Classroom Reveal: Independent and Group Work Station

This is hands down my favorite part of my classroom. This is where the goodness is stored. The amazing products from TPT sellers. The accessible materials that help all of my students succeed. This is it. Are you ready?

 

 

This bookcase has been cleared out a little bit to make some room. I feel like my higher functioning students do not get enough love, so I am putting some new material together for them. I already have, and love, the math centers from The Autism Helper. They are perfect for my two higher functioning students to do with an assistant. I have started printing her writing centers to add to the top shelf. I also just grabbed her literacy centers to put on the second shelf. I can’t wait to get those prepped.

The white binders hold the sorting skills bundle from Exceptional Learners. This is another seller who does not get enough love. She has some truly amazing products in her store. I found these on one of the sped hashtag sales and it led me to a dream store. Seriously, anything from her is amazing!!

 

The row of binders store the Independent Work Binder system from Autism Adventures of Room 83. This is a fantastic set that meets the needs of a lot of learners and I highly suggest grabbing at least one set for your room. I have her January set out right now. It’s penguin themed so we will probably keep it out through March, to be honest. I put the bugs set out in April, the pumpkins in September, and the turkeys in November.

The rest of this section is my mini-shrine to Especially Education. I have a straight-up obsession with her task boxes. I know I’m not alone. I have way too many of the IRIS photo boxes. I use Sterilite 6 qt. boxes as well. I store the level 1 task boxes in the IRIS photo boxes and the level 2 task boxes in the Sterilite boxes. I have the original bundle, the Science/Social Studies bundle, the Math bundle and the English/Language Arts bundle. Of course, my level 2 Science/Social Studies box is missing right now-but that’s the life of a special education teacher sometimes!

 

This is where I store my other tasks. This is actually a set of cubbies I found in storage at my school. I absolutely love this unit to store my task boxes. It’s expensive, but if I ever move schools I might have to beg my husband to buy one or have one made for me. I uses Sterilite 6 quart boxes here, too, and the labels come from Autism Adventures of Room 83.

We use the absolutely amazing Work Box Assembly Tasks from Sailing the Spectrum. I cannot stop raving about these. They are so super cute and I love the themes. I also used this starter pack from The Autism Helper to get my system running a couple of years ago. It is a great base and I still have many of the packs running in my center. These life skills work box tasks from Simply Special Ed are the best way to round out the system.

 

On top of the system, I store my puzzles. I just switched to this storage system and it works super well. I am in the process of creating matching labels right now. All of the puzzles are stored in a file folder organizer. It is a super easy way for me to quickly see which puzzles I have. I keep all the pieces in pencil boxes, stored in a crate.

 

 

I love this system because I can grab the puzzle base board and pencil case and stick in the 3-drawer system! I love these wooden puzzles from Melissa and Doug, and I also buy every Target Dollar spot puzzle I find.

 

We use the Story Time Packs from Teaching Special Thinkers. I have the base stored on the back of a rolling whiteboard cart. I can easily roll this to wherever I am doing story time. There are racks (similar to the file folder organizer) on the cart. I store the books for the month and the pieces that go with those books on the racks.

 

This is what my independent work stations look like. I have room for 4 students to work independently at a time. There is another identical set behind this set of desks. I clustered 4 desks together and I put a 3 drawer bin next to each one. I have fabric collapsable bins next to each one. The labels come from Especially Education. You will find the labels in her task box sets. You can also grab similar visuals in her Visuals and Positive Behavior Supports pack.

 

I also snagged these two tables from storage at my school. I love these for group work. My assistants can pull 2 or 3 students together and work on file folders and task boxes. It’s also perfect to give more room for the assembly tasks mentioned above.

I store most of my file folders on this bookcase. The bulletin board is my classroom base area — more on that tomorrow. I actually use book bins to store my file folders and it has been the perfect solution! I also absolutely love these small photo keepers. They are very similar to the IRIS photo boxes and perfect for storing task cards. See below for pictures and links to the products I store in the bins and photo keepers.

I love these telling time flip books from You-Aut a Know. I prepped them wrong and cut off the storage page, but we manage okay! The -wh flip books are from my store and perfect when working on that skill. I also store the task boxes that align to whichever weekly unit I’m doing in my classroom that week. We will be doing the ocean unit when we get back to school so those are ready to go. I also have the Basic Skills Grab Bags from Exceptional Learners-another goldmine of hers!

The photo keeper might as well be called the Just a Primary Girl center. I own multiple photo keepers and all store her fantastic task cards. My students use the Word Work and the CVC slider task cards. I also just bought her new Puzzler bundle as well as another photo keeper to store it in.

This next set includes the shapes sorting file folders from My Special Leaners and my Classification file folders. The Feature, Function, Class flip book comes from Superheros in Sped. I love the freebie I See a Bug file folder from Creative Curriculmn Adaptions and The Autism Helper Interactive Reading Work Bundle was used to make the dark green file folder. The Dollar Up books from The Autism Vault are perfect for my higher learners, as well as the sequencing books from The Bender Bunch.

I store the file folders from my Syllables pack here. I also store my basic sequencing file folders-that is one of the first products I ever created! Oh, the nostalgia. I am also mildly obsessed with the file folder bundle from My Special Learners. The ones pictured here are from her bug set, but I also have her ocean set, holiday set and fall set. The color matching file folders as hers too!

 

The color splotch cards are from the color sorting pack from Mrs. D’s Corner. I also have the Color Sorting file folders from Autism Adventures of Room 83. The bug file folder is a freebie from Shining Starts Special Education. I have a bunch of basic skills file folders from Simply Special Ed in this set, as well as the Emotions file folders from The Autism Helper. The blue and purple set is from a pre-made set off Amazon. These can be a bit pricy, but perfect if you don’t have access to a color printer or a laminator. Just add Velcro and go! I love this math pack and the basic skills pack rom Carson-Delossa.

You can’t see it super well here, but I also use the core vocabulary word wall from Mrs. D’s Corner. The hanging chart is a CVC sorting chart that was given to me and makes a great standing task.

 

I absolutely love this section of my classroom. I did not have anything like it my first couple of years of teaching. Once I put it into place it made the biggest difference! Check back tomorrow for more about the Classroom Base section.