Teaching about force and motion is one of the most fun parts of our science curriculum! The whole topic naturally lends itself to so many hands-on experiments and challenges that it’s easy to keep kids in second and third grade engaged and having fun. These Science lessons are easily some of my favorite ones we do all year.

When we cover force and motion in elementary (second, third, and fourth grades) we do a little bit of everything: push forces, pull forces, friction, static electricity, magnetic force, air resistance, and more!

The Easy Way to Teach About Force and Motion

Everything you need to teach about forces and motion in 2nd and 3rd grades. Nonfiction reading, STEM Challenges, Experiments, Worksheets and scripted instructions.

Print and teach. It’s really that easy.

check out the unit

Start With Force and Motion Vocabulary

Although I am a big believer in student-led learning, I always start my units with teacher-led information. When I scaffold learning this way (by front-loading the teaching) I'm giving my students a solid foundation for the hands-on experiences that are coming later on. For force and motion, we start with learning all of the basic vocabulary. I'll set up a word wall, and we'll use simple non-fiction readers to help to teach unfamiliar concepts. These force and motion worksheets serve an important purpose in our classroom!

Then, when we start getting into group and student-led lessons, my students are being tripped up when they encounter words like "static electricity" or "magnetic force" or "friction" because they have a basic understanding of most of these already.

Helpful Force and Motion Videos

In the past, I've used videos and youtube clips to help students really understand these physics concepts. If you can access YouTube at school, these were great videos to help introduce new vocabulary with visual aids!

This first video introduces the difference between pull forces and push forces.

This video is all about Friction! We used it before our Friction stations to give students a little more background knowledge before some hands-on exploration. (Plus, the host is really engaging!)

Force and Motion STEM Challenges

The Force and Motion unit includes 3 hands-on stem challenges!

I have always been a big fan of STEM challenges. If you haven't done one before (*insert mind-blown emoji) , this is a GREAT place to start. The open-ended nature of these challenges let students be successful as they guess/test scientific theories at an age-appropriate level.

In our force and motion unit, we do a handful of STEM challenges and the Magnet Maze is probably one of my favorites. It's so creative and my students had the best time gathering materials and creating their magnet mazes. When they're complete, we take the time to test each other's mazes. It's a blast. You can grab the worksheets and teacher lesson plans for this STEM challenge below!

Nonfiction Reading About Forces and Motion

One of the best ways to give students scientific background knowledge is nonfiction reading. I firmly believe in integrating science and reading, it’s a great way to set students up for success. When students can access nonfiction about each science topic (at their level) it can level up the engagement.

Force and Motion reading passages and STEM extension

This is a set of paired passages all about force and motion, and using forces in real life. They’re written to be at a third grade level and are also aligned to the CCSS - so you’re meeting two sets of standards at once! This particular resource also includes a STEM challenge that’s all about catapults - the ultimate force and motion tool

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‘Balanced and Unbalanced Forces’ a set of differentiated nonfiction passages

If you JUST need nonfiction reading, I have a set of differentiated passages all about balanced and unbalanced forces. It’s a good place to set the stage and teach students the differences between the two!

Ready to teach the entire Force and Motion unit? I have an entire unit’s worth of lessons, hands-on activities, and experiments that are ready to go! Everything you need to teach all about forces in second and third grade is here and ready. Just print, read, and teach.

Ideas, lessons, and experiments to teach about force and motion in a second or third grade classroom.

Are you having issues with digital resources? Not sure how to assign out a Google Slides product? Do you want to send out only ONE slide/page of a resource at a time to your students in Google Classroom? I’ve scoured the internet and had conversations with many teacher-colleagues to put together this resource of videos, articles, and blog posts that will hopefully help to answer some of these questions!

Hopefully, these posts can help you as you navigate the digital Google components to the Poet Prints Teaching units you already love. Make sure to check here to see which digital units have been upgraded. Re-download the units you already own to access the new digital upgrades!

I’m new to Google Classroom. Where do I even start?

