Taskbox Time: Animal-Themed Taskboxes

Do you have a student who LOVES animals? Are you looking for a way to get them interested  in work tasks? Using this special interest can make learning fun and engaging! Check out examples of Animal-Themed Taskboxes in today's Taskbox Time!

Matching/Sorting 

Sort ocean animal foamies by color and shape
Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

Match identical animal erasers

Match identical Blues Clues memory game tiles

Match teddy bear calendar pictures

One-to-One Correspondence

Place ocean animal figurines in muffin tin with one-to-one correspondence

Package dinosaurs with one-to-one correspondence

Package animal figurines with one-to-one correspondence

Package Easter animals in eggs with one-to-one correspondence

Math Tasks

Farm Animal Addition
Laura Frank
Valley Forge Elementary, Huber Heights

Ocean Animal Subtraction
Laura Frank
Valley Forge Elementary, Huber Heights

Counting out set of animal erasers to match number provided

Angry Birds counting ring
Carrie Prickett
Jane Chance Elementary, Miamisburg

Academic Area: Phonics

Across the Miami Valley, we have seen hundreds of classrooms using fun, multisensory activities for teaching phonics. We love to see all of the creativity used to engage young learners in this essential skill! In today's Academic Area, we will showcase some of these fabulous ideas. 

Letter Identification

Students with autism and low-incidence disabilities often need multiple opportunities to practice when learning new skills. We love these repetitive tasks and manipulatives for identifying letters, matching uppercase and lowercase letters, and remembering letter sounds that can be used again and again for skill practice. 

Dustin Krouse
Horace Mann Elementary, Springfield

Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Elementary, Clark ESC

Katie Bigelow and Casey Lathrop
Brookville Elementary, Brookville

Heather Venters
Trotwood ELC, Trotwood

Raising Dragons

Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Elementary, Clark ESC

Phonemic Awareness

Many students with autism and low-incidence disabilities are visual learners. Use visual supports like the examples below to assist with segmenting, blending, and manipulating letter sounds.

Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Elementary, Clark ESC

Mary Nolan
Valley Forge Elementary, Huber Heights

Sandy Beck
Broadway Elementary, Tipp City

Hands-On Activities

Passive listening is hard for many of our students, but they excel when able to actively engage with hands-on activities! 

These are some great examples of ways to engage students in spelling activities... 

Kinetic Sand Stamping

Athenia Eversole
Versailles Elementary, Versailles

Paint Bag Spelling

Magnetic Letter Spelling

Katie Bigelow and Casey Lathrop
Brookville Elementary, Brookville

...and beginning sound activities. 

Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Elementary, Clark ESC

Katie Bigelow and Casey Lathrop
Brookville Elementary, Brookville

Jackie Vollmer
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Mandy Whitfield
MCESC Learning Center-East

Debi Gnau
Mad River Early Childhood Center, Mad River

Unique Learning System Activities

Many of the classrooms we coach use N2Y's Unique Learning System (ULS) curriculum. Unique provides phonics activities that can be completed online or as printables. Some teachers use the predictable format of ULS to create repetitive, interactive activities that can be used month after month. 

ULS Rhyming Word Task 

ULS Rhyming Picture Task

ULS Phonics File Folder

Simply Visual

ULS Beginning Sound Pocket Chart Sort

The Phonics Dance

Another popular program that we see across many districts is The Phonics Dance by Ginny Dowd which combines movements, rhymes, and chants to help students learn letter sounds and phoneme blends. 

Athenia Eversole
Versailles Elementary, Versailles

Karen Shires
Valley Elementary, Beavercreek

Kathy Timmerman
Fairbrook Elementary, Beavercreek

Mallory Normile
Broadway Elementary, Tipp City

Thank you to all of the teachers who have shared these fabulous ideas with us! 

Academic Area: Math

Teaching math can be so much fun because there are so many creative hands-on activities you can use! We love seeing all of the different ways our districts engage students in math activities in the classroom. In today's Academic Area, we have gathered a variety of engaging math activities from around the Miami Valley.

Shapes & Colors

Learning shapes and colors is a common math skill practiced by young learners. 

Shape Matching Velco Board
Jenna Fitch
Demmitt Elementary, Vandalia

Ruff's House Color and Texture Game
Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Schools, Clark ESC

Shape Matching Bulletin Board
Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Schools, Clark ESC

Tangram Shape Matching
Debi Gnau
Mad River Early Childhood Center, Mad River

Sticker Matching Lock & Key Task
Kate Pennington
Kettering ECEC, Kettering

Foamie Shape Matching

Number ID

When learning numbers, it is important for students to have many repetitions. We love these multisensory ideas for practicing number identification.

Number Easter Egg Hunt

Multisensory Tactile Number Flashcards

Touchmath Dot Tactle Flashcards
Emily Ottmar
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

Place Value Visual Support
Pam Ellender
Mad River Middle School, Mad River

Matching Number Word to Numeral Taskbox

Counting

Counting is an essential numeracy skill. Luckily there are tons of great ideas for practice!

Number Communication Board
Emily Ottmar
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

Counting Fries Taskbox

Counting Out Sets of Beads Taskbox
Taylor Ruef
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

Counting Out Sets of Erasers Taskbox

We love how the ideas below use physical boundaries to provide cues for one-to-one correspondence for students who are just beginning to count sets of objects. 

Unifex Cubes Counting Taskbox
Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

Block Counting Taskbox
Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

Figurine in Muffin Tin Taskbox

Bouncy Ball in Ice Cube Tray Taskbox

Computation

Manipulatives can be a great support for modeling addition and subtraction problems for students. 

Farm Animal Addition Center
Laura Frank
Valley Forge Elementary, Huber Heights

Sea Animal Subtraction Center
Laura Frank
Valley Forge Elementary, Huber Heights

Unifex Cube Addition
Ashley Holtz
Kleptz ELC, Northmont

For students working on more advanced computation skills, it can be helpful to use visual cues to help them remember multi-step processes such as when solving word problems.

Word Problem Checklist
Taylor Ruef
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

CUBES Acronym for Solving Word Problems
Sara Timmerman
Bradford Elementary, Bradford

Fractions

When teaching fractions, visuals are key to helping students understand each concept. 

Bridges in Mathematics Number Corner
Lindsay Hixson
Charles Huber Elementary, Huber Heights

Magnetic Fractions Manipulatives
Pam Ellender
Mad River Middle School, Mad River

Time & Money

Telling time can be a complex skill for students who struggle with multi-step tasks. Visual supports can be a great way to break down the steps to make them easier to follow. 

Telling Time Visual Support

Visual supports can also be a helpful strategy when teaching money. We love these TouchMoney posters with poems. 

Coin Identification Poem Posters
Pam Ellender
Mad River Middle School, Mad River

There are a variety of math taskboxes ranging from sorting to making purchases that can be a great way to practice math skills. 

Money Sorting Taskbox
Kristin Johnson
Greene INC, Greene County ESC

Snack Purchasing Taskbox

Quarter Counting Sequencing Taskbox

Menu Math Taskbox
Brittany Wendling
Valley Elementary, Beavercreek

Daily Practice

A highly effective way for students to learn math skills is through daily practice. We love these bulletin boards for daily practice at Stevenson Elementary in Mad River!

Rylie Jarrett

Taylor Ruef

For more math taskbox ideas see our previous Taskbox Time posts!

Math

More Math