Hello there and welcome! I work at a non-public school k-12 + transition, moderate/severe special education with a focus in life skills.  We are fortunate enough to have space to house a vocation & life skills lab that we share between the middle school, high school and transition classrooms.  It’s not a very big room, but I maximized the space to fit in as much as possible!  Each classroom is able to schedule a 30 minute time twice a week in this little room to work on IEP goals, hands on vocational skills and small group activities.  It’s like a library but with adapted resources! Let’s dive in!

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VOCATION LAB CHOICE BOARD

I decided to put this choice board up in the Voc Lab because I noticed staff and students kept resorting to the same activities every time they came in here, and because, well, visuals just make life easier, and staff need visuals too!

The organization is sometimes intimidating to others. I can have all of the pretty labels and task boxes in the world, but sometimes no one wants to ruin what looks pretty and perfect, and it can be overwhelming when there is an abundance of activities. So providing a giant life skills activity choice board helps alleviate some of that uncertainty and confusion, and increases engagement in more activities!

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ADAPTED BOOKS & SOCIAL NARRATIVE SHELVES

It’s hard to find age respectful books that are for lower level readers, so I made a bunch I downloaded from Teachers Pay Teachers! This adapted book shelves are IKEA photo frame shelves. The best part about these shelves is that you can see what books are available.  Students can read the books while they are in the vocation lab, or check them out for classroom use similarly to a library.

Browse adapted books & social narratives here.

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CABINET GROCERY STORE

I filled this cabinet with empty containers I had been saving up then put price tags on each item.  This classroom “grocery store” is great for prepping students on their shopping or vocational skills, and if you have students that aren’t quite ready to go off campus, this is the perfect way to bring the grocery store to you.  Students can practice reading food nutrition labels, finding items on a shopping list, sorting groceries by different categories, bagging activities, stocking shelves, money math….and much more!

If you don’t have much room in your classroom, you can even do this on a small book shelf as well, especially for students that might get overwhelmed by too many grocery items!  Click here to shop classroom grocery store items on Amazon (affiliate link).

One of the activities in that cabinet was bagging groceries. Whether your students want to work at a grocery store or not, it is still a great life skill to have for when they have to bag their own groceries since many stores have self checkout now!  With this activity, student can sort out foods that were light & fragile, versus heavy & sturdy, by different categories (eg. Frozen foods, canned foods, Cleaning products, Raw products…etc).

Once they’ve got that step down, here are some ideas for bagging groceries:

• GIVE A FEW SIMILAR ITEMS THAT WOULDN’T REALLY MATTER IF YOU PLACED AT THE BOTTOM OR TOP TO PRACTICE FILLING A BAG SPACE EFFICIENTLY.
• PUT A FEW HEAVY & LIGHT ITEMS (SORTED INTO PILES ALREADY) AND PRACTICE WITH ONE BAG.
• GIVE STUDENT A FEW ITEMS IN MULTIPLE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES (SORTED INTO PILES ALREADY)
•  PUT GROCERIES IN A PILE, AND LET STUDENT SORT OUT ON THEIR OWN BEFORE BAGGING.
• ADD MORE GROCERY ITEMS, CATEGORIES, AND BAGS.
• TIMED BAGGING
• BAGGING COMPETITION
• MOCK GROCERY STORE – SIMULATE A GROCERY SHOPPING EXPERIENCE BY PRACTICING CUSTOMER SERVICE, MAKING A TRANSACTION, AND BAGGING ITEMS.
• Download visuals & resources for this activity for FREE here.

You can find the bagging stand and shopping baskets on Amazon here (affiliate link).

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INDEPENDENT WORK STATIONS

What would be your dream office view? I wanted this independent work station to be as realistic and functional as possible (swipe to see before), so I made it look like an office!  We fortunately have a poster printer here on campus, but you can buy this exact poster and a variety of other scenes on Amazon (affiliate link).