Pocketful of Primary has a great video on the basics of Google Classroom here. Take a look around her Youtube Channel. After a handful of videos, you’ll feel ready to dive headfirst into your Google Classroom!

How do I get my digital TPT purchase into Google Classroom?

Shelley Gray Teaching has an AWESOME blog post that walks you through each step in this process. She does a fantastic job of walking you through everything from opening up the initial link in your TPT purchase, to opening the Slides file, to assigning it in Google Classroom.

How do I assign a Google Slides product to my students in Google Classroom?

Check out this video by Pocketful of Primary. Although this video dives deep into how to create your own resources (wow!) she gives a great step-by-step video tutorial of assigning a Google Slides product right in Google Classroom. Start at 5:35 for this.

How can I assign only one or two pages at a time, instead of the whole digital slides file?

In this blog post, Learning to the Core explains how to separate her reading passages by making multiple copies of the original Google Slides file. The same principle can be applied to ANY Google Slides file that you purchase on TPT.

• Make a copy of your Google Slides file (File > Make a Copy > Entire Presentation)

• Save that new copy (so you now have both, the original with ALL the slides, and your copy)

• In the copy, delete all the slides that you don’t want for the day

• Send your students the new copy, with only the slides you want them to have!

• Repeat as necessary

How do I use Google Slides resources in Schoology?

Technically Speaking with Amy has a great video about how to use the Google Classroom app (and your Google slides resources) right within Schoology. Her post about it is here, and it’s super straightforward.

What if I don’t have Google Classroom? Can I still send my resource to my students?

If you don’t have Google Classroom there are some options for getting Google Slides resources into the hands of your students. Take a peek at Shelley Gray Teaching’s blog for her super-helpful (and screen-capture full!) information all about the best ways to send these out.

I have always been a big proponent of hands-on classrooms. Inquiry... yes! Project-based learning... yes! However, there are moments where pencil-and-paper work is needed, and I prefer that work to be engaging, meaningful and still FUN.

Traditional worksheets are still useful in the classroom.

• They help students to read and follow instructions

• They give early elementary students a chance to practice printing and penmanship.

• They can allow a moment of focused independent work

• They teach students to organize their thoughts on paper

• They give students a chance to practice a new skill or show an understanding of a new concept.

Don't get me wrong, worksheets should not be your sole method for teaching and showing understanding. In fact, teaching and learning should be hands-on. But there is a place for a well-design and purposeful worksheet.

I use no-prep books in my classroom to practice important standards-based skills in a fun and engaging way. Check out the four places I use no-prep books in my classroom.

Using No Prep Books as Morning Work

It's no secret I'm a fan of a good morning routine (read about that here), but I do like to make sure that our morning work serves a purpose and is also FUN. I incorporate these seasonal books into our morning work routine to mix things up, provide skills practice, and celebrate fun holidays.

Using No Prep Books for Early Finishers

I use my no prep books as one option to keep my early finishers engaged after they've completed their assigned work. It’s a great way to ensure students have something meaningful to work on while their peers continue on.

Using No Prep Books in a Sub Tub

I keep a master copy of at least two of these books in my sub tub at all times. You just never know when you'll suddenly be out of school for a day (or more) and it's great to leave your sub something fun that's still meeting math and LA standards!

Using No Prep Books when Something Goes Wrong

We've all had something happen in the classroom at some point. The guest speaker cancels. The bus for the field trip doesn't show up. The assembly is suddenly delayed 15 minutes. No matter the mini-emergency, it's great to have a little bit of purposeful work ready to go at a moment's notice. My students always know where their booklets are and I can say, "Let's work on the math puzzles in your Valentine's Book!" Easy peasy! A quick math activity while I figure out a new plan for our day.

These are the BEST to have around as a ‘just-in-case’! I’d love to see how you use no prep books in your classroom. Share a picture and tag me on Instagram, @poet.prints! If you share a picture using one of my No Prep Books (and tag me in it!) I’ll send you another book for free!

I have a series of No Prep Books for second, third and fourth grade available NOW in my TpT store. They are print-and-go and available individually or in a discounted bundle!

