Lego challenge cards, symbol supported for non / early readers. Some are Christmas themed as I’ve just made them to try and keep my children busy during this last week. Children choose or are given a card which gives an instruction - e.g. build a Christmas tree / first letter of your name and use Lego to build as instructed. It’s a fairly open ended activity but my hope is to provide more structure and purpose to play for my children with autism as some have very short attention spans and flit from activity to activity without any meaningful engagement. 24 cards in all, best printed onto card or laminated so they last.

A resource I made for a mixed group of ks1 / ks2 children with autism / social communication needs. Aim is to develop greater understanding of feelings and to begin to develop awareness of other's feelings, also turn taking and attention and listening. Resource includes a feelings poster and 18 cards describing situations that have happened to an imaginary child - e.g. 'She has a wobbly tooth'. We discuss the various feelings an how children are feeling today. Cards are placed face down and children take turns to turn cards over. They consider how the person may be feeling. More able groups could be prompted / questioned to consider would everyone feel that way in that situation (some people can't stand having wobbly teeth, others get excited...) further developing theory of mind and understanding that people can feel differently about situations.

This is an interactive book I made for a ‘Community’ / ‘People who help us’ topic. I printed and laminated all of the pages and stuck velcro on the who / doing / what symbols underneath each picture. I printed the last 3 pages twice, cutting out the cards from one version and using the other version as a base page, on which to keep the cars when not in use. I include 2 options of this book - one with more text (i.e. ‘What is the policeman doing?’) and the other kept simple (i.e. ‘Who doing what?’) I’d be happy to change the frame colours if you use a different colour system for the categories. Feel free to message me. Used for children and young people with ASD / SALT / Learning Disabilities.

Cards giving a selection of situations, child uses a clothes peg to select the answer. Best laminated so resource is more durable. I use these with children who have autism but also suitable for KS1 or children with other SEN / SEMH needs. Can be used 1:1 or in a small group. Some of the answers I’ve had have surprised me, even when I know a child well - I’ve found this quite an interesting resource to get to know my pupils in most depth.

Resources used in my ASD specialist provision class last year, this was a mixed age and ability class who found positional language very difficult to master, even with lots of practical lessons! The pictures used are coloured teddies as we had teddy counters in class. I’ve chosen the colours to match the counter colours so we could use physical teddies for children who needed a more concrete experience. Teddy before / after - 3 A4 sheets. Two of these sheets have a line of teddies at the top, with an arrow to show the direction that they have lined up in. Children need to answer ‘before’ questions (e.g. ‘who is before orange teddy?’) As most of the children had limited literacy skills, I included a strip of teddies at the bottom of the sheet so they could cut and stick instead. This allowed for more independence. The 3rd sheet was an extension for my more able children. Children had to use ‘before’ or ‘after’ correctly in sentences about the teddies. Position Teddy - 5 A4 sheets. Sheet 1: 3 lines of coloured teddies Sheet 2: simple tables Children are given one of the 3 teddy strips which they use to complete the table on sheet 2. Sheet 3: black and white teddy strips to colour Sheet 4 and 5: directions strips Children are given a black and white strip and a sheet of directions (e.g. ‘Red teddy is 1st’ so the child colours the first teddy in their strip red) I chopped and laminated these where appropriate (the teddy strips and instructions) so they were reuseable. They can also be left as they are and glued into books. Together with some practical work, these activities covered maths lessons for over a week. If laminated, they are also good to come back to as one off refreshers, or for 1:1 or intervention work.

Weekly weather recording chart / log. Colour coordinated for ease of use. Used for pupils with ASD / SLD to develop awareness of the weather, but equally suitable for other pupils with SEN or children in KS1. Resource can be used as a cut and stick worksheet, or could be laminated to be used more than once. It could also be blown up to A3 size and used as a whole class or small group resource. I have used a very similar resource as part of my class morning routine.

A game I made for my small class of learners with autism. Suitable for any small group introduction - e.g. intervention group, speech and language, attention and listening. Learners throw a dice and move around the board. When they land on a question, they answer the question. I like to ask another member of the group a question relating to the answer, to encourage learners to pay attention to each other's answers - my children tend to have very little interest in each other! Supports social skills, attention and listening, turn taking. Used for specialist autism group but appropriate for any mainstream KS1 / KS2 group or older SEN group.

