Lately, there have been several things that teachers can use in the classroom to get their kids more interested in learning or to just make learning more fun. This summer I have been embarking on a journey with my students that I have been calling the summer of task cards. One of the reasons that I decided to work with printable task cards with my students. Especially, my homeschool student that I will be working with for the rest of the year is the ability to reuse these printable task cards to continue to learn concepts over the course of the year. Another, reason that I decided to use them is that they are a great hands-on learning tool for the classroom. When students are more hands-on they learn better. 

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My Experience with Printable Task Cards 

When I embarked on what I was calling the summer of task cards. I wasn’t quite aware of how much I was going to become obsessed with making these cards. I spent many weekends laminating and cutting these cards for my students and organizing them into these task cards organization boxes that I absolutely fell in love with and then had to buy like 2 more than I had originally planned.

At the same time, my students were falling utterly in love with these cards as well. I had students that I have worked with for years really blossom from using these cards. They went from not knowing a concept to say that it was easy. I have pretty much decided that I will not go back and will be using these all year with my students over and over so they can master these topics and have fun while they are doing it.

Since they made such a difference in my students too I knew that I had to make them available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I made so many for English but they are available right now in the Conventions of Standard English Bundle. This is an amazing bundle that includes almost 200 task cards and will have you elementary schoolers mastering grammar rules in no time. I also have one of my math task card sets up on my teachers pay teachers store. It is specifically Math Number Sense Task Cards. This is starting to work with larger numbers and works best with upper elementary students. It includes 60 task cards. 

Printable Task Cards are Manipulatives 

One of the reasons, why you should use printable task cards in the classroom is they are manipulatives. Manipulatives are physical items that students engage with to help them learn more about the task at hand. They engage students both physically and visually so they are able to comprehend concepts more concretely. 

One of the things that I love to do with task cards for kindergarten is bringing out plastic letters and have to students spell out the words on the cards with the plastic letters. I also work with clothespins and task cards a lot to have students pick the answer by putting clothespins on the printable task card. 

For math task cards you can also include other manipulatives including dice, plastic money, and base ten blocks to add even more manipulatives to the list of things that can help students learn through manipulatives. I have found that math lessons using manipulatives are so much more fun and so much more engaging for my students. I am especially fond of math lessons using base ten blocks and dice.

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Printable Task Cards are Perfect for Learning Centers 

Learning centers are great ways to split up for classroom days and make sure that students are switching task often to keep things interesting. Task cards are the perfect thing for learning centers because they can be switched out during the year, they don’t take a long time, you can find them for any subject, and they can be differentiated easily. 

First, one of the reasons that printable task cards are so useful for centers is that they can be easily switched out during the school year. When you move on to new concepts you just swap out the new task cards for the new subject. If you have groups of students struggling with the old concept then they can stay with those task cards until they are ready to move on to new ideas. They are also super helpful for when you are reviewing concepts for state testing because then you can bring all the cards back out from the year and use them for reviewing games. 

Printable task cards can also be used for as little time or for as much time as you want. If your centers only last 20 minutes apiece, then task cards are something that can be done in that amount of time. It is not something that you have to take an hour on, but if you want to you could. These are great for quick centers or even for bell-ringer activities or for early finishers so they are entertained while everyone else is finishing up their work. 

Next, printable task cards can be found in also every subject that you want. I personally use them for math and English works but they can be found in many other subjects. So whatever subject you teach and whatever aspect that you want to use put in your centers you can find task cards for that subject. This means that task cards are also useful for middle school and high school teachers who may only teach one subject like history or science. I have seen task cards be used very well in a high school classroom to learn aspects of the constitution. I also have used task cards for my yearly SAT competitions with the SAT students that I teach in the summer. These task cards are always a hit with my students and bring on some friendly competition. 

Lastly, the ability to differentiate task cards makes them perfect for centers. Often teachers will put students in different center groups based on their level. If you have a group of students who are below grade level you can get task cards that work for them. The advanced group can have more advanced cards. This also makes them work really well in special education classrooms where you can have students of many different levels. Students can all be working on different sets of task cards at any given time and this helps you meet students exactly where they are. 

Printable Task Cards Can Be Reusable 

Printable task cards don’t necessarily have to be used only one time. You also do not have to print cards from every single child in your class. You can have class sets that are used for everyone. There is a couple of ways you can go about this. You can either print the cards and have the students not write on them. If you print them on card stock they may last a little longer in this approach, but with this method, you probably will not be able to use them again the next year or they may not even last for multiple times throughout the school year. I suggest laminating your task cards. This allows them to be stronger. Kids can also them write on them with dry erase marker and you can erase them after they use them. Washable marker could work as well and then you just wipe them off after the kids are done with them. This will allow students to use them over an over again without them wearing out or having to be thrown away. 

Printable task Cards Can Be Used in Any Type of Classroom 

Task cards are not just for traditional classrooms. They are not just for elementary classrooms. They can work in any classroom. I particularly love the idea of homeschool task cards. With the ability to change your curriculum up more or even have more time to work with task cards. Homeschool task cards can really bring your child’s learning to the next level. I also love task cards for higher-level grades. Often times teachers don’t think that higher-level students need hands-on activities or manipulatives and the truth is that is not true. Older children love the type of learning that task cards can bring and that helps them learn the concepts that they need to faster and better.

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