Last week I shared my Feature Boards with you and this week as promised I’m sharing the Function Boards for you to use with your students.  I wanted to keep everything the same format for both board sets so I also created 10 different Function Boards.  The functions include, cuts, opens, ride, eat, wear, play, flies, jumps/bounces, for cleaning, and for cooking.  Then each board has 10 pictures which contain that given function.

The Function Boards are set up the same way as the Feature Boards from last week.  Just print, laminate, and cut out all the blank function 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 the activity is ready to go!  You can either store the pictures directly on the boards or label small bags and put the pictures in each different function bag.  Just make sure you know which pictures go with each board because a few of them have more than one of the targeted function which I’ll talk about those pictures 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 function concepts I start out with 2 function boards that are different from each other such as “play” and “jumps/bounces” or “for cleaning” and “play”.  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 which function board the item belongs and place it on the correct board.  If they are using a device they could find the “play” or “jump” icon on the device after they place the picture on the correct board.

I also used the “play”, “wear”, and “ride” boards together because they don’t have any overlapping items.  Since I was using these with a group of non-verbal students I named the items and had the student place the item in the correct board.  Then I again stated the function of that item.

Another combination I used which didn’t have overlapping pictures was “ride”, “wear”, “clean”, and “cut”.  For my verbal students I again had them name the items and determined which function board to place the picture.

As I mentioned before, some of the pictures may fit in more than one of the function categories.  For example, I had the dishwasher go on the “for cleaning” but it could also “open”.  The knife and cheese grater I had for “cutting” and the can opener for “opening” but all three of those items could also be for cooking.  Either you can just use boards without any over lapping items together or tell your student what they picked is correct but to find another function of that particular item.

The airplanes, helicopter, and blimp I also had in the “flies” group but those could also be for “riding”.  Again, you can just tell your student they are correct if they put them in the “riding” group but ask them where else the item could go and move it to the “flies” group.

Both the Feature and Function Boards are activities I use with my students to keep working on those different concepts and building up their vocabulary use and knowledge.

If you are interested in using these boards with your student click the follow link – Function Boards  Here is also the link for the Feature Boards from last week’s post – Feature Boards

Hope you find these useful with some of your students!