It's almost impossible to get away from 'friendship issues' in the classroom. The second half of Third Grade seems to be the season for bickering and fighting, no matter how many community-building exercises we have done in the first half. I absolutely LOVE Third Grade, but it also seems to be the year where they discover that they can be mean to each other by intentionally discluding others in activities and saying generally unkind comments under their breath.

There are so many strategies for building classroom community in tough seasons like these. We've talked about love languages, and learned how to be bucket fillers, I've implemented whole-classroom curriculums on peacekeeping and gone to anti-bullying Pro-D seminars. Today I'm going to share one small activity that has made a big difference.

One of the more successful things I've found was a few afternoons of purposeful play. I would ask students to bring in a favorite board game from home and get ready to use it during class time. (Certain years my students weren't excited by board games, and I'd set out lego or other building materials as an alternative). Then, I would divide them into intentional small groups that would change each day. These groups were designed ahead of time so that students would get to know people outside of their regular social circles.

While students were playing I would project a get-to-know-you or deeper thinking question that they needed to ask their group mates. We'd go through 3-6 questions over the course of our 30-45 minute 'play' time. I always pull my questions from the book 'Q&A a Day for Kids', it's one of my 'secret weapons' as a Third Grade teachers. There are so many great questions. I use it for this activity and for morning meetings every Friday! (You can find it HERE, this is not an affiliate link).

My admin was on board with this afternoon break to play board games and build with Lego because it was purposefully character-building and my students were having a hard time with bullying and exclusion. This was really good for forcing students to get to know people outside of their preferred social groups. Do you have any quick activities to help when your students are being just plain mean to each other? I'd love some new strategies. Let me know below or connect on Instagram, @poet.prints.

With every first day back after a school break, I try to be very intentional about how to build classroom community and help my fourth-grade students re-connect with each other. It’s so easy to resort to just catching up with friends and going with what’s familiar, so one way to help my students connect with as many peers as possible is through “speed friending!”  It’s a great classroom community activity for any time of the year! 

In this activity, there are a series of questions that I show on Google Slides, and with each new question comes a new peer to interact with! It’s a great way to encourage students to make connections with peers outside of their usual social circles. I start the activity with a brief set of ‘rules and expectations’ that help to set us up for success.  

With twenty-four students, I divide the class into two lines with their chairs facing each other.    I tell one of the lines that they are now glued to their chairs and that the line of classmates across from them now moves one over with each new question. 

These questions range from silly “would you rather” style prompts to more intentional questions like “What is a quality you look for in a good friend?” Or today’s humdinger was “What is something that you really struggled with that you want to continue working on?” 

The question that received the most giggles was over “What are you really interested in right now? For example, your teacher is obsessed with Baby Yoda.”

And on the twelfth question, we end with a fun movement game where partners create a sequential rhythm with their hands and voices. 

What I love best is that the students are engaged with each new question, they enjoy the variety in different partners, and the community naturally restrengthens as the students bond over shared experiences and similar answers. 

What activities do you do that help facilitate conversation and connection in your classroom? I’m always on the hunt for new ideas.  Leave some ideas below! 

This was a guest post by Sarah, an elementary teacher in British Columbia.  She shares all of her upper elementary adventures on Instagram at @themissengteacher.  

Unpopular opinion: I find celebrating birthdays in the classroom to be quite stressful.

Okay, that statement isn’t entirely true. I love celebrating my students, but I cannot stand the mountains of cupcakes, cakes, ice-cream treats, jello, and candies that are inevitably brought into the classroom.  One student even brought in a pot of spaghetti on the morning of his birthday.  I wish I was joking.

While I do believe that birthdays are a great opportunity to celebrate each individual student, the sugary treats and unanticipated meals can make our day quite difficult.  Have you tried teaching 30 third-graders who are very hyper on cupcakes with mile-high-icing?  I have, and it is not easy.  Then multiply that by 20-30 different birthdays in the class… it’s a lot of sugar.  And when students spontaneously bring in a lunchtime item to share (spaghetti, hot dogs, pizza, etc.) there just often isn’t time to pass it out and eat it before the lunch bell rings.  At our school students get 20 minutes to eat lunch and passing out ‘special birthday lunch’ without notice means that students forego their outside playtime.

