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!
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...
Starting a task box center and system in your special education classroom is a way to increase student independence and free up staff.
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. #independentwork #taskboxes #organization
8 ways to use task boxes in your special education classrooms from instructional purposes to leisure activity.
There is something about the structure and routine of Michaela's Especially Education task boxes students are drawn to. They take immense pride in showing off their finished work, keeping all the materials together, and putting the tasks away into their rightful places.
From developing fine motor skills, letter and number recognition, sight words, sorting, sequencing, reading, and math, these task boxes for autism tasks will help develop important life skills and beyond!
Do you want to try task boxes, but think your students are too high for them? They aren’t! I find it easier to do higher level academics in task boxes than coming up with new ways to practice lower level skills such as “put in”. This post may include affiliate links. First, let’s talk about ... Read More about Higher Level Academics In Task Boxes
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 […]
Work Task Wednesday featuring a test tube center to practice patterns, sequencing, color ID, following directions, hand dominance, grip, and more.
My first year of teaching was HARD. I had five kindergarteners, one first grader, and one fifth grader.
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 […]
Task cards and boxes are a great way to help your students complete activities independently, build fine motor skills, and practice the tasks they need to master.
Overwhelmed and understaffed my first year as a special education teacher in the self-contained classroom, I discovered that implementing an effective independent workstation helped my students become more successful and independent. Click to learn how I got control using task boxes and independent workstations in my special education classroom. My students loved the differentiated math, language arts, science, and social studies curriculum with age appropriate clip art and real photographs.
Are your students needing to build their fine motor muscles? Learn how using fine motor task boxes can help.
Variety of TEACCH work task boxes to help promote student independent work. Great for students with autism and special needs.
Made For Me Literacy provides special education teachers with engaging, comprehensive reading units meticulously crafted with special learners in mind covering various subject areas, including basic reading, writing, math, science, and fine motor skills.
Do your students love dinosaurs? Keep your learners engaged and busy with this Dinosaurs themed task box/busy box! This product includes 14 identical picture matching task cards. Perfect for little learners, special education students, or ELL's. Use during centers, table time, morning work, small group activities, activity schedules, or 1:1 teaching. New to using task boxes? Simply print the images, cut and laminate the pictures, and then velcro the front of the card and back of the matching card. Store in a zip-lock bag or storage box. *Watch the video preview to see the full product*
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
Use these watercolor task box labels to add structure to your independent work in special education classrooms. Visual schedules will help your students complete station work without constant prompting from staff! Savings Alert! This is part of a larger bundle. Check it out here and get all of my visual supports at a discount! Includes: 40 number cards 26 uppercase letter cards 26 lowercase letter cards 70 shape cards (10 shapes in 7 colors) 162 corresponding "match points" to attach to your tasks or shelves 3, 4, and 5 step schedules strips (both vertical and horizontal) Please note: This is a digital download. You will download, print, and prep as needed. No physical items will be sent to you.
Looking for hands-on & interactive task boxes for kindergarten that builds independence, cooperation, fine motor, and more? Absolutely!
Starting a task box center and system in your special education classroom is a way to increase student independence and free up staff.
