First of all, Happy Thanksgiving y’all!!! Hope your day is full of family, friends, and FOOD! I can’t WAIT to stuff my face full of turkey, potatoes, and stuffing. š (and pumpkin pie, DUH)
I’m here to talk about Unique Learning Systems. Do you use Unique in your special education classroom? If you’re not familiar with Unique, click HERE to visit the website and learn a little bit more about it!
Basically, Unique is a monthly curriculum designed specifically for special education classrooms. The work is differentiated, there is always a pre/post assessment, and the lessons cover a variety of standards while hitting either a Science or Social Studies theme each month.
Our Special Education Director requires all of the moderate to intensive needs teachers in the district to use this curriculum to keep things consistent along ALL grade levels. 100% honesty here, I wasn’t a huge fan at first. I tried getting rid of it and then finally accepted that I had to suck it up and figure out how to use it in my classroom!
Obviously, every year is different. Last year, I worked on Unique lessons in a whole group setting. This year, I now work on the lessons during our morning centers! I LOVE this because it makes differentiating a little easier for me. I already differentiate my centers (students are in pairs), so that helps immensely for using Unique!
Last month, we learned all about animals in their homes. This theme was incorporated into everything from comprehension, math, sorting, etc.!
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| sorting animals by their home |
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| working on patterns with animals |
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| matching animals to their home |
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| recreating “Daisy’s home” after reading a story |
I will occasionally use our school Chromebooks to help with a ULS lesson. In the lessons, there are some activities that are interactive. For things such as comprehension, sorting pages, etc., I will use the Chromebook to sort along with my students so that they can double check their work! It helps them visually complete their work as we do it together!
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| sorting animals by their habitat |
As you can see, Unique does a GREAT job at incorporating the Science or Social Studies theme into all those areas you need to hit for grade level standards. I love that the theme is even carried over into math through patterns, measurement, addition, etc.! Best of all? The lessons are always the same layout and set up each month, so your students will know exactly what to expect!
To help me continue to reinforce concepts learned each month in Unique Learning Systems, I created these Science & Social Studies File Folder Activities!! I LOVE that I’m able to use these during morning work or independent work to continue working on the standards!! Below are the file folders I used along with the October Unique Learning Unit.
Best part about these File Folders? I prep them and they are ready for YEARS! The bundle contains 44 file folders that hit K-5 standards in both Science and Social Studies! Check out the bundle pack HERE! š
If you use Unique in your classroom, I’d love to hear how you incorporate it into your day!!
