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5 Free Websites I Use In My Special Education Classroom

Although I didn’t prefer virtual teaching (did anyone?!), it did lead me to discover websites that I used in my classroom even when we weren’t strictly virtual anymore! I’ve compiled a list below of my favorite free websites I use in my special education classroom. I’m always looking for ways to increase engagement and interaction in my lessons. Therefore many of these websites have movement, sound, verbal feedback, and many different features to peak your student’s interest.

free websites I used in my classroom. Picture featuring hundreds chart from Toy Theater

1. Toy Theater

My favorites subject to use Toy Theater for is math. There are so many supplemental aids to assist your teaching as well as your student’s learning. My favorite includes the hundreds chart that has a highlighter feature. It’s perfect for skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s! I love that it allows you to highlight by color which is useful when working in small groups. You can easily assign a color to different students!

free websites I use in my classroom. Picture featuring boom cards from Boom Learning

2. Boom Learning

The holy grail honestly. I can search any topic and have no problems finding what I need for free as long as I narrow the search down to “price low to high”. I relied on Boom Learning heavily during virtual teaching. Once we all came back to the classroom, I still used it daily! It’s truly perfect for interactive lessons on a smart board. My students love the sound feedback it provides too!

Free websites I use in my classroom. Picture of a laptop viewing animals from national geographic kids

3. National Geographic Kids

If you have students who thrive off of real life images, National Geographic Kids is for you. It’s another free website with endless options from animal videos to fun facts to quizzes. The real life imagery and videos that they use are such high quality. It’s a nice break from the redundancy of clipart!

picture featuring laptop viewing a game from abcya

4. ABCYA

We mainly used ABCYA as extensions of our lessons. If you have early finishers, ABCYA is a great option. The wide range of interactive games make this website a great fit for a special education classroom. It allows you to choose from grades k-6 as well as a variety of subjects.

picture featuring an iPad viewing a game from PBSkids

5. PBIS KIDS

I love the activities section of PBISkids! It’s a great place to gather ideas on how to engage your kids in different topics and subjects. There are countless free games, videos, and activities, to do. I love the create a story feature where you can have your own students practice creative reading!

Like I mentioned before, I definitely was no virtual teaching expert, but these were the sites I relied on the most and was able to still incorporate in my classroom when virtual teaching was over. I would love to know if there any you would add to this list?!

If you enjoyed reading this special education teacher content, be sure to check out my other sped teacher tips and tricks here!

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Toy rotations are a great way to increase toddler Toy rotations are a great way to increase toddler independence during play time!

Here are a few guidelines I try to follow when rotating toys. These are all things I learned in my classroom and teacher days!

⭐️present the toys “undone”. For example, take the pieces off the puzzle to help encourage completing tasks from beginning to end

⭐️encourage a variety of toys. Toys the encourage imaginative play, toys that encourage building/stacking, toys that encourage fine motor practice, toys that encourage problem solving, etc. 

⭐️Be sure that the toys are clearly visible. I used to use tall baskets to display toys within the shelves, but baskets = hidden toys🙅🏻‍♀️ open and easily accessible if possible!

Comment below if you’d like any links!❤️
✨3 MONTHS✨ What I loved the most about month ✨3 MONTHS✨ 

What I loved the most about month 3 are all the memories we made as a family🥰 We got to take the girls to the beach and it was so special! Lily showed us so many smiles and giggles this month too🥹 Month 4 here we come❤️❤️❤️
Lily’s first dip in the ocean🥲 love this litt Lily’s first dip in the ocean🥲 love this little family of mine!
Halloween Toddler Finds! Let me know if you wanna Halloween Toddler Finds! Let me know if you wanna see part 2 🎃🎃🎃
September Sensory Bin Details👇🏼 Trying out September Sensory Bin Details👇🏼

Trying out a new sensory bin filler this month-oats!

What’s in this sensory bin:
Oats
Mini pie tins 
Funnel
Scooper
Apples

What’s on the activity bin side:
Apple trees (made of water containers for painting and paper)
Pouch lids
Scooper tool

Let me know if you’d like to know where anything is from!👇🏼
It’s the final day of 10 days of learning tower It’s the final day of 10 days of learning tower toddler activities and it’s also September 1st so we’re making an apple garland for our September bookshelf!

All you need is apple shapes and literally whatever are supplies you have

Just tape your paper down and put out some art supplies! This was something that took us a whole day and came back to 3-4 times to complete.

Once you’re finished cut out the apples, add a little whole punch, and string them all together. Tape to your bookshelf and you’re done!

I still need to change out my September books but I loved the way this turned out!
It’s day 9 of 10 days of learning tower toddler It’s day 9 of 10 days of learning tower toddler activities and we’re doing a little dot sticker rainbow

All you need is paper, markers, and dot stickers

Just tape your paper down, draw a large rainbow, and hand your toddler some dot stickers. I like to just give her one color at a time so it’s less overwhelming

My toddler loved this activity! Can’t wait to do it with more shapes!

Stay tuned for day 10
It’s day 8 of 10 days of learning tower toddler It’s day 8 of 10 days of learning tower toddler activities and we’re gonna set up a little threading station

All you need is a cut up pool noodle and jumbo pipe cleaners (got these at Target)

You could also easily do this with cheerios and regular pipe cleaners too 

I love these thick pipe cleaners for this activity because the pipe cleaners don’t fall off easily.

Stay tuned for day 9
It’s day 7 of 10 days of learning tower toddler It’s day 7 of 10 days of learning tower toddler activities and we’re doing some toddler science!

Okay this is nostalgic because we did vinegar play all the time in my classroom and now I get to do it with my toddler.

All you need is a large tray or container, muffin tin, baking soda, vinegar, food dye or liquid water color, and some sort of squirt bottle or dropper tool

This activity gets messy so you’ll want to make sure to put the muffin tin inside a larger container to contain all the mess.

First fill all the muffin tin about 3/4 full with baking soda

Then add some liquid water color and mix up the mixture

Fill up your squirt bottle with vinegar and have them pour it over the muffin tin

If your toddler has a tendency to dump things (normal curious behavior!), this may be a better outdoor activity!

Stay tuned for day 8

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