3rd- 5th Grade Language Unit 9/16- 9/27

Our 3rd-5th grade students have gotten off to a great start using the Unique Learning System curriculum for the daily language lesson. Our monthly topic is "Friends in Different Places." Our first 2 weeks consisted of talking about birthday celebrations, our birthdays and how birthdays are celebrated in other parts of the world. This week we will be taking a closer look at "friends in different places" by exploring Mexico & Canada and celebrations in these countries. Students have also enjoyed the new math, reading, writing and spelling lessons that correspond with our ULS lessons. You will see many of the corresponding worksheets coming home with your students in their home folders throughout the month.

Work Stations

Each day students complete independent work stations. Work station are set up in the back of our sensory room giving students a separate space outside of the classroom to complete these tasks with an aide. This also allows for small group instruction in the classroom when groups are out completing work stations.

When students enter the work station area they find their seat and check their task card for the day.

Student Task Card

Students are given three tasks each day. All task boxes are numbered and color coded. Students match the numbers on their card to the numbers on the boxes and complete one task at a time. 

For students who are not yet ready to find the correct boxes independently, they complete their 3 work boxes in a 3 drawer cart.

Work box tasks include academic, fine motor, matching/sorting and functional skills at varied levels. The objective of work stations is to teach independent work skills and task completion, so tasks are assigned at a level which allows students to complete independently. Work stations are considered pre-vocational education, beginning to work with students on simple skills they will need to be able to gain independence. 

New Curriculum

Starting this week our 3rd-5th grade students will begin using a new curriculum for language units. The curriculum is called Unique Learning System. ULS is a standards-based curriculum designed for special education students. Each month a new thematic unit is presented which includes lessons in math, science, social studies, reading, writing, and language arts. Each lesson includes differentiated levels to meet each student at their level of functioning. Lessons are aligned to common core standards at each grade level. If you are interested in looking at this curriculum further check out their website: https://www.n2y.com/unique/. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you can choose to view a sample of lessons and materials. Make sure to put in "intermediate" to view 3rd-5th curriculum.