We are Special Education teachers in a center school that services students (pre-K through their 22nd birthday) who have been diagnosed with severe emotional disabilities. Our students are in the middle and high school grades and range in age from about 11 to 19. While nominally, our students are in the 6th-12th Grades, they are well below grade level in their abilities and academic performance. These students, all too frequently, face additional learning deficits and behavioral problems. They run a wide gamut of academic challenges that cover the entire alphabet of such diagnoses arising from behavioral, emotional or cognitive deficiencies.

While our students may present minute-by-minute attention and behavioral challenges, day-to-day they often present attendance and learning difficulties as they face tribulations arising from either a juvenile justice or mental health situation. And while, the students may arrive in the classroom with baggage not often faced by teachers in earlier years, it is just as likely that the students face circumstances in their home or family life that most teachers would find unimaginable and certainly nothing that they experienced.

It is with this backdrop that we offer this resource book. The old clich that problems are just opportunities waiting to be taken on is very true in Special Education. A teacher of Special Education enters a unique world of students with very individual and often constantly changing circumstances. But that same teacher also has the opportunity to use creativity to push ones students to try to overcome problems and disabilities. The true challenge of any teacher is to prepare students for adulthood, citizenship and self-reliance. For the Special Education teacher the challenge, just as for the students, is as unique as each students special needs.

Educators have become increasingly aware of the need to engage students in higher order thinking skills. This is a particular challenge for students with severe disabilities who frequently havent been sufficiently challenged to develop critical thinking and problem solving abilities. You will note that these activities will encourage these skills either immediately or over time for all educable students.

We have prepared this resource book with activities that we have found useful and successful. For the most part they utilize readily available and inexpensive materials. These activities may be used on a day-to-day basis, for short or extended periods of time. They are stand-alone activities that can be used as fillers or incorporated in other lessons. We also have included, by way of a case study, a broad-based curriculum that is multi-faceted and multi-layered that we call the E.S.E. Project. The Economics Supported Education Project evolved from a set of behavioral classes that we took one summer. We designed the curricula to include many practical, necessary elements that we believe our students are presently lacking but are essential for their future success. This curricula emphasizes real-world business activities, cooperative work and behavioral skills, hands-on activities and opportunities to explore different creative skills, and the chance to experience Community Based Instruction, that due to economic or behavioral circumstances too many of our students are lacking.

While many of the activities included in this resource book are intended for lower functioning students they can be differentiated for any skill level. Any level of Special Education student, and even non-Special Education students, may utilize the E.S.E. Project. Along with a greater degree of creativity on the part of the Special Education teachers, there is often available a greater degree of latitude and flexibility. In our case, with our students history of behavioral problems, it only makes sense to try non-traditional, innovative ideas in order to try to entice the students to buy into something they might find fun and that, we believe, will benefit them in their post-education years.

The book has been structured so that each activitys chapter is formatted the same way. Each includes a chart of Prerequisite Skills that identify the minimum skill levels students should have for successful participation in the activity. A list of the students anticipated Goal Skills follows. Next a Materials list is included itemizing what you will need to complete the activity. Each activity has a set of Teaching Objectives that may be used to help formulate lessons and lesson plans.

The Narrative and Description follows with as detailed and informative description of the activity as possible. Keep in mind that each of these activities may be extended or modified in any number of ways so as to allow the teacher the discretion of utilizing them to their fullest possible extent. Often a student anecdote is also included in the retelling of the evolution of some of these activities.

In the Lessons Learned section, we try to make some sense of the activity and offer some of our observations of students participation in the activity. In some cases, some of these activities have an immediate impact on students: they want to participate, they actively participate, and they buy into and begin to use new skills. In other cases, some students are reluctant to participate, but over time, with a little well reasoned coaxing, they may take their place along side other students and truly and fully participate. This is a very rewarding experience for them (and for the teacher).

In the final section of each activity chapter, Sample Documents, if applicable or available, are offered for use. Please feel free to modify them in anyway that is most suitable or productive for your situation.

Lastly, remember that this book of activities (as its name implies) is a fun book. The students should have fun and experience new achievements or revisit previous skills in new ways. It should also be fun for the teacher. For the special education teacher, it is rewarding to watch students acquire new skills, overcome disabilities that have hindered them in the past, and make progress towards a better, more productive personal future.