Recently I created some Feature and Function Level 2 task cards which I have been using with my students.  If you want more information about those task cards you can check out my blog from a few weeks again – Feature and Function Level 2 Task Cards.  Anyways, I wanted to continue to work on these concepts with my students so I created 10 different Feature Boards.  I have been using them with some of my students the past couple weeks and wanted to share them with you as a Free product to use with your students. There are 10 different boards and each one targets a different feature.  The features include tail, buttons, wings, horn, window, zipper, shell, wheel, hot, and cold.  Then each board has 10 pictures which contain that given feature.

The activity is simple to set up.  Just print, laminate, and cut out all the blank feature boards.  Put a piece of hard Velcro in each square on every board.  Then print out and laminate all pictures.  I place a piece of soft Velcro on the back of all the pictures and then cut them out too.  Now you are ready to use the boards!  You can either store the pictures directly on the boards or label small bags and put the pictures in each different feature bag.  Just make sure you know which pictures go with each board because some of them have more than one of the targeted features which I’ll talked about in a second.

There are different ways you can use the boards with your students.  You can use them during direct instruction time or as an independent task depending on your students’ skill level.  If my student is still learning these feature characteristics I start out with 2 feature boards that are different from each other such as “hot” and “cold”.  I hold up the picture and have the student name the item if he/she is verbal if not I name the picture for the student.  Then I have my student determine if the item goes on the “hot” or “cold” feature board and place it on the correct board.  If they are using a device they could find the “hot” or “cold” icon on the device after they place the picture on the correct board.

I also used the “wing” and the “horn” boards together because they also don’t have any overlapping items.  The student has to identify if the item has wings or a horn and place the picture in the correct category.

Another combination I used which didn’t have overlapping pictures was “shell”, “wheel”, and “zipper”.  Again the students named the items and determined which feature that item contained.

As I mentioned before, some of the pictures may fit in more than one of the feature categories.  For example, a car can have wheels, windows, and a horn so it fits into all three feature groups.  You can just use the boards without any over lapping items together or just have your student pick another board.  For example, if there is already the car picture on the horn board and my student has another car picture I just tell them they are right a car does have a horn but what else does a car have.  Then I have the student place the car picture on the wheel board.

Another way if you want to use 3 + boards is to first give the student all the pictures that only have one feature and then if there are a couple that overlap I do those at the end.  Again, I would tell the student it does contain that specific feature but it also has another feature.  Since you will know which pictures go on what board you can help direct your students to make sure all the pictures get on the correct boards.

This is just another activity I use with my students to keep working on those different feature concepts and building up their vocabulary skills.  Some goals I have with my students who are working on these skills include, During a structured, language-based task, Student will follow a 1-step command involving a common feature, function, or category concept in 8/10 opportunities given a visual field of 3-4 items and no more than 1 additional visual and/or verbal prompt.  Another goal could include, during a structured-language based activity, Student will receptively identify functions and features of common objects in 8/10 opportunities given no more than 1 additional visual and/or verbal prompt.

If you are interested in using these boards with your student click the follow link – Feature Boards .   Hope you find these useful with some of your students!  If you like these check out next week’s blog for Function Boards.