This week’s Independent Work Inspiration is a free task box printable for students to learn to file by color in a recipe card box. This is a great entry task for the vocational skill of filing.
Filing can be a difficult skill for some students to learn because they have to put the thing they are filing behind the letter. That’s different than the way they typically sort. We often have students sort by putting it on top of the thing they are sorting into.
Also, filing can be hard because when you are filing by name, for instance, you file by the first letter of the last name. So it’s more complex. Starting with colors is a good, simple starting point. Read on to find out how to set up this simple free task box and to download your free color dividers to set up your own.
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Independent Work Inspiration: Material List
- Recipe Card File Box. This is one on Amazon like you will see in the picture. A box for 3×5 inch cards will fit the free dividers.
- Color dividers. You can download the free ones from the Resource Library below–or you could make your own from a set of commercial recipe card dividers.
- Colored cards, colored pictures, and/or color words students will file
Free Task Box for Filing by Color: Who Is It For?
I typically would use this task with older elementary students through adulthood if they aren’t yet fluent in filing by letter. Filing by color, as I noted above, is an easier skill and a good place to start. To complete this skill, students will need to already have mastered matching colors.
Free Task Box for Filing by Color Video Tutorial
Tips for Making These Filing By Color Task Boxes With the Free Printable
Print the free task box dividers for the recipe box from the library (see below to sign up and download). Then simply add them to the recipe box. Then you can add in your color cards.
I typically start with solid color cards (see the middle picture in the picture below) that you could make from cut out construction paper or use colored index cards, like these. Once students can complete those, I might move to single pictures on the cards (left picture below). And then move to color words on the card (right picture below).
sign up for free tips each week in your inbox and Grab a free set of dividers for color filing from the resource library
This set includes the dividers on the first 3 pages for a 3×5 inch recipe box. Or use the tabs on the last page to cover commercial tabs that usually have numbers of letters.
Grab them from the Free Resource Library. Click below to navigate or join the free library.
Need more ideas for task boxes? Check out the resources below.
More Workbasket Wednesday Resources
Looking for more ideas on special education work boxes or work systems and how they can be used? Check out the links in Resources below for more posts. And, I wrote about a book about them!
Buy From Amazon (including Kindle) (see my disclosure policy for more information about affiliate links).
GET ALL THE VISUALS AND ORGANIZATIONAL TOOLS YOU NEED to start independent work in your classroom.
These kits include an e-book with directions on setting up independent work systems and using the materials included, data sheets for tracking progress, visuals for the special education work boxes and schedules, what’s next visuals, and mastery sheets to keep track of which students have mastered which task.
![Independent Work-3 Ways It can Become Your Best Classroom Management Tool [A sorting task in a shoebox to sort nouns from verbs on popsicle sticks into plastic cups]](https://autismclassroomresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/BLOG-22208-3-Ways-Task-Boxes-and-IW-Help-Classroom-Management-2-768x644.jpg)
