Spice and Seasoning Sorting Tasks

Today I cleaned out the spice cabinet at school and home and found some expired containers to make these gems!!  

I made a black and white sort using old salt and pepper containers.

NOTE:  A cut a slit in the bottom of the salt container so I can get the white pipe cleaners out after the students sort.  

Then I made a color sort with three different colored spice containers.  

NOTE:  It is an assemble task!  The students put all the pipe cleaners in then screw the lids on each container.  

Next I made a size sort using small, medium, and large pipe cleaners.  

A huge thank you to Teri Berkgren for inspiring me to make some new work tasks!  Stay tune for more!

Until next time, best wishes!
Lindy

Dollar Tree Items Turned Work Tasks!

You got to love the Dollar Tree! Here are two of my latest findings, a checkers game and a Care Bear board book.

Okay so neither of them are too exciting however with a little thought and a lot of Velcro you have some pretty great work tasks!  By purchasing 3 copies of any board book you can create a very durable interactive matching book by simply cutting the characters and objects out of two of the books and velcroing them into the third book.



 

(You have to buy two books for cutting most books, because generally books have characters and objects on both sides of each page and if you cut one side for the object or character, you cut through the object on the other side.

It makes for a really fun matching task that I usually start my students out with if they have limited experience or interest in books because it is very concrete and the child knows when finished is!  Finished is when all the objects or characters in the bowl on the left are put in the book on the right.

 
And now for the checkerboard, so I have to admit I had the checkerboard game for several months before I could figure out a plan for it.  The kids I typically work with don't have the skills to play the actual game of checkers but I just knew there was a purpose for the game board and tokens and here it is!  All I did was cut the checker board into smaller boards and add Velcro. 

The beauty is that it became a leveled activity for students at the lowest level I present a board with one red and one black square, they have to match the two tokens then they are all done. 

I have students work up to other boards as their ability to comply and attend increases. 

Do you have other games and products that took you awhile to think of a way to make into a work task?  Share your brilliance below as I am sure there are others of us holding on to similar products with no plan for how to simplify them for our students. 

Best Wishes and Happy Work Task Making,  Lindy

'Tree'mendous Treasures: 16 Leveled Work Tasks

Everyone who knows me, knows I am a Dollar Tree fanatic!  Between the teaching tree and the many aisles of toys the possibilities are endless so I am starting a new series, 'Tree'mendous Treasures!

First up, large coins from the party section and play money from the toy section. 

Simply download my free Money Sorting Work Task from Teachers Pay Teachers and you have 16 work tasks with different levels to play. 

TASK ONE: Coin Drop (this could be done with the large coins or the small ones)

TASK TWO: Errorless Size Sorting (I purposefully used a small can and a larger can.  The large coins only fit in the larger can to support success.  Increasing the probability that the students will sort correctly provides more opportunities for success!) 

Want more?  Change the size adjectives to teach other words that mean large and small.

NOTE: To be completely errorless, simply add lids that have a slit cut for the exact size of the large and small coins.

TASK THREE: Size Sorting (without an errorless component because the cans are the same size)

Again, with the option to change the size adjectives.

TASK FOUR: Sorting By Reading Words



 And again with the option of changing the size words.

TASK FIVE: Sorting Coins and Dollars (with three levels to play)

Match pictures to money

Match number values to money



Match number words to money



And there you have 16 work tasks using 2 products from dollar tree and this printable!
Stay tune for future 'Tree'mendous Treasures:)

March Work Tasks for Easter

Okay so I know it is a ways off, but I am super excited to share 8 Easter work tasks as part of Autism Classroom News' Workbasket Wednesday!  All you need is a few sets of these Easter erasers from Dollar Tree and the eraser visuals from my TPT store and you have the first 6 tasks at your fingers tips! 

And what's even better, they are leveled!  Level One- a Simple Put in Task: 

Level Two- Egg Assembly:  (My favorite!)  All you need is three cans and some plastic Easter eggs. Arrange the cans left to right for students to take an eraser, open an egg, put the eraser inside, close the egg and put in all done.  

