Sorting activity for KS2 with SEN. Children cut and stick items into categories.

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.

I use these as TEACCH workstation tasks (Box Jobs) within my autism classroom. I laminate the baseboards and cards, adding velcro so the resource is reusable. It could however be used as a worksheet task. One set is to sort items into the categories - fruit / vegetable / animals. One set involves learners sorting prepositions - in / on / under One set involves sorting colour

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.

This is a simple worksheet I made as part of out Ancient Greek topic, for a mixed aged / ability group of children with autism. Children used a sheet containing the ancient Greek alphabet to complete the worksheet.

Simple Orion story for primary children with SEN / autism We read the story together on the PowerPoint. The word document was cut into strips and we sequenced them as a group. We then made our own telescopes from cardboard tubes to look at the Orion constellation (used our telescopes to look at a square of card with pin pricks to show the 'Orion constellation').

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.

I used this to develop very basic counting skills in a child with significant needs. It can be used as a cut and paste worksheet (3 worksheets if you print the table 3 times) or laminated and used as a re-useable sorting / workstation task. I also used the laminated cards to play counting games with the child - giving him a selection of cards (all of the cards would have been overwhelming) and asking him to find 3 apples / 2 bananas etc. Once he became more confident with this, the next step would be to give him a selection of cards and ask him to find all of the threes / all of the twos etc. As this child was particularly motivated by superheroes, I included some superhero cards too.

4 baseboards and 16 cards (best laminated to make the resource last longer). Baseboards each showing 4 items. Pupils use the accompanying cards to identify which items go together (e.g. head goes with cap). Boards and cards are colour coded to ensure that the sets don’t get mixed up. I used these as workstation tasks / morning jobs but they could also be printed and used as worksheets. Designed for children with autism / social communication difficulties to develop reasoning / logical thinking and for the child to begin to make connections. Can be extended by asking the child / young person to explain their reasoning.

This is a 2 page fact sheet designed for my class who were a mixed age primary group, all with autism, attending a specialist provision. This group were working between P6 and approximately a Y1 level. The activity was designed to increase learner’s awareness of basic facts relating to themselves as few of the class were aware of basic personal information such as their full name, birthday and address. As the activity was geared around them, they were more engaged than usual and most were able to remember the key facts after practising asking and answering each other. I also linked this to our maths - taking about how many of each eye colour / shoe size etc and measuring heights, hands and feet. I will upload that separately. Activities suitable for any age group working at this level. Eye is to be coloured in with appropriate colour - in case anyone is wondering why there is nowhere to write the eye colour!

I made this for a little boy with autism who was working at mid P Levels. This was to develop his basic one to one correspondence of numbers up to 10 and ordering numbers. The activity is suitable for mainstream or any aged learner who is working at a basic maths level. There are 10 A4 sheets in total: 5 have 2 cards on 1 A4 sheet. These sheets have apple trees with a numbered basket (1 - 10). The idea of these was that the child places the matching number of ‘apples’ on the tree. For apples I used red counters or small red pompoms. There is an A4 apple tree with a space to place a number card on - this could be used in 2 ways: Adult (or peer) places up to 10 ‘apples’ on the tree and the child has to find the correct number card or the adult / peer places a number card in the space provided and the child has to place the correct number of ‘apples’ on the tree. The other pages have apple themed number cards to use with the A4 apple tree. They could also be used on their own for ordering, identifying which number comes next or is missing…or print twice and use as a memory game. This activity would be best laminated / velcroed. Its a bit of a random addition but as he could also rote count in 10’s to 100, I included number cards for 10’s numbers to develop his ability to recognise the numbers.

Colourful Semantics / Narrative - Interactive book with an Emergency Services theme. Who?-doing?-what? sentences. I laminated this to create a book, attaching with keyring rings. The child or young person goes through the book identifying who is doing what in each picture. For example: ‘Police officer-walking-dog’ or ‘Fireman-sliding-pole’. Tips: When printing, I printed the last 3 pages twice, using the first copy as a baseboard and chopping the second copy to make individual cards, which I attach with velcro to the baseboard. This works best for me as it keeps the pieces together and is easy to see if any cards are missing. While the child is becoming used to this activity, I talk them through each stage, encouraging them to identify ‘who?’ first, then ‘doing?’, then ‘what?’ Once the sentence is complete, I encourage them to repeat the sentence as a whole. If a child struggles to identify from a full page of options, try offering them a choice or two cards, gradually increasing the number of options as they become more familiar with the activity. Some children need prompts to really look at the picture and think about what they can see.

Cards show British coins up to £1 in value, stating “I have…” Underneath is a statement saying how much an item costs. Learners need to count the coins and decide whether they can afford the item. Many learners with ASD / SEN struggle with money sense and the idea of whether an item is affordable or not. This activity could be extended to ask how much change the student would receive if the item is affordable, or alternatively, how much more money they would need. Designed as an independent workstation task for learners with autism but could also be used in a small group. Learners use clothes pegs to answer the question yes / no to make the task more interactive and to focus those who find sitting and writing to be difficult.

Sorting activity, used as a workstation task but could also be used 1 to 1 or for small group work. Used to develop reasoning and reading comprehension. Children sort fact cards into ‘truth’ and ‘lie’. Cards best laminated so they last - I blue tac the truth / lie cards onto 2 plastic containers to give more structure to the activity.

This is an activity for children or young people with autism, or other special needs, including learning disabilities. Children use the PECS to request the items they need to make the craft, then follow symbol supported instructions to make the item. Included are the instructions and PECS to make a paper plate spaceship and a puffy paint moon. I’ve made these to send out to my parents in home learning packs but they are equally suitable for use in school.

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).

Human Body introduction, leading to an investigation for children to investigate the impact of exercise on the heart rate. Table for children to complete to record their heart rates. Sheet to record the investigation process.

Sorting task for seaside theme. Learners cut and stick seaside related items, sorting natural items from manmade. Used with KS1 / KS2 learners with autism and SEN.