Recess Routine Visual Schedule Cards

About this resource

A posted, numbered sequence for one everyday recess routine that comes with its own data. Most routine-sequence sets stop at the pictures; this one adds a completion log, a weekly roll-up and a phrase bank behind it, so a step that stops needing a prompt turns into a line on a page a case manager can bring to a meeting.

The Routine

• Recess and outdoor play (6 steps) — line up, walk outside, play, listen for signal, line up to go in, walk inside

Every picture was chosen to be named in one word by a young child, in color AND in the black-and-white set. Two of the six cards deliberately reuse an earlier card's picture: recess starts and ends with the same two actions — lining up, and walking through the same door — and no separate Unicode picture exists for "lining up a second time" or "the same door, walked through the other way." Rather than invent an unrelated picture to force each card to look different, both reused cards say so plainly on their own reference-table row, and the step number keeps the cut-apart set in order. The specific recess-ending signal (a whistle, a bell, an adult's voice, a hand signal) is never named or assumed by this file — the "Listen for signal" card and the how-to page both say that choice is the classroom's own. Cards are 2 inches square.

The Strip

A quick-reference view of the whole routine in numbered order on one page, in color and in ink-saver, so the fixed order is visible at a glance without cutting anything apart. The number prints on every cut-apart card too, so a dropped or reshuffled set can always be put back in order.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the log, the roll-up, the family update, the hand-off page and the blank cards, or print and use a pen. The card and strip pages print on cardstock or plain paper and cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document.

It is a posted, numbered picture sequence for one everyday routine, and a place to record whether each step needed help. It is not a safety procedure, a behavior plan, or a program of any kind, and it promises no outcome. It carries no prompt hierarchy, fading schedule or mastery rule; how it is used with a student, and for how long, is what your team's plan says. The goal line and the criterion field are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. The log counts one thing per step: whether help was needed, not what kind or in what order to remove it.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals who teach everyday routine sequences to early, pre-reading or emerging-language students, case managers who need that teaching to show up as data, and the families who get the update sent home.

More In The Collection

This is part of the Visual Supports Collection, alongside Bedtime Routine Visual Schedule Cards, Home Morning Routine Visual Schedule Cards, and Bathroom and Handwashing Sequence Cards; more picture-card sets — routine strips, choice boards, calm-down cards — are being added to the collection regularly, all on the same cards-plus-data shape.

Pictures (color pages): Noto Emoji by Google, Apache License 2.0. Pictures (ink-saver pages): Fluent Emoji, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, MIT License.