I also have a handful of students with a restricted diet (allergies, family preferences, naturopathic suggestions) and days with food treats just end up making many students feel left out.

There are so many other great ways to celebrate students and their birthdays without sugary treats. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Plan a game or activity for the class.  Bring in a soccer ball, parachute or any group game and have students play something together.

2. Bring an in-class activity. I’ve had students bring in a small drawing project, an outdoor game, or a quick STEM challenge

3. In lieu of cake/candy, families are welcome to bring in a small toy or pencil

4. Do something different – last year we decorated an 11x17 piece of paper for each student.  In the center of the paper, I wrote “Happy Birthday Joe” in large letters.  As students arrived they wrote a short encouraging note on the paper.  Then, the birthday student took a picture holding the sign and wearing a birthday hat.  This was a great keepsake for the student and the picture looked awesome on a bulletin board. 

Don’t have time for a celebration like this at every birthday?  Try picking one day per month to celebrate birthdays!  Students love knowing that a celebration is coming and I like to be able to plan ahead of time for these activities.  Plus, it allows all monthly birthdays to participate, even if their family has not sent in a game or activity!  

I’d love to know how you celebrate birthdays in your classroom.  Does your school have any rules about sugary treats?  Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram! (@poet.prints)

Can you believe that some schools are mere weeks away from Back to School time? Are you one of those teachers who is winding down their summer and starting to think about Back to School? I’ve never been one to really ‘unplug’ from school altogether over the summer, but I do use the time to make/create things for my classroom that are fun for me.  (Like a good DIY or cute classroom signs). Whether you are a new teacher or returning after 15 years, there are always a handful of things that need to be done before school starts again. Some are just decisions that need to be made, and others are small projects that will make the first weeks much easier.

1. Figure out what to do with supplies

Does your district have students bring in supplies on the first day of school? Do you buy them yourself?  In my school, we do a combination of both. On the first day of school, students arrive with backpacks full of school supplies.  You’ll need to know what you plan to do with these! Are you having students store all of their supplies in their desks? Will you keep some of their supplies in a cupboard/drawer to be distributed throughout the year? Will you gather some up as communal supplies? Decide your preference and think through what you will do with the supplies as they arrive.

Grab a free science lesson all about famous bridges. It’s the perfect way to start reading informational text and the STEM challenge is just so much fun.

2. Decide what you will do with student work

This one goes along with #1. Do you plan to have students store all of their notebooks and pronged folders in their lockers/desks? Will you keep them separate and sorted by subject area on a classroom shelf? This is important to know ahead of time as it will help you to stay organzied in the first few weeks.  If you plan to keep all of their notebooks and folders separate then the first days of school are the perfect time to collect and label all of these books.  I blogged about how I store student work over here.  

3. Determine your attention-getters

In elementary school, routine is key!  Decide what method you will use to get students’ attention and start practicing this on day one.  When you are consistent with one or two attention-getters, your students are able to respond quickly… freeing up a lot of time for you! Here are a few of my favorites: call and response, lights dimmed, hands up high, counting down from 5, a silent hand-gesture that signals it's time to pause and listen.

4. Start a substitute teacher document

I know what you’re thinking… school hasn’t even started yet and you think I should already be planning for a sub?  Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. A couple of years ago I had a medical emergency on the second day of school and was out for two weeks.  Boy, do I wish I had written down my classroom procedures, expectations, and expected routines ahead of time. Even just an interim document can be a lifesaver in case of unintended time off.  Check here for my 5 things that you’ll definitely want to include in your sub plans.

5. Find something to do for the first few days

This one might seem obvious, but you should have the first few days of school totally planned before you head back into school.  This is a great time to introduce some fun theme-based lessons as you get to know your students and assess their learning needs. There are lots of ways to kick off the year.  You could theme your lessons around a book, start with some engaging STEM, or jump right in with your regular schedule. No matter what, I definitely suggest having some quick-activities on hand in case a lesson is interrupted or just doesn’t go to plan.  I created this booklet to help me quickly assess student learning styles and get to know my new students a little bit better.

