Have You Used Sorting Tasks for Special Education?

Sorting work tasks and activities can be an awesome addition to your special education classroom! This is a categorization and differentiation skill perfect for all ages and ability levels. Once my student has mastered matching tasks and work, they move to sorting tasks!

Want to know more about matching work tasks and learning? Read this post!

What is a sorting work tasks?

Sorting tasks are work activities where the student is categorizing items by color, shape, size or other attribute. There is no assembling, no sequencing. It’s one basic fine motor movement. Pick up items and put them somewhere with their same category.

This fine motor activity is essential to teach our younger and foundational level learners how to work independently, how to increase work endurance, and attention. There is a clear start and ending point. You can increase the length and difficulty by using smaller items, using realistic images or items and increasing the number of items they sort. You can work on generalization by making a lot of different versions of these tasks.

Looking for better ways to set up independent work, look no further!

Why would you use sorting activities?

Sorting activities are great for students with some basic skills and fine motor abilities. I use these types of skills with basic learners to increase their work confidence and work endurance. This is also a great way to bring in daily living and self-care tasks such as sorting shoes or laundry. We want sorting tasks and activities to be simple so we can celebrate the wins for finding categorizing correctly. This is typically to promote longer work periods of time and endurance.

These are great tasks to introduce independent work. Sorting tasks have a definite start and stop and can help students understand the foundational skills needed for independent work. Want to know more about independent work? Read this blog post!

Where can I find sorting activities?

You’re in luck! I have a set of sorting work tasks in my TpT Store! Easy prep set of work boxes that you can print, prep and find materials in your classroom or local dollar store to set up and implement this school year!

Independent work tasks are important in every special education classroom! These task boxes can be used as teaching tools and building independence through student work.

This resource includes detailed instructions for teacher setup, Amazon list of possible materials, digital data tracking form, student visuals, teacher visuals and directions for use for 20 work tasks. These activities are for fine motor tasks that require a matching aspect. 

Best part! You can either use the pre-created student visuals with images taken for you to show each step of the task OR you can create your own student visuals!

This resource requires the addition of some basic materials such as bins, office supplies, small containers. A detailed Amazon supply list is included to make it easy to determine what you will need to create all of these centers!

Looking for more ways to bring life skills into your classroom, read this post!

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