Special Education Task Box Ideas

Are you using task boxes in your special education classroom yet? If not, what are you waiting for?! There are a ton of reasons why you should use task boxes in your classroom. Students gain proprioceptive feedback while learning new skills. Plus, task boxes are fun and engaging and keep kids wanting to learn and practice skills over and over again.

My favorite way to use task boxes is during independent work stations. Does it seem overwhelming to come up with ideas to create enough tasks to rotate through? That's where I have you covered! Below, I've listed 7 special education task box ideas with links to each to print and make your own!

You can even grab 4 FREE TASK BOXES RIGHT HERE TO TRY FIRST!

1. Life Skills Task Boxes

If you've been around for long, you know how much I believe in teaching my students true life skills. I believe this whether they are in elementary or high school. Creating task boxes based around life skills is totally a win-win. Students get set practice time to practice the life skills that they need, plus you can incorporate life skills into independent work systems this way. Some examples of life skills task boxes might be: reading environmental print, safety community signs, household vocabulary, practice with money, and choosing what to wear for the appropriate weather.

GRAB THE LIFE SKILLS TASK BOXES HERE!

2. ELA Task Boxes

I love incorporating ELA task boxes into small groups or our independent work stations during the day. This way, students can get extra practice on the new reading skills that we are learning. Independent centers promote stamina, decrease prompt dependence, and increase problem-solving. ELA task boxes help students work on skills such as main idea, comprehension, sequencing, vocabulary, CVC words, rhyming character traits and SO MUCH MORE!

GRAB THE ELA TASK BOXES HERE!

3. Math Task Boxes

These math task boxes can be used all year and have a variety of skills (32 skills to be exact), depending on your students' IEP goals. Some skills that these contain are counting to 20, more or less, addition, subtraction, tracing numbers, telling time, counting coins and patterns, just to name a FEW! Try a FREE sample math task box here!

GRAB THE MATH TASK BOXES HERE!

4. Science Task Boxes

Continue the academic feel with your task boxes and get creative with some science-themed tasks! Your students can have fun with magnets, recycling, the five senses, plants, animals, and weather just to name a few topics.

GRAB THE SCIENCE TASK BOXES HERE!

5. Social Studies Task Boxes

Incorporating social studies topics is another great idea for task boxes. This can include topics such as community helpers, government, using a map, and directions. I love using these during small group time to make sure that we are discussing social studies in my classroom but in a fun and engaging way.

GRAB THE SOCIAL STUDIES TASK BOXES HERE!

6. Errorless Task Boxes

Errorless tasks are a big hit in my room. They help to build student confidence, while still working on independent skills during independent work stations. Not sure what errorless learning is or why it's beneficial? Check out this post all about errorless learning. There are 5 different ways that I use errorless learning in my classroom. Task boxes are one of the ways! Here's a FREE sample!

GRAB THE ERRORLESS TASK BOXES HERE!

7. Matching Task Boxes

The final type of task box I want to chat about is just simple matching task boxes. This is such a great skill for our students to know. It's one of the best ways to use a task box in an independent work center because students can be pretty self-sufficient with knowing what to do. Have students match different vocabulary items that you are focusing on or have it be a holiday theme. The ones that I use focus on matching items such as fruit, vegetables, animals, clothing, and body parts.

GRAB THE MATCHING TASK BOXES HERE!

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