Why I Love Task Cards
I have to be honest, I had never heard of task cards before this school year.
I know, I’m way behind on this one!
I found out about task cards as a necessity, I had a student who was struggling, and I needed a way to find extra practice for him on that particular topic.
A little bit of googling led me to ... task cards!
For those unfamiliar, task cards are cards (4-6 usually fit on one 8.5”x11” piece of paper) that have educational ‘tasks’ on them.
Task cards can be created for all subjects.
A set of math task cards would usually come in a pack of about 20, and would be geared for a particular subject.
They might have questions for a student to solve, things for them to find around the room, or mental math problems for them to figure out.
The great part about task cards is that the cards themselves can be re-used for years to come!
I have to say, I am now one of the biggest advocates of these teaching tools as a method for easily differentiating learning in any classroom.
It is so simple to put together a series of cards for any subject, and then to give them out to different students, as they need to work on a subject.
In my room, we do this most often with math.
(Above: 3D Shape Task Cards easily used with our unit on geometric shapes!)
Need some extra practice with geometric shapes? No problem, grab those cards!
Having difficulty multiplying with tens... no problem, grab the cards and work on that with a buddy who already understands the concept!
I can easily divide my students into small groups and tailor the lesson for exactly what each one needs, without having to continuously photocopy worksheet after worksheet.
I love that once task cards are laminated, they are reusable and kid-friendly.
I keep mine in a colourful bucket on the carpet and my students have been known to grab a pack in their spare time just to “see if [they] can do it!”
Have you ever used task cards in your classroom? Do you have a go-to pack?
- Rachel
Check out PART TWO of this series, “What to do With Task Cards” for more ideas of how to creatively incorporate task cards into your classroom routines.
