Work Tasks from Around the House

Check out these functional tasks that are so simple and cheap to make, using old containers around the house (or classroom)!

TASK ONE: A Squeeze Jelly Fine Motor Sort

Could be used as a sorting and fine motor task or a simple fine motor task.  It is just scrap pieces of felt that need to be fed through the lid using a pincer grasp.  

TASK TWO: A Sandwich Assembly Task

Perfect for pretend play in a dramatic play center for younger students or for practical practice of making sandwiches in a life skills class.  I used scrap pieces of felt and old sandwich containers but you could use scrap fun foam too.  

TASK THREE: A Play Dough Can Sort

Great for students, who are tactile defensive to start experience play dough in a nonthreatening way first with just the play dough container and pom-poms.  Then with the play dough container and little balls of play dough to put in, then eventually with any luck actually playing with play dough.

What tasks have you come up with this summer?  Please share below I would love to hear about more tasks I can make out of random things around the house before the school year starts!

Best Wishes, Lindy

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

Lego Work Tasks: for Early Building, Play and Sorting

The post I had planned for today is taking a bit longer to put together than I had anticipated, so I figured what better way to fill the We Teach Sped slot than with a simple work task post!  So here goes. . . Six Building Task!

1. Duplo Lego Build Sorting by Color-

2. Duplo Lego Build Sorting by Size-

NOTE: By attaching rough velcro to the bottom of one lego of each color and size and creating a lego tray with Sterilite Storage Trays, hot glue and soft velcro, you are able to make one task that has multiple ways to build and sort: by color, by size and by color and size!  

Also note by using Duplo Legos you can reach and teach learners who are in the early stages of play and /or have limited fine motor skills.  Duplos are much easier to hold and build with for little hands, however the same task can be made for more mature hands using traditional Legos.

3. Lego Build Sorting by Color

4. Lego Build Sorting by Size

5. Lego Build Sorting by Color and Size

Note for these tasks all you need is a one piece of cardboard, a large lego platform, a bowl or can to put the legos in and a hot glue gun to put them together.  By putting them together the task stays together making it easier for students to organize their work task space.

Also note with the help of the Dollar Bins at Target, the Duplo Lego sorting container can serve another purpose as a building block sort!  I purchased these blocks at the beginning of the school year, so if you can't find them you might check the Dollar Bins when it gets closer to next school year.  When all the back to school goodies are out:)

6. Building Block Sort by Color

That is all for today, 6 easy building tasks at various levels.  

Until Next Time, Happy Building!!

Lindy

'Tree'mendous Recycling Work Basket

I am so excited to share my latest Dollar Tree find a recycling sticker set!  Great for Earth Day!

To ensure that the stickers could be reused, I laminated them with laminate paper and packing tape.  (Most of the stickers fit on one laminate sheet, rather than waste another sheet of laminate I packing taped the remaining 5.)

I then cut an opening in each recycling container's lid and attached an envelope to the back of each for sorting.  

And there you have it a great recycling task with multiple levels ...

Level 1- A Simple Put In  (There is only one can and the items that go in that can so a student who doesn't have the ability to sort recycling items yet and can be successful as all they have to do is put the items in the recycling bin, a great fine motor task!)

Level 2- A Put in with Some Pictures that Do Not Belong (I mixed a few other recycling items that aren't plastic in the bowl, students put them in the don't belong container as they find them.  Depending on the students level the pictures that don't belong may need to be more different than just another recycling item for example star or animal stickers.)

Level 3- Sorting Two Types of Recycling

Level 4- Sorting More Recycling Items In the photo below, I am featuring sorting all four types (paper, compost, aluminum, and plastic) but you could easily sort three types too.

And then a bonus!  Some FREE printable checklists I created to support students who need visual supports to help them sort!  (There is a checklist for sorting one item (from items that don't belong), two items and four items.  I simply printed them and put them in page protectors for students to use with a dry erase marker.  

Then I created this quick reference sheet for students who are readers but don't yet have the concept of what recycling goes where.  They can simply read the color coded chart to see where items go.  

Click here to access these printables, and head out to Dollar Tree to get the Learning to Recycle sticker set so you can get this workbasket already for Earth Day!

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