Keep in mind, this may be too distracting for some students so a plain work station is totally fine too (we have a second work station next to this office themed one)

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TASK BOX, TASK CARD, FILE FOLDER ORGANIZATION

This is the main wall of activities & tasks! If I had a bigger room, I would organize it a bit differently to be more like centers, because to be honest, the large wall of different activities is a bit overwhelming at first, but I have to work with what I’ve got!

View a highlight reel on Instagram of what’s inside these boxes.

Task boxes are a great way for students to work on a specific hands on skill. What I love most about task boxes is that it is easier to get most students to buy into participation. There’s just something more fun, motivating and concrete about “finishing a box” rather than “finishing an activity or lesson”. But of course, it all depends on the student.

Browse over 150 life skills & vocational skills task cards here.

It’s up to the teachers and how they want their students to spend their time in here, whether it’s large or small group instruction, or independent work. If the students participate in independent work, each task box is numbered and the student is given a set of numbers on their schedule to complete. 

Check out task card organization containers on Amazon (affiliate link).

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GARMENT RACK & RECYCLING

During this tour, I’ve been showing you a lot of things that might be pretty to look at, but it is important to remember that IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PRETTY, AS LONG AS IT’S FUNCTIONAL!! Don’t get intimidated or discouraged by many of the things you see on social media (including the things I post).

If you want to label and organize everything, great, if you don’t, YOU DO YOU! So here is a great vocational & organization use of a clothing rack and recycle sorting bins. Not only do we use this rack to practice motor skills for hanging clothes, but it also holds extra dress shirts & pants that students can change into for their off campus jobs. (Job coaches also have their polos on here too). Then once a week we take these clothes (and items from other classrooms) to the laundry mat.

We also head to the recycle center once a month or so, so staff and students can sort their recycling in here as well!

This clothing rack was made in a wood workshop by a previous class, but you can find them at many stores! Check out this garment rack from Amazon (affiliate link).

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INTERACTIVE BULLETIN BOARD

Bulletin boards are great for putting up pretty things to look at, but if you haven’t had the chance yet, make the switch to putting up something that is functional and interactive! So I previously posted about the grocery store cabinet, but sometimes it’s just hard to find space for something like that. What I love about this bulletin board is that it doesn’t take up too much space, you can do endless amounts of activities for all level of students, it can be an individual or group lesson and you can change out the activities.

Students can work on something as simple as identifying an item color or price, all the way up to simulating a full consumer & employee shopping experience to practice money math, vocational, and social.

If you are interested in Interactive Bulletin Board activities  can find the bundle here. The activities comes with store item printable, price tags, shopping list and coupon task cards, and tons of worksheets! I also have a grocery store version as well!

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VOCATION WORD WALL

Word Walls aren’t just for primary classrooms! Even if you’re teaching high school or transition, I highly encourage you to utilize a word wall still!! Here’s an age respectful vocation life skills word wall with visuals that I just set up in the vocation lab! I actually taped the pieces up on the walls above the whiteboards/bulletin boards – that was a fun workout going up and down a latter ?

PRO TIP: You can adjust the size of the word cards (if you have limited wall/bulletin board space) when you print by minimizing the %. Then lay out your pieces on the ground first to organize how you will space it out. It also comes with tons of more word cards than pictured! Link in profile & stories

Check out this vocation word wall here.

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GRAB & TEACH BULLETIN BOARD

The printer/copier is located in the vocation lab, so to make teachers’ lives a little bit easier during stressful times, each month I put up a little “Grab & Teach” bulletin board for teachers to pick up some fun fill in activities that I find for free on Tpt! (Make sure to respect teacher author terms of use by not sharing paid products unless each teacher has purchased a license)

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OVERALL VIEW

Here is an overall view of our vocation lab. It’s a small square room, I jam packed it full of activities and utilized every inch of wall space while still providing a spacious work area for independent work or small group activities.

If you don’t have the space for something like this, I hope at the least you can take some of your favorite ideas to implement in your classroom!  If you have any questions or need recommendations for resource, feel free to comment below!

Thanks for reading!

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