Engage students with disabilities in vocational training and improving work skills with these Work Task Boxes! It is the perfect way to easily address job training and work stamina with a variety of activities to include students of multiple ability levels, specifically students in SpEd or Autism Units. PLEASE NOTE: This is a bundle of the Dollar Store Work Task Boxes - 20 Activities with Visual Directions and MORE Dollar Store Vocational Work Task Boxes - 21 MORE Activities with Visuals. Want to save more? Get your MEGA BUNDLE of 64 Vocational Task Boxes! Are you supposed to be teaching vocational skills to your students in LIFE Skills or those with Autism? Not sure where to start? This will make it easy… and you can get everything you need from your nearest Dollar Store! Functional Vocational Training is so important for students with Autism and those with multiple profound disabilities. The problem is finding meaningful materials and knowing the function of each task. With this kit, the Directions Card will not only tell you what you need, but will tell you the purpose of the activity (hello… can you say IEP goals)! WHAT YOU’LL GET: 43 Vocational Work Tasks 2 Printed Labels for Each Work Task Directions so the Task is Clear WITH Possible IEP Goal Visual Aids for Each Task Task Analysis Strip for Each Task (Task Steps) Printable Shopping List With the Printable Shopping List you know exactly what to get when you go to the store. Not interested in starting with all 43 kits? Pick the ones you want… there is a printing guide so you can print the kits you need. WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS PRODUCT: If you are a teacher who is working in an Autism Unit with Special Education students you will love this activity! Retail vendors kits cost an arm and a leg. If you want to put Work Tasks together on a teacher's budget, everything for these kits can be found at your local dollar store. This activity is also differentiated for you! It comes with Put-In/Stacking Activities, Assembly Activities, Sorting Activities, and Matching Activities to meet the needs of your students from basic to more advanced. It is perfect to meet the needs of multi-level classrooms! Download the PREVIEW file to see more about the printable… then purchase the full activity today and work smarter, not harder! RELATED PRODUCTS: Check out more activities like this in the Noodle Nook TPT Store, including other Stocking Activities. The Shirt Shop - A Printable Retail Vocational Task for Autism Units - Life Skills Baggage Handling - A Printable Vocational Work Task for Autism Units - Life Skills The Lawn Pro - A Printable Maintenance Vocational Work Task PLUS Other Store Bestsellers Visual Schedule for Students with Autism - Printable & Ready to Go Behavior Toolkit - 18 Visuals to Support Students with Autism Token Economy - Visual Behavior Modification FEEDBACK & FOLLOWERS: Fabulous Printables Love Feedback! Ratings make the TpT world go round :) AND Earn you points to get more for less. Follow me to be the first to know about my new sales, freebies and products! Look for the green star near my store name and click it to become a follower. You'll receive updates directly to your inbox that will help you work smarter, not harder. Woo-hoo! If you have any questions, I’d love to hear from you! -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Email: [email protected] Pinterest: Noodle Nook Facebook: NoodleNook Instagram: #TheNoodleNook Blog: www.NoodleNook.Net -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- This resource was created by Ayodele Jones © 2018. All rights reserved by authors. The materials in this unit were distributed and intended for single use only. The purchaser may reproduce copies for students in your classroom for classroom use only. You may not share with other teachers in your building, district, or otherwise. Redistributing, editing, selling, or posting this item (or any part thereof) on the internet is strictly prohibited. Violations are subject to penalties of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Additional licenses can be purchased for multi-use at a discount. Please contact the author at [email protected].
I can't believe that it has taken me so long to implement task boxes in my classroom. Task boxes have been such a game-changer for not only my independent work station but my direct instruction when I am working with just one student. Not only are they super engaging, but they provide sensory input that […]
A blog about autism resources and support from a special ed teacher with first-hand experience.
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.
I'm back at working at center tasks. Here are a few new ideas that the kiddos have tried this week. Pom pom color sorting: ...
Overwhelmed and understaffed my first year as a special education teacher in the self-contained classroom, I discovered that implementing an effective independent workstation helped my students become more successful and independent. Click to learn how I got control using task boxes and independent workstations in my special education classroom. My students loved the differentiated math, language arts, science, and social studies curriculum with age appropriate clip art and real photographs.
You all LOVED the 4 simple task boxes I shared here, so here are 4 more! SIMPLE task boxes that don’t cost a fortune and are low level for independent work and beginning learners are so hard to find. What’s even harder to find is ones that are appropriate for ANY age. These 4 hit […]
I have quite a few students who need level 1 task boxes this year. My go-to for many of these students are "put-in" tasks because it allows ...
Overwhelmed and understaffed my first year as a special education teacher in the self-contained classroom, I discovered that implementing an effective independent workstation helped my students become more successful and independent. Click to learn how I got control using task boxes and independent workstations in my special education classroom. My students loved the differentiated math, language arts, science, and social studies curriculum with age appropriate clip art and real photographs.
Easy to use and download matching task boxes for special education and preschool students! FREE Animals, Math, Numbers, and shapes!
