Therapy Planning 101

I have received some questions regarding how I plan for therapy, so I thought I’d share my ways with you. This is by no means a perfect system, but it has been what’s worked for me for the past 4ish years. Stay tuned for a freebie at the end of the post too! Let me start by saying that I’m not required to turn in any kind of lesson plans. Personally, I think that if you do it’s a little ridiculous because really our IEPs are our “lesson plans.” So my system is more general than you might need to be if you have to turn them in.

I use an Excel spreadsheet (get the free template HERE). I have either 4-5 weeks on the left hand side depending on how many weeks are in the month. I post my Peek At My Week posts on Sundays, so I take a screenshot of each week and use that to build those posts. So below, you’re looking at my loose plans for November. It’s not all done!

If you missed my post about fully immersing myself in the 3:1 model, be sure to check that out here. For the months that I have a flex week, I don’t generally pull all my kids, but I still post a Peek in case you do. The freebie has the number of weeks based on this year for me, so you may have to tweak that to meet your needs.

I have a column for Articulation, Language K-2, Language 3rd-6th, and Autism. In my district, I see preschool kids but only for articulation, so I don’t have preschool language plans. I generally plan 2 activities for language and kids in the autism room because I see some of those kids twice a week. I’m able to find some way to meet all my students’ goals using the activities. Books are a great way to hit a lot of goals! I also like to do crafts a couple times a month.

I plan for a whole month at a time. I have a crate that has hanging folders marked weeks 1-5. I make copies, stick crafts/books, or other materials right in the week so at the end of one week, I pull out the next week’s materials and I’m ready to go. I may pull things off the shelf or change my mind at the last minute, but this gives me some basic ideas for therapy.

I have all my seasonal materials separated by month into big 2 gallon ziploc bags. I pull out the bag for the month and decide what I want to use. Sometimes I make new things or buy new things to meet the needs of some students. There are some books that I use over and over again from year to year.

I really like planning once a month. It means I don’t take things home with me to plan on the weekends. Which is perfectly fine with me, because I like spending time with my 19 month old daughter and husband on the weekends! Hope this helps you!