Struggling to find lesson plan ideas...?

Question

I am a special education teacher and I am teaching students in an MD class from grade k-6 (yeah big difference). All of my students are in completly different places cognitively and I am having trouble finding free worksheets and fun lessons for reading, math, and science. I would also love any ideas on teaching functional skills.

Answer 1

go to abcteach.com it has some good stuff

Answer 2

For the younger kids try bringing a jar of candy and tell them to take a hand full. For each piece of candy they take, they have to tell something about their selves. Kinda cheesy, I know but hey, it math and you find out new things. For science, show them this cool lab. Fill a petri dish half way up with milk, put 3 or 4 drops of food coloring away from the middle. Soak tooth picks in dish liquid. Place the tooth pick in the middle and have them explain what happens.

Answer 3

Your best bet is to go to sitesforteachers.com (I think that's the right way).  It lists 200 or so web sites, a lot of them are free.  I also use learningpage.com.  It is free and would work well with your lower level kiddos - stops at the 3rd grade level.

Answer 4

if you have computers, this is a free site with interactive math activities. Don't know much about free worksheets other than edhelper.

http://nlvm.usu.edu/

Answer 5

I am in the same boat, I teach multi-categorical Jr. High self contained kiddos. My favorite site is www.learningpage.com I've gotten really good ideas and worksheets on there for free, also www.teacherplanet.com has tons of lesson plans, worksheets, etc. I am always on the Internet looking for free lesson plans, worksheets and ideas. Not much out there for functional skills though, we usually have to make it up as we go along. I do community service activities, both on and off school grounds, we walk over (2 blocks) to a low-income clothing store where low income people can buy clothes for less than a dollar. We hang clothes on hangers, sort by size, types etc, and if the clothes are too stained or torn to sell, we take them back to school and cut off buttons to sell to the local sheltered workshop. We also have a paper-shredding job where the kids shred all the "sensitive" special ed papers, like old IEPs. I also do a little business in my class, I got a letter cutting machine through a grant and we take orders, process and make the letters and deliver the finished product to teachers for bulletin boards. We are going to spread that out this year and also do it for a few day-cares in the neighborhood. This is all in addition to jobs we do around the school, cleaning the cafeteria after lunch shifts, recycling, washing the hall windows, etc. Functional skills are best taught as real life activities. You not only are teaching the physical skill, but work related behaviors as well.