Push or Pull Sort Task Box

About this resource

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 22 pages, 150 type-in fields

• 36 sentence cards across 3 levels (13 rounds: 6 rounds of 2 cards, 4 rounds of 3 cards, 3 rounds of 4 cards), 18 PUSH cards and 18 PULL cards
• Every card twice: tinted cards for a laminated classroom box and black-on-white cards for the copier
• A two-box sort mat (color and ink-saver): PUSH and PULL, each headed by a drawn arrow (away from you, toward you), a "My name" line, and six card-sized slots in each box
• Cards that touch edge to edge, so every cut is one straight line
• An answer key listing every round by level
• A task box data sheet (16 rows: date, level, rounds given, cards correct, cards given, percent, help given, initials)
• A percent graph, 14 sessions across, with a level box under each session
• A filled example: an invented student, 8 sessions, every figure re-counted from its own table
• A home page with six of the same cards to cut apart and a weekly play log
• A phrase bank: spoken lines for running the box and written starters for the note afterward, in 6 groups
• Start Here, a contents page with page thumbnails, and a "what's next" back page

Each card is one short everyday sentence a child can read or hear: kick a ball, pull a kite string toward you, close a drawer. The child decides whether the hand sends the thing away (PUSH) or brings it toward them (PULL). It comes with the same data sheet, graph and phrase bank as the rest of the collection, so independent work turns into a line on a page you can bring to a meeting.

Three Levels, Each Asking Something Different

• Level 1: 6 rounds, 2 cards each. One push and one pull with nothing in common, so the only job is the action.
• Level 2: 4 rounds, 3 cards each. Some rounds hold two pushes and a pull, others two pulls and a push, so counting boxes will not work.
• Level 3: 3 rounds, 4 cards each, cut as a block. Every card shares an object with a card in the other box (open a drawer by its handle beside close a drawer), so the noun cannot decide it; only the action does.

Nothing on a card says its level except a dot code in the corner (one, two or three dots), so a mixed-up box sorts itself back together. 23 of the 36 cards print the word push or pull; the other 13 say only what the hand does, and the answer key tells you so you can note which kind a child leaned on.

NO PICTURE LIBRARY — the cards are plain printed sentences in a rounded, large font. The only drawings are the two arrow diagrams on the sort mat, drawn for this set.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the data sheet, graph header and home page, or print and use a pen. Cards and mats print on cardstock or plain paper and cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document, and it is not a test of anything.

It carries no prompt hierarchy, fading schedule or mastery rule, and it does not decide what a percent means for a student or when to move up a level. The goal line and criterion field are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. It counts one thing: cards placed in the correct box.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals running independent work stations or task box rotations in a primary science or force-and-motion unit (grades 1-3), case managers who need that practice to show up as data, and the families who get the home page.

More In The Collection

One set in the Task Box Collection; more sort, counting and sequencing boxes are added to the collection regularly, all on the same cards-plus-data shape.