Simple Task boxes for your Special Education Classroom independent work station are tough to find- but you can make them DIY AND on theme!! Here are 5 boxes that you can probably make easily with materials found in your classroom or bought on amazon.
I get asked a lot about independent work for students who are NOT independent during work time yet! The answer? PUT IN and sorting TASKS! These are fun and easy to make and you can easily differentiate them!
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TOOLS: (affiliate links below)
+ Shoe Boxes (free! Ask friends!)
+ Heart Clothespins
+ Toilet Paper Rolls (free!)
+ Cardboard (free if you like amazon!)
+ Paint Stick (free at hardware store)
+ Tongs
+ Velcro
You can find all my favorite task box materials here. (affiliate link)
The first box is a 3 color sort using foam hearts. I got these large foam hearts in a pack on amazon.
I used my exacto knife set to cut the holes through the box and to create space for the container of smaller hearts to sort!
For the interior of the box, I use cardboard from amazon boxes and packing tape to make the sections. This makes it easy for you as the teacher to check work, or for students to check and self correct.
The next box is super simple! I had these small tupper ware containers laying around and knew I could use the hearts leftover from the first task to make a quick box that has the same concept but looks a little different- more exposure!
This one is quick because all it requires is attaching one heart to each container either on the top of the cover, the bottom of the container, or the front.
I attached them to the front using a cold glue gun like this one (SUPER CHEAP), but you could use velcro or even peel the sticker on the back of the heart. I just used a glue gun so it would last longer.
The next box is super fun! I used my exacto knife set to cut the holes to hold the tubes and the section to hold the pom poms. I covered the toilet paper rolls with astrobrights pink and red to match the pom poms.
I also decided to utilize tongs for this task. Adding tongs gives an added fine motor challenge- plus it’s easy to add or remove depending on the students level.
The tongs are the perfect size for little hands and perfect for these pom poms!
As with the last box, I used some leftover cardboard boxes to create sections inside the box for self correcting or for the teacher to check work! This is also how I created the section that holds them before sorted.
Clip cards are always a favorite task for me! I love using clothespins in task boxes! The fine motor skills involved are so rewarding! This box works on clipping clothespins and sorting colors. The little wood hearts on the tiny clothespins are just so sweet too!
The colors of these heart clothespins match astrobrights paper perfectly! laminated a sheet of each color and then cut into strips for students to clip the matching clothespins onto!
Here is a close up of the colors of Astrobrights I used for this task!
You can add as many or few clothespins and colors based on student ability!
If you have seen my simple DIY boxes before, you know that I love using paint sticks! Paint sticks are FREE at your local hardware store and you can do so much with them! I utilized the same heart clothepins as you saw above to make this task… I love buying one item and using it in multiple boxes to save money and utilize all the pieces!
I found some matching foam hearts at the dollar store to use with this task. I wrote numbers on the clothespins and the foam hearts and attached to a paint stick to make a matching numbers task. I used velcro to attach the hearts as seen here so you could do ordering or out of order making the task more versatile.
I hope these task boxes give you some good Valentine’s Day box ideas! You can find a lot of these materials around your classroom or by asking others for donations, some of the materials can be found in target dollar spot, or the dollar store… and the rest can most definitely be found on amazon using my affiliate links!
