50+ Morning Tub Ideas A Morning Tub is a great way to offer a play-based opportunity for students to explore, create, and communicate. A non-threatening way to start the day, Morning Tubs help redu…
Starting a task box center and system in your special education classroom is a way to increase student independence and free up staff.
Surprisingly, I've been slacking a little with making new materials. Spring IEPs & re-evavls, closing out the year, progress reports have me sooo overwhelmed! I found some time to knock out a few more sorting and put-in task boxes, check them out!
STEM Bins for Elementary Students “I’m finished! What do I do now?” How many times during our teaching day do we hear these words from our students? Oftentimes, it is much too often, and students are provided a handful of the same options to keep them busy until our next transition. Sometimes students are instructed...
This visual directory of non-food sensory bin ideas for preschoolers will help teachers plan the bin filler, accessories, and learning objectives.
The Dollar Tree has many useful and affordable educational resources. On a teacher’s budget, even though a resource might only cost me $1, I still like to try and find ways to make the resource last a long time. This Recycle Activity Kit has been at the Dollar Tree for some time. It comes with […]
My first year of teaching was HARD. I had five kindergarteners, one first grader, and one fifth grader.
Tasks boxes are literally LIFE SAVERS in my classroom! They're the perfect solution when we are trying to work 1:1 with a kid or in very small groups. They keep kiddos busy but can be completed totally independently. I have a variety of levels of task boxes because my students' abilities varies a lot. I recycle all kinds of stuff for task boxes including shoe boxes, plastic tubs, coffee cans, Clorox wipe containers, plastic cereal containers and tissue boxes. Sorting two objects Matching colors and threading Matching colors Patterning Shape sort Build names or words with magnetic letters and magnetic strip. Number match and sequencing
Looking for an activity to teach your kids thoese essential counting, sorting, fine motor skills and more!? Check out these super fun sensory bin ideas!
Task boxes can be highly beneficial for special education students for several reasons: They provide structured learning by way of presenting learning materials in an organized way, they provide visual supports, repetition & practice, and skill generalization. Task boxes can also be customized to meet each individual student’s needs and IEP goals, promote independence, and […]
Unlock your preschoolers fine motor skills with these building preschool activities! Build, dump, create with these hands-on construction activities!
Looking for hands-on & interactive task boxes for kindergarten that builds independence, cooperation, fine motor, and more? Absolutely!
A blog about autism resources and support from a special ed teacher with first-hand experience.
Task boxes can be highly beneficial for special education students for several reasons: They provide structured learning by way of presenting learning materials in an organized way, they provide visual supports, repetition & practice, and skill generalization. Task boxes can also be customized to meet each individual student’s needs and IEP goals, promote independence, and […]
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
The best ideas in classroom organization including organizing bookshelves, creating a teacher cart, plus create the perfect teacher space!
Don't let papers take over your classroom.
In February I blogged for the first time about what was actually INSIDE my work boxes. My first post focused specifically on "put in" work t...
Inside: Discover alternative paperless morning work choices for kindergarten that welcome kids to school with a soft start to their day.
Helpful ideas no matter what grade you teach!
Brain bins are what I call morning tubs in my first-grade classroom. They include open-ended materials that my students use to explore, create, build, and-
Just in time for Earth Day, the team at Lia Griffith has been working on organizing their small space recycling area in their home office as well as setting up a recycling center for upcoming summe…
Task boxes can be highly beneficial for special education students for several reasons: They provide structured learning by way of presenting learning materials in an organized way, they provide visual supports, repetition & practice, and skill generalization. Task boxes can also be customized to meet each individual student’s needs and IEP goals, promote independence, and […]
It’s been a while since I linked up for Workbasket Wednesday, but I finally snapped some pictures of my Workbaskets and just had to share them with you all! Check out these adorable Back to School tasks with a focus on fine motor skills! This task has been a classroom favorite. Students use the ... Read More about Workbasket Wednesday!
I have gathered up 55 sensory table ideas for your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten classroom. There are ones for most themes, holidays, and seasons.
Set up a simple washing farm animal sensory bin for your preschoolers. They'll love getting the dirty animals clean! So simple, but so fun!
Looking for a way to organize independent work time for your special education classroom? Students gain more independent and personal responsibility skills with an organized Especially Education Task Box Independent Work Station. Ideas to organize task boxes for independent time or for work time.
Don't let papers take over your classroom.