Level Three-Sorting Easter Erasers to Picture Images:  All you need is the picture images, magnet dots and a muffin tin.  

***If you have a student or two who are very rigid and have a hard time being flexible 

you can add a few erasers that don't below and then a symbol that says 

'this does't belong' (like in the photo below).  Just a little extra problem solving :)

Level Four- Sorting Easter Erasers to Icons: This task helps generalize vocabulary.  For example the purple egg and the pink egg are still both eggs.  It also helps students work toward recognizing icons have meaning for icon schedules and visual communication supports.  

Level Five- Sorting Easter Erasers from Christmas Erasers: All you need is some Christmas erasers and a microwave dinner tray with two sections (or any container with two parts or two cans or bowls).  

Level Six- Graphing Easter Erasers: All you need is the worksheet printable and a can to put the erasers in after the students graph them.  

***BONUS: Print the colored version of the worksheet, put it in a page protector 

and use it as a math or social small group activity using a dry erase marker and a take one bag.  

For students who are non-verbal or have limited language you can use this aided language board to facilitate communication about the erasers the students pick out.  

And before I sign off for the night, two other Easter fine motor tasks using this box of Easter memory cards also from the Dollar Tree.  

All you need is a box and clothes pins and you have a fine motor and matching tasks all in one!

To make the task a little more challenging for students who need to strength their fine motor control use binder clips.  

Thanks for stopping by on Workbasket Wednesday or in looking at the time, Workbasket Thursday!

Until next time 'spring' into some new Easter work tasks!

Lindy

Workbasket Wednesday Link Up

This is my first time to join a linky party, but there is no better way to start than to do one with work baskets as the topic and one of my very favorite blogs, Autism Classroom News as the host! 

Work tubes, work baskets, or work boxes, whatever you want to call them.  The kids love them and learn a lot from them. 

Students and parents in our program are very familiar with them as they are one of the first activities we do with our students to encourage attention to task and support learning to learn skills.  It is amazing how quickly our little ones pick up on the structure of a work basket.  If the structure is there they will succeed!  Especially when it is a work basket of interest. 

Below are three of my favorites that I created specific for a little guy that is really interested in all kinds of sports balls.  Originally, he throw everything he could get his hands on, due to his extreme interest in balls, but as we got him interested in these and a few other ball activities I will share in a future post all the inappropriate throwing went away as he learned when throwing, kicking, bouncing and catching were appropriate and got his fix of doing all four. 

WORK BASKET 1: Soccer Ball Put In

 

This task is quite simple the student either puts in or flicks soccer erasers into the goal. I got the erasers from the dollar bins at Target and the soccer goal from the cake decorating section at a party store.  To save time I simply covered the box lid with Green Duct Tape and then Velcroed a plastic score goal on top.  Hint: I Velcroed the soccer goal on rather than gluing it so I can take it off to save room when storing it.

 

WORK BASKET 2: Where does it belong?

 

This task used the other three sports erasers in the set from Target.  I simply made a template with three different columns.  In one I put a baseball diamond, another a basketball court and then the other a football field.  The student sorted the balls by putting them in the correct hole.  TIP- One of my favorite boxes for tasks like this are kid’s Nike shoe boxes.  They are sturdy, and little for storing. 

WORKBASKET 3:  Who does it belong to?

 

This task simply involved making a second template with the people who play the various sports.  I removed the sport locations and googled images of a basketball, football, and baseball player to add to the second template.  I choose to make my sports players 2D as they stand upright with a Velcro tab at the bottom.   

And there you have it a two in one task.  I simply Velcro the second template over the box when we are ready to give the who does it belong to skill a try.

If anyone out there would like to give the Where does it belong and Who does it belong to sports editions a try in their classrooms, feel free to email me at considerateclassroom@gmail.com and I will send you my template. 

Happy Workbasket Wednesday Everyone!  Whew---I just barely made it in by Wednesday:)