Using Task Boxes for Small Group Work

You all know I love finding ways to streamline my planning time. It's important for me to have meaningful tasks for my students, and it is just as important that I have time for my family outside of work, so I strive to keep things as simple as possible. My favorite new thing this year is using task boxes for small groups. They are ready to go, and they have enough variety that I don't have to plan for them the rest of the school year. Yes, you read that right--my small groups are completely planned for the year. Happy dance! Speaking of planning for the year at once, check out this post about morning work for the year, and this post about age-appropriate Pre-K homework for the year.
(Edited to add: Of course I still do planning during the school year for everything else, like whole groups and content instruction; this is only for independent student tasks. I also plan teacher-led small groups as we go, because they are dependent on student skill levels and current areas of need. Additionally, I tweak the task boxes as needed depending on the skill levels of my students.)

Now, I'll be honest with you, this took a TON of planning time up front. I spent weeks over the summer researching ideas and gathering materials. I was 9 months pregnant, so I just pretty much laid around on my couch with my laptop researching and creating task boxes. 

I got the initial idea from a friend and fellow teacher who uses task boxes for IEP goal work in her classroom. She showed me her system and I loved it! In her classroom, all of her kiddos are on IEPs, so they need individual task boxes. My setup is different; teaching in a Unified classroom, about a quarter of my kids are on IEPs, and the rest are at-risk. I needed activities that 3 or 4 kids could complete at a time while I worked with one group on a teacher-led task. 

I decided to have 4 types of boxes: Writing, Reading, Math, and Fine Motor. I have 8 activities for each skill type, for a total of 32 boxes. All of the labels for one skill type are the same color. Fine motor boxes have blue labels, math boxes have green, reading boxes have red, and writing boxes have yellow. Then there is a different symbol on each box.

Each week, I pick one symbol—for example, boxes with squares. Each table group does one box each day, rotating so that by the end of the week they have each completed the activities in the square label math box, reading box, writing box, and fine motor box. The fifth group is a teacher-led group, working on whatever tasks I feel like they need to target. This gives me vital small group intervention time while my other students are still working on targeted skills.

Since I have 8 of each type of box, it takes 8 weeks to get through all of the task boxes, at which point I start the rotations again. This way, students are only repeating activities every 8 weeks, and I am not scrambling for small group ideas every week. It has worked so smoothly so far!

I also have a little cheat sheet with the list of tasks that are in each box.

Since this has helped me so much this year, I have decided to make the labels and master list available in my TPT store for FREE! Click here to download it! Of course, some of the things on my list are curriculum specific, and others I created myself, so the list may not work for you as-is, but hopefully it will be helpful in generating ideas. The good news, though, is that the file is fully editable so that you can customize it to your needs.

Here are some pictures of just a few of the boxes.

I hope this is helpful, and I would love to hear ideas you have for task boxes, or how you would utilize them in your classroom!