Who is prepping more work boxes this summer? I just love getting new ideas, especially for our older life skill students! Christina Bailey, a transition life skill teacher, offered to share a bunch of her work boxes on my blog! Thank you Christina! Christina works with transition aged students (19-26 years old) with severe cognitive and/or health impairments. Her school serves students from multiple school districts within the county who learn best in an alternative placement. Are you ready? Here they are!! Putting together (or taking apart) flashlights. Bonus points if students can get the batteries in correctly and get the light to turn on! (Motivation!!) Ice cube tray and colored pebbles with tongs. I love the fine motor aspect added here. Marker packaging. I absolutely love this task and would be a great one to buy during back to school marker sales (especially on those really cheap markers you don't really want to use in your classroom!) Erasers on pencils. This has always been one of my favorite tasks! Silverware sorting. A must for every work task station, am I right? And a super easy and cheap one to put together. Silverware rolling / packaging. I love this task as it is perfect for vocational preparation. Putting together curlers. Ribbon threading around a wire basket. I never would have thought of this task! I love using the wire basket to thread the ribbon, and bet students would have fun with this task too. Sewing kit packaging. Packaging tasks like this are great! Tea candle sort. I love this age appropriate color sorting activity. Toiletry packaging. Wouldn't it be awesome to get donations of items like this and put together kits to give out to the homeless as a classroom service project? So, there you have it! Did you get some more good ideas? Happy task box prep! If you ever have anything you want to share, feel free to email me. I love being able to share your fantastic ideas with other special education teachers like yourself!
Task boxes can be highly beneficial for special education students for several reasons: They provide structured learning by way of presenting learning materials in an organized way, they provide visual supports, repetition & practice, and skill generalization. Task boxes can also be customized to meet each individual student’s needs and IEP goals, promote independence, and […]
Variety of TEACCH work task boxes to help promote student independent work. Great for students with autism and special needs.
Find engaging classroom job skills ideas with these easy to set up job prep activities for special education and students with disabilities.
UPDATE: Brain Boxes were a huge success in my classroom! I'm in my second year of using them and they've worked even better than I could've imagined. I originally thought I'd have to switch them out each month or so... but believe it or not, my class used these same boxes ALL YEAR LONG. That almost makes me feel like a tiny bit of a rotten teacher for not going nuts trying to make them fresh and seasonal, but guess what- no worries, because they LOVED them! All. Year. Long. I love to share so... I'm giving away the "Fine Motor Mats" I use in my boxes for FREE! You can grab them by clicking on the big pic above. So here we are 2 months into year 2 with the same boxes (these things will last forever) and basically the exact same activities as I used last year. I've replaced the pipe cleaners for the bead stringing and decided to swap out the hole punchers (they got messy) with tinker toys I found at a garage sale (they're a total hit). I'd recommend Brain Boxes to any teacher looking for SIMPLE, fine motor work kids can do at the beginning or end of the day or when they finish work quickly. Here's the original post: I'm so excited to launch these BRAIN BOXES in my classroom soon! Apparently it's an idea that's been around for a long time (my teacher/sister says she did them with her class 10 years ago, but I've seen them becoming "hot" again lately... so I wanted to share my management plan, what's in mine, where I got the stuff and all that in case YOU want to try them to! How fun do these look?! So pre-brain boxes, my kiddos would come in, do their morning routine (backpack, folder, order lunch, etc) and plop down on their sit spot to visit with friends while we waited for the school news to begin. It'd usually take 10-15 minutes for the news to come on so honestly, I realized I probably COULD have been doing something more valuable with their time than sitting and chatting (although that's good too in some ways, right?). I've never been a fan of "morning work" worksheets... so brainboxes are the perfect solution! MOST of these focus on fine motor skills which are PERFECT for the beginning of the year! My 4 and 5 year old "product testers" hard at work! LOVE. Padlocks and keys from the dollar tree = $4. It takes some problem solving to figure out which key goes in which lock! They all came with 2 keys so I am keeping one in my desk (because chances are good one may get lost or broken... it's okay). My plan (at least initially- we'll see how this goes!) is that kids who arrive early/on time can do their morning routine and then grab a brain box of their choice to work on quietly in the room. $1 mini hole punchers from Walmart with some $1 fun colored note cards. My smart teacher-sis suggested putting an example of a "done" card in the box so I don't end up with oodles of cards with one punch out of them. Haha! I'm not going to assign them (too complicated- what teacher needs one more job to do?). I'm not going to keep track of who does what (again- no time for that! If they