Decorating ideas for special needs school open house???

Question

It's 1:1 teacher/student ratio, so we have cubicles for each student, and each is supposed to be decorated according to the child's IEP, interests and needs. Many are autistic, and other disabilities also. I also need to make large displays to spice up the walls throughout the school, but nothing that would be torn up easily because they do run into the walls a lot. Any ideas??

Answer 1

On general principles. check aitinstitute.org for ideas beyond the standard 1:1 school; for actual case chronicles and a DVD, try us at audiohope.org. Our president is a former music teacher, and uses generous amounts of art, too. In the next couple of weeks we'll be adding our saga of a brother/sister act we had, with ADHD and some Down symptoms thrown in. Our latest was a 14-year-old ADD girl. Hope you enjoy the site--it just keeps growing.  

Answer 2

try getting the kids involved -have them do some problem solving while they use the tools you provide to create an atmosphere for entertaining.

Answer 3

Each student/teacher should be responsible for decorating their own cubicle based on the individual student. I would insist that the decorating also be functional. Also to be something that gets added to as the year progresses. There could be an all about me board, where the student and teacher take pictures through out the year of the different activities they participated in. There could be a calendar of the different goals for the year that gets checked off as each one is completed, and highlight the one currently being focused on. There could be a board of the students favorite books, subjects, animals etc that they add to continuously.

There could be an area for PECS and time boards if needed.

I would also encourage the students to contribute to the displays so that they are meaningful. Have each student trace their hands and cut them out on fall colored paper and use them to make the leaves on trees. They could trace their bodies and color them in to represent the student body.

Cover everything in plastic so that it's not destroyed easily (mac tac)

I'm not sure of the age group you are working in but make it relevant for your school.