Free Special Education Lesson Plan Templates and Examples
Real, finished lesson plan examples for a special education classroom, each one an editable template: a two or three page printable with differentiation lanes and a per-student data sheet. Download any plan as a PDF, or open it in the free Lesson Plan Maker and rebuild it around your own students and IEP goal.
Sample lesson plans you can print and edit
Life Skills
Make a Snack: Follow a Visual Recipe
A life skills lesson where students prepare a no-cook snack from a five step visual recipe, with prompts tracked per step.
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Social Skills
My Turn, Your Turn: Small Group Game
A social skills lesson built around a four player game with a passing turn marker, token boards, and a waiting visual.
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Communication
More Bubbles, Please: Requesting with a Core Board
An AAC lesson where students request more of a motivating activity on a core board, with pause-and-wait opportunities and errorless modeling.
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Math
Dinosaur Count and Match
A small-group counting lesson with token reinforcement and per-trial data.
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Social Skills
How Do I Feel? Naming Emotions with a Feelings Chart
An emotions lesson where students name happy, sad, mad, and scared from picture scenarios on a four-face feelings chart, with per-student data.
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Life Skills
Wash Up: A Six Step Hand Washing Routine
A personal hygiene lesson where students learn a six step hand washing routine from a posted visual sequence, with prompts tracked per step.
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Math
Next Dollar Up: Paying at the Class Store
A functional math lesson where students pay for priced items with the next dollar up strategy at a class store, with a purchase log.
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Science
Five Senses: What Does My Body Tell Me?
A science lesson with five sensory stations where students match each one to the body part that senses it, with a look-only option at every station.
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Social Skills
Being a Good Friend: Three Things Friends Do
A friendship lesson where students practice sharing, inviting, and helping with a real peer during a partner build, with each opportunity scored.
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Math
Telling Time: On the Hour and Half Past
A functional math lesson where students read an analog clock at the hour and half hour and match it to a digital card, with hours and half hours scored separately.
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Reading
First Ten Sight Words: See It, Say It, Find It
A reading lesson where students read the first ten high frequency words on sight against a three second timer, then find each one inside a sentence.
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Math
More, Fewer, or the Same: Comparing Two Groups
A kindergarten math lesson where students count two groups of up to ten objects on ten-frame mats and say which has more, which has fewer, or that the two are the same.
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Sub Plans
Sub Plans for a Self-Contained Classroom
A finished substitute plan for an elementary self-contained room: the day block by block, students at a glance with health flags, behavior quick reference, and the dismissal detail spelled out.
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Sub Plans
Emergency Sub Plans: The Evergreen Folder
The no-notice version: a generic review day any substitute can run, written once at the start of the year and kept current, with every routine and safety detail on paper.
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Sub Plans
Maternity Leave Sub Plans: The Long-Term Binder
A twelve week handoff for a transition classroom: the routines that keep a room running for a long-term sub, from the coffee cart enterprise to community instruction days.
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Reading
Read It, Build It, Write It: A Decoding Group
A finished reading small group for four students: decodable words read, built, and written around the table, with a per-student data grid and the while-you-teach coverage plan.
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Math
Numbers to 20: Count, Show, Write
A finished math small group for four students: quantities to 20 counted, shown on ten-frames, and written, with per-student data capture and coverage for the rest of the room.
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Social Skills
Asking for Help the First Time
A finished social skills small group for three students: engineered stuck tasks, an ask honored instantly in every communication mode, and the data grid that proves it generalizes.
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Behavior Plan
Flopping at Transitions: A Preschool Behavior Plan
A finished behavior plan for a preschooler who flops at transitions: the function, the replacement routine, prevent and respond steps every adult runs the same way, and a same-day quick log.
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Behavior Plan
Refusing to Start Written Work: A Student Behavior Plan
A finished behavior plan for an elementary student who refuses written work: the escape function named, a starter-dose replacement, and respond steps that keep the task from growing or vanishing.
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Behavior Plan
Leaving the Classroom: An Elopement Behavior Plan
A finished behavior plan for classroom elopement: the escape-plus-sensory function, a break card that always works, coverage and response steps that never become a chase, and the safety net on paper.
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Circle Time
Colors Week: A Preschool Circle Time Plan
A finished preschool circle time for five students: six segments from hello song to story, a color-hunt focus activity, and a per-student response grid that counts every mode.
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Circle Time
Our Day Board: A Self-Contained Morning Circle
A finished morning circle for a self-contained K-2 room: the same six segments daily, AAC responses counted equally, and the day board walk that previews the whole schedule.
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Morning Meeting
Taking Turns: A Kindergarten Morning Meeting
A finished kindergarten morning meeting: greeting, share, a pass-the-pattern activity, and the message, plus the week-at-a-glance grid that plans Monday to Friday on one page.
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Morning Meeting
Disagreeing Well: An Upper Elementary Morning Meeting
A finished grades 3 to 5 morning meeting built around respectful disagreement: cross-circle greetings, a this-or-that activity with sentence frames, and the weekly planning grid.
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Articulation
Initial /r/ at Word Level: An Articulation Session
A finished thirty minute articulation session: five /r/ targets, a six step flow from mirror warm-up to carryover, and a trial record that scores ten trials per target with the prompt level beside it.
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Language
He and She in Sentences: A Language Session
A finished language session on subject pronouns: cued rows plus one mixed row that shows whether the student is reading the picture or the prompt order, scored ten trials at a time.
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AAC
Requesting on a Core Board: An AAC Session
A finished AAC session built on aided language input: four modeled combinations, a five second wait before any prompt, and a record that scores the student's own activation rather than a hand over hand one.
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Reading Group
Read It, Check It, Fix It: A Decoding Intervention
A finished Tier 2 reading group for four readers: one decodable text, a named fix-up strategy, and a running record for every reader at the table.
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Reading Group
Point And Read: A Kindergarten Guided Reading Group
A finished early-emergent group for four readers: a pattern text, one-to-one matching taught explicitly, and a running record sized for a fifteen minute table.
See The Plan →How to use these sample plans
- Pick the sample closest to the subject and group you teach.
- Read it as a finished example: the goal on top, the timed structure, the lanes.
- Open it in the builder and swap in your students, your IEP goal, and the supports that are actually on your table.
- Pick a design and paper size, then print the plan with its data sheet.
- Keep the printed data sheet on a clipboard and score each student as you teach.
Nothing left to prepare. Eight finished sets, $8 each, and every page prints exactly as it is.
Frequently asked questions
- What should a special education lesson plan include?
- A clear objective tied to the IEP goal, the materials and supports on the table, a timed lesson structure, differentiation for more support and more challenge, accommodations, and a way to collect data. Every sample here carries all of those on a two or three page printable plan.
- Are these sample lesson plans free?
- Yes. Each sample downloads as a free PDF, and each opens in the free Lesson Plan Maker where you can change the subject, students, goal, and supports, then print your own version.
- Can I edit a sample instead of starting from scratch?
- Yes, that is the point of the gallery. Open any sample in the builder and it arrives pre-filled; change what does not match your group and build your own copy from it.
- Do the plans work for self-contained and resource rooms?
- Both. The samples are written for small groups of three to five, which fits a resource block or a self-contained rotation, and the group size slider goes from 1:1 up to 20.
- How is data collection built into these plans?
- Page two of every plan is a data sheet with one scored row per student, matched to the goal's accuracy target. The roster size you set drives the rows.
- Are the plans aligned to IEP goals?
- Each sample is built around one written IEP goal, restated on the plan with its accuracy target. In the builder you can paste a goal from your own IEP or pick a starting point from the free 110 goal bank.