Did I miss anything? I’d love to know your must-do’s before school starts!  Send me a message or sound off in the comments below.

Anyone heading back to school soon? Although I still have 6 weeks until I’m back, I have a hard time really resting each summer until I’ve squared away the first week back.  Once I have a rough outline of what I’m going to do and teach those first few days.  I’m hopping on today to share a handful of the resources I’ve created in the past that were designed especially for the first week of school. I’ve used them all in my classroom and plan to start the year with them again!

Back to School Workbook (with a twist!)

This little booklet is my absolute favorite resource for the beginning of school.  Although it’s filled with puzzles, games, quizzes and writing activities… they are all designed to help teachers assess basic student skills, learning styles and preferences.  I use the information gathered to plan out my next few weeks of lessons, review, and our yearly group projects!

All About Me Spinning Craftivity (FREE)

Learn a little bit more about your students with a cute craftivity.  (Grab it here!) We brainstorm together on the planning pages and then create cute spinners that let students share about themselves.  Best of all, this one is totally free!

Back to School Flipbooks

After the All About Me Craftivity, my students transition into more writing-based work.  I have used these flipbooks in First-Fourth grade. They help students to reflect on their summer and transition into the year ahead.  I like to use them as a quick gauge of students’ ability to work independently and see what their writing abilities and needs are.

‘We Fit Together’ Bulletin Board

Once my class is settled (there’s always a few days of shuffling students in my district) I start on lessons and activities that build classroom community.  The whole year runs better when the students in my class learn to respect each other’s differences and work together as a big family.  One of my favorite bulletin boards is this one!  Students each create a puzzle piece and then we fit them together to make one diverse puzzle bulletin board!

Keeping track of student work can be a headache in most classrooms.  In the schools I’ve worked at, I’ve seen a lot of different ways to organize work.  Some teachers let the students keep all of their work, some store it all on shelves in the classroom, others do a hybrid of both.  I don’t think there’s any “right” way to do this, but I do know what has worked best for my students and me.

I have always chosen to keep most student work in labeled ‘buckets’ on the shelf.  It’s not that I don’t trust my students to keep their own work organized, it’s that many of them simply haven’t learned that skill yet.  

Technically, these are laundry buckets and I get them from the local dollar store.  I keep them in the same place and use dollar store labels to create one for every subject/topic we are covering.  Before we start something, 3-4 kids grab the bucket and hand out the work to their peers. After the work is finished, each student is responsible for putting their work back in the correct bucket.  I find that this step helps to build a bit of independence. Students learn that their work needs to be put in the proper place or else it won’t be marked.

This isn’t a fix-all to student work organization.  Some students will still put their work in their desks or backpacks, but eventually, they learn how to pause and check for where it should actually be.  I’m trying to build independence and responsibility at an age-appropriate level.

When it comes time to hand-in work, I place a mini-checklist beside each bucket.  As a student hands in their work, they also check off their name. It’s a quick way to see who has forgotten to hand in their work.  

My favorite part of the system - I can just grab a bucket and take it home to mark!

One of my favorite parts of my classroom is the math manipulative shelf.  I try to keep it stocked with a variety of materials that can help students build concrete models of all sorts of math problems.  

We have a rule in my class: if you can’t solve a math problem on your own you must build it before asking for help.  So much of third-grade math is abstract: the perimeter of imaginary places, the area of imaginary floors and walls, fractions of abstract objects, imaginary money being exchanged between two people, etc.  These can all be tricky concepts to visualize mentally.

Our school has never provided any math manipulatives, but I have slowly gathered a set of must-have manipulatives for third grade.  Check them out!

Bears

My students love counting bears.  They are easy to grasp and can help to model addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These come in especially handy as students are learning to multiply and divide.  