A few resources from when we read Sharing a Shell. I teach a mixed age primary class, all with autism attending specialist ASD provision. Ability at the time ranged between P4 and approx Reception / Year 1 level. Resources are also suitable for mainstream learners working at this level. Download includes: Sharing a Shell book review - A4 sheet, learners identify who is in the story, where the story is set and what happened 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Sharing a Shell LA - position activity for my lowest ability learner, I used this with the child working 1:1 with a TA, discussing the picture and seeing if the child could identify ‘where’ (TA reading the sentence) Position Sharing a Shell - 2 near identical worksheets for children to write the appropriate word in the gap. I can draw… - these were to encourage mark making / fine motor skills. Frame with a prompt picture of the characters in Sharing a Shell. 3 x A4 sheets. Who words dotted - We did a lot of narrative and colourful semantic work in English lessons. This activity was to reinforce / generalise understanding of ‘who’ and to develop mark making / handwriting / recognition of character names (more able).

This is a pack of Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch resources I have used during a seaside topic with a mixed aged (KS1 / KS2) group of learners with autism. It includes a planning sheet to think about the lighthouse keeper's cottage, differentiated TEACCH style structured sheets to support writing about the Grinling's cottage, and images of the cottage for pupils to stick in their books before writing about the cottage. There is also a word mat to support spellings and jog memories. There is a mindmap type sheet to encourage pupils to reflect upon what the Grinlings thought about the naughty seagulls. There is a symbol supported powerpoint about lighthouses and a lighthouse fact sheet for children to complete. There are also differentiated grammar sheets for learners to decide whether to use 'and' or 'but' in a sentence.

Resources used with a mixed age group of children with autism when reading the Rainbow Fish during our seaside topic. Sheet to generate describing words before writing about the Rainbow Fish, a wordsearch, 'feelings' activity for children who struggle to imagine how a character may feel, grammar activity (identify if a sentence needs a question mark or full stop). As there is a starfish in the book, we also learnt about starfish, using a symbol supported fact sheet to answer reading comprehension questions (differentiated).

This is a booklet to monitor progress in making simple food and drinks for learners with SEND as part of a Life / Independent Skills Curriculum. Works well for learners with a range of additional needs at secondary and Post 16.

I made this resources to introduce similes to a mixed KS1 / KS2 group of students with autism. There is a mindmap used to introduce the idea - think of something which is white. Children used these to complete sentences I wrote on the whiteboard (we were reading The Little Polar Bear). There are 2 worksheets for children - identify a simile from a choice of 4 names pictures. There are a final 2 sheets using a visual mindmap to suggest alternative words for ‘cold’ and ‘worried’. Saved in PDF and in Publisher. Used in primary but also suitable for SEN / KS3.

‘At the hospital’ - matching activity. Identify things found in the hospital. With this activity , I laminated and put velcro on the base board and matching cards. Two base boards included and two sets of cards for each baseboard - to cater for readers and non readers. Also appropriate for use as a cut and paste work sheet. ‘Who board - emergency services’ - another activity which I laminated / added velcro. Matching images of emergency service workers to their names. Again, also suitable for cut and paste activity if you prefer not to laminate. Suitable for mainstream and SEN - created for KS3 learners with autism and learning disabilities.

Worksheet to support pupils in reflecting on events in their lives so far. Developed for pupils with SEN and autism who struggled with reflection, recall and sequencing.

Storyboard - designed for children with autism to reinforce their understanding of the story. Children sorted the order of the text as a group before drawing their own accompanying pictures. With my group of children (mixed aged KS1/KS2) I kept the text on the worksheet but I have included a publisher version so this activity could be adapted to a cut and stick activity, or children could write their own sentences.

4 oval shapes for learners to draw - self portrait, things I like, my family, what I want to do when I grow up. When these are finished, ovals should be cut out and folded in half. Two halves should be stuck to one oval - making a 'cross' type shape when viewed from above. Apologies for my rubbish description! String can then be used to attach the 'basket' to the hot air balloon. A lovely 'getting to know you' craft for the beginning of the school year. These look nice strung in a line across a window.

Various winter topic activities. We have been reading Little Polar Bear so have learnt about the North Pole / Arctic and what adaptations polar bears have in order to live where they do. Activities include picture of a polar bear / cards for children to stick on sheet to label (polar bear physical appearance) Jungle / Arctic sorting table with 2 sets of cards for children to sort (set one - facts about the areas, set two - animals) Polar bear adaptations worksheet / facts to stick. Two different versions of this, one is simplified. Short North Pole PowerPoint I have included resources in publisher and PDF format. Used for children in KS1 and KS2 with autism. Also suitable for mainstream pupils / older pupils.

Cut and paste activity to visually reinforce simple fractions - halves, quarters and eighths. Created for KS3 students with autism.

Poem with images as prompt. For 'My Family' topic SEN Y8 - students who struggle to find information in text. Cut and stick activity - identify which gadgets different family members like. Very simple to encourage independent thinking. Cutting and sticking for motor skills.