choose the same thing everyday, NBD). :) I'm not going to make them sit at a table (we can be flexible!). I'm not going to switch out the boxes very often. Maybe a few times per year? Playing that one by ear. They'll only be working in them maybe 5 minutes per day so they should be interesting for awhile. A little puzzle my kids don't play with anymore. Fits perfectly at an angle! I LOVE Leap Frog Letter Factory and it's one of the only videos I feel really, really good about showing my class. It's how all my own personal kiddos learned their letters and sounds super early on. So these are just flashcards that go with that video. Many kinds of flashcards could go in these boxes. How fun are these cards pictured below? They fit perfectly in the boxes (more on where the boxes are from in a minute!). I had to make them because I couldn't find what I was looking for on TPT. Everything I found was mostly black and white and full sized pages. These are super fun and colorful (obviously, right?!) and they have little grey circles that show kids where to place the pom poms. Not sure if you can see the circles from this pic, but they're easy to see up close. I purposely made the circle light so they wouldn't overpower the pictures. :) See them HERE! Probably one of the hottest boxes so far, at least with my niece, nephew, and Kindergarten aged daughter who have been busy "testing" these out for me! It's pom poms from Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby. I think the kids will like them so much I dedicated 2 boxes to this. I got medium, little, and even itty bitty sized poms for extra fun! The big blue plastic tweezer is from Dollar Tree ($1 obvs) and I also got 2 of the cheapest metal tweezers from Target (less than $1 for 2). I put a metal one and a plastic one in each box. They BOTH work great for pinching pom poms, which surprised me because I wasn't sure the little metal ones would work... but happy surprise- they totally do! Good ol dominoes. They can stack them, build, match them up, line them up, whatever they want! Dollar Tree had some 6 cute little piece puzzles (4 for $1). I put two of them in this box and will save the other 2 for later in the year. I am going to have them keep all the pieces in the container (ESPECIALLY for boxes like the beads and pom poms... yikes!). They can work while keeping most pieces in the box.... no need to dump it all out. I am going to have them clean up 1 minute before the news begins. Some kids may never get to work in brain boxes if they get to school late or are pokey doing their jobs. That's okay. I am going to let them work alone or with ONE other person (because I have less boxes than kids). The volume in the room should be pretty chill because they're focusing on their work. They can talk, but it's not like a party. :) The other HOT ticket so far! So I made TWO of these. Stringing beads on pipe cleaners! Remember- I'm going to expect them to leave these IN THE BOX and just pick up one at a time to put on the pipe cleaner. I'm already mentally preparing myself that these MIGHT spill someday. Ha! But the lids do snap on pretty securely so maybe I don't have to worry. OF COURSE I had to use the 25 cent twisty crayons, right? So this is just coloring with some special crayons that are different from what they usually get to use. My rule will be one note card per kid per day. Make it fancy and use both sides cause you only get ONE. :) These are some blocks that hook together that my husband played with when he was little. No idea what they are exactly, but kids might think they're fun?! THESE made me happy cause they're so dang cute and they fit so well in these boxes. Dollar Tree has some Frozen puzzles that are 12 pieces each (4 for $1). They fit PERFECTLY into these adorable little boxes that are only $1 each from Walmart. I'll warn you that I bought several other little 12 or 24 piece puzzles- and even those 6 piece Mickey puzzles, but none of those fit in these little boxes. Only the Frozen ones. Oh well. These are a WINNER though! Also a cute little box. A mixture of nuts and bolts that cost a few dollars. They have to see which nuts fit on each bolt cause they're different sizes. This one is kind of like the locks and keys. I'm not sure I'll be brave enough to do Play Doh (I have carpet!) but I'm sure kids will LOVE it so I might need to give it a shot. The cards I made can also be used with play doh if I teach them how to roll the doh into little balls. Cute! If you'd like to grab a set of the cards I'm using with the play doh and pom poms, you can find them HERE:https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fine-Motor-Mats-for-Brain-Boxes-Exploration-Boxes-Busy-Boxes-or-just-FUN-2746268 I know a lot of teachers who were going with plastic shoe boxes for this idea, but mine are just 3x5 index cards from Walmart. They have clear lids that snap on so easy, yet tight. I love that they won't take up tons of space in my classroom.
Sensory bins are a great way for kindergarteners to work on academic and developmental skills at home. And boy, do I have some wonderful sensory bin ideas to share with you today! Between the fine motor and language development, engaging sensory exploration, and wonderfully calming nature of sensory bins, they're a must in my books.
Sensory Bins for big kids is a great gift idea to bring sensory activities to kids in kindergarten and older. Combine it with some letter, number and sight word practice for an extra educational boost!
Come take a tour of my vocation & life skills lab where students are able to work on their IEP goals and independent living skills!
