What's in my Work Boxes {Part 3}

I haven't blogged about my work boxes since back in March, but I'm ready to bring you part 3 where I'm sharing with you the various matching activities that I currently have in my work boxes. If you missed part 1 and part 2 you can catch up on them by clicking the links below.

Click here for Part 1- Put in Tasks             Click here for Part 2- Sorting Tasks

As I've mentioned in my other posts on work boxes, it is important that your tasks have a clear start and stop to them, be activities that your students can complete independently or almost independently, and since the age range of my students varies greatly, I need a variety of tasks at a variety of skill levels. It's very easy to differentiate amongst types of activities, whether they are put in, sorting, or matching. You can always have some easier than others, and some that are harder than others.

This first photo quality is not the best, I didn't realize it didn't turn out great, but you get the idea. Students match pretend vegetables to the pictures on the strips. This is relatively simple, but I like that it's object to picture.

 We also use a lot of puzzles for matching activities-- this one is a little more challenging. I have a few students who can complete this task. Next year I do not believe I have any so this may be a box that I change out.

Here is another matching one like the vegetables, only with fruit.

This box I created using number popsicles from Learning Resources. I love buying activities like this because they are great for task boxes. I broke this one up and create two boxes with it, numbers 1-5 and 6-10.

I made this activity by printing familiar environmental print that my students would know and having them matched with velcro. This activity could use some re-vamping as it has been well loved and some of the matching cards are falling apart! Eek!

This is last food to picture matching box I have. Dessert! This one is a quick and simple box since there are only 4 food items to match instead of 6.

I'm pretty sure I found this activity on clearance in Marshalls. It had 4 matching cards with wooden squares that matched up. Again, I split this activity into two boxes, with 2 matching cards each. Depending on the stamina of your students you could probably do all 4 cards together too.

These alligators have capital and lowercase letters on them for matching. Again, this was a box that I split up into more than one box. You could make this box more challenging by putting all the letters of the same color together.

This is a sight word match that I made for some of our higher students. (You can see I used recycle paper for the matching cards haha). I have two of these, different sight words. This may be another box I switch out this year because my students who could complete it have moved on to Kindergarten.

This one is a letter match to spell the cvc word. I have two of these, with 4 cards and 4 different words. This was really simple to make. Just trace the magnetic letters onto construction paper so students know where to match them.

Here is another puzzle one that we use. This one can be matching letters, or putting a picture together-- whatever the student prefers is fine with me, just as long as they complete the task.

 This is one of my favorites. I went through all of the counters I had in my cabinet and pulled out different ones to create a matching activity. I found the images that matched each one on Boardmaker and created a bingo style card. Students place each counter on the correct picture.

I had these pattern and activity cards that went with a set of counters and I figured why not use them in a task box! On one students have to find the correct color bug and type of bug to match and on the other just place a bug of that color. These cards are double sided so I simply taped a piece of black construction paper over the side I did not want them to do to make these usable in a work box.

This next box is another great example of using/re-purposing something you may already have in your classroom. I took two bingo cards from this number bingo (that we don't play in our classroom) and turned them into a matching work box. Students simply match each card to the correct picture/number.

This next one is the same as above, only with a shapes card. I just did one in this box to make this a simple matching activity, but you could always had more cards to increase the level of the task.

And lastly, one with letters. I put three cards in the letter matching one. Again, we were not using these so why not re-purpose! And I still have more cards in the box, so I could technically still do a Bingo game with a small group if I wanted to.

I found this activity on Teachers pay Teachers, I wish I could remember from where. It makes another simple shape matching activity.

This is another puzzle one that I would definitely place in the more challenging category. I had two students last year that could complete this one independently. Again, another one to switch out for this year.

This matching activity is obviously seasonal but I still leave it in a container-- why not, great matching! I also found this on Teachers Pay Teachers, I believe it was a freebie, but I don't remember from whom unfortunately. I can see that there is something in the bottom corner of the cards (can't read it from the picture), but I can check once I get back into my classroom. ** UPDATE you can purchase the penguin cards below {here} on TpT! **

So there you have it- 19 matching activities from my workboxes in my classroom! I've now shared put in tasks, sorting tasks, and matching tasks. I know I have more, not sure if there are ones I could classify. Maybe I can do ones with a fine motor focus next? I will be working on creating new boxes this year as well since my student group/skill level will be very different from last year.

Hope this post has been inspiring to you for creating your own boxes!