Are you familiar with task cards? I am obsessed with them. Here's why...
What are task cards?
Task cards are individual cards with a question on them. Before you say "Big deal," let me explain why having individual cards are a HUGE deal.
Ways to Love Task Cards!
1. First having individual cards breaks up large, difficult pieces into smaller chunks. This is especially great for students that are easily overwhelmed with larger assignments.
2. Task cards allow teachers to quickly differentiate assignments. For example, I made place value cards that have one, two, or three stars on them. The one star questions are much easier for the students, while the three stars are more challenging. I can assign students cards based on their abilities or let them try to challenge themselves by choosing their own levels. (Quick Tip: You can quickly level your cards by putting different color stickers on them. All blue stickers can be lower level cards.)
3. I can use the cards to get my students moving around the classroom by placing the cards on desks, in carpet areas, or on tables. For some reason, my students love crawling on the floors. Working on task cards lets them move around the room and get their crawling on the floor fix. (Bonus Tip: Throw in task cards where students have to jump up and down or make a face, anything to get rid of the sillies.)
4. I can teach a quick question each day on a certain topic using a cute card during our morning meetings. This month, we are focusing on Black History, so I use task cards with statements about a person that the students research. We check the answers on the carpet. My students are going crazy over these cards!
5. Place the cards in a center for students to complete at their own pace. This changes things up from a boring worksheet, so students are more engaged using them.
6. Allow early finishers to complete the cards for enrichment practice. This might be a challenge area in the room. The cards may even have self-checking answers like QR Codes. Less grading for you but engagement is still there.
7. Have students play a game of "War" in which the student that has the card with the highest answer gets to keep it if you are using the cards during math.
I hope you are convinced to at least try task cards in your classroom. Click HERE to see all the task cards I have in my TPT store.
Do you like task cards?
How do you use them in your classroom?
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