Considerate Classroom: Early Childhood Special Education Edition: 7 Day Work Task Challenge

It's Day 5 of my Work Task Challenge and I'm learning it is very difficult to keep a challenge going mid-summer. Lucky for me, I found inspiration on page 50 of the book, Visual Support for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Materials for Visual Learners by Vera Bernard-Opitz and Anne Haubler.

I am always looking for variations of "put in" and fine motor tasks. We actually have these links in the classroom, but the students never use them appropriately. They usually dump all the links out, throw them around until the links are tangled, and then leave the area to find something else to play. This task is a perfect variation on the old colored links.

That said, my only problem with this activity are my commitments to storing task boxes in condensed containers and establishing multi skill levels for each task. Here's my creative solution to that dilemma.

I took an old Velveeta cheese box, turned it over, and cut two slits in the bottom. The bottom then became the top of the box as it is much sturdier than the top. Next, I cut two paint sticks down so they would measure the length of my storage shoe boxes. I added Velcro to the inside of the box and the bottom of the paint sticks. This makes the paint sticks sturdy and removable for storage purposes.

Then, I screwed a hook into the top of each paint stick. I used an exacto knife to cut out four holes on top the Velveeta box for each of the different colored links. Notice two holes are vertical and the other two are horizontal. This increases the fine motor skills needed to complete the task because students must twist their fingers to put the links in the correct holes.

And yes, I met my goal, the task fits into a shoe box with a little extra storage for even one more task!

It also has three levels of difficulty by: Level 1. Taking off and putting in, Level 2. Taking off and sort by two, or Level 3. Taking off and sorting by four.