If you are teaching students in special education, you’re probably looking for activities to address pre-vocational skills that incorporate TEACCH® Autism Program techniques for low-skilled students and those nearly job ready. Here are some simple ideas and even free printable task boxes for SpEd and Autism classrooms.
I love making vocational activities with things from the dollar store. On a teacher’s budget, being cheap and easy is Win-Win! You can read more about those here.
Sometimes, though, I don’t want all the bulk and expense of those bigger workbox activities. I need task boxes for SpEd students that are simple and printable. Plus, I want to control the cost and keep storage space to a minimum. What I have also found that printable activities are a little more flexible and I can meet the needs of lots of students from pre-vocational to nearly job ready. When that happens, I bust out these themed printable task boxes. I also love the monthly themes that let me keep things fresh in the classroom.
5 Types of Task Box Activities
When it comes to types of task boxes in SpEd vocational training classrooms, there are a few different types. These are beyond the sets you see online that target reading, math, or money. These skills specifically support job training and work skill development for students in special education or Autism classrooms.
Simple Errorless Task Boxes
If you are a SpEd Teacher, then you have students at all skill levels. You need something to meet everyone where they are at and move them forward.
Simple and errorless activities, like a put in or put on task, helps students work on Pre-Vocational Skills while they build towards more challenging work tasks. Tasks like this make it easy to work on things like compliance, work behaviors, and learning a work system. That’s why errorless learning is a great tool in a sped vocational training classroom!
Matching Task Boxes
In most special education classes, the bulk of activities will target this skill. Most special education students are working on classifying items by their attributes. Pairing visual supports with matching activities support classification skills development.
Matching activities can take several different formats. I like setting up matching activities as file folder activities with a couple of different options. Sometimes students are matching color images to color images and sometimes to B&W images. This is just to help make students more flexible in their attributes. Sometimes I like students to match pictures and words to target reading or English skills. Sometimes I like to match words in lower case to upper case since I have had several students over the years who struggled with it.
As you can see, multiple needs can be targeted with matching activities!
Sorting Task Boxes
Sorting also builds on a student’s ability to classify items based on their attributes. I love to set up a couple of different options when I make sorting tasks. I like ones where students match like items and different items.
A great example is sorting of sorting like items is sorting snowflakes. An example of different items would be sorting items at a movie theater. Both skills are ‘sorting’ but require a different level of classification from the student.
Assembly Task Boxes
More and more jobs on the market today depend on employees being able to follow a repeated multi-step process. This demand is part of why I love making assembly activities for my SpEd students as part of job training.
Assembly tasks are easily made more difficult by layering soft skills to make a more rounded vocational program. A student can be provided with a visual for support (which I always provide since so many of my students have Autism). It’s amazing how well some of my students are able to perform this more challenging task when they have a good visual and work system.
Order Fulfillment Work Tasks
The other day at the grocery store, the aisles were packed. They were packed with workers doing order fulfillment. That makes order fulfillment activities a must-have in ANY vocational training classroom.
When I put together order fulfillment work tasks, I like to make sure there is an option for non-readers as well as students who are more advanced. We need more rigorous multi-faceted activities to improve work stamina, manage several steps in a task, and target attention to detail.
How to Set Up Task Boxes
As I mentioned, I love complex task boxes with materials from the local dollar store (read more here). When using these work boxes, and because I can target students from ‘low-functioning’ to advanced, the power is in the printability!
To prep these task boxes, you’ll need the following:
- Cardstock Paper
- Color Printer
- Lamination Pouches
- Laminating Machine
- Paper Cutter or Scissors
- Plastic Shoe box or Ziploc Baggies
To start, please know I don’t want you to take out a second mortgage on your house to afford lamination pouches. I stopped laminating everything (*Gasp*) a few years ago when I realized it was cheaper to print extra copies. Ink is so much more affordable and my Epson EcoTank never runs out of ink.
With that in mind, most of my sorting and all of my assembly & order fulfillment tasks are lamination free. I only laminate what I know will be in the hands of students hell bend on destruction. Otherwise, respecting materials is part of vocational training! On top of that, I swap out activities every month to keep things fresh in a setting where repetition is key. Because I swap these out frequently, printing on card stock is best most of the time.
Prepping Your Task Boxes
Prepping these materials is easy. Print the activities you need in color. You may need multiple sets of certain activities to meet the needs of your students. Cut the activities and laminate what you think is necessary. Store each activity in a plastic baggie or shoe box container.
Because these are printable activities and the pieces are not bulky, I find I can store the entire month’s worth of activities in a larger container or 2.5-gallon Ziploc Baggie. I love that these task box activities store easily!
At the end of the month, look over the pieces and reprint what you need to so your set is complete before the next time you bust them out.
Taking Data on Task Boxes
I love a simple data sheet. The one included lets you track the completion of multiple activities for the entire class on one sheet.
Students can be assigned based on IEP goals or on every task they do… that is up to you. There is room for notes if you need to make them. As a bonus, the put-in tasks let you record the level of support so you can see how much progress even your slowest students are progressing.
Start TODAY!
You can see how easy it is to get task boxes for SpEd vocational training classes up and running. Obviously, the differentiated activities meet the needs of nearly all the students in your classroom. With all that in mind, what is stopping you?
Click HERE to see all the themed activities available. If you want to try out a few of the work tasks, download the FREEBIE that is a part of the bundle and try it out in your vocational training class today!
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