Music Schedule for Autism Classes

In the spirit of Autism Awareness Month (even though it is the last day, WOOPS!), I figure it's appropriate to share some of my manipulatives that I use with my Autism classes.  

Background:  I teach one PreK Autism class and one K-2 Autism class.  In both of these classes, students are primarily non-verbal, with a few exceptions.

Here is a schedule that I recently created for both of my Autism classes, thanks to some great advice from one of the Autism teachers at my school.  I taped two folders together to give myself more space to fit the schedule and then had it laminated so that it will last FOREVER (hah, we shall see about that!).  I then attached some velcro so that students can easily manipulate the schedule.  

The left column is the schedule for class (I fit in a lot of small 2-5 minute activities to maintain student interest).  The square in the middle is meant for what we are doing in class at that time (I have students take turns moving activities to that square) and then when we finish an activity we say "___________ is all done!" and I move it over to the right side.  Again, credit must be given to my fabulous colleague on the Autism team... she has helped me SO much in this process!  

Close up of the cards!

Play:  For this activity I use the Hoberman Sphere and allow students to open and close it while I sing "Shalom Haverim"... the idea is that they follow the contour of the melody (when I sing high, they make the sphere big, when I sing low, they make the sphere small)

Here is a little demo action!

Anyone think I should be the next Vanna White?

And Voila!!!

Just tape a Ziploc bag to the other side for your other cards!