Home / Distance Learning Packets and Strategies for Special Education

This post originally appeared on the blog Breezy Special Ed.

So it appears that COVID-19 is here for a while and many schools are canceling and they are asking for students to participate in eLearning or distance learning activities.

This definitely presents a unique challenge for all teachers (and families), and especially special education teachers who are wondering how in the world am I going to do that? Here’s a few ideas, including some FREE (and some paid) resources.

Give Suggested Learning Activities:

Make a BINGO board with suggested activities for parents and students to complete together.

I love this Homework Choice board that Taylor, a member of our Breezy Special Ed facebook group, made for home learning days. She was so nice to share her template if you are looking for something similar! CLICK HERE, then choose “make a copy” and you should be able to edit your copy.

On a bingo board / list like this you can come up with functional, real things that students can do at home that they might not otherwise get the chance to do! It will also help give parents some ideas and strategies to pass the time.

Send Home Packets:

I know many teachers are scrambling to print at home packets. Let me help! I picked out a few 2 week resources in my store that I think would be great to use as home packets.

Search #homepacket in my TpT to get these zoo themed writing, math, and reading activities for FREE. (The regular price of these combined resources is $14.)

Then all you need to do is:

Download
Print by level (there are 3 levels for beginning learners in both the life skill math and journal sets and 2 levels for the reading comprehension)
Staple together
Send (or mail or email*) home with your students

*email is not typically allowed but due to these unique circumstances is allowed

If you need more than two weeks, you can also grab these packets at 50% off

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Breezy-Special-Ed/Search:%23homepacket?utm_source=blog&utm_term=28tpt28b&utm_campaign=TeachingTipstoTry975

Google Classroom:

Wondering how to do e-Learning with your students? Interactive self-checking PDFs with a Google Quiz might be the answer!

All BSE digital resources are extremely VISUAL and require NO READING.

See how to use the BSE Digital Activities in Google Classroom in this video below.

Digital Activity bundle found HERE.

I will be adding more of these digital activities to the bundle during the next few weeks as well to help with this kind of distant learning. If you own the bundle, all future downloads will be free (otherwise all new digital activities will be listed at a heavily discounted price of $1 during the duration of these school closures)

Online Resources:

Many companies are making their subscriptions free during this time. Here are a few that I have heard of and am familiar with.

Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. free during school closures
Storyline Online (always free): Books read out loud by authors / famous people
Scholastic
Learning A-Z
Accessibyte makes fun, funky, fully accessible apps for users who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, dyslexic, or have other reading difficulties

See a large list of more resources HERE.

Explaining COVID-19:

Are your students feeling anxious about COVID-19 and school closing / the possibility of school closing?

There’s so much talk about the virus on the media and no reason for our students to feel nervous because that doesn’t help anything!

I wrote some social stories (available with or without symbols) to help your students know:

what COVID-19 is
how to prevent
what might happen if schools close

All in a non-threatening, not scary way.

Knowledge is power! Download these free COVID-19 resources HERE!

Visual Schedules:

Widgit Online offers a free 21 day trial that would be perfect for creative visual schedules for kids to use at home to help provide some structure and predictability in each day.

Widgit Online is very user friendly. You just type and the symbols appear! They also have templates you can use to make it even easier.

Here is a sample one I created:

What else are you doing to prepare your students?

We have so many great ideas and discussion going on in our BSE Insiders group on facebook. Join us.

Now stay calm, stay healthy and print those free and discounted resources! 😉

As always, please let me know if there is any other way I can help.

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Brie is a special education Teacher-Author who is passionate about helping ALL students become more successful and independent individuals. She creates differentiated materials that help teach a range of functional skills and they can be found on her TpT store. Connect and learn more with Breezy Special Ed on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog, Breezy Special Ed.