During this time my teaching assistants assist the special area teacher by sitting behind the students to make sure they are sitting nicely and attending.

 

SNACK

Snack time is about 10-15 minutes. I encourage families to only send one snack and a drink because our day is so short, and I want to be able to fit as much in as possible.

 

READ ALOUD/LESSON

We use the Creative Curriculum in our classroom. During this time I introduce/discuss the theme in detail and the students participate in learning activities and read alouds related to the theme. Since the curriculum is written for a general education full day class, and we are a special education ½ day class, I have the freedom to modify and adapt the curriculum as needed. I basically take the focus question for the week and adapt the content to best fit my population of students. I use TwoPeasInAPrimaryPod’s achor chart materials and I use read alouds from my school library, and sometimes the curriculum, to teach my students about the focus question.

 

INTEREST AREAS

During this time the students choose among the open interest areas of the day. They have approximately 5-10 minutes in each interest area before the bell (wireless doorbell from Amazon) goes off to switch to another area. Individual students may be pulled at this time for more extensive work on IEP and classroom goals. The teaching assistants and I circulate during this time to assist in play, socialization, and language.

Our interest areas include: Pretend Play, Art, Building, Cars &Trucks, Puzzles, Sensory Table, Magnet Board, Books, Play Dough, Fine Motor

 

PACK UP

After we clean up interest areas all of my students sit on the carpet for songs. During songs I call 2-3 students over to their cubbies at a time. This past year I learned that this works SO much better than having everyone pack up at once! I also have a visual for packing up posted next to each cubby. My teaching assistants switch the unpacking visual schedule to the packing up one during the day. Having the visual has really helped my students with packing up. I always found that they had trouble getting everything into their backpacks, but if they go in order of the schedule (folder in first) than they do not have trouble.

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Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

I hope you were able to find this helpful. Remember, I will be giving an extensive classroom tour in my Instagram (EngagingEarlyLearners) stories at the end of August so please watch that so you can SEE everything I discussed here. That tour will be saved to my story highlights as well!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me: engagingearlylearners@gmail.com