Bingo Dots

These are a particularly inexpensive manipulative.  Along with our bears we use bingo dots to make physical representations of most addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems.  One of my favorite ways to use bingo dots is during our first multiplication lesson of the year. We build arrays with bingo dots.  It's a quick and easy lesson that is super hands-on!  

Fraction Pieces and Magnets

I always introduce fractions with manipulatives.  Having students build fractions really helps them to develop a concrete understanding of how you can have a fraction of an item. Although there are many cut-and-glue fraction sets, I prefer to use store-bought ones. I just find that when students cut them out their pieces are not always exact, and this leads to confusion when trying to compare fractions.

Money

Play money is a great manipulative to add.  In third grade, we spend a lot of time counting counts and subtracting money.  I have a handful of students who prefer to count physical money and this is great for them!  When doing word problems about ‘buying something at a store’ my students know how to role-play this in pairs and use play money to find their answer.

Clocks

Teaching time (especially quarter-to, quarter-past, and half-past) is such a tricky part of third-grade math.  I always teach the first time lessons with each student holding a clock.  Then, as they get to these questions in their homework and independent practice they are able to return to those clocks to physically create each time (or elapsed time) that is needed.  I love how using a clock really helps to cement this concept for most students!

Drawing Paper

This is the least expensive of all my manipulatives!  I keep a stack of scrap paper in my math manipulative area. I find that it is super helpful when students are able to draw out a problem - particularly when it involves distance (i.e. “A car travels 250 miles…”) or area/perimeter.  Some of my students are super successful when they are able to make a quick sketch and add in dimensions to visualize the ‘whole picture’.

I’m always looking to add to my math manipulative collection.  What works best in your class? Send me an e-mail or sound off in the comments below! 

Looking for Low-Prep Third Grade Math?

I can help with that! I have 9 digital and printable math units that are ready to print (or upload) and go! These engaging and rigorous units align with third-grade standards and are just so fun.

grab the math lessons

We’ve all had ‘those days’ in the classroom.  You know what I mean, the days where it seems like nothing can go right.  The math lesson flopped, the social studies’ guest speaker canceled at the last minute, a child is in tears because their paper is” too wrinkled”… and you are about to lose it.  This is #teacherlife, am I right?

I am currently spending a year substitute teaching, and I can’t tell you how many days I have walked into a classroom to a plan that says “Find something to do for reading, writing, math, and PE” or, better yet, walked into no plan at all.  

These days are inevitable, and they happen to everyone.  This year, more than any, I’ve learned to have a handful of on-the-go games ready at any time.  These games can fill a few minutes and allow you to gather your thoughts before you proceed with the day.  Sometimes I use them as a ‘re-set’ after a tough lesson. Hopefully, they can help you as well!

Activity 1: Silent Ball

I always keep a small dollar store ball in my teaching bag for this very game.  In Silent Ball, students sit (gasp!) on top of their desks. Then, a ball is passed to the first student.  The goal of the game is to keep the ball moving around the classroom without dropping it or making a peep. If the ball is dropped or someone speaks the round is over.  You can keep ‘score’ by counting how many passes are done, or timing how long the students can keep the ball going without dropping it. I love this game because it is cooperative and forces students to work together to achieve their goal.  

Activity 2: Charades

I almost always have a deck of charades cards in my teaching bag.  This game is great for almost all levels, and meets some important Speaking and Listening outcomes at the same time. I play charades in a few ways.  First, we play the classic version where students have to act out the card pulled. I also play an alternate version where they have 30 seconds to describe as many cards as they can.  Then, after all cards have been described, students have another 30 seconds to describe the cards using only one word. That one is a lot of fun, and usually draws on students’ memory from the previous round.  I haven’t yet met a class that doesn’t like a charades break!

Activity 3: Go Noodle

Wiggly group? Energy coming out of everywhere?  Go Noodle is my best friend in these occasions. Accounts are free for teachers, and there is plenty of free content to get your students up, sweating, and moving around.  My younger students love “Koo Koo Kangaroo” while my older students prefer “Fresh Start Fitness”. So far, all kids from K-5 have loved the track-and-field style channel “Go With the Pro”.

