Independent work stations ideas are different ideas students can work on independently to practice and reinforce their academic, fine motor, gross motor, and other skills. These work stations can be completed at home or at school.
In this station, students practice matching letters in a word
while practicing their fine motor skills at the same time. If the student is higher functioning, you could provide the image and have the student clip on the clothespin letters in the correct order to practice their spelling.
This station is matching the picture with the word. This works
on literacy and fine motor skills. Other pictures could be added to make it more difficult.
For this independent work center, the teacher made the student
match the numerical number to the word number for the bug jars.
A variation of this could be having numerical numbers on the jar
and giving the students pictures of bugs to match to the corresponding
number. For example, if it had the number 5 on the jar, the student
would place 5 bug pictures in that jar. For students that you want to
work on reading the numbers, you could write out the numbers on
the jar. Another variation, instead of using paper jars you could use
actual mason jars.
This activity has students sort beads by color. They have to place the
color beed in the correct colored container. This also works on fine
motor skills. You could start with two colors and as the student reaches
mastery, you can add more colors into the activity.
The button sorting cup idea is a similar idea, but really works on the fine motor skills by having kids submit the button through the slit cut in the lid.
In this activity, the students need to match the shapes on the umbrella and the shape on the raindrop.
This is a fun activity for students to practice their math skills, fine motor skills,and hand-eye coordination. The students need to place the appropriate number of popsicle sticks in the folder. You could also write out the numbers such as "one," "two," etc. and have the students put the correct number of popsicle sticks in. For students that are a little higher, you could put an addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division sign and have the student put the answer in the envelop with the popsicle sticks.
This activity continues to work on sorting shapes, but really highlights fine motor skills. The students are given stickers and have to be able to get the sticker off the original page to sort it correctly on the chart.
This activity works on phonics. It gives the picture of the word and has the student put in the first letter to finish spelling the word correctly.
You could also do an activity with money. This example provides pictures and having the student match the picture to the correct amount. You could add numerous coins and have the student count the amount and match it to the correct numerical amount. You could also use real or fake money instead of pictures. You could add dollar bills instead of change.
Another idea would be to give the student a list of things they could buy and a certain amount of money each item is worth. Give students a money value and see what they would buy and how much money they would have left over.
This is a free download on Teachers Pay Teachers
This is a great idea for working with money. Dollars could also be added to help students count the money and match the products' price to the correct amount of money.
This works on number recognition and fine motor skills.
Working on shapes, cutting, gluing, fine motor skills. This could also be changed to include more shapes and the student would have to sort the shapes.
Matching what they see in the picture to actually building it. You could also have the student keep the pattern going.
Matching actual keys to the image of a key. This link also gives more ideas to more file folder games.
Independent work stations ideas are different ideas students can work on independently to practice and reinforce their academic, fine motor, gross motor, and other skills. These work stations can be completed at home or at school.
while practicing their fine motor skills at the same time. If the student is higher functioning, you could provide the image and have the student clip on the clothespin letters in the correct order to practice their spelling.
on literacy and fine motor skills. Other pictures could be added to make it more difficult.
match the numerical number to the word number for the bug jars.
A variation of this could be having numerical numbers on the jar
and giving the students pictures of bugs to match to the corresponding
number. For example, if it had the number 5 on the jar, the student
would place 5 bug pictures in that jar. For students that you want to
work on reading the numbers, you could write out the numbers on
the jar. Another variation, instead of using paper jars you could use
actual mason jars.
color beed in the correct colored container. This also works on fine
motor skills. You could start with two colors and as the student reaches
mastery, you can add more colors into the activity.
The button sorting cup idea is a similar idea, but really works on the fine motor skills by having kids submit the button through the slit cut in the lid.
Another idea would be to give the student a list of things they could buy and a certain amount of money each item is worth. Give students a money value and see what they would buy and how much money they would have left over.