Overwhelmed and understaffed my first year as a special education teacher in the self-contained classroom, I discovered that implementing an effective independent workstation helped my students become more successful and independent. Click to learn how I got control using task boxes and independent workstations in my special education classroom. My students loved the differentiated math, language arts, science, and social studies curriculum with age appropriate clip art and real photographs.
Find engaging classroom job skills ideas with these easy to set up job prep activities for special education and students with disabilities.
I’m back to talk more about independent work stations. I don’t know if you’ve realized, but I’m basically obsessed with them. I think I’ve written about independent work stations at least a half dozen times on this blog if not more! I love them because not only do they provide an opportunity to teach students ... Read More about 5 Mistakes you are Making in your Independent Work Stations
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
My first year of teaching was HARD. I had five kindergarteners, one first grader, and one fifth grader.
20 SEL Task Boxes for small group sessions and independent work systems in special education settings. Save on prep time with this done-for-you option. Are you looking for a Social Skills curriculum that blends seamlessly with independent student activities? This SEL set does BOTH! Save with the Task Box Lesson Plans All-Year BUNDLE! This Social Emotional Learning Set integrates interactive task boxes throughout the lesson stages—warm-up, guided practice, independent work, extension, and assessment. Each lesson plan is fully editable. This is Set One of Four of the Social Emotional Learning Task Box Lesson Plans. There are 10 editable lesson plans with 20 task boxes. The following topics are included in Set One: Basic Emotions 1 Basic Emotions 2 Complex Emotions Recognizing Facial Expressions Using Words to Express Feelings Is It Helpful or Is It Hurtful? Understanding Others’ Feelings Empathy Kindness What Makes a Good Friend? Each lesson includes an editable lesson plan and two task boxes. Organizational Extras: Included are a variety of tools to streamline lesson planning and execution: Task Box Lesson Plans Binder Cover Data Collection Sheets for Task Boxes Task Box Covers Visual Directions for Students "Maximizer Minutes"—brief audio clips packed with additional instructional strategies Be sure to download the preview for a closer look at the editable special education lesson plans, hands-on task boxes, and more! Copyright © Positively Learning. All rights reserved by author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one user is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Clipart and elements found in this PDF are copyrighted and cannot be extracted and used outside of this file without permission or license. See product file for clip-art and font credits.
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
These fine motor skill task boxes are perfect for your students to work on their fine motor skills in a variety of different ways. With 14 task boxes included, your students have a range of opportunities to work on their fine motor skills with these activities. Your students will love how hands-on, engaging and fun these work task boxes are. And you can even use them as independent work activities! Each work task included fits into the photo storage boxes, making it easy for you to keep all of your task boxes organized and together. There is a wide variety of task cards included in this pack and I recommend switching through them throughout the month to mix up for your students. The task boxes included in this pack are; Initial Sounds Tracing Task Box Counting Links on the Kites Alphabet Recognition - Bingo Dabber / Pom-Poms Counting Fries - Pipe Cleaners / Popsicle Sticks Making Numbers with Snap Cubes Making Letters with Snap Cubes Making 2D Shapes with Snap Cubes Number Recognition - Bingo Dabber / Pom-Poms Making 2D Shapes Out of Play Dough Alphabet Formation with Play Dough Number Formation with Play Dough Snap Cubes Copying and Continuing Patterns Making Shapes with Popsicle Sticks Play Dough Skills Your students will love working on these task bin activities independently, and having the chance to introduce some hands-on learning into your classroom. ★ Also includes a 'Fine Motor Skills Work Tasks' cover for you to display on the task box set so you can quickly and easily find what you are looking for. ★ Click below to find: Task Card Activities Work Task Boxes Fine Motor Activities Once you have purchased this resource don't forget to come back and leave feedback to help you gain some TpT credits! If you want to keep up to date with my sales, new resources, freebies and so much more click the green ★ next to my store name! I love to see my resources in action in your classrooms, if you use one and would like to send me an image of it you can send to me @teachingautism on Instagram! Follow me here. What are TpT Credits? You can gain TpT credits by going back and leaving feedback on any purchases that you have made. The credits build up and then you can use them off future purchases - from any seller on TpT!
Task boxes contain materials for short, familiar, and structured activities, and excellent educational tools for students with mild to severe disabilities.
