5 Easy Task Box Ideas for Independent Work Stations

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Work Task Series Part 4

First up is a work task that is like a mixture of a lot of things. I have a rubber maid container that is probably supposed to be used for storing your dinner when you don’t want things to touch, but when I saw it at the Dollar Tree, I was in my “work task mode” and thought, what a great sorting vessel! So, I decided to cut holes in the top of the three sections so that they were the size of the items I wanted students to sort to make this work for a “put-in” task. I took beads of different shapes and counters that I didn’t have another use for.

With this next task, I was able to find things at the Target Dollar Spot (this was not recent though). I would say that probably last winter, I found the four-sectioned tray with a lid. I believe the real use for it was to organize makeup, but I again thought about how I could use it in my classroom, found these linking shapes at the Dollar Tree, and was able to put together another sorting work task for $2!! The students have to sort by shape in this one.

Work Task Ideas for Packaging

Every year I get asked by my special education department about which stores in the area we would like gift cards too. Don’t get too jealous we only get about $100 total worth of gift cards but, I’m not complaining here because every little bit helps bring my task box ideas to life! So, I asked for Five Below as one of my stores this past year. I was so excited when I went in there and found these! They are actually suppose to be things you put in your freezer and use as ice cubes in your drinks for some kind of fancy drink but, I thought of the packaging task right away. I have the students use these bags and take one of each fruit and package it in together.

Task Box Idea for Sight Words

Sorry for the upside-down picture. I am technically challenged when it comes to this, and I figured you could tell what it is, so it doesn’t matter. This work task is pretty awesome. I found these sight word/ classroom words on sentence strips with the picture cue to go with them and didn’t know what to do with them, but I thought they were nice.

Being the packrat teacher I am, I put them to the side until this year, I decided to turn them into a task. I just cut them apart using different patterns so none of them would match up with the wrong answer (self-check made simple) and then added them to the box. Talk about a $1 work task. I think that should be a new hashtag. #dollarworktask

Task Box Ideas for Life Skills

Last but most certainly not least. One of my favorite task box ideas in my classroom this year has been these Life Skills Clothespin Tasks.  I have created a set for each room in the house such as:

-Bedroom
-Bathroom
-Garage
-Office
-Kitchen
-Living Room

I also put them all together in a bundle to have it all in one spot! The only thing you need to do with these is print, laminate, cut and add clothespins. The students can easily see the picture at the top with the word description and then clip the corresponding picture below that and it will make it super easy for them to identify some household vocabulary by words and pictures.

So, do you like these tasks? Think you want to set up one of these work stations in your classroom? Well, I have got a new product for you that you need to check out! Everything you need to get a work task system in place in your classroom. Explore my Independent Work Station Starter Kit! 

Additional Resources For Task Box Ideas to Explore

This post was originally written in June of 2016 and has been edited.

I love a good set of work tasks. I am constantly updating, changing and working on my task box ideas in my classroom because lets face it. Our students are forever changing and we don’t need them getting bored! If you’d like to see more of these posts you can look at these!

Work Tasks 1
Work Tasks 2
Work Tasks 3

Start Gathering Your Task Box Ideas