Life skills task cards activities

Do you use a lot of life skills task cards in your transition or resource room?

Task cards are a great way of helping older students in specialist settings or resource room programs achieve their IEP goals.

Here's how:

Focus on goals

IEP goals are critical for students in specialist or resource room programs, as they help us work out exactly what is a priority - and what is not. IEP goals often include areas like:

• Matching text with symbols

• Responding to verbal prompts

• Making safe choices in the community

• Reading simple sentences or phrases

Task cards which have a community signs and symbols focus are a great way of helping older students meet their IEP literacy goals.

What to include

Community signs and symbols are a great option for life skills task cards because they introduce community based activities like going to the shop, visiting the bank or finding a park. Community signs and symbols help students function safely in the community, by learning about safety when they are out and about.

Life skills task cards with a community focus using a 'What am I?' question card

You can also make life skills task cards about other topics like reading a story, going to the shops, making a shopping list or reading a recipe.

Error free learning

Error free learning means structuring an activity so that success is guaranteed. Life skills task cards can be really helpful here, because you can choose to include only cards which match directly or scaffold the activity so there is a clear link between the target card and the options you show. You can use as many or as few cards as you need to promote error free learning.

Error free learning with card numbers that match the question

Getting enough practice

We know that young people need lots of practice to master a new skill. Using life skills task cards means you can download, print and laminate the cards for regular use in the classroom, giving enough trials to make sure the learning sticks. Use cards to play a game, as part of a literacy center or during one to one intervention. Regular practice means you can reliably document and track skill development towards IEP goals over time.

Life skills task cards are great for playing games in the classroom

Solving storage challenges

If your classroom looks anything like mine, all thoughts of a Tik Tok inspired matching colour scheme and stunning visuals go out the window when it comes to teaching actual students in a real learning space! Solving the storage and organisation challenges are important, as you don't want to spend all that time printing and laminating, only to lose a few cards from a set or have different sets combined into one gigantic task cards mess!

Task cards in a file box helps them stay organised so you can quickly find what you need

I've started storing task cards in a simple plastic file folder - like the ones you can buy to store file cards for studying. I print four cards to a page in landscape format, then cut them out and laminate or just glue them straight onto a file card or small offcut of cardboard. By using dividers I can organise the cards so I can quickly find the ones I want, then place them back in the box to use again next time.

So if you're looking for something new to try in your resource room or inclusive education setting with students who are starting to learn about community signs and symbols or who do well with game playing and error free learning, give task cards a try - they might be the perfect solution for your students.