Task Box Countdown: Task Box # 3 - What Goes Up? and What Goes Down?

Moving right along in my "Top 10 Task Box Countdown"... Coming in at #3 is this clever little homemade sorting device.   

Several of my students struggle with opposites and prepositions. In an effort to help them understand the concepts of up and down, I created this simple work task that provides a visual of up and down while simultaneously providing a hands-on learning activity. 

Rather than just sorting things that go up versus things that go down into two separate piles. I wrapped a Pringles can with construction paper and cut slits at the top & bottom. I then wrote “Things that Go Up” around the top slit and around the bottom slit I wrote “Things that Go Down”.

Using Boardmaker, I created calling cards of things that represent up like a bird, airplane, butterfly, & clouds, etc.  I did the same for the down cards using representatives like caterpillar, car, grass, etc. 

CLICK HERE for the Up and Down Printables

The students love playing this game during one-on-one or small group instruction with a teacher or staff person. Although I recently realized that if I intended for the students to use this task during independent work, I needed a way to check their completed work. So I asked my husband to cut the bottom out of the Pringles can.  I put a second Pringles lid on the bottom and taped a piece of cardstock in the middle of the can.  (It's not pretty but it serves the purpose!) 

Now when the students put something into the top slit, it stops half-way down. And when they use the bottom slit, the card goes to the bottom.  Making it easy for my staff and I to go to the independent work area later and check a student's work.