Everyday after students hang up their back and sign in, they get their task bin. Tasks bins foster independence and ownership of student work. They are beneficial for students working on fine motor, attending to task, follow routine directions, and pre-academic skills.
How do they work?
Every teacher teacher has their own system. Some are more complex than others. Our system is an intro into more elaborate systems that you might find in a school aged classroom.
Each student has their own translucent bin. This is clearly marked with their name, picture, and color shape. Students find their designated bin and bring it to the table. The student then completes the task in the bin. Contents of the bin are different for each student. They are geared towards student’s IEP goals and our thematic unit. Task work can include matching, letter identification, tracing, patterns, and fine motor activities.
When students have completed their bin they can return it to the shelf and get a blue bin. Blue bins contain various fine motor and pre-academic manipulates that are rotated out bi-weekly. Students are free to exchange blue bins as much as they want as long as their task bin is complete and they clean up the contents.
This system is heavily monitored during the first two weeks of school while students learn the routine. Once students have learned the process they are generally very independent during this time. This is extremely helpful for teachers since this is a very busy time. Students are arriving at different times with different needs. This allows me to address students who may need some extra help while students independently work in their bins.