Who’s ready for another freebie to build you independent work library?!
If you don’t have an independent work station… you need to start one right now! Here’s where to start. Building my independent work library was life changing for me! I was understaffed and had a classroom full of students who needed 1:1. Teaching my students how to work independently not only freed up some staff…. but taught them life long skills (independence, schedule following, clean up, attention) that they will carry with them throughout life. If you haven’t started building your library, I send out a freebie a month to help you get started via my email list! Make sure you sign up to receive them (you can also find them all on the blog!)
Today I’m sharing 2 Thanksgiving tasks that are simple, free, and quick to prep! You can download these free resources by signing up for my email list to get the password to the Simply Free Library. The Simply Free Library has over 50 free downloads just like these! You could make a whole independent work center just from these downloads!
I love any task that I can quickly prep, pull, and clean up. Sorting mats are a huge win for this! To make this task errorless, just give students one mat with all the correct answers! This increases motivation, confidence, and of course independence!
HOW TO SET IT UP: Mix them up and place them in a bin for students to pull from. Need an extra prompt? Don’t make it verbal! Start each mat with ONE piece on it as a visual reminder to match to!
If your students are non readers you can give them a visual prompt on the sorting mat by adding one pie and one turkey to each mat as a cue!
Two levels of matching are included in this activity, picture to picture and picture to word. This makes it easy to quickly adapt depending on a students level. This task box can be easily stored in a small plastic bin, like the one linked here (affiliate link), or in a shoebox! It it quick and easy to prep and will last forever with the right lamination! (hint, you can find my favorite kind here- it’s not scotch.) (affiliate link)
Click the image above to log into the Simply Free Library. Or click here if you need a password!
To join the Simply Free Library, you just need to sign up for my email list! You will get the password and have instant access to over 50+ free resources, 30+ are independent work tasks!
