Learning while Teaching

Recycle, Reuse: Country Time Lemonade Containers & Film Containers

I have a book called Tasks Galore and the task I will share in this post is, to be sure, a riff on a task found in that book. Credit where credit is due and all that. I have modified my taks and made it a little sturdier and, as always, I have used recycled materials to accomplish my task. 

The task is a simple sequencing or sorting task--it just depends upon what you want to accomplish with your students. It is flexible and can easily be modified to suit your needs. Here is a picture of the completed task.

The materials you will need are as follows:

1. One shoebox

2. Three Countrytime Lemonade containers (minimum)

3. At least six empty film containers w/lids

4. Six plastic counting bears (or other manipulatives of your choice. I used six because that is the six basic colors available.)

5. A few brass fasteners; rubber cement; tape.

Step one is to wrap the plastic film canisters in colorful paper that matches the color of the manipulatives you have chosen. That's why I use the counting bears. There are six basic colors which makes choosing colors easy. 

Next, you will want to secure the lids of the lemonade canisters to the lid of the shoebox. I turn the lids upside down and using the rubber cement to secure them to the shoebox. While they are securing, I punch a hole in the center and addd another layer of security by pushing a brass fastener through. Now, I push the brass fastener from the top of the shoebox so that the part that gets folded down is actually inside the lemonade lid. Note: only fasten two of the lids to the shoebox lid. The third lemonade lid will remain loose so it can be screwed back on top of the lemonade containter where you will store all of your manipulatives when the task is not in use. 

In the above picture you can see the fasteners attached to the outside of the lid. At this point, your project should look like the picture below.

The third step is to wrap the larger part of the lemonade container with a picture of a 'stop' sign. It's not terribly difficult. You can see the sample in the first picture. This will alert the students to the fact that 'this is where the task ends.' You can use different words besides 'stop'. 

That's about it as far as assembly is concerned. When it's all assembled, you can store all manipulatives and parts inside the shoebox. In the picture below you can see how everything fits nicely inside the shoebox for easy storage. (You can also see the brass fasteners. For an extra layer of protection, I cover the fasteners with tape.)

The final step, then, is simply to open up the task and let the students get busy working. What I like about this task is that it is easily manipulated to form other sorting or sequencing tasks. Here is how the task is set up:

 You can't see them very well, but in the third lid is the smaller lids for the film canisters. The task follows three steps:

1. Choose a colorful canister.

2. Choose a matching colorful bear.

3. Put the bear inside the film canister.

4. Put the smaller lid on the canister.

5. Place the canister inside the 'stop' container. 

It's a simple task that I use with my students who have autism or other developmental disabilities. And again, you can alter the task to suit your needs: create less steps; create more steps; change colors; etc. 

This is a fun task for students and it also manages to find a way to recycle stuff that might otherwise end up in a local landfill. 

Thanks to Tasks Galore for the inspiration. Enjoy the task. If you use it and make modifications, please let me know what they are so I can incoporate them into my own version of the task. 

Cereal boxes, breakfast bars, etc: Reuse, Re-purpose, Recycle, pt 3

I love when I come across a new resource that really opens my eyes to new possibilities and my mind is stimulated to greater heights of creativity. Such was the case when I was sitting next to a stranger this past summer at a professional development seminar. She happened to be carrying around with her a copy of a book called Tasks Galore. This is a book I highly recommend not only to intervention specialists, but to teachers in general. The book is chock full of creative, hands-on, manipulative based ideas and modified curriculum tasks. Better, most of the taks and projects in the book involve re-purposing and recycling stuff that might otherwise be wasted.

For this post, I have simply expanded on an idea (found on page 51 of the book) the authors called "Seven-piece jigsaw of familiar item." The authors simply took the front of a cereal box, jig-saw cut it (rounded pieces, etc.) and made a puzzle. I like the idea, but I also thought it needed some expansion. (One of the great things about the book is that it shows a picture of a task and its use is left open to interpretation.)

I have kept the basic idea of cutting up the front of a box--in this case, cereal, breakfast bars, or even the lamination product I use--and building a puzzle. The only real difference is that I prefer to cut my boxes into geometic shapes--triangles, trapezoids, etc.--instead of jigsaw shapes. Here is an example:

Now, here is where I am going to build upon the general idea found in Tasks Galore. As important as seeing the parts of the whole and putting the whole back together is, I also want this project to be a little more useful for my older and more advanced students. So, I want them to be able to read and write about what they have just finished. Thus I developed a short paper for the students to work on after the puzzle has been completed. I have attached a file to this bog post that you can use or you can use it as a template for your own writing project. (You can find the link below.)

The puzzles can be as simple or as complex as you like them to be. When I'm using a smaller box, I tend to make the puzzle simpler. When I'm using a larger box-front I make the puzzle more complex.

I am grateful for Tasks Galore for the idea-- because it is a great idea and I will be using this as a writing task for my students. As you can tell, this also serves a vital functional task as the students are learning about products they may need one day in their life. (I included a question on the question sheet that requires the student to use the internet in order to discover the price of the product.)  I believe the only limit to this game is the amount of box-fronts you can collect, cut, and laminate. Yes, even though the box-front is typically cardboard, it is still likely to be destroyed quickly. I go ahead and laminate the pieces so that I can get more than one use out of the puzzle.

It is also serving the function of strengthening your student's fine motor skills--occupational therapy which many of our special education students participate in daily.

As you can see this is yet another way to re-purpose things that might otherwise just be discarded into a landfill. Cardboard is highly recyclable and when the laminate is added, it lasts even longer.

You can use this link Tasks Galore to access the Tasks Galore Task of the Month. You can download the question sheet here: Download Box fronts writing.

Feel free to share your ideas about the writing project that goes along with this task. I'd love to hear your thoughts.