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