Items to use for sensory play, ideas for storing the items, and links to how and why!
There is a reason behind every component of a independent work system. Do you know the 4 questions each work system should answer? Click through to find out.
Come check out how I organize, decorate, and utilize spaces & activities to be functional on this Adult Transition classroom tour!
All the images found below are from our Instagram @habitatschoolhouse . The resources featured can be found in our shop and our membership. If you see a resource you like, just click on the image and it will take you to where you can download the resources.
Work Task Wednesday featuring a test tube center to practice patterns, sequencing, color ID, following directions, hand dominance, grip, and more.
I could never say enough positive things about using a work box system in the classroom-- for any child. I've used them with typically developing peers in the classroom as well and it's an amazing way to in-bed practice and skill maintenance, all while working on attending to a task as well. Over the summer I did a whole post on how I structure this system in my classroom. You can check it out {here}. But one thing I've never done is actually post photos of the activities I have in my boxes. My boxes have grown since I last posted a photo this summer. I have 83 work boxes available in my classroom at all times. I know that sounds like the only thing that make up the shelves in my classroom are work boxes, but I promise it's not. It might be close, but it's not! I don't have a lot of remaining storage in my classroom. So to constantly be changing out activities and finding a storage system for previous activities is a little challenging for me. So I prefer to just have a lot of boxes available. We also need a high number of boxes to complete each day. Let's break it down. I have 10 students total, 8 of whom complete work boxes at some point doing the day. Children complete anywhere between 1-10 boxes a day. Right now, as a class, we are completing 28 boxes a day. We come to school 4 days a week, so that's completing 112 boxes a week. And planning so strategically that a child doesn't repeat a box during the week. It's a huge planning challenge. And my paras are awesome at catching my goofs! I'm hoping to come across some appropriate shelving between now and the end of the year to expand our boxes even more. Sounds crazy I know, but it will make the planning challenge so much easier when there is a larger amount to pick from. So the whole point of this post-- what's in the boxes?! I use a combination of handmade activities, printable activities, and existing manipulatives from my classroom to make up my boxes. Our lowest tasks are simple "put-in" activities and our higher tasks include activities like capital and lowercase matching using clothespins and sight word matching mats. I've been trying to come up with more and more put-in activities so that's what I'm going to share with you today. In another post I'll share another category. For this activity I saved a small peanut can from the grocery store. (Yes I washed it out) I simply cut slits in the lid--these lids are super easy to cut into which is nice. It's the perfect height for dropping these mini popsicle sticks into. This activity is another saved container- an almond one. I have saved a ton of these! They are a great size and again, the lids are easy to cut into. This one has a circle in the middle of the lid and heart erasers to put into the container. This activity I found on pinterest. I simply saved a Parmesan cheese shaker, washed it out and added q-tips. When students open the box the cheese shaker is already open. (It would be too challenging for my little guys to get open independently- it's tough!) This task I clearly didn't make. It is courtesy of Lakeshore Learning. Students simply place the buttons in. This jar is one of three included in the pack and can be purchased by clicking {here}. If you wanted to make a more challenging task for a student you could place two jars into one task box so the student has to sort as well. This is the second jar included in the Lakeshore pack. I used another almond container for the activity. And obviously a hole punch to put the holes in the lid. Students have to put the beads into the container through the holes. I saw someone else blog about these small paint containers they found at the Dollar Store. They really are great! I bought four of them and used one for this work box. Students simply push the pom-poms into the container. This activity is similar to the Lakeshore bucket with buttons. I found the small yellow containers at the Dollar Tree in the baby section. They come in a multi-pack which is nice, BUT, they are a pain to cut holes in the top. It's a much harder plastic than I thought, and it cracked in the corners. If I hadn't gone through so much trouble to cut the slot in, I probably would have used another almond container. This was one of the first work box activities I made. I recycled a cookie dough container and cut holes in the lid. Then students just have to put pom-poms into the holes. I'd like to re-do this container at some point because most students catch on that the middle hole is big enough to just drop the pom-pom in versus pushing it through the hole. I don't know if you would call this a "put in" task, but I do. They're putting pegs in a peg board! I can also guarantee you that this peg board is older than I am. For this activity students push down the lever on the gumball machine to get a stone out, then they have to place the stone in the container. I liked the idea of students using their index finger to get the lever done-- additional fine motor practice. Sometimes more than one stone may come out, but that's okay. So there you have it. Those are our current "put in" activities. I hope you get some new ideas for your own work boxes from these. Next I'll share our sorting activities.