No internet connection or projector?  Keep a few high-energy, kid-friendly songs, ready to go on your smartphone.  A quick game of freeze dance will have almost the same effect on K-3 students!

Activity 4: Four Corners

This is a classic in-school game and for a good reason.  Students love being able to get out of their desk and try to win in a game of Four Corners.  To play this game, label each ‘corner’ of the classroom 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then designate a student to be “it”.  This students sits in the middle of the room with a blindfold (or very covered eyes) and slowly counts down from 10.  During this time, students must sneak to one of the designated corners. The ‘it’ students then yells out a corner number, and all of the students in that corner are out.  The game continues until only one student is left. To keep things moving, I tend to ‘close’ a corner as fewer students remain in the game. By the end, the final few students are only allowed to choose from two of the corners.

What are your go-to activities for a tough day?  Do you have any favorite classroom games or activities? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

I think we’ve all heard the expression about walking in someone else’s shoes for the day. However, we don’t get the opportunity to do this very often. One of my dear friends had an interesting opportunity a couple weeks ago that she was telling me about. She says this was the hardest job she has ever had to do. Here’s her story of walking in someone else’s shoes.

Hi everyone! I’m a primary teacher in Canada. In my class, I have a little girl who has severe learning needs. I will call her Joanne for anonymity. In Canada, kids with severe special needs get 1:1 support from an Educational Assistant or Paraprofessional (Para) within the regular classroom. The Para might occasionally pull the student out of class for breaks and assist the child in the washroom. However, the goal is to stay in the classroom for as long as possible.

I was able to work with Joanne for two days straight when the regular Para was unable to be at school. My school called in a substitute teacher to cover my class. Since Joanne has such extreme learning needs with a specific schedule, it was easier to call a substitute teacher to teach my class than to arrange for a substitute for Joanne’s Para. The school figured having a familiar person would be comforting to Joanne.

Over the course of the two days, I learned a lot. For starters, people who work with kids who have special needs are champions. They are working to give all kids dignity and strategies for success.  Every day, they have to make split-second decisions to help calm temper meltdowns, adapt work, and help the child interact with their peers in successful ways.

Since I was not Joanne’s regular Para, Joanne had countless meltdowns throughout the day. I ended up sitting on the floor with Joanne more times than I could count, just waiting for Joanne to finish her meltdown and stand up.

At the end of my two days, I came away with some epiphanies:

1. Tracing Worksheets are not enough. Prior to this experience, I would simply create worksheets that allowed Joanne to trace letters and words. I thought I was so clever! At the beginning of the year, Joanne loved these exercises, but like every kid, Joanne progressed. She quickly mastered tracing and was bored of these worksheets. I saw first hand how upset Joanne would get when she saw another tracing activity. I have now committed to making interactive activities for Joanne, such as velcro activities or hands-on manipulative activities.

2. Other students should be involved. I saw that Joanne wanted to be with her peers, but didn’t yet have the skills to know how to interact with them. I’m now asking others students to approach Joanne and initiate activities.

3. Communication is more than words. Even though Joanne is non-verbal, communication has so many other forms. After being with Joanne for two days, I started to pick up on things Joanne did for communication. For one, Joanne would grab my hand and direct it to an object that she wants. Joanne communicated that she wanted to paint during free time by guiding me to the paint supplies.

4. First _________, then ________”. I learned the beauty of the phrase, “First _______, then ________”. I think we’ve all used this phrase at one time or another: “First Math, then snack”, “First clean up, then home time”, etc. As teachers, we use this for big-ticket items. However, I learned that for some kids with special needs, this phrase needs to be used in much smaller increments. I found myself saying things like, “First stand up, then walk” or “First apples, then water”.

This was the hardest job I have done in a long time. However, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything because it has helped me reflect on my own teaching practices and I am already making the necessary changes.”

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There you have it! A tale from one of my fellow teachers. Have any of you had an opportunity to walk is someone else’s shoes? Or have you had the chance to work for an extended period of time with a student who has special needs? I would love to hear about your experiences! And I can pass along any tidbits to my teacher-friend!

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