Easy Workboxes You'll Love with Plastic Eggs

I’m interrupting the Effective ABA Instructional Strategies series for Workbasket Wednesday–and once again I can’t believe it’s already April! And April brings Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month so there are quite a few surprises to come in the next week. For now, though, grab a cup of whatever and be prepared for a lengthy little post–but don’t worry, almost all of it is pictures. And if you want to link up, the link up information is at the bottom of the post.

I made a trip to the Dollar Tree and Michaels and had the BEST Time! Yes, it’s sad…I really need to get out more. It’s best time of year to pick up stuff for work systems because it’s a holiday. I know that Easter is almost upon us, so you may think that the eggs are a bit of overkill. However, right after easter (and now, getting close to it), all these things go on SALE! It’s a great time to stock up on clearance stuff. I bought 3 bags of stuff from Michaels and the most expensive thing I bought was the pom poms and I used a coupon for it. Everything else was on clearance. So, eggs can be used in so many ways that they are worth keeping in place for the month. And I’ve given you a couple adaptations at the end. So, away we go….

A classic, I’ll start with the simplest task. Love these coins-got them for $1–loved the colors.

Another classic. I can’t believe how many different types of eggs there are now! (I’m sounding very old…I want to say that when I was young, there was only 1 kind of plastic egg. But then I feel like I have to say, “Hey kids, get off my lawn.”)

Now I have a variety of assembly tasks with different materials. I love eggs because the students practice some beginning, fun skills for assembly that later can become more vocationally oriented.

I just thought these erasers were sooo cute! Yep, $1! You’ll probably see them again sometime.

Eggs come in so many different sizes, that this one has them put the little egg in the bigger egg–matching by color.

Gotta love pom poms…match the color to the egg and assemble.

Make the egg task with pom poms a little harder by using tongs. I found 4 pairs of little plastic tongs for $1 at the Dollar Tree.

I LOVE these carrots! They are also easier to open and close for kids with fine motor issues. Put a coin in the carrot and close it up.

Now let’s look at tasks that are bit more complex.

You may have seen egg tasks in which you write on the top and bottom of the eggs and the student has to match up lowercase with uppercase letters, etc. Gabrielle at Teaching Special Thinkers has some great examples of them in her post HERE. I was going to do some but this post is long enough.

Write a number on the outside of the egg (the half in the left container) and have the student put the number of items that correspond to that numeral in the egg. This can then be transferred into packaging tasks for older students to put a certain number of papers in an envelope or other containers.

This is one of my favorite, did I mention I love these carrots? Write the amount of money on the outside of the egg or container and have them put that amount of money in it, close it up and put in the finished basket.

If you don’t have eggs (or after egg season is no longer appropriate or is not age-appropriate), use any type of containers. I bought these containers from Office Depot a while back–got a package of 5 for $1 or $2 I think. The students have to be able to work the levers to get them to stay closed, but they make a good opportunity to practice those fine motor tasks.

So, do you have any favorite assembly tasks or egg tasks? Share them in a blog post and link it up below or share them on Instagram with the tag #workbasketwednesday (tag me @autismclassroomnews) or #workbasketWed on Twitter and tag me (@reeveautism) so I can see them.

Also, April is Autism Awareness and Acceptance month and we have some great things coming your way. I’ll be back Thursday with a post and a surprise on Instagram, so stay